Members of the Red Sox Racing League have raced on three continents in four weeks, but a pattern has developed which could spell trouble for the field if they don’t react quickly. Brad Vincent has a perfect record, winning all four races in the Class A HPD field, while Tommy Rhyne has been nearly perfect with three wins in a row in the Class B Corvette field. Both drivers were at the top of their game for this week’s event, the “Brands Hatch Fall Festival” at Brands Hatch in Kent, England.
Vincent earned his fourth pole of the season with a qualifying lap time of 1:12.925. Les Turner secured the outside of row one with a lap time of 1:13.289. John Koscielniak (3rd), Terry Daul (4th), Divina Galica (5th), Ed Sutcliff (6th), Andrew Feldman (7th), Kevin Kyle (8th), David Weiss (9th), William Kabela (10th), and Kyle Young (11th) completed the HPD starting grid.
Amongst the Corvettes Rhyne earned his second pole of the season with a qualifying lap time of 1:20.682. Paul Hesla arrived in a pink car after a poor performance at Barber and a lost bet with his crew. Nonetheless, he secured the outside position of row one with a lap time of 1:21.224. Griffen (3rd), Thomas (4th), Husted (5th), Prostell (6th), and Hardin (7th) completed the Corvette starting grid.
Brands Hatch is a technically challenging course. Its 9 corner twisting, turning, 2.3 mile layout is full of elevation changes, off-camber corners giving drivers a roller coaster-like experience. Passing opportunities are few and far between, while the potential for going off-track lurks at every section of the track. The difference in speeds between the prototype and the GT classes had the potential to play a major role in the outcome of this race.
The points leaders in the HPD field have been very consistent in Season Three, with most finishing in almost the same position week after week. Koscielniak was riding a streak of six consecutive podium finishes stretching back to last season and looked to be one of the few drivers who could challenge Vincent and Turner at Brands. His night got off to a horrible start however, as he locked up the brakes and spun off in T4, perhaps due to his cold tires or cold brakes. Going off course in what was a scary slide, Koscielniak managed to bring his car to a stop without incurring damage, but he was forced to wait as the HPD field went past before he could safely rejoin the race.
The field racked up a steady count of 4-off penalties as they tried to tame the course, but gave each other plenty of room as the event continued. Weiss managed to avoid damage while doing a nifty 360 spin after losing control exiting T2 on lap six. Luckily there was no one immediately behind his car as it slid across the track. T1 and T4 seemed to give drivers the most trouble as Prostell, Hardin, Weiss, and Kyle all took turns sliding off track in those corners. Weiss retired from the race with heavy damage after his incident on lap eighteen, but the other drivers were able to continue racing.
Class A results
Vincent took the checkered flag with a 25 second lead over Turner. The pair of drivers had relatively little competition from the rest of the field. Koscielniak recovered from his lap one mistake to charge back through the field and earn his 7th consecutive podium finish in his ITT Honda. His race back to third place was both daring and exciting to watch as he was forced to make on-track passes of drivers hungry for their first podium finish of the season.
Koscielniak’s ITT teammate Terry Daul (4th) and Ed Sutcliff (5th) in the FBI prototype battled to a close finish, with Daul crossing the line 2/10s of a second ahead of Sutcliff. Feldman (6th) in the AppLogic Honda and Galica (7th) had a similar battle as they finished within 3/10s of a second of each other.
Galica’s car got a major electrical overhaul prior to the race, so she was optimistic at the start of the race. “The car has never driven this smoothly”, said the F1 veteran after qualifying. But despite the upgrade, Galica had to overcome two major obstacles during the race just to stay on the lead lap. First her steering columnloosened in its mount at race speed and it took all she had to maintain control of the car. And then a short time later her pit crew failed to count her down to her stall on pit road and she over-shot her pit stall. She lost valuable time and track position to Sutcliff and Feldman during both incidents. Galica was disappointed about her finish, but she is confident about her chances at next week’s race. “We’ll make it up at Road Atlanta because this new car is too fast to be running behind those guys!”
Young (8th), Kyle (9th), and Kabela (10th) all finished one lap down to the leaders. Weiss was scored seven laps down and in 11th place after his early departure from the race. Sutcliff and Kabela both earned bonus points for completing the race without incident.
Vincent now holds a ten point lead in the season championship. Koscielniak and Daul are tied for second place. Turner and Feldman round out the top five spots. After the race Turner commented “I had a very busy week but managed to get enough practice and was confident in my chances to contend for the win at Brands Hatch. I needed a good finish after a disastrous result in Alabama. Brands is an extremely fast circuit and danger lurks in every corner. Early on I made the decision to race the track to ensure I finished on the podium. This was the last outing for the TeamDraft 911 Tribute car. My team honors the memory of those who paid the ultimate price on that awful day and for everybody who has fought for our freedom since then. The Batmobile will be back next week at Road Atlanta and it will be looking to gain back some more of the valuable championship points I lost in Alabama.”
Class B results
Hesla tried hard to make up for his poor performance in last week’s race, but even a pink paint job couldn’t give him the extra boost needed to outpace Rhyne’s NorthernTool.com Corvette to the finish line. Hesla posted the fastest lap of the event, but Rhyne completed the race without incident as his consistently low lap times kept the rest of the Corvette field behind him. The win was Rhyne’s third in a row and his sixth podium finish in the past seven RSR events. Hesla was happy with his finish. “We had an off week at Barber, so it felt good to get back to the front pack.”
3rd place Griffen earned his third podium finish of the season by qualifying well and running a solid race. Griffen would have finished the race without incident if not for a slight error at Westfield corner on the opening lap. Husted (4th) ran another solid race and was the last Corvette driver to cross the line on the same lap as Rhyne. Hardin (5th) and Thomas (6th) both of whom ran their fastest laps late in the race were both scored one lap down, while Prostell (7th) finished two laps down after his pit crew was forced to make extensive repairs caused during his lap seven incident.
Rhyne and Thomas were the only Corvette drivers to complete the race without incident.
Rhyne has a slim two point lead over Griffen in the season championship battle. Hardin (3rd) has a one point lead over Husted (4th), while Thomas (5th) is one point behind Husted.
Next Race
RSR members travel to Georgia for the “Trackpedia.com Presents Road Atlanta” next week.
Results / Standings / Video coverage
Race Results: http://rsr.ileaguerace.com/champ/show_event_result/Red-Sox-Racing-League/2164
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-continue-to-dominate
Jim Hall Duncan Hamilton Lewis Hamilton David Hampshire Sam Hanks
No comments:
Post a Comment