Who DID win the SIC and SARRC Championships ?

Transcription

1 Who DID win the SIC and SARRC Championships ? By Tom Lyttle, SARRC Pointskeeper The 2012 SARRC Invitational Challenge ran under typical warm, sunny weather at Roebling Road Raceway on October 6-7. As usual, there were some tight battles, some blowouts and a few uncontested wins. And, same as last year, I got a few of my predictions for SIC and SARRC wins spot-on, and missed badly on some others. I ll go through each of the races, hitting the highlights from the action, and summarize the top three in the SIC and top three or six in each of the SARRC classes and compare them to my predicted order of finish. There were several instances where top runners entered late or didn t appear even though they had originally entered. In those cases, I redid a few of my predictions from what was listed in the second update to reflect the final field. Does this interest you? I got some positive feedback last year on my prediction exercise. This year I got almost none, except from a few people who were convinced I didn t know what I was a talking about. Possibly, it s true. I assumed that there would be some interest in highlighting the folks who had done well during the year and had a shot at a SARRC win, and maybe provoke a little discussion on who might win the SIC. If you do have any interest in this exercise (predictions, SIC results, neither or both), let me know. If there s no one interested, it may be time to retire this feature. Race 1 - SRF, ITB, ITC, SSB, SSC, T3 A big field of 14 SRFs led the 23 car field in a split start. Dana Webster, points leader David Livingston and Tom Weir led qualifying, with all three in the 1:21s. Steve Ulbrik, Steve Strickland and David Kinsey topped ITB, all within 0.4 seconds, with Paul Ronie 1.6 seconds back. In ITC, Charles Fullgraf beat William Clawson by 0.3 seconds, with Skip Taylor a bit further back. T3 leader Wayne Presley and Alex Phelps (SSB) were the sole cars from their classes. Webster lead from the start and pulled out a gap to win flag-to-flag. The next group stayed close together, with Livingston leading Weir, Jeff Futrelle, Clay Russell, Frank Severino and Donald Hall. Behind them, Todd Vanacore, David Brown and Jack Johnson apparently got together on the back side of the track and all dropped out on lap 4. Meanwhile, the ITB race turned into a rousing battle, with all four cars running nose-to-tail. All four lead at some point. Ulbrik was the first to fall back, as he spun in turn 1, then made a quick pit-stop before resuming a lap down. When the lead SRF pack was lapping through there was another change as the cars entered turn 1. Kinsey clipped the back of another car, jumped into the air, then plowed off into the bank outside of the turn. I couldn t pick out the car he hit, but it may have been Severino, who disappeared on that lap. The incident broke up both packs, with Ronie pulling out a good lead on Strickland, and the top three SRFs getting away from the following cars. Webster, Livingston and Futrelle ran out the rest of the race with no drama, while Donald Hall got by Weir and Weir passed

2 Russell after an off-course episode late to take the next three spots in SRF. Unfortunately, Hall was penalized to last after a tech infraction was discovered. Ronie took ITB over Strickland and Ulbrik. ITC saw a great two car battle, with Clawson leading early, then Fullgraf, then Clawson, etc., etc. There were eight official lead changes, plus a few more out on the back of the track. Clawson led at the start of the last lap and half way around, but then fell off briefly to give Fullgraf the win by 5 seconds. Taylor finished a minute behind. Presley and Phelps moved up into the SRF field and finished 4th and 9 th overall. SRF My predictions were Livingston, Severino and Webster for the race. Webster and Livingston took the top two spots, while Severino was ninth after dropping out after mid-race. I wondered why Jeff Futrelle hadn t been a front runner this year based on his speed in past years, but he showed up with a close third place finish to Livingston. The predicted SARRC order was Livingston, Severino, Clay Russell, Mark Schneider, Weir and Webster. I almost had it exactly right, but again, Severino s problems cost him a place, with Russell passing him for third, but he held on to beat Schneider (7 th in the race) by two points. ITB I had originally taken Ronie, Strickland and Kinsey for the race, but it appeared Ronie had passed. However, since he did enter late, I reverted to those picks. I was good for the first two, but Kinsey s incident left the third spot to Ulbrik. For SARRC, I called it Strickland, Kinsey, Ulbrik, Norman Fuller, Ronie and Dan Cardinal, based on the assumption that Ronie was a no-show. With Ronie back in and predicted to win the race, that would have moved him up to second for SARRC. The final order was indeed Strickland, Ronie, Kinsey, Ulbrik, Fuller and Cardinal. ITC My picks were Taylor, Fullgraf and Clawson for both race and SARRC. Taylor was unfamiliar with Roebling and said he didn t quite have it figured out, so he couldn t quite keep up with the other two. Fullgraf s SIC win also gave him the SARRC title. Clawson s second wasn t enough for him to overhaul Taylor in the final points. SSB Alex Phelps was the only entry, so even though he was tied with Karl Clements going in, he would win the race and title by default, with Clements and Stan Winokur taking the other two SARRC placings. SSC No SIC entries and no SARRC qualifiers. T3 Wayne Pressley had a 48 point lead going in and was the only entry so he my prediction for both race and title. Obviously, he made it, with Carlos Lira taking the only other spot in SARRC. Race 2 Spec Miata SM had one surprise early on, as my top pick and undefeated runner Bob Thornton was a scratch. There was also a surprise in qualifying as two winless drivers grabbed the top two spots. Tom Fowler was no surprise in second. However, I haven t seen Roger Burdette show quite that much speed this year, but he took the pole. Skip Brock, Selin Rollan and Keith Andrews were all within a half second, so it looked

3 like we d see the usual SM train. When things got sorted out after a couple laps, we had a four car train in front, with Burdette, Fowler, Brock and Andrews. Rollan and Dillon Machavern were nose-to-tail for the fifth place, while Steve Bertok was holding a lonely seventh, with a shifting pack behind him. Burdette lead the first two laps, then fell to fourth, while Brock led for the next fifteen. After biding his time last in the train, Burdette began his move, passing Fowler on the twelfth and Andrews on the 15 th. With three to go, he overhauled Brock to claim the top spot and held it to the end over Brock, Andrews and Fowler. The whole group finished within 0.7 seconds. Behind them, Machavern and Rollan swapped positions several times, with Machavern making the final move on the last lap to claim fifth, 15 seconds behind the lead group. Bertok came in next at 33 behind, while the eighth spot was held at various times by Thomas Hart, James Brown, Damon Brock and Rock Gambill. The final order 8-10 was Gambill, Michael Rossini and Brown, with Peter Bogart a second behind in 11 th. I had picked the race order as Thornton, Brock, Rollan, Bertok, Andrews and Nash Lawson. Thornton and Lawson didn t make it. From the remaining picks Brock, Rollan, Bertok and Andrews, all finished in the top seven, although none in the place I guessed. But as usual, there were some surprises, with Burdette winning and Fowler fourth. The projected SARRC finish was Thornton, Rollan, Brock, Andrews, Bertok and Lawson. With Thornton and Lawson not attending, Thornton would have fallen to fifth. Lawson would fall out of the top six, but I can t after-the-fact decide who I would have taken for sixth. That would leave the SARRC picks as Rollan, Brock, Andrews, Bertok, Thornton. Other than having the top two in reverse order, I got this bunch right on. Race 3 ITR, ITS, ITA, IT7 This race shaped up more-or-less as predicted, with ITR front runners Kip Van Steenburg on pole with a blazing 1:19.9, nearly two seconds up on Rickey Thompson. Mike Van Steenburg lead a pack of eight fast ITS cars, all within 1.2 seconds. The biggest surprise was ITA pole-sitter who was fifth overall, 1.2 seconds and seven spots up on Neal Harrison. Among the possible SARRC ITS champions, Chuck Hines was second, with Jeff Young fourth and Brian Mangan ninth. Among the IT7s, my predicted winner Neil Gueldner was on pole by nearly a second, with the remaining five drivers all within another second. At the start, Kip Van Steenburg took off and wasn t challenged for the overall and ITR win. Thompson had a brief off on lap four and dropped to 7 th amongst the ITS leaders and Carter. Mike VS was next over Hines, while Young jumped over Carter and Ron Munnerlyn on the first lap to take third. But Carter wasn t giving up, and hounded Young for most of the race. When they went by me early on, Carter was taking lines I can only describe as asphalt-optional in his attempts to get back by. He even succeeded on lap 9, although Young got back by on the next round and held on the rest of the way. Although most of the top ten positions were closely contested, there actually were very few passes. At the end, all the cars from second to eighth had best laps in the 1:22s, with Carter surprisingly having the fastest of the bunch at 1:22.1, besting all the ITS folks. The race ran out with Kip 10 seconds up on Mike. Hines stayed

4 close, ending up 1.7 seconds back, with Young another two back. Carter was next followed by Munnerlyn, Thompson and the ITS cars of Ron Earp, Chip Bailey, Jeff Giordano and Chris Plucker, who passed 2 nd place ITA-man Harrison on the last lap. Behind them were Randy Hutchings (ITS), third-place ITR finisher Joel Carter and Robin Langlotz (3 rd ITA). Mangan was next (10 th ITS) a lap down. The IT7 group got a split start, but not a good one, as the lead group was at least a minute ahead of the 7s. Kip went by me at the start of the fourth lap! My race started poorly and didn t improve. I went from third to last at the start. Gary Wilson s car died almost immediately and I got by Stephen Haight on the next lap. Steve Rose was next, but with ITS cars streaming by on every lap due to the lousy split start, it was hard to line up a pass. Then halfway through, I came up on a slower ITA car in the turn 3 sweeper and got a little off line. Next thing I knew I was sliding in the grass and headed for the sand pit. I grabbed second gear as I went in and thought I was just about to power back out. But then I hit the lip and bogged down three feet from safety. Drat! Up front, Neil Gueldner and Shaun Hinds took off and were battling until Neil went wide coming off turn nine on lap 7 and gave up the lead to Shaun. Shaun pulled out a small lead, but Neil ran him down and retook the lead on lap 15. He held it the rest of the way, finishing just a second up at the end. Rose and Haight took the last two spots. ITR I went with Kip, Rickey and Tristan Smith in the race. The top two went as planned, but I figured Smith was going to beat Joel Carter even though Carter beat him in the April Roebling race. Wrong. Carter was consistently faster all weekend and would have won easily even if Smith hadn t dropped out late. I had the same order for the SARRC points and at least that worked out right. ITS I had picked Mike VS, Bailey and Young for the race, assuming Hines hadn t entered. When he did make it late, I once again put him over Young for third. Mike won with Hines second, Young third and Bailey back in sixth. For the points, (after Hines entered late) I had it Hines, Mangan, Young, Bailey, Van Steenberg and Hutchings. I assumed Mangan had enough of a lead to hold off Young for second, but when he managed only a tenth in the race, Young beat him by four points. Similarly, Bailey took only sixth instead of my predicted second, so Mike passed him for fourth. For sixth, I somehow overlooked Ron Munnerlyn, who was ahead of Hutchings going in and probably faster. I should have picked him for sixth, and that s where he finished. But I didn t. ITA For the race, I had Carter over Doug King and Neal Harrison. Neal told me I was wrong, but after seeing Carter s speed he reconsidered. However, King didn t show anywhere near the speed he had in his earlier races and ended up in fifth, behind Robin Langlotz and Kevin Rehkop. For SARRC, I had it Carter, King, Harrison, Dennis Schembri, Willie Phee (a no show) and Langlotz. Carter took top spot, while Harrison s better finish gave him second over King. Schembri had problems all weekend with oil blowing out, but kept it running long enough to get a finish and keep fourth. I said Langlotz could pass Phee with a third place finish, but predicted he wouldn t. But he did, so I got the last two spots backward.

5 IT7 I picked Gueldner, me and Hinds in the race. When I messed up (again), Shaun got second over Rose. For the points, I had it Gueldner, Lyttle, Hinds, Haight, Rose and Steve Tynor. Instead, it was Gueldner, Hinds, Haight, Lyttle, Rose and Tynor. Race 4 EP, FP, HP, GTL, SPU, STL, STU Jim Kellogg had the overall and SPU pole with a flying 1:18.3. Behind him was a fast group of 11, with the STU of John Pickle, the FPs of Don Ahrens, Paul Kullman, Alan Hulse II and Robert Bentz, more SPUs with Jack Kyle Johnson, Chuck Penachio, Mike Alexander, John Leigh and Tad Segars and the lone GTL of Ken Blackburn. Surprisingly, the EPs all followed just behind with Randy Carter, Al Pierce and David Smith in order. Next were the STLs of Raymond Philibert and Thomas Hart, a hundredth of a second apart. Further back, John Hewell, Bob Toler and Bob Coffin lead the 8-car HP field. Kellogg lead from the start and ran out to an unchallenged victory. The SPU group shuffled several times, with Penachio finally coming out on top by mid race and holding second the rest of the way. FP saw a close battle until mid race, with Ahrens holding off Kullman until he went off coming out of turn 9 and stalled in a dangerous position. The only full-course-yellow of the weekend followed, which packed the field up and gave hope to some of the following cars. After the restart, Kullman gradually pulled away from Hulse. Bentz challenged Hulse early, leading him at one point, but then faded and dropped well back at the end. Most of the other SPU cars also dropped back, but Johnson was fifth, followed by STU winner Pickle and Leigh (4 th SPU). Next was the EP group. Carter lead by a small margin, but wasn t really challenged. Pierce held off Smith, who closed to within a second at the finish. The STL battle also stayed close, but Philibert led every lap to win by 5 seconds. In the HP race, Hewell lead all the way pulling out a nice lead early. But after the restart, Toler managed to keep it closer, just ahead of Coffin. But then he had problems on the last lap, giving Coffin the runner-up spot. Well back from the top three Donald McDowell and Patrick Harris ran in close formation, with McDowell taking fourth by 0.3 seconds. After the race, things got shuffled again as penalties were imposed on several drivers. Penachio and Kullman were both dropped four spots for making passes under yellow during the FCY. Toler was hit for a technical infraction and lost both his finish and points. SPU The predicted race finish was Kellogg, Penachio, Segars, Johnson, Leigh and Alexander. Before the penalty, I would have had the top two correct. After, the order was Kellogg, Johnson, Leigh, Alexander, Segars and Penachio. The projected SARRC order was Kellogg, Penachio, Segars, Leigh, Alexander, Johnson. This one was almost dead on, but Segars faded to a lower than expected finish, so Leigh edged him by four points for the third SARRC spot. STL I took Philibert over Hart for both the race and SARRC, with no show John Lettieri solid for the third SARRC spot. This one went to plan, with Philibert taking win and championship.

6 STU- I picked Pickle (?!) for the race and title over Stephen Mullen. Mullen was well off Pickle s pace, so this one also went as predicted, with Jim Taggart taking third in SARRC despite not attending. EP I called this one as Carter, Pierce over Smith (barely) and Darren Rackley for both race and SARRC. This one was perfect, all the way down to the race margin of Pierce over Smith (1 second = barely ). Carter and Pierce actually tied at 184 points, but Carter s race win gave him the tie-breaker. FP I had the race as Kullman, Ahrens, Bentz and Hulse. The points were Kullman, Ahrens, Bentz, Pedro Rivera, Hulse and Ray Mummery. Between Ahrens DNF and Kullman s penalty, this one didn t go as projected. Hulse ended up with the race win over Bentz, Rivera and Kullman. The lost points also gave Bentz the season title by four over Kullman, with Rivera, Ahrens, Hulse and Mummery following. HP I called the race as Hewell, Coffin and Toler, which would have been right on, except for Toler s penalty, which gave the last podium spot to McDowell. The SARRC order was picked as Hewell, Richard May, McDowell, Mike Havlick, Tim Slater and Coffin. I had said May would beat McDowell in the race to claim the second spot, but McDowell beat May by two to claim the spot instead. Havlick and Slater got their spots without making the race. I thought Coffin s second in the race would be enough to get him up to sixth in points over Evelyn Vlasak. However, Vlasak s 6 th in the race was enough to keep the final SARRC spot by a single point. GTL Ken Blackburn ended up a DNS for the race, but he didn t need the points to claim the title. Sam Fouse also had second locked up in SARRC, since the following two racers didn t have three finishes. I got this one right by default. Race 5 GT1, GT2, GT3, GTA, SPO, STO, T1, T2, ITO As expected, Jacek Mucha won the pole by a huge margin over Henry Gilbert (six seconds) for ASR, with the next four from different classes Juan Vento (GT1), Nick Hazelwood (STO), Ron Stanley (SPO) and Bill Porter (GTA). Further back, Bob Eubanks beat Dainton Brooks by over two seconds for the AS pole. The race was another matter, as Gilbert jumped Mucha at the start. I expected Mucha to get back by and pull away but it never happened. Gilbert seemed to have an advantage on the long front straight and Mucha seemed very cautious in lapping the slower cars, which they were passing several times a lap. Mucha sometimes would get five seconds behind and then make it up in a single lap (his best lap was 1:04.8 to Gilbert s 1:09.4). But he never did make the pass and ended up 3 seconds behind. Vento ran third just ahead of Stanley until the 14 th lap when he picked up a flat tire and spun in turn 1. By the time he limped around to the pits and got a spare, he was three laps down. Hazlewood was next behind Stanley, followed by Walker, Arnold, Segars and Kinsland. Segars then spun in turn 3 and lost several spots. He made up a few before retiring after 12 laps. Next Arnold passed Walker and Kinsland did the same a few laps later. At the end, Stanley won SPO and finished 5 seconds up on STO winner Hazlewood, who just barely held off Arnold(2 nd SPO), with Kinsland (2 nd STO) and Walker (GTA winner) 25 seconds further back. Raymond Webb was two laps down but took first in GT1.

7 In AS, Eubanks was slowly pulling away from Brooks. However, Brooks was smoking from the start and it got worse as the race went on. Finally, he retired after 13 laps. GT 1 The predicted race order was Vento, Mark Davis, Webb and Dave Greer, with the same order for the SARRC. Vento s problem scrambled the order. Webb took the win by 30 seconds over Davis, while Vento recovered for third. But that was enough for Davis to take the season crown over Vento and Webb. GT2 No GT2 drivers appeared, so the pre-sic order of Miles Barefoot and Michael Moulton remains unchanged. GT3 Bill McGavic was the only GT3 entrant and already had an insurmountable lead. Jonathan Barlow and Ron Wilcox were tied for second stayed there when they didn t appear. GTA I had predicted the race as Ricky Sanders, Walker, Porter and Michael Attaway, while the SARRC finish would have been Sanders, Porter and Attaway. Porter looked better when he qualified on the pole, but things went south rapidly and he retired on lap 3. Walker won over Attaway and Sanders who cruised around well back in the pack. At least the SARRC order came out correctly. SPO - I took Arnold, Stanley and Segars for the race, while Mary Wright was my pick for the season over Stanley and Arnold. Segars retirement left the third in the race to Wright, while the SARRC order was as predicted. T1 and T2 There were no qualifiers for the SARRC title in either class. ITO David Alejandro was the only qualifier and took the title without appearing. Race 6 CF, FF, F5, F6, FV John Robinson won the FF pole by two second over Ken Morgan, CF leader Mike Burkhardt, Jim Lee, F600 leader Chris Ross, CF Richard Klotz, Alan Collard, Adrian Aveni and F600 Matt Strand. Unfortunately, Burkhardt couldn t make the start and left the CF race and title to Klotz. The 10 car FV field was led by Sherman Engler, Sandy Thalheimer, Shannon Jones and Russ Stalvey. In the race, Robinson pulled away from the start ahead of Morgan, the F600s of Ross and Strand and Lee. The F600s were going at it, but on lap 8 Strand pulled off at the turn 3 station. Then Ross stopped a lap later and that was that. After a few laps, things were basically set, with Robinson, Morgan and Lee in FF and Klotz in CF. The only change was Alan Collard taking fourth in FF from Aveni after the latter spun at turn 4. The FV race started like last year s drafting battle with Engler, Jones, Thalheimer and Stalvey running away in a tight pack. Bill Dennis and Fred Clark ran together next over Harry Schneider, Peter Cheamitru, Tom Vlasak and Jim Vaseff. In the front group, everyone led except Stalvey, who stayed last in the group except for one lap. The group finally broke up when Thalheimer spun exiting turn 1 on

8 lap13. Then Jones did the same thing a couple laps later. That settled the top three as Engler ran out the final five laps with Stalvey in tow and Jones not quite able to recover from the spin. Further back, Cheamitru suffered a flat tire and spun in turn 3, retiring on lap 5. Clark ran with Dennis until lap 13 when he slowed and retired with a sick-sounding engine. Thalheimer was still solidly in fourth on the last lap when he was lapping the tail-end pair of Vlasak and Vaseff. Somehow they got their signals crossed and Vlasak and Thalheimer collided, with both spinning off into the turn 3 sand pit. That gave fourth to Dennis. CF Burkhardt was the pick over Klotz for race and title, but Burkhardt s failure to make the race left both race and SARRC to Klotz. FF- I picked Robinson, Lee and Morgan for the race, with Robinson, Morgan and Rick Bernard for the SARRC. Lee wasn t able to make up the early deficit he picked up while stuck behind the F600s, so Morgan beat him for second. The SARRC order came as predicted. FV The race order was predicted to be Stalvey, Jones and Engler. I had the right three, but the order wrong (Engler, Stalvey, Jones). The SARRC order was guessed as Jones, Stalvey, Schneider, Cheamitru, Engler and Thalheimer. It ended up Jones, Stalvey, Engler, Schneider, Thalheimer and no-show Christopher Heilman. Engler s win moved him up two spots, while Cheamitru s DNF dropped him out of the top six. F500 Charles Thomson and Basil Marchi were tied at 96 points going in to the SIC. Thomson entered and would have taken the title uncontested with just a finish. However, he decided not to make the trip, so the two remain tied for the title. F600 Chris Ross was the SARRC leader going in, while Matt Strand was running as an exhibition car and wasn t SARRC eligible. With both retiring from the race, nothing changed in the final standings (Ross, Jason Fitzpatrick, Clint McMahan). Race 7 CSR, DSR, FA, FB, FC, FE, FM, FS, S2 FA leader John Zuccarelli took the overall pole, 0.2 seconds up on FS leader Jacek Mucha who in turn was 1.5 seconds up on FS opponent Jim Dixon. A little further back were FB drivers Richard Franklin and Charles Dempsey, with FM pole sitter Carson Weeder next and FE leader Christopher Eveland. The race got off to a flying start, with Dixon passing the front row going through turn 1. Further back there was more excitement, with FM driver Chris Bryant getting spun in the turn 3 sweeper and taking almost a lap to get restarted. Charles Dempsey got tapped from behind going into turn 4 and did a half-spin costing him about nine places. Up front, Mucha retook the lead by the end of lap 1 and began to pull away, while Zuccarelli passed Dixon a couple laps later. Behind them, Shane Doles had jumped up six spots to take the lead among the following pack, and fairly soon Doles, FM rival Weeder and FB leader Franklin had separated themselves from the rest. Behind them, the field kept changing, with 2 nd place FB runner William

9 Falatick, FC leader Marc Stern and sole DSR runner Doug Piner all heading the group at one time. Meanwhile, Dempsey was charging back from his first lap calamity and by lap 8 he passed Falatick to take over 2 nd in FB and head the third group. Still further back, the FE race got a bunch tighter. Eveland had outqualified Wally Osinga and Mark Schneider by 8 and 11 places, respectively, but in the race he fell back and the others moved up. By lap 6, the three were running in order on the track. The rest of the pack were FM runner Court Dowis, FC runner-up Robert Corliss (until he had a lurid slide through the turn 3 sand trap and stalled a lap short of halfway), CSR leader Chip Valente, sole S2000 entrant Lloyd Sutherland and the recovering Bryant. FB runner Tim Pierce started late from pit road and made up a few positions before stopping on lap 12. Up front, Mucha had pulled out several seconds on the top group, but as the laps ran down we again found them running nose-to-tail. Then on lap 16, Dixon managed to surprise the other two and take the lead. All this in a car that really shouldn t be able to match the top two. But order was restored on the next lap as Mucha again took the point. A couple laps later, Zuccarelli also made the pass going into turn 1, and Dixon was caught on the outside and spun, ending his challenge. In the next bunch, Weeder had gotten by Doles on lap 4 and held it the rest of the way. However, he never got far away from Doles and Franklin, who swapped the fifth spot a couple times before Franklin secured it at the end. Dempsey had closed to within a few seconds of Franklin and looked to have a chance at the FB win. However, he was having to press so hard making up the gap that he finally made a mistake and lost about 10 seconds, settling for second in FB. Next came DSR winner Piner, FC winner Stern and the FE trio of Eveland, Osinga and Schneider. Although the FE group stayed close, there really weren t any challenges for position, with 10 seconds separating each position at the end. Falatick slowed on the last lap but still took third in FB, behind Dowis (3 rd FC). Bryant, Valente and Sutherland completed the finishers. CSR Valente was the only entrant in the class and cruised to the win. He had already locked up the SARRC title over Bailey Monette. DSR Doug Piner already had the title locked up over Benny Nodarse and Craig Farr. His uncontested win just added to his points margin. FA Zuccarelli was the only entrant in class, and he finished a close second overall. He increased his points lead over Luiz Noguiera and David Del Sol. FB I picked Dempsey, Pierce and Falatick over Franklin for the race. So naturally, Franklin beat them all for the race win. Dempsey might have proved me right but for his first lap problem. I had the SARRC finish as Demsey, Falatick and Franklin. This one came out very close, with Falatick beating Franklin by a single point ( ) with Dempsey another two points back. If Dempsey had been able to recover and win, he would have taken the title, and my order would have been all correct. FC I had picked Stern to win the race and title over Corliss. This is what happened. Corliss was a DNF, but Stern had him covered regardless. Jim Lee was originally entered and would have broken the tie

10 with Lyndon Pollock for third with a finish. However, he scratched late, so the final points remain tied for the third spot. FE I had picked Eveland, Osinga and Mark Schneider for the race finish, and that s just the way it ended. Chris LoCurto had entered and would have taken the third SARRC spot behind Eveland and Schneider with a finish. However, he didn t make the trip and so the third place trophies go to Joel Janco and Paul Schneider, who were tied for the point lead going into the SIC, but didn t enter. FM I picked the top three for the race as Doles, Weeder and Dowis, with the same three for the title, followed by Bryant, Everett Dickson and David Obernauer. This would have worked out exactly, except that Weeder messed up my plans by taking the race and championship. FS I took Mucha and Dixon to be 1-2 in race and SARRC and it worked out that way. But Dixon made it much closer than I ever imagined. Victor Seaber took the final SARRC slot. S2 Sutherland took the race win as the only entrant and thus claimed the title over Hawley Chester. So, there you have it. If I counted correctly, I got 21 of the race winners right and 30 of the class champions. Of course, a number of them were uncontested, so I m not sure if that means I did well or not. If you have an opinion, let me know!