After several weeks of testing and racing in Japan to open their 2012 Season Three schedule, the Red Sox Racing League finally returned to the United States for this week’s event, the “Tracksunlimited.net presents Barber Motorsport Park” in Leeds, Alabama. Nineteen drivers made the trip to northern Alabama to test their skills on the tricky 2.38 mile, 16 corner layout.
Brad Vincent, confident he could keep his winning streak alive after back to back wins in Japan, led the way in the Class A HPD qualifying session and earned the pole with a lap time of 1:12.136. Justin Kirby (2nd), Les Turner (3rd), and John Koscielniak (4th) also posted sub 1:13 lap times as they looked to knock Vincent out of victory lane. Terry Daul (5th), Ed Sutcliff (6th), and Andy Feldman (7th) posted sub 1:14 qualifying laps. David Weiss (8th), Kevin Kyle (9th), William Kabela (10th), and Kyle Young (11th) completed the HPD grid.
Paul Hesla led the way during qualifying in the Class B Corvette field as his lap time of 1:19.211 was good enough to hold off Tommy Rhyne (1:19.466) and Dennis Griffen (1:19.691). Dean Moll (4th), Corey A. Wolf (5th), Scott Husted (6th), Jeff Thomas (7th), and Ricky Hardin (8th) completed the Corvette grid.
Normally a clean group, RSR drivers must have been suffering from jet lag in Alabama because sixteen drivers collected a season high 91 incidents, while only three managed to complete the race incident free. Racing action got off to a blistering pace as Turner got past Kirby and into 2nd place with an excellent start. Approaching the s-curves of turns 7-8-9, where there is only room for one car to pass at a time, Turner made an error in his braking and his Honda’s back end broke loose catching Kirby by surprise, who was unable to react to Turner’s mistake and ended up slamming into the rear of Turner’s car. The impact forced both drivers off course on opposite sides of the track. Fans lining the front of the Barber Museum had a great view as the rest of the hard charging HPD field negotiated their way past Turner and Kirby coming out of T9.
Kirby’s night got worse when he collected additional damage entering pit road for repairs. Turner’s pit crew was MIA when he nursed his car to pit road.
Moll was in 4th place in the Class B race when he overshot the corner exit at T1 on lap two. His car spun back across the track before doing a lazy 360 spin. Moll did a nice job of driving and managed to keep the car off the wall. He wasn’t as lucky when he spun out in T5 and crashed into inside wall a lap later. Moll kept racing and somehow avoided further damage when he spun out in exactly the same spot a lap later. Unfortunately, his nightmare continued half a lap later when he went off course in turns 13-14 and collected Koscielniak while rejoining the track. Moll was forced to retire from the race after bringing his car to a stop. Koscielniak continued racing with nose damage, but lost several spots as he nursed his damaged car around the track. But he was back up to speed after his crew replaced his nose in the pits.
T5 collected Kyle and Young in separate incidents on lap five, but both drivers were able to continue racing. The curbing of the s-curve was abused by most of the drivers all night, but Feldman took an unusually brutal shortcut when he barreled through the corners on lap eight. Barely maintaining control of his car, Feldman cut across the infield grass just missing Sutcliff. Koscielniak had a clear view of the action and was able to get past Feldman coming out of T9. Feldman regained his composure and a lap later re-passed Koscielniak who was at an aerodynamic disadvantage due to his damaged nose.
Hardin lost valuable track position when he went off track and spun towards the inside wall while exiting T2 on lap eight. Kyle provided the most fireworks of the night when he launched Kirby into orbit on lap eleven. Having passed a Corvette on the front stretch, Kyle carried too much speed into T1 and overshot the corner. His tires found no grip on the grass and allowed Kyle’s car to continue sliding back onto the track in T2. Kirby had nowhere to go as Kyle’s car slid into his path and the resulting impact sent Kirby high into the sky. Luckily, neither driver was seriously injured in the incident.
A similar incident collected Hesla and Young at the exit of T4 on lap sixteen. Hesla lost third place as a result of the mishap and eventually retired from the race.
Class A results
Vincent took full advantage of the mess behind him on lap one and quickly put an insurmountable lead over the rest of the HPD field. He went on to lead all 25 laps while lapping most of the field before he crossed the finish line. Daul finished a minute behind Vincent after inheriting 2nd place from Koscielniak on lap six. Koscielniak battled back from his early race damage to finish in third place, one second behind Daul.
Feldman finished in 4th place after executing a perfect pit stop to overtake Sutcliff half way into the race. Feldman was the last HPD driver to finish on the lead lap. Sutcliff (5th), Weiss (6th), Kabela (7th), and Young (8th), were scored one lap down. Kyle (9th) and Kirby (10th), both finished fifteen laps down.
Turner retired after three laps and finished in last place. Reporters found him grilling hamburgers with Wilbur Gildersleeve, Jr after the race. Turner was disappointed with his finish, but sounded upbeat about his chances to keep pace with Vincent in the overall standings. “I missed the corner entry and had to lift to get the car under control, but got slammed pretty hard from behind. The pit crew was over at Wilbur’s grill getting snacks when I came in, so I had to go back out with a damaged car. I parked it and joined Wilbur once I realized my night was over. We’ll come back strong at Brands next week.”
Kabela was the only driver to complete the race without an incident.
Vincent continues to lead the season championship race after three events. He has a seven point lead over Daul. Koscielniak, Feldman, and Turner round out the top five spots.
Class B results
Hesla dominated the early going, but Rhyne worked his way into victory lane with clean, smooth driving. The win was Rhyne’s second in as many weeks.
RSR newcomer Dennis Griffen crossed the line in 2nd place. Husted finished in 3rd. “We had several goals tonight”, said Husted. “We hit the first two by qualifying ahead of last place, and by avoiding the lap one incident. Then we managed to get into a fast race pace, so I knew it was going to be a good night. We had some scary moments with the HPD cars going past, but otherwise it was a very clean race. Corey and I had some great racing and I think I could have gotten closer to Dennis if we’d had a few more laps. No penalties and no mistakes on pit road were the keys to this podium finish!”
Wolf was the last Corvette driver to finish on the same lap with Rhyne. Thomas (5th), and Hardin (6th), were both scored one lap down to the Corvette leaders. Hesla (7th) and Moll (8th) both retired early from the race.
Rhyne and Griffen were the only Corvette drivers to complete the race without incident.
Next Race
RSR travel to England for the “Brands Hatch Fall Festival” next week.
Results / Standings / Video coverage
Race Results: http://rsr.ileaguerace.com/champ/show_event_result/Red-Sox-Racing-League/2163
League Standings: http://rsr.ileaguerace.com/champ/show_champ/Red-Sox-Racing-League/355
League Video Site: http://www.youtube.com/user/draftin11
Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/all-news/vincent-and-rhyne-repeat
Ruby Tuesday Dodge Carl Edwards Copart Ford Denny Hamlin Z Line Toyota
No comments:
Post a Comment