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Many Race Reports Still To Come, Check Back Often!
Sunday 02/05/12; Words by Greg Sharpe
Oval A-mains
Stock Spec 13.5 As the first oval A-main to take to the track, trepidation was in the air. Spectators gathered around for the first big show of the day, taking seats along the back straight and turns 3/4, as the driver names and sponsors were announced. The B-main bump-up was none other than BQ-Screw recipient Brett McGee who was asked how he'd fair in the A-main, saying "I'm just happy to have the BQ-Screw and 1st Place B-main trophies!" With the TQ Chris Clayton announced to applause, spectators packed the sidelines three deep and the cars were scrubbed in for the culmination of an entire weeks work (or is this play?). The tone sounded out and all but one mid-pack car burst off the line for the first standing start of the week. That one car, slow to get away, caused the back half of the field to scatter. Billy Kimpton, Jonathon McMinn, Frank Valentino, and James Stroud were forced off line and while the entire field was able to log normal first lap times, they were three and four wide entering Turns 3/4 for the second time when the big wreck unfolded. B-main bump-up McGee managed to avoid the calamity altogether and got on with lapping for the remainder of the race. Unfortunately Kimpton, McMinn, and Stroud were slowed dealing with the wreck, and Valentino needed to be marshaled, losing two laps in the process. Naturally, losing two laps meant the leader had to pass through the wreck a couple times but Chris Clayton did so without incident. He wasn't out of the woods yet though as a pack of cars followed him through the danger in hot pursuit. Mike Miller was in 2nd with Larry Ruby and Alan Behler completing the freight train. By the 1:15 mark, Clayton was able to pull out a straightaway lead over the field and began working traffic. Where Clayton was putting down 4.1-4.2sec laps, Miller was starting to slow into the 4.3sec range. Meanwhile, Larry Ruby was starting getting a run on Miller every few laps and it was obvious that Ruby needed to get past Miller if he were to have any shot at chasing down Clayton in the time remaining. The move came on lap 20 down in turns 1/2 with Miller down the inside of Ruby exiting onto the back straightaway. Although both cars squared up evenly and the pass looked legit, Ruby's car took a hard set towards the outside wall and pancaked it hard with a loud smack. Miller's car kept on going straight although far down on the inside line towards turn 3/4. In the chaos of the moment, Dan Ostrander took advantage of his track position to check up, safely cutting through the errant Miller. Up front, Clayton was busy lapping back markers putting precious tenths between himself and Ruby who got back to lapping after the incident. At the 2:45 mark, 3rd-5th bunched up and begin going over-under. In the span of just one lap all three cars, Miller, Behler and Ostrander changed position with only Ostrander losing about 2sec. As those three got sorted out the Top 5 order became Clayton, Ruby, Miller, Behler and Ostrander. Half a minute later, Clayton had put two back markers between himself and Miller. With time winding down, Clayton had open track in front and his pace was still more than anyone could deal with. Between traffic and Clayton's pace, Miller had done all he could with a 5th place starting position. The race ended on the tone, the 9 remaining cars streamed across the line and the crowd erupted in applause for Clayton's win. Close passing, a leader who wasn't afraid to move through the field, and some dramatic action in the mid-pack, this race had it all!
Legends The busiest class of the week took to the track for their TENTH race of the week. How's that for dollar value? By this time in the event, Legends oval class racing had tightened up to the point where any one of three racers could challenge for the win. Unlike qualifying where Bill Fraden dominated the proceedings, Ed Tabor and Rick Vessell had showed some speed and were looking to make some moves in the A-main. Right off the tone, Fraden cut tight lines from TQ starting position in a feeble attempt to gap the field early on but Tabor was not having any of that nonesense. Trading fast lap back and forth, Fraden and Tabor starting battling for the lead around lap 3 and by the time they were done crossing lines and pulling the over-under maneuver a handful of times it was Tabor who broke out in the lead spot. Tabor proceeded to click off consistent 6.0-6.1 lap times while working traffic. Behind him, Fraden was having trouble with the traffic Tabor had just dispatched. One particular pass cost Fraden 2 precious seconds, widening the gap from 1st to 2nd even more. Desipte the phenominal pace shown by Tabor early in the race, Lady Luck was not impressed enough to let him pass. While passing a lapper down in turns 3&4, Tabor used a bit too much ice on the apron, came off it at too much of an angle and proceeded to traction roll off into the hands of a waiting marshal. Tabor only lost 4 seconds in the ensuing flipfest, even the lapper wasn't affected and proceeded on without any ill effects, but it was enough to let Fraden slip by into the lead. It was lap 14 when Fraden crossed the line in the lead for the second time this race, but there was still about 2.5 minutes left to go and Tabor wasn't more than a second behind once everyone settled back into a groove. Both drivers knuckled down and got back to business. Low 6s for both drivers as they worked through traffic. Most of the field had been lapped by this point but it took another 6 laps for the leaders to find 3rd place runner, Ron Bryant who was running a great race with consistent mid-6sec laps right from the tone, working through the same traffic the leaders were daling with a few seconds later. Even with the entire field lapped, Fraden couldn't wait for courtesy with Tabor so close behind. It wasn't until the 3 minute mark that Fraden got any breathing room. A wreck cought out Tabor putting a solid 3/4 track gap between he and Fraden. With just a few more laps to victory, Fraden finally got to play some strategy by passing with care. His laps immediately fell a few tenths while Tabor was slicing through traffic as fast as ever with the patience of a honey badger. In the end, there just wasn't enough time for Tabor to pull off the hail mary comeback. The tone went off and caught Tabor dead at the line, one hundreth of a second sperarated him from Fraden's victory lap. Once the dust had settled, Bryant's solid performance in the main earned him the 3rd spot on the podium, while the Legend road course winner Vessell had to suffer through numerous wrecks and settle for 5th. Spec racing was alive and well at the 18th annual Snowbird Nationals and by all accounts, it served the purpose of providing an inexpensive, close, fair and unique racing experience for everyone who competed!
Outlaw Truck 13.5 The world of oval racing can be tough at times with wrecks unfolding in a heartbeat and at break-neck speeds with little to no brakes in 1C classes. At it's worst, oval racing can be quite cruel, and none moreso than the start of the Outlaw Truck 13.5 class where TQ Jimmy Flack had dominated qualifying and looked to continue his winning ways in the A-main. Unfortunately for Flack, the very first turn of the race became his last and ended his week-long run in this wild class. Flack and 2nd qualifier Tommy Peters got collected down near the ice and as the field barreled through 9th qualifier Mel McCoy became entangled as well. In the mele, Flack's truck was broadsided and went airborne on the front straight right in front of the driver's stand. It came to rest mere feet from the timing loop, upside down and broken. Peters made it around another half of a lap before retiring, with McCoy only getting another lap before damages from the wreck got the better of his truck. In the blink of an eye, an entire weeks accomplishment was erased by the cruel crucible of oval racing for trucks #1, 2 and 9. But alas, there were still 57 more laps to run and a 2012 class champion to crown! From the chaos emerged 3rd qualifier Frank Valentino who began storming through the field. With so many trucks running identical lap times and the top 3 exiting the first turn disaster nose to tail, Valentino was going to need to make his way through traffic without hesitating if he planned on winning this door slammer of a race. Art Hernandez and Steve Pemberton were within 0.2sec of Valentino as the next minute and a half of flat out lapping unfolded. But sadly, the evil anvil of oval racing struck again at the 1:45 mark. Valentino was given a clear line under a lapper in turns 3/4 and took it cleanly only to have the lapper turn-in halfway down the front straight going into turns 1/2. The resulting trajectory put Valentino into an assured T-bone position. The spectators gasped and the announcer holwed as Valentino's truck was needlessly ejected from it's rightful racing line. Somehow the 2nd and 3rd place trucks of Hernandez and Pemberton sliced through the debris field, powering off towards turns 3/4. Valentino was able to get turned around but had to use a big swath of the front straight to do so. Upon entering the racing line again he came door to door with Ron Thomas who was just trying to stay low and out of the way. Valientino's truck got the short end of the deal, again spinning in front of the approaching lead pack. This time it was Hernandez who got collected as trucks scattered everywhere and Pemberton aimed REALLY low to avoid the carnage. Pemberton's peripheral vision paid off as he cleared the field, took the lead and never looked back. With a 1:30 to go, Hernandez had to reel in a straightaway gap and pass a few trucks between himself and Pemberton for a shot at the win. As time wore down and tone went off though, Hernandez found himself at the line and out of luck watching Pemberton complete his victory lap all by himself. After making the change from 2C/21.5 to 1C/13.5, Outlaw Truck has seen a resurgence in popularity, going from a background class of diehards to a second class for other open-ESC oval racers and looks to build upon it's successes in the years to come! After witnessing this action in Outlaw Truck, the anvil of oval racing is sure to produce more excitement next year at the 19th annual Snowbird Nationals!
1/12 Scale 13.5 All throughout qualifying it's been the Monti Panzica show here in 1/12 Scale 13.5 oval, and if the field was going to put up a fight for the top spot in Victory Lane with the trophy girls, they were going to have to lay down some fierce laps right up front! The racers sitting in 2nd and 3rd, those with the most realistic shot at getting by Panzica, waited patiently as the A-main sponsor sheets were called out. When the pleasantries were through, the tone erupted from the loudspeakers and the field gave chase as Panzica hit apex after apex laying down fast lap upon fast lap. Within seconds of the start, Panzica was clear of the field, fast lap in hand as his competitors peak voltage wore off, charging to victory. The 2nd place qualifier Phil Marabella and 3rd place qualifier Matt Stegeman could do nothing but watch as Panizca began working traffic on his way to a sure vicory. And watch they did, as on lap 4 the racing gods shined down on their plight and brought carnage to the racetrack directly in front of Panzica! In the streaming chaos of wiggling 1/12 oval cars, Marabella sliced through the debri field to take the lead with Stegeman following suit. Panzica fell to 5th momentarily in a dense pack of cars that included the entire Top 5 and within just a full lap of racing he'd dispatched the 4th place car while simultaneously wrenching 3rd place away from Mike Bean who'd worked his way patiently up from 6th on the grid. Marabella enjoyed another two laps of glory at the pointy end of the field until Stegeman couldn't wait any longer and made the pass for the lead. Panzica was putting some heat on the leaders, forcing Stegeman to pass for the lead, leaving Marabella right in the cross hairs. The TQ, fast lap owning, already been wrecked out of the lead once this race cross hairs. With red mist in his eyes, Panzica lined up Marabella over a four lap run to make the pass for 2nd place and pulled it off with pretine accuracy. Once through, the target was clear with nearly 3 minutes still to run, hunt Stegeman down! Panzica got down to business with 3.8sec laps, blitzed through traffic with wreckless abandon, and for good reason. Marabella was hot on his heels, and after being the second fastest car in qualifying, Marabella had something to prove in this traffic filled A-main! 2nd and 3rd cut through the field on their way to the front where Stegeman was biding his time as the only guy with something to lose. It was just before the halfway mark that Panzica cought and passed Stegeman in one swift motion. Panzica was GONE at this point! It was as if he never saw either of two main opponents. He appeared to be looking dead ahead, at the finish line, four minutes of lapping, regardless of who was in his way. But the story doesn't end there! Marabella was still fighting hard to reclaim his 2nd place position lost earlier in this race and on lap 52, within seconds of the finish, he snatched it back from Stegeman in heavy traffic. The stars were aligning for the Top 3, back in their rightful order after a wild race of ups and downs, until the unthinkable went down in turn 3/4! A lapped car spun in the middle of the groove, not even on the ice, just out in open carpet. Marabella and Stegeman weaved in opposite directions coming off the back straight to avoid the stricken car, straightened out in front of the driver's stand and blasted towards the timing loop as the clock expired. To the line it was Stegeman pulling off the upset, impromptu drag race to claim the 2nd spot on the podium. As gut wrenching as this may seem for Marabella, his consolation prize was the left side of the podium featuring the new brunette trophy girl!
Modified 10.5 In this hobby, it takes two types of fast to succeed. Fast in qualifying, and fast in the main event. Unfortunately for the 2011 Overall Oval Champion Andy McClellan, his complete and utter domination of qualifying did not translate into the same performance in the A-main of Modified 10.5. Right from the starting tone it was obvious that something was amiss. The 2nd qualifier, Pete D'Agnolo was immediately hawking McClellan's back bumper and just 4 laps later D'Agnolo made the pass for the lead. Little did anyone know it at the time, D'Agnolo had made his last pass for position and was now gaurding a class win for the next 3 minutes and 40 seconds. Behind him though, the pack was being slowly shuffled over dozens of laps in a high speed game of chess as the Top 6 qualifiers sliced and diced through each other. McClellan continued to drop through the running order as handling issues became more and more apparent. His car squared up hard coming out of turns 3/4 around the 45 second mark allowing 3rd qualifier David Mayhew to slip past cleanly. The next minute unfolded without any carnage as the field freight trained their way around the track. At the halfway mark, D'Agnolo had a full straight lead over 2nd place Mayhew as they both began working traffic. In the middle of the pack, 6th place qualifier Monti Panzica quietly made the move into 5th place. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be noteworthy except that Panzica would conitnue making moves throughout the rest of the race, highlighting that perhaps his setup took a couple minutes to come in or that his motor program wasn't as hot as everyone elses up front in the opening laps and was now coming into it's own. Regardless, the second half of this race was about to get exciting in a big hurry and Panzica would continue to benefit from his momentum. Only 30 seconds later, leader D'Agnolo was steadily approaching a large pack of cars that began dicing for position. Coming off turns 1/2, two cars came together door to door with a resulting hip check into the wall. The resulting anarchy left BQ-Screw bump-up Chris Simpson upside down on the back straightaway, slightly off the line and out of the way. The ripple effect gave Panzica the opportunity to slip past Kevin Koback who had been holding down 4th place and within sight of TQ McClellan still running in 3rd. Seconds later, Corey Heft and Eric Salvas came together down in turns 3/4 sending cars careening in all directions. D'Agnolo checked up hard to avoid the wrecks, having just missed the prior wreck a couple laps earlier, he was keen to retain his lead position in a safe and controlled manner. This wasn't, however, the same thought process going through Mayhew's mind who had spent the last 30 seconds ripping D'Anolo's lead down to absolutely nothing! Mayhew saw his chance at glory, grabbed it by the juguler, kept his foot down, drove straight "through the smoke on the high side" and came out on the straight right in front of the driver's stand practically on top of D'Agnolo's rear wing. There was still 1min:30sec to go in this race with D'Agnolo and Mayhew even closer together than they were on the starting grid. As the mele unfolded behind the leaders, it was once again Panzica who found his way forward, having just gone from 5th to 4th a couple laps earlier, now muscling his way up into 3rd as McClellan fell two spots to 5th where a fierce battle broke out with Kevin Koback for the 4th position. McClellan wasn't about to allow him TQ effort to fall into the back hald of the field though and built one hell of a run over the next half dozen laps on Koback to snatch 4th place back from him for the remainder of the race. After all that shuffling, the back half of the field was now a lap or more down and battles for position became a more one on one affair. As luck would have it, D'Agnolo was able to get 2 dozen clean laps in with infinitesimal gains that eventually added up to a 2 second lead. As the clock wound down, the Top 5 held station with the Top 3 remaining on the lead lap. Panizica's charge through the field had taken him past a number of cars, each pass taking too long to mount a serious challenge for the win. Nonetheless, he remained the last car on the lead lap and was just barely closer to the 2nd place car of Mayhew than Mayhew was to the winner, one patient and certainly lucky Mr. Pete D'Agnolo. A big round of appluase erupted from the crowd in appreciation of fantastic racing from some of the most steely oval racers in the country!
Stock Car 17.5
Sportsman Truck
Super Stock 13.5
SK Car 17.5
Pro Modified
Saturday 02/04/12; Words by Greg Sharpe
Oval Round #4 Qualifying Results
Stock Spec 13.5
Legends
Outlaw Truck 13.5
1/12 Scale 13.5
Modified 10.5
Stock Car 17.5
Sportsman Truck
Super Stock 13.5
SK Car 17.5
Pro Modified
Saturday 02/04/12; Words by Greg Sharpe
Onroad Round #4 Qualifying Results
USVTA The final round of qualifying for USVTA saw no improvements in time for the Top 5, Bill Eisenhard in 6th being the highest placing racer to improve their time. After all was said and done, Alexandre Chryssikos ended up the recipient of the BQ-Screw trophy qualifying 10th in the return of USVTA racing here at the 18th annual Snowbird Nationals. Up front, the A-main will leave the line in essentially the same grid formation it has since the 2nd round of qualifying. Look for a straight up street fight in the B-main to get the bump-up into the A-main later today after round #4 of Onroad is complete!
World GT The last chance qualifier in World GT saw a major upset as Larry Fairtrace retired early from the fastest resort in which Peter Robinson was reseting the TQ by a scant 0.05sec. Being the only two two drivers on the 29th lap, tomorrow's A-main looks to be a a fantastic race with Max Kuenning waiting in the wings to collect either of the front runners should they tap out in the midst of battle. Markus Mobers missed a gauranteed spot in the A-main by a slim margin (0.05sec) and will receive the BQ-Screw trophy as he tries to once again race his way into the A-main later today.
Amateur TC A few racers made the most of the final round of qualifying here in Amateur TC, with four of the Top 9 gauranteed transfer spots being set by those racers. Chris Crowder, Alexandre Chryssikos, Philip Vertrees, and Jean-Pierre Despres landed 5th, 6th, 8th and 9th respectively to get a chance at the A-main tomorrow afternoon. This of course means that 10th place qualifier, Mr. Tim Moore gets the dubious distinction of taking home that dreaded BQ-Screw trophy. He does, however, get another chance to redeem himself with a chance at the A-main later today. Myron Kinnard holds onto his TQ position for tomorrows big show, and with the fastest lap he will be hard to catch leaving the line for 5 minutes of Amateur TC action!
1/12 GTP 17.5 The silent assasins of onroad lined up one last time to decide who would lock into the Top 9 spots in the A-main on Sunday. In the second fastest heat, Stephen Boice and Jim Piersol laid down great runs that would be good enough for the A-main, if and only if the racers in the fastest heat didn't improve on their times enough to compensate. As the fast racers worked through their qualifier it became apparent that most of them would sit on previous qualifyign times, inlcuding 1st round TQ Peter Robinson. Robbie Dodge was the only racer to improve his time and his effort put him halfway up the field in 5th position for Sunday's main event. The BQ-Screw award went to Jeff Brown who missed the 9th position by just 0.1sec! Watch for a healthy bout of door banging in the B-main as all ten cars are on the same lap and seperated by only 3 seconds.
Expert TC Touring Expert saw only a couple changes to the Top 9, one of which was young gun Andrew Hardman who made a charge up the field edging Hayato Matsuzaki for 4th position. The Top 8 are all on the same lap, and 9th is one lap back on a 5:00, ensuring a great main event tomorrow morning with nearly identical cars fighting for position. Travis Schreven couldn't improve on his 3rd round time and was relegated to receive the BQ-Screw award. With more than half the B-main running similar lap times, watch for a mele as they battle for the one precious bump-up spot to the A-main.
1/12 GTP Modified If ever there was a come from behind story to watch, it's Paul Lemieux who, for the second year in a row, battles back from behind the gun in 1/12 GTP Modified to get into the fast qualifier, the A-main, and this year up into the TQ position on the very last qualifier! As the only racer to string together a 53 lap run, he's got the pace to take the event if no one challenges him early in the race tomorrow morning when the A-main takes the tone. Alexandre Hagberg and Naoto Matsukura also bettered their prior qualifying efforts getting into the 3rd and 4th positions repsectively. With most of the A-main on the same lap and horsepower to spare, we're going to see egos on the line, products pushed to the limits, and luck stretched thinner than an ultra-lightweight GTP body. Stay put!
Stock TC Mike Haynes didn't have to do it, but he did. Enroute to a gauranteed TQ position because no one else was able to get close to his time in this round of qualifying, Haynes threw down anyway to reset TQ as a reminder that he's the guy to beat in Stock TC. Three other racers made moves to secure spots in the A-main. Dave Johnson slipped into 3rd spot ahead of Brad Johnson, and Dave Bowser hung on for an 8th place starting position. Out of the B-qualifier, past champion Jeff Cuffs lead from flag to flag qualifying into the A-main for a 6th starting position.
1/12 GTP 13.5 After watching TQ slip away in the 3rd round, Larry Fraitrace buckled down and got to business here in round #4 attempting to take the top spot back from Markus Mobers. In a heat filled with cars on similar paces, Larry had to deal with many passes on backmarkers that took a couple laps to set up and execute. Along the way he ripped off the fastest lap in the class all week long. A 9.353sec hot lap certainly helped his search for the TQ, but it was not to be this time as he came up 0.061sec short to Mobers 3rd round TQ. With Mobers and Fairtrace atop the leader boardthe rest of the A-main remained the same except for Mike Haynes who used the 4th round to improve his time for a 5th starting position in the main tomorrow morning.
Legends OnRoad Ron Bryant and Mark Burt took the bull by the horns in the fourth round of qualifying while the other Legends racers slept on their laurels, both racers improving their times to a 3rd and 4th place starting position for the main event tomorrow morning. Mark Burt especially, got up on the wheel like a pro, burying the fast lap in Legends by more than a tenth of a second, HUGE in a class where everything is spec'd out. He must have been cheating! J/P :p But seriously, the most interesting aspect of this Legends class here at the Snowbird Nationals is the combination of running oval and onroad with the same group of people. A unique dynamic unfolds where some drivers excel at one, and others excel at the other discipline. In this case, Rick Vessell is dominating the onroad portion of Legends, while Bill Fraden is dominating the oval portion. They're keeping each other honest as their own closest competitors, making for a great showdown amongst two great drivers.
Modified TC Six of the Top 10 in Modified TC upped their game taking advantage of the last round to catch their rivals off gaurd. The biggest news came from Naoto Matsukura who blazed his way to a new TQ of 29 in 5:03.962, leapfrogging Hagberg in the process. Keven Hebert also got down to business by securing the 3rd spot at Paul Lemieux's expense. Since the Top 6 are all on the same lap, there is a good chance that tomorrow's A-main is going to be a door slamming affair of epic proportions, especially considering the entire main is lapping in the mid to low 10sec range!
Friday 02/03/12; Words by Greg Sharpe
Oval Round #3 Qualifying Results
Stock Spec 13.5 For as generous as the 2nd round was for the Stock Spec 13.5 class, the 3rd round was quite the opposite. The entire Top 10 was stagnant, frozen in time, sitting on their 1st and 2nd round times. The only notable occurence on the time sheets was Alan Behler taking a stab at the Top 10. He made it as close as 11th within 0.11sec. Watch for Behler to make waves in the last round of qualifying with nothing to lose!
Legends It's all over. Save yourself 4 minutes in life by skipping the Legends Oval main event because there is no way anyone is catching Bill Fraden. He's now TWO laps up on the rest of the field in a spec EVERYTHING class! Scratch that, tune in to see a spec racing master destroy the competition. Not only is he still the only Legend racer getting past the 6sec lap barrier, but he's also able to string so many of those laps together so as to provide a thorough buffer against the inevitable wrecks. In other news, Rick Vessel made his presence known this round by bumping Gene Crane another position further down the order to 4th. Rick's 6.1 sec fast lap puts him in contention for the victory come mains day, but we've got another round of qualifying to go before we get to that slaughterfest.
Outlaw Truck 13.5 The Flackmaster strikes back! Jimmy Flack didn't even bother to go faster on his way back to TQ, he simply drove more consistently, stringing together 61 laps of pure perfection while his closest rival, Tommy Peters broke out early. The remainder of the field continued to improve as well, including Frank Valentino who managed to hop up a couple spots to the 4th slot much to the shagrin of Art Hernandez. Art improved enough to cut his losses to just one place down the time sheets, landing in 5th position. With round #4 slated for Saturday afternoon, the outcome of this slugfest may boil down to who can guess the track conditions the best with just that one last shot at the TQ trophy. That, or some good old fashioned NASTRUCK style door banging action!
1/12 Scale 13.5 Good news, Phil took the fight to Monti to make the show better for everyone watching live and reading about this race here. Bad news, Monti ran away again. The gap is still just over one lap between Panzica's TQ and Marabella's best efforts in the 2nd qualifying position. The next four closest racers failed to improve their times but were able to hold station. The running order further down within the Top 10 was shuffled a bit as those racers did manage to go faster. Steve Pemberton laid claim to the 7th position, leaving Frank Calandra in 8th and Joel Winniki in 9th. Gary Jefferies got to sit on his round #1 time for the 10th qualifying position, but he'll be well off to move up in round #4 so someone else can get the prestigous (if not bittersweet) BQ Screw trophy.
Modified 10.5 Round #3 of Modified 10.5 can be summed up short and sweet, no one was able to better their prior times. TQ Andy McLellan gave it his best shot but came up 0.59sec short of that illusive 68 lap run.
Stock Car 17.5 All heck broke loose in Stock Car 17.5 in round #3! Not only did the qualifying order get shuffled, but the illusive 4.0sec lap barrier was finally broken! It was the round of flats that reordered the time sheets, going as far down as 5th with Brian Deel's 57 in 4:00.71. All the way at the top in the TQ position was Brian Rippon who ran the flatest of all the flats, a 57 in 4:00.00! 2nd through 4th of the flats was Jerry Parrott, Alan Behler, and Dominic Ruggiere. Improvements were so ramapant in this class that all but six cars went faster, including the Top 17 racers who, coincidentally, are all on the 57th lap. Close racing if ever we've seen it!
Sportsman Truck Back to the close sportsman racing we've come to know and love from the TOUR Sportman Truck class, 4th and 5th positions were decided by a slim 0.05sec margin, Boyette over Rance both sitting on their round #2 times. That allowed William Turner to power his way into the 3rd position with a stout 52 lap run in 4:00.60. Thinking back to round #2, that would have been good enough for a 2nd place position, except that james Stroud upped his game this round and took the fight to TQ Ean Reilley in a big way. Both drivers improved their times and both drivers finished with 53 lap runs in 4:03.1, but it was Reilley who went 0.01sec faster to keep the TQ position out of Stroud's reach by the slimmest of margins! Awesome racing from an awesome class of sportsmen!
Super Stock 13.5 Dave Mayhew pulls off the ultimate qualifying bluff by sitting out the 3rd round while his competitors failed to knock him off the TQ perch. And one hell of a bluff it was because most of this field went faster this round, including Caleb Mullins who managed to get up onto the 63rd lap as the biggest threat to Mayhew's domination here in qualifying. Going down through the order there were three 62 lap 4:00 flat runs made by Eric Salvas, Jody Miller, and Tom Pedano to cap off the Top 5. With one more round of qualifying to go on Saturday afternoon, will Mayhew play his cards by running it? Stick around to find out!
SK Car 17.5 It was a round of 54s for the Top 5 here in SK car 17.5. Lucky for Randy Burke, his 54 was not only faster than his prior 54, but it was also faster than Barry Hill's 1st round TQ putting Burke on top of the leader board going into the 4th round of qualifying. Hill was able to hold onto the second qualifying position as a pack of 6 cars behind him improved their times. Most everyone in contention for a Top 10 qualifyign spot ripped off 4.3sec lap times, but their target managed a 4.2sec lap in his successful quest for the TQ spot. If any of these guys have intentions of removing Burke from his newly found TQ, they're going to have to step up their game in both consistency and raw pace going into the fourth round of qualifying.
Pro Modified David Mayhew was able to maintain his TQ position by increasing the gap back to Pete D'Agnolo by a whopping 10 times! This massive time chasm is now 0.71sec over 4 minutes of 3.0sec fast laps in traffic at 50+mph. But seriously, D'Agnolo stayed in touch with Mayhew through this fast round of qualifying and it's a good thing he did because no one else was able to put up the kind of times Mayhew has been posting. Besides these two, Monti Panzica is the only other racer to run a 3.0sec fast lap, but he's two laps back on raw pace. The rocket round usually produces some interesting results, and with all the fast guys qualifying in the same resorted heat, we're sure to see some amazing action as the fastest of the fast wrestle for track position in the last round of qualfying tomorrow!
Friday 02/03/12; Words by Greg Sharpe
Oval Round #2 Qualifying Results
Stock Spec 13.5 The third round of oval qualifying had mercy on just three of the thirteen-five racers in Stock Spec, as everyone else in the Top 10 was ousted by outsiders who sent them tumbling down the time sheets into lower-main land. Previous round TQ Larry Ruby was bumped down one notch to 2nd position by the charge of Chris Clayton who shaved 4 seconds off the TQ pace, just missing a 58 lap run by 0.37sec. Dan Ostrander was able to stay right behind Ruby in a respectable 3rd position, but Jonathan McMinn had to settle for a one position slide to 5th when Mike Miller added a lap to his best qualifying effort for a 4th place finish. From there on down, everyone else got the boot as new tennants now occupy the remaining positions in the Top 10. So far, no one has broken the 4.0sec barrier, but the chance is still there however unlikely it may be with such mild powerplants.
Legends You read it here first folks, fast laps do mean something. As predicted, Ed Tabor's faster fastlap helped him overhaul Gene Crane and he even managed to push the lap down to a 6.0! But hold the presses because Bill Fraden wasn't being denied his time in the spotlight. Bill threw down a 5.9sec lap enroute to a TQ run! With Fraden in TQ, Tabor in 2nd and Crane in 3rd, this class looks to be a three horse race to for all the marbles. Can Tabor and Crane step it up in round #3 later today? Will the walls be able to contain these leaping buckets of lexan? Stay tuned for the exciting finale to Legends qualifying here at the Snowbird Nationals!
Outlaw Truck 13.5 Round #2 brought a changing of the gaurd to Outlaw Truck with Tommy Peters stepping up from 3rd to take the TQ away from Tommy Flack. Both drivers pushed for the entire run to get a lap ahead of everyone else, but at the tone it was Peters whose 60 lap run was 0.51sec faster than Flack's 60 lapper. Steve Pemberton hauled some weight to get his pickup truck into the 3rd position with one of the two 59 lap runs clocked this qualifying round. Pemberton's 59 put the other 59 lap racer, Art Hernandez, down into the 4th qualifying position. The fastest runners were unable to break the 3.8sec fastlap barrier, but the rocket round awaits to see who can push the envelope and the line across the infield ice enough for the ultimate fastlap for this class!
1/12 Scale 13.5 It took a stalwart of oval racing to bring the heat down on TQ Marti Panzica here in round #2 of 1/12 Scale 13.5, and Phil Marabella was just that guy. Unfortunately for the entire field, Panzica saw him coming and was just motivated even more to push the TQ out ANOTHER WHOLE LAP to 62 in 4:02.76! Further down the order, Eric Dimmick managed to wedge himself squarely into the 1st round running order, making it Stegeman, Dimmick and Bean to round out the Top 5. Fast lap was lowered to 3.7 by TQ Panzica and 3rd qualifier Stegeman. Round #1 notable Barry Hill kept pace with the leaders bettering his run to nearly match Bean's for a safe 6th qualifying spot.
Modified 10.5 Round #2 saw the defending oval champion defend his higher ground as his competitors shook up the running order from 2nd on down. Pete D'Agnolo took his best shot and came up short by just a few hundreths of a second, finishing with a 67 in 4:00 to McLellan's slow 68 in 4:03.64. The track was so good this round for this class that everyone down to 11th placeTerry Zinser went faster. The Top 5 jiggled around a bit to end up; McLellan, D'Agnolo, Koback, Panzica, and Mayhew. Everyone is on notice though that McLellan means business, as he pushed fast lap down to a 3.3sec this round. Will anyone have the goods for him in the 3rd or 4th rounds of qualifying? Stay tuned later today for the results as the oval guys and gals get their two round day today.
Stock Car 17.5 A funny thing happened on the way to the 3rd round of qualifying, the entire fast resort of racers was replaced during the 2nd round of qualifying! That's right, the Top 8 racers were transplanted, lock, stock and barrel down into the second fastest resort. Up front, the new gaurd kept it cozy with a slew of 57 lap runs ranging from 4:00 to 4:04. The leader board is now Brian Deel, Anthony Searls, Brian Rippons, Jeremy Reilley, Alan Behler, Dominic Ruggiere, and Jerry Parrott to list all the new blood at the pointy end of Stock Car 17.5. It should be interesting to see how round #3 treats all these racers and whether this high stakes game of musical chairs (ie: qualifying positions) pays off for anyone in particular.
Sportsman Truck The uber close racign we saw in round #1 was blurred a bit this round when current TQ Ean Reilley squeaked a couple more tenths out of his truck to sneak up onto a 53 lap pace. james Stroud did well to improve his time as well, remaining in the 2nd qualifier position and living to fight another day. Further down the order, Milton Boyette and Scott Rance worked their ways into 3rd and 4th respectively with runs just a few tenths off Stroud's run. With such close racing between 2nd, 3rd and 4th, it makes you wonder if any of them will be able to contend with Reilley's pace as qualifying moves on towards judgement time on mains day.
Super Stock 13.5 When it rains, it pours in Super Stock 13.5. The entire field was gifted a couple seconds of raw pace. Unfortunately for the entire field, that meant current TQ David Mayhew was ALSO 2 seconds quicker posting a 63 lap run in 4:00.40. The running order below Mayhew got shuffled in the process of handing out speed to everyone. The order from 2nd through 5th is now Jody Miller, Corey Heft, Brian Rippons, and Eric Salvas. Mayhew managed another 3.6sec fast lap, but had company this round from Salvas in 5th and Deel in 6th also stopping the clock on that 3.6sec fast lap. Impressively, the gap between 2nd and 10th is only 2 seconds! Look for sparks to fly in this tightly packed field as the week unfolds before our eyes!
SK Car 17.5 TQ Barry Hill was lucky enough to survive a rough qualifier with his TQ safe and sound, as eas Randy Burke who stayed in 2nd place despite also failing to improve his time from round #1. This is especially impressive considering the charge coming from the rest of the field. The next four consecutive cars all went entire laps faster this round, consisting of and in order of qualifying success; Joel Winnicki (3rd), George Verbonitz (4th), Ron "I'm not trying yet" Goetter (5th) and Mike Magnusson (6th). So far no one else has touched the 4.2sec fastlap besides TQ Hill. Round #3 should prove to be interesting!
Pro Modified A big change in the qualifying order went down in Pro Modified and once again it was David mayhew making waves, riding this one all the way to the top with a 75 lap run in 4:00.29. Just as impressive was his fast lap of 3.0sec, shared with first round TQ Pete D'Agnolo. Despite adding a whole lap to his time, D'Agnolo had to settle for 2nd qualifying position. Down through the field, all but three cars improved their times over the first round! Sitting trackside for this class is an exciting experience. These cars push enough air to actually cause a breeze along the straightaways! the courtesy of qualifying will eventually subside as mains day approaches, and when it does, expect "the big one" to unfold in a big hurry!
Friday 02/03/12; Words by Greg Sharpe
Onroad Round #3 Qualifying Results
USVTA Judging by the time sheets for the 3rd round of qualifying here in the USVTA class, there is almost nothing to report as just two drivers improved upon their 2nd round times. Bill Eisenhard and Patrick Morehead made hay for 7th and 8th respectively, and Patrick managed to post a 12.9sec hotlap, fast enough to run with the 3rd and 4th place qualifiers this round. However, the beauty of USVTA racing lies not in the numbers, but rather in the door to door racing that occurs when everyone leaves "on the tone in less than five." Everyone wanted to lead this race as usual, but once there, no one could hang on as the leaders took turns making unforced errors. It started right at the tone as Myron lead away from the line only to biff the wall on the opening lap. After 4 minutes of chasing his way back to the front, leader after leader peeled themselves until Myron again found himself in the lead when the 1:10 checkered flag waved. Coming from half a lap back, Myron was unable to challenge Dave Johnson's TQ which will once again become the target for everyone to gun for.
World GT Round #3 might have been the sweet spot, rocket round for the widest foam tires in competition here this week as the World GT cars went considerably faster this round. The fasest of the fast, especially so, with the fasest resorted heat producing four of the fastest runs all weekend. Atop the pile is TOP Racing's Larry Fairtrace who was the only racer to climb onto the 29th lap on a 5:08.978 pace. In order of qualifying from 2nd to 5th, Max Kuenning, Peter Robinson, Brian Wynn, and Jari Tuskila completed the group of 3rd round improvers, ranging from 28 flat to 28 in 4:03. The tight spread of 28 lap runs continued on all the way down to 17th qualifier Patrick Morehead.
Amateur TC Round #3 didn't see much along the way of improvement for the blinky taxi cabs of Amateur TC. About 1/3 of the field managed some level of improvement, but only three of them were in the Top 10. 7th place qualifier Alexandre Chryssikos (thankfully I don't have to pronounce that), 9th qualifier Tim Moore, and 10th qualifier Jamison Reichard weren't resting on their laurels, tryign valiently to secure a spot in the fastest resort Saturday morning. This class is one of the few whose leaders hotlap in order of qualifying, staying in lock step all the way down to 6th place until Mr. Chryssikos managed a faster lap than the racer above him.
1/12 GTP 17.5 Once again, the third round of qualifying was kind to foam tired cars allowing nearly everyone who ran clean to reset their best time. Somehow, by the grace of baby Stig himself, Peter Robinson's 1st round TQ time stood strong against the onslaught of improvement seen here in the 3rd round. Among the others sitting on their prior runs, the Maryland duo of Dodge and Xavier stayed in the Top 10 (5th and 6th respectively) sucessfully distracted by a tattooed hamster in the pits. Everyone else, from 2nd through 14th, improved their times in this round. The attack on TQ came close, bring the Top 4 onto the 45th lap and closing the gap down to 2 seconds among those four. The Top 27 cars were all posting sub-11sec fast laps, although no one touched the 10.3 that Robinson posted in round #1.
Expert TC Either the track isn't suiting the rubber tired classes this round, or the resorted heats were causing rolling traffic jams of cars all running a similar pace. The only change among the front runners came not from Andrew Hardman as we presumed yesterday, but rather from Larry Fairtrace who snuck up into the 3rd qualifying position. His run must have been awfully good because he was the only racer to improve upon their hotlap, edging out the Top 2 who set their times yesterday. Craig Xavier and Travis Shreven also did work to improve their times, getting up to 8th and 9th respectively.
1/12 GTP Modified Considering Mike Blackstock's 1st round time is still keeping him in touch with the leaders, it's even more amazing that his hotlap is second only to current TQ Keven Hebert, who also reset his own TQ run here in the 3rd round. Markus Mobers stepped up his time this round to take the 2nd place qualifying position away from Blackstock who was unceremoniously doorslammed into the wall and subesquently forced to pull off tiwht damage during the the opening laps. Paul Lemieux also took advantage of the good track conditions for the foam tired classes by leaping up the time sheets to 4th position as one of the 6 drivers to complete 52 lap runs.
Stock TC This rubber tire class began to buck the trend of failing to provide racing action in the form of improving times, with a number of Top 10 drivers going faster, although the challenge to grab TQ came up just short. Mike Haynes continued to sit on his 1st round time despite Francesco Martini and Brad Johnson improving enough to overhaul Bill Sydor who was also forced to sit on his 1st round time. The most impressive feat in this round was the hotlap thrown down my Martini who managed to blast into the 10s with a 10.86sec lap!
1/12 GTP 13.5 The traction gods giveth, and the traction gods taketh away. Larry Faritrace and Mike Blackstock were both refused traction at the pearly gates and were forced to watch as TQ was reset twice this round. Naoto Matsukura would have pushed the TQ forward by 0.7sec, but was unable to deal with the hard charging markus Mobers in the same race who broke through the 50 lap wall by roughly two seconds to produce a 50 lap run in 8:07.016. With one more round of qualifying to go on Saturday and a Top 10 all crammed into a one lap slice of time on raw pace, the few drivers coming from the other fast heat of 1/12 GTP 13.5 in the coming resort will definitely provide an exciting Rocket Round for the Top 9 A-main spots!
Legends OnRoad Do Legends have foam tires? Are foam tired cars going faster this round? Well then we must have a new TQ and Rick Vessel is just the man to pull it off! In grand fashion, Rick pushed the TQ pace out an entire lap to 15 in 4:01.927. Bill Fraden continued to improve his Legend car for the third round in a row, surpassing gene Crane for the 2nd qualifying position, and posting the fastest lap of Legends competition along the way. Chris Crowder is qualified at the back of the pack, but posted a lap good enough for a solid midpack run. Look for him to move up should a clean run grace his racing program.
Modified TC Despite the track conditions not being ideal for improving on rubber tire qualifying times, there is one remedy that always works to improve times ...HUGE HONKING HORSEPOWER! More than half of the Top 10 Modified TC times were improved in this round, but notably, the times which weren't improved upon ALL came from the first round of qualifying. Alexander Hagberg could have sat on his previous TQ time, but of all people to go faster it was he who reset the TQ and blasted a staggering 10.1sec hotlap! Next on the list of overachievers was Paul Lemieux who not only got onto the 29 lap pace this round, but also ran a fast enough 29 to slot into the 3rd qualifying position right behind Naoto Matsukura. Mark Fischer (5th), Martin Crisp (7th), Andrew Hardman (8th) and Hayato Matsuzaki (10th) round out the list of Top 10 improvers. Keep an eye on Andrew Hardman during the final resort. He had to qualify out of the second fastest qualifier this round, working heavy traffic to secure his 10th qualifying position. He could, presumably, put together a cleaner run in the resort dealing with faster racers.
Thursday 02/02/12; Words by Greg Sharpe
Oval Round #1 Qualifying
Stock Spec 13.5 The boys without boost put down first in the opening round of qualifying for the Oval classes here at the 18th annual Snowbird Nationals. Despite forgoing the trickery of ramping ESCs, these cars put down lap times and full runs spot on with the open ESC Stock Car 17.5 class. Up front, Larry Ruby set the early pace as the only driver in the top 5 to put down a 4.0sec fast lap. His next closest rival was Dan Ostrander who joined Larry as the second and last driver to get onto the 57th lap. Further down the running order two drivers stick out amongst the hyper similar lap times and lap totals. Mike Miller was the only other driver to click off a 4.0sec fast lap, with a run good enough for 7th position. Proving that consistency is just as important, Brian Wynn was 0.2sec slower than Miller on fast lap, but landed two places back in 9th with a similar 55 lap run. Look for the field to tighten up as the oval racers get two rounds of qualifying on friday afternoon.
Legends After two rounds of onroad qualifying for the Legends, the time had come to dial out some dual rate and run them around the oval. Being slow on a big oval doesn't necessarily mean the racing won't be good, ezpecially with so many un-fendered scheming to bring excitement to every pass for position. At the pointy end of the field was Gene Crane setting the early pace with a 38 lap run. On the same lap with Crane was Ed Tabor, about 8sec back. The next car in order was a lap back driven by Bill Fraden. The story, however, isn't so cut and dry as the lap totals would lead us to believe. Crane took TQ with a fast lap of 6.3, but in oval every tenth of a second means alot. Unfortunately for Crane, both of the cars nearest to him in qualifying ran faster lap times. Fraden's 3rd qualifying position was accomplished with a 6.2sec fast lap, while Tabor took 2nd with a staggering 6.1sec fast lap! Watch for a shake up Friday afternoon as those fast laps shake out who really deserves to be at the front of the Legends field.
Outlaw Truck 13.5 With just as much forward propulsion as the Super Stock Car 13.5 class, but half the aerodynamic assistance, the Outlaw Truck 13.5 drivers earn their respect the hard way! Lap times are on par with the Super Stock cars, as are total lap counts. The spread between trucks in this first round looks inordinately large for no apparent reason, with individual lap times as tight as is expected. Jimmy Flack took his lumber hauler right to the front of the pack with the only 59 lap run so far. In hot pursuit leaving the home improvement parking lot was the 58 lap duo of Art Hernandez and Tommy Peters. The aforementioned spread amongst the leaders was about a lap between each of the three drivers, making the overall spread from 1st to 4th a cavernous 2 laps, some 7.6sec on average! Let's see if anyone can challenge the Flackmaster as qualifying resumes tomorrow afternoon for the Oval contingent.
1/12 Scale 13.5 You know when there's a two lap spread between racers running the same fast lap in oval, the cars MUST be handful to drive! Monti Panzica made the most of his 3.8sec fast lap to post a 61 lap run in 4:01.79 for the TQ spot. At the other end of the 3.8sec fast lap spectrum, Joel Winnicki posted 59 lap run in 4:03.17 good enough for the 5th qualifying position. In between that contrasting performance was the rest of the pack who are capable of knocking Panzica off the top spot of the podium. In order, Matt Stegeman, Mike Bean, and Barry Hill are all looking to resort with one another and take advantage of whatever mele ensues to close the gap to TQ. Stegeman and Bean are hundreths of a second away from eachother on raw pace, while Hill is roughly a 1/3 of a lap back from them. Catching the venerable Monti won't be easy, especially with cars so small and so powerful, but we're going to enjoy watching their battles unfold nonetheless.
Modified 10.5 It's interesting when the topic of Open ESC racing is brought up, some racers saying it exaggerates the finishing results, other racers say it levels the playing field by removing the cheater's advantages. In this case, it appears the later is happening in supreme fashion. The scoring results look like a stock class sheet with lap counts after 4:00min tighter than 64p gear mesh. Fast laps are identical, and the racing is inch perfect lap after lap. As the tide rises and falls on popularity between oval classes, it's Andy McClellan who rode the waves furthest in the first round of Modified 10.5, just barely missing a 67 lap run by the slimest of margins (0.19sec). Now how about that tight spread? Top 8 racers are within one lap of each other, Top 5 share a 3.4sec fast lap, Top 4 are within 0.14sec, 3rd and 4th are TIED, and Top 2 are 0.68sec apart.....after 4 minutes of open ESC oval racing, in traffic! Now, what was that other take on blinky ESC racing?
Stock Car 17.5 From the fastest open ESC spec motor class to the slowest, the freight train continues to entertain the spectators trackside. Youth and exuberance go far in racing, and onnroad racer Justin Lessard proves the point taking the new TOP Racing Rebel chassis to the TQ position on it's maiden voyage. One of only two drivers to go 4.0sec flat over one lap, Justin is joined by 3rd qualifier Brett Patti with that fast lap honor. The battle for TQ was hard fought over many different heats which will resort into one mega-tight heat for round #2 on Friday afternoon. With a spread of less than one full second, those four are so closely chased by the rest of the field it's hard to draw a line anywhere in the qualifiying order to make comparisons. Every position is just tenths and sometimes hundreths of a second away from the next position! The Top 21 are essentially all on the same lap. The Top 26 share a fast lap, save for Larry Ruby in tenth who also managed to squeek off an uber-fast 4.0sec fast lap.
Sportsman Truck One of the few sportsman classes that actually enforces the definition of sportsman with examples, the racing has been nothing short of spectacular and attendance continues to grow within the BRL and TOUR. Pittting true sportsman racer against one another, the results sheet embodies great racing with multiple racers on each lap, all the way down to the bottom of the qualifying order. Up front, the Top 5 are all on the 52nd lap. Qualifiers 6th through 14th are all lapping in the 51 range, so on and so forth. Fast laps are all within 0.1sec from TQ down to 16th. From all this consistency rises Ean Reilley to post a TQ run nearly 2 seconds ahead of the 2nd place qualifier Scott Rance. The gap between james Stroud in 3rd, through William Turner in 4th, to Arnold Brittain in 5th is just 0.33sec! With racing this close in the first randomly generated starting order, it's hard to imagine what will happen once the resort puts the "fast guys" together in round #2.
Super Stock 13.5 Back to the realm of open ESCs and faster motors, the winged warriors in between Stock 17.5 and Modified 10.5 started pushing air late into the evening on this first day of qualifying here at the 2012 Snowbird Nationals. Eight racers vied for the TQ spot, all posting 3.7sec fast laps, save for one. David Mayhews ripped off a 3.6sec fast lap for the rest of the field to admire and strung enough similar laps together to post a TQ of 63 laps in 4:02.20, a SOLID lap ahead of Eric Salvas (no slouch himself!). The group from Eric in 2nd to Caleb Mullins in 8th were all able to clock 62 lap runs between 4:01.52 and 4:03.61, a tight 2.09sec gap, where all drivers were able to get those 3.7sec fast laps previously mentioned. In the playground for oval car kit manufacturers, sponsored drivers, and lifetime oval racers, Super Stock 13.5 will highlight the best of each category all on track at the same time for a spectactular show!
SK Car 17.5 The SK Car has been an establishment in oval racing for longer than most racers can remember, so seeing a new body for the class in manufacturers row was a bit of shock. How come no one had though of updating the shape more often? The new Aero1 SK body was found on display in the Darkside Motorsports pit area, available for immediate release. Out on track, the story line could have come from the local country line dancing bar as the top six broke off into pairs, putting two cars on each lap from the TQ of 54 on down to 52 for 5th and 6th. Barry Hill lead the dance to TQ with fellow 54 lapper Randy Burke standing on Barry's toes 1.1sec behind. The bout for 3rd position saw George Verbonitz squaring off against Joel Winnicki, both fast lapping to the tune of 4.3sec. When the music stopped it was George who won the last spot on the imaginary qualifying podium by a healthy 1.75sec margin. 5th place qualifier Philip Harwood had to contend with a newcomer to the dance, Ron Goetter, who sequestered a car, signed up after the first round of qualifying, and managed to secure that 6th spot without turning a single lap of practice.
Pro Modified The big boys of oval finished up the round on Thursday night, getting rid of any remaining adrenaline in the ballroom with 3.1sc fast laps at breakneck speeds few drivers can realistically handle and even fewer drivers can safely in a pack of cars. The Top 6 managed to log the same 3.1sec fast lap but with cars barely staying connected to the carpet the gap from 1st to 6th grew to 2 whole laps! Pete D'Agnolo grabbed the top spot with a 74 in 4:00.06 over last years overall oval champion Andy McLellan's 74 in 4:03.12. The rest of the 3.1sec club consisted of David Mayhew, Kevin Koback, Monti Panzica, and Jason Hastings. Last years overall onroad champion Josh Cyrul said during an interview just prior to the event that he would be concentrating solely on oval this year, campaigning for the overall oval win to cap off his Snowbirds victories with one of each ring. He's lurking down in 9th at the moment, but his prior performances here at the Superbowl of R/C are hard to ignore. Look for him to make moves as the track settles in over the next few days!
Thursday 02/02/12; Words by Greg Sharpe
Onroad Round #2 Qualifying
USVTA The big story in USVTA as qualifying officially got under way was the breakout success of Dave Johnson. Coming from seemingly nowhere during practice, Dave snuck in a close victory in round #1 and challenged for the lead right off the tone here in round #2. Being the only class to use heads-up qualifying starts here at the 'birds, Dave had to work hard for his finishing position. Just a minute into the race, excitement was high as spectators voiced their approval for the door-to-door racing action as Myron tightened up his racing line to keep Dave at bay. Dave made the move around practice TQ Myron Kinnard in the sweeper as the two of them broke away from the field. Dave continued to charge hard as the minutes wound down just barely sneaking onto the 24th lap. Myron finished in second some 4sec behind on pace, with Jason Graham another 4sec back.
World GT Round #2 for the Zamobonis saw 11 cars jump up onto the 28 lap pace, but the top two of Fairtrace and Robinson were able to safely sit on their 1st round times. Max Kuenning and frank Calandra improved their times this round, landing 3rd and 4th respectively. No one was able to touch that illusive 10.2sec lap that Fairtrace posted in round #1, but those who put up fresh 28 lap runs were all able to post respectable mid-10sec lap times.
Amateur TC Although the characters remain the same, the pace was brought up across the board in this
class. Myron Kinnard once again set the pace, but added a lap to the total for a 26 in 5:08 with Shane Williams
still in hot pursuit just over 2sec back. Nicholas Petrovic stepped up big time this round to qualify within 3sec
of TQ Kinnard. The battle for midpack real estate is going to be hot and heavy as well, which will inevitably lead
to some tight qualifying after this round's resort.
1/12 GTP 17.5 The racing gods smiled upon first round TQ Peter Robinson as no one was able to oust him from
the top perch despite second qualifier Mike haynes improving his own time by a few tenths. Down through the rest of
the field though, the story was quite different. The Mimi Wong Clan from Maryland struck hard and fast this round
bringing past ROAR National Champion Robbie Dodge up into the third spot with fellow Marylander Craig Xavier
improving his prior time enough to leapfrog over his first round rivals into the fourth position. Further down the
top ten it was the hard working Japanese contingent of Kazuki Endo and naoki Watanabe both improving their times to
move up into 8th and 9th respectively. While not Japanese, Mike Hanulec also kept his head down in the pits using
the second round of qualifying to lock in a top ten qualifying position.
Expert TC There are two possibilities after a resort, either everyone in the newly resorted heat gets
long and runs cleanly, or they don't and carnage breaks out. Lucky for everyone in the fastest resort of Expert TC,
it was the earlier instance that transpired. Every single driver in this heat improved upon their first round time,
sucessuflly locking out the first seven spots on the grid. So while they all improved, they all failed to dethrone
Hebert from the TQ spot. However, TQ Hebert failed to improve his time enough to outrun Mike Haynes' efforts, the
gap between those two falling to less than 1sec over 8 minutes of board nipping laps. Even more worrisome for
Hebert is that Haynes managed to hot lap him. But danger lurks for both the front row starters because Andrew
Hardman managed to sneak up a spot into 3rd and once again snagged the fastest hot lap of the class! Has their luck
run out? Will this heat implode next round after a night off away from the track? Stay tuned!
1/12 GTP Modified The 52 lap club got a bit more crowded this round with Marcus Mobers joining the back of the
freighttrain. Further up the train, Paul Lemieux leapfrogged Marc Fischer to snag the 4th qualifying position, but
more importantly Keven Hebert put in a solild run to wrestle the TQ spot away from Blackstock who was forced to sit
on his 1st round time. Hebert also joined the sub 9sec club, besting Blackstock with an 8.8sec lap!
Stock TC The usual method of operation here at the Superbowl of R/C is for the track and each class to
get faster with each round, but for one reason or another, Stock TC bucked the trend with half the top ten sitting
on their first round qualifying times. Haynes and Sydor got to rest easy atop the leader board, while Eric Anderson
edged closer climbing two spots into the 3rd qualifier position. Other round #2 improvers include Brad Johnson,
Cory Parsons, and Dave Bowser. No one else joined the 10sec/lap club with Bill Sydor, but many more people joined
Haynes in the 11.0sec/lap fraternity, making for the interesting prospect of a highspeed traffic jam once the fast
guys get resprted into round #3.
1/12 GTP 13.5 In answer to the question posed last round, it was Andrew Knapp and Markus Mobers who chased the
setup most effectively. Knapp took TQ away from Fairtrace with another 49 lap run, but this time pushed the time
down to an 8:00.801. Mobers managed to follow Knapp in the same qualifier to improve his position, slotting into
3rd and knocking Blackstock down to fourth. While about half the field managed to improve their times from the
first round of qualifying, no one joined the 9.4sec club. Looking down through the results for untapped potential,
Joe Trandell has the fastest single lap of those in the bottom half of the field, a few tenths up on everyone else
around him.
Legends OnRoad The breakaway trio of Vessel, Crane and Fraden continued their march away from the rest of the
field here in round #2 of Legends class qualifying. The big story here was that Fraden hauled his suspensionless
wonder to within 0.5sec of second place Crane. Even though the top three remained in their respective positions,
with a spread this close there is sure to be some great racing in the final two rounds of qualifying.
Modified TC Round #2 for the big boys of Modified TC didn't produce the kind of improvements in times that we're used to seeing, with one notable exception. Alexander Hagberg removed 3 seconds from his 1st round time which was good enough to surpass Naoto Matsukura's prior TQ effort. More notable for the sheer speed involved, Hagberg also managed to push the hotlap to a staggering 10.252sec! Paul Lemieux made his presence known here in the second round of qualifying but just barely missed the 29th lap by a scant 0.419sec. The depth of talent swimming in the shallow end of the 28th lap will surely boil over in the coming rounds of qualifying. Stay tuned for the gory details!
Thursday 02/02/12; Words by Greg Sharpe
Onroad Round #1 Qualifying
USVTA Returning after a 2 year hiatus, the lead sleds of USVTA took to the track with a new rules package designed with sanity of everyone in mind, from racers to tech inspectors. Gone are the days of wondering if everyone is in a legit blinky mode or whether the guy walking people on the straight knew how to calculate the old 4.2FDR correctly. Out on track, the suitability of 25.5/open-FDR racing is obvious as every competitor is nearly identical in speed, and the show continues to provide close racing for the enjoyment of the spectarors cheering for their favored muscle car. With just days to go before the start of the 2012 'birds, Dave Johnson caved in to peer pressure from Myron Kinnard and made the trip down for some USVTA action. Myron got a little more competition than he might have been looking for in the first round of qualifying as Dave made some moves during the race to come from 4th on the starting grid in route to the TQ position. With matching hot laps, this battle between Dave and Myron is bound to go round for round as the week goes by!
World GT The infusion of racers in WGT has done nothing BUT good for this class. Everyone from first time 'birds attendees to the original pack of professionals now compete to test their mastery of momentum with these torqueless wonders. A wild combination of insane grip levels and reasonable power levels provides for some tight racing lines and even tighter passing manueuvers. The top four racers are separated by less than 3sec, with Larry Friatrace atop the leader board some 2sec ahead of the next closest racer. The real story here was Peter Robinson back in fourth position who licked off a faster hot lap than Larry, but got caught up in a number of incidents. Should Peter get a cleaner run in the remaining qualifiers, it is very likely he will contend for top qualifier.
Amateur TC The first round of Amateur TC went mostly like practice with Myron Kinnard taking the TQ early on. His pace of 25 in 5:01.782 was 2sec faster than Shane Williams' 25 lap run, and 10sec out on Nicholas Petrovic's only other 25 lap run. The notable numbers from this class were in hot laps with Myron and Shane achieving mid-11sec laps while everyone else was no faster than 11.9. With a heads up start for the main event, it will be hard for the rest of the field to keep in contact should these two qualify on the front row.
1/12 GTP 17.5 The greatest display of motor and battery efficiency in all of onroad, 1/12 GTP 17.5 wrings ever last bit of forward motion out of these powertrains. So for one guy to be 4 seconds out on the next lap with so much talent in attendance and so little performance advantage available from the equipment says a whole lot about this drive. Peter Robinson went the distance for 8 minutes to earn the top spot. Mike Haynes followed him for most of the qualifier to secure the second highest qualifying position of the round, with the majority of the remaining 44 lap runs being logged in the prior race consisting of Frank Calandra, Dave Johnson, JB Catricala, and Craig Xavier. The lone wolf on the 44 lap pace was Joe Sumasky who managed to lock it down back in the second heat of this qualifier dealing with heavy traffic on slower paces.
Expert TC The middle ground for touring cars where factory pilots meet the fastest average Joes from around the country got hot and heavy during the first round of qualifying. Keven Hebert again set the time to beat just as he had in practice, and fittingly it was once again Mike Haynes who led the chase behind Hebert. Haynes had a bit too much company in close quarters with two other racers in his own heat within 2 seconds on raw pace, Hayato Matsuzaki and Andrew Hardman respectively. Not that Hebert had an easy heat though, with Larry Fairtrace pushing hard through unyielding traffic with the only other 10.7sec fast lap in the class. But the story isn't quite that simple. You see sometimes a fast run gets ruined and a racer's true pace is hidden in the fine print of the race results. On closer examination, 4th qualifier Andrew Hardman not only had a fast lap 0.1sec faster than Hebert's, his top 5 laps were also a solid 0.1sec faster, showing true pace that has yet to be strung together over a full 5 minute run. Look for amazingly close results and even closer passing as this class gets resorted for the third round of qualifying on Friday morning where all these drivers will have to battle for track position!
1/12 GTP Modified Before the serious race results are reported, let's take a moment to remember that we're playing with toy cars here. And when one of them does a wheelie from a standing start that makes everyone smile, even the oval guys! Andrew Mowery takes the honors with a 3/4 straigt wheelie in which he tried to save it, saying "I was on the brakes until it finally folded the rear fenders" and began flipping end over end in front of the other cars yet to complete their IFMAR style start. Back to our regularly scheduled program of spastically ballistic doorstops, every heat of this class had a 52 lap winner ensuring the resort for round #2 will provide some awesome racing. The ever fast Mike Blackstock took the TQ spot by 3sec over Keven Hebert, with Naoto Matsukura, Marc Fischer and Paul Lemieux all in tow on 52 lap runs. Blackstock was also the fastest over one lap, the only driver to clock a sub 9sec lap.
Stock TC It was business as usual for Mike Haynes in Stock TC, holding down the top spot in qualifying (27 laps 5:02) much as he did in practice. Plenty of drivers improved their times since practice, including Bill Sydor who took the second fastest honors behind Haynes. Dave Johnson put down a run just 4 seconds behind Haynes and looks to be a legit contender for the rest of the event along with Francesco Martini, Eric Anderson and the other Johnson (Brad) all on 27 laps in 5:07. Cory Parsons and Sal Amato complete the list of 27 lap acheivers to make this class one to watch in round #2 after the resort. Looking a bit deeper into the results in this ultra competitive class, Haynes, Sydor, Martini and Henderson all managed to put down 11.0sec "top 5" laps, showing consistency is key in these power limited classes. But more impressive is that Bill Sydor is the only driver to break down into the 10sec laps, eluding to some more speed yet to be converted into consistency over the entire run. Only time will tell as round #2 begins later today!
1/12 GTP 13.5 The five fully stacked heats of 1/12 GTP 13.5 provided every bit of excitement anyone could have hoped for with each race sending at least the winner into the A-resort for the second round of qualifying. Larry Fairtrace, Mike Blackstock, Andrew Knapp and Markus Mobers made the most of the opening round, breaking away from the pack by a few seconds. Those four are each seperated by less than a second from one another, with just 2.5 seconds covering them all! The top three, Fairtrace, Blackstock and Knapp, take credit for all the 9.4 second laps recorded in this round. As the grip comes up and these cars begin to flatspin on the opening sighting laps, it will interesting to see who makes the best setup changes to deal with the track conditions in round #2.
Legends OnRoad The practice domination by Rick Vessel here in Legends continued, but to a much lower degree, as Gene Crane stepped up to the plate getting within a lap of Vessel. Their hot laps were nearly identical, but more amazing was 3rd place qualifier Bill Fraden hot lapping BOTH of the leaders by a solid 0.1sec! Despite the one lap spread from 1st to 3rd, the rest of qualifying and the main event look to be a worthwhile distraction from the super-serious classes amongst both onroad and oval.
Modified TC The first back straightaway blasting session for Open Modified TC sent shockwaves through the pits as the heaviest, hardest accelerating cars of the entire event began their challenge for the Championship ring here in Onroad. In the first heat it was Naoto Matsukura who got out and away from the rest of his fellow racers by an entire lap, logging a 29 5:06. Marc Fischer managed to match Naoto's hot lap of 10.4, but it was the duo in the following heat that really got down to business in the hot lap department. Both Alexander Hagberg and Keven Hebert sucessfully pushed the hot lap down to a 10.3, but neither could muster the consistency of Naoto, logginga 5:07 and 5:09 respectively. Plenty of racers were stalking the mid to low 28 lap area, perhaps fine tuning for the 2nd round of qualifying coming up later today. nevertheless, there were countless blowouts further down in the field that may not happen again. As the days wear on we will surely see a shake-up of epic proportions as past champions and opotimistic up-n-comers come to grips with their impending failure here in the top class of Onroad racing!
Wednesday 02/01/12; Words by Greg Sharpe
Oval Practice by Heats
Stock Spec 13.5 Occupying the middle ground for oval racers, Stock Spec 13.5 is where the weekend warriors meet the hardcore racers. In what will only become a tighter and tighter field of cars, Chris Clatyon pushed hard to get the only 58 lap run and came within half a second of being a full lap up on the rest of the field. Alan Behler and Jonathan McMinn locked down second and third respectively, being the only two drivers to get 57 lap runs in the practice rounds. Lots of drivers put down 4.0sec laps in this organized round of practice, even as far down as far down as Larry Ruby in 17th position.
Legends The little cars that could took to the track for their first round of practice by heats. After speaking with a stalwart of our hobby and veteren Legends racer, it turns out these "simple" cars have quite a few interesting tuning methods that go agaisnt the grain of traditional methodologies. After dominating the onroad portion of practice, veteren nitro racer Rick Vessel got some company at the top of the time sheets in organized practice. Gene Crane and Scott Bryant both put in 37 lap runs within 2 seconds of Rick's fast time. It will be interesting to see how the oval racers in this class get used to the road course just as much as watching the road racers wandering around the oval with wreckless aplomb!
Outlaw Truck 13.5 Bad news for the majority of the field here in Outlaw Truck, Jimmy Flack's face has been printed on the back of the local milk carton as an absolute runaway top qualifier, a whole lap out ahead of the next closest competitor, Tommy Peters, who was also on a lap all by his lonesome. The only comforting aspect of this practice round for the rest of the field is that the top five have all dropped below the 4.0sec lap mark and have a legit shot at Jimmy's time. Thursday afternoon qualifying will be lively for these outlaws!
1/12 Scale 13.5 Not since the bygone days of the K&N Winterblast has 1/12 oval seen such a deep field of heavy hitters. Even back to the 9th position, fast 3sec lap times were still commonplace. Up front, the usual suspects were battling for practice supremacy with two drivers knocking down 60 lap runs. Matt Stegeman led Mike Bean to the top spot, and it will be exciting to watch these two battle it out in a later resort of the qualifying heats.
Modified 10.5 The sound of speed was in the air as the Modified 10.5 powered cars rolled off for their practice heats. Pushing lots of air at speed, these cars make some serious downforce and they certainly need it to click off 3.4sec lap times! This is the arena where seasoned sponsored drivers meet the best of the factory pilots and the multitude of oval kit manufacturers test their mettle against one another. Up front was the 2011 Overall Oval Champion Andy McClellan leading the who's who of oval racing around the globe. The top 6 cars are on the same lap within 2 seconds of one another, with hot laps from 3.4sed to 3.5sec. However, hot laps tell an interesting story because EVERY car in this class ran between 3.4sec to 3.6sec laps! Apparently winning will take more than just being fast over one lap in this class.
Stock Car 17.5 While not the fastest class in oval, this is certainly the closest, most hotly contested class here at the 'birds and around the country. bringing out all the weekend warriors and the 50% drivers, every manufacturer is represented in big numbers. As of this practice the top 7 drivers are all on 57 lap runs, but last year there were DOZENS of cars all on the same lap by the close of qualifying, so we've got a lot of close racing to enjoy in the coming days! Jerry Parrott managed to nip the field atop the leader boards by a scant 0.5sec, with Billy Kimpton the last of the 57 lappers just 2.1sec back in 7th position. And as for hot laps, forget about it. By the end of round one in qualifying almost every car in this ultra-tight field is going to be running the same 4.0sec hot lap. There's only one question to be answered; Will anyone get the magic 3.9sec hot lap?
Sportsman Truck It's a similar story here in Sportsman Truck as it was in Stock Car 17.5, super close racing with the best sportsman oval racers in the country! With the top 4 all on the same lap and less than 0.5sec apart from one another, there is going to be a Bristol style showdown come qualifying time! James Stroud made the most of the last organized practice by taking the top spot with a 52 in 4:03.43 with Scott Rance, William Turner and Ean Reilley the other three racers on the 52 lap island.
Super Stock 13.5 One step up in speed from the Stock Car 17.5 class, these racers push the thermal limits of their motors one step further towards oblivion. But as similar as those two classes are, the end result here in Super Stock 13.5 is a bit different. Instead of a nose to tail field, one man stands above the rest on a lap all by his lonesome. At 63 laps in 4:02.56, David Mayhew is not only a full lap (2.7sec+) out on the field, but his fast lap is also a tenth faster than anyone else in this class. Watch this space as qualifying gets underway Thursday evening to see if David can hang on to his dominant ways!
SK Car 17.5 The open wheeled wonders of oval took to the track for their final organized practice by heat lineup and it was Randy Burke who pushed the hardest. His time of 54 in 4:02.55 was a stout 3.6sec ahead of Barry Hill, his next closest competitor a lap back. With only a half dozen cars in each heat, the action won't really heat up until Mains day when a full 10 car field of 40 open fendered tires takes to the track in search of real estate.
Pro Modified Hide the women and children, the mavericks of Open Modified are out for glory and they're threatening the 2sec/lap barrier! 5 of the top 6 racers are consistently clicking off 3.1sec lap times, and it was Kevin Koback who ran the most of them. At 74 laps in 4:02.40 Kevin was 2.6sec faster than Pete D'Agnolo, and another 1.1 faster than 2011 Oval Overall Champion Andy McClellan. Look for the "big one" as these qualifiers cycle by throughout the weekend. A few years back, past champion Josh Cyrul got caught up in a wreck where his stricken Open Modified car was pounded so mercilously, in such rapid succession, that the marshals couldn't get near it and only the ESC and Rx were salvageble. The rest of the car was in a trackside trash can within minutes of the race ending.
Wednesday 02/01/12; Words by Greg Sharpe
Onroad Practice by Heats
USVTA Wednesday morning practice has begun and the USVTA class was out in force putting down a groove for the rest of the classes. A solid field for the return of this class should make for a great race come mains day. After the first round of practice by heats, Myron Kinnard enforced his keyboard courage posting the fastest time by a two second margin over Cory Parsons in the second fastest position.
World GT The zambonnis were out next in WGT and what a shock to see the contrast between these foam tired grip monsters immediately after the rubber tired lead sleds in USVTA. WGT is littered with top tier talent and will surely be a breeding ground for intense battles as qualifying gets underway Thursday morning. The practice heats didn't disappoint, with the top 9 all clocking 28 lap runs. Peter Robinson led the charge with Larry Fairtrace 0.6sec behind.
Amateur TC The first group of traditional touring cars hit the track and quickly proved the grip was already sky high with many cars bicycling out onto the back straightaway. Amateur TC is the proving ground for tomorrows sponsored drivers and todays sportman competitors, and this diverse field isn't disappointing. Practice was lively to say the least with some drivers cutting clean lines and logging times good enough to keep pace in Expert TC. Shane Williams got the most out of practice with one of the two 25 lap runs. Myron Kinnard snagged the only other 25 lapper to conitnue his fast running from USVAT class. The top two racers were separated by 1.7sec and both were in the same practice heat. Once the heats get resorted for the second round of qualifying we'll get a better view of who's got the goods!
1/12 GTP 17.5 The magic doorstops were up next. In 17.5 Blinky guise, these little buggers make up the second biggest class here at the Snowbird Nationals next to 17.5 Stock TC. Easy on tires, batteries and motors, this is an ideal second class for anyone looking to get the full Snowbirds experience! the top 7 racers logged 44 lap runs, with Mike Haynes beating Dave Johnson to the top spot by a scant 0.8sec. The next two drivers were separated by an even smaller margin of 0.25sec, Craig Xavier besting Peter Robinson for third on the practice time sheets. Interestingly, both Craig and Peter had faster lap hot laps than Mike and Dave, with Craig a whole tenth out on Peter!
Expert TC BOOST! The fiery bits of computer code would steal the show in this class if not for the immense talents that occupy this time slot at Snowbirds. Essentially the same equipment found in the Stock TC class except for the dynamic timing software loaded into the ESCs, it's amazing to see how much weight these cars throw around with the increased HP. Mike Haynes took up his challenge from the outdoor season chasing Kevin Hebert for the top spot in practice. The only two drivers on 28 lap runs, they were seperated by 1sec while the remainder of the top ten shared the 27th lap with a seven second spread amongst themselves.
1/12 GTP Modified Second only to the Modified TC class for outright speed, 1/12 Mod is the epitome of precision. Consisting almost entirely of well supported veteran racers, 1/12 Mod is the playground for the most well sorted modern kits and the prototype factory cars of tomorrow. As witnessed last year, there is the possibility of coming up short on runtime with a heavy trigger finger. The 2011 BQ screw recipient, Paul Leieux came up 30sec and 4 laps short in this first practice round but managed to log the fastest lap and stay within the top ten. Out front it was Keven Hebert leading Markus Mobers onto the 52nd lap with a 7sec lead. The rest of the field was two laps or more behind.
Stock TC The masses came out with a vengence for Stock TC. The largest class here at the 2012 Snowbird Nationals made noise in practice today. Traction was up enough for some of the softer sprung cars to hike up a wheel or two even in the slow sections of the infield. A few of the heavy hitters from Snowbirds past have returned to contend for the win here in Stock TC, ensuring a wild week of racing ahead of us. Returning veteran stock racer Mike Haynes set the early pace in a heavily stacked field seperated by just one lap after the five minute practice run. Brad Johnson was the closest competitor some 3sec back.
1/12 GTP 13.5 Moving to the manageably ballistic 1/12 13.5 Blinky powered class, the silent efficiency of these cars was blatantly obvious after the noise and calamity of Stock TC. Down the straightaway the "pfffft pffft pfffft" of foam tires under stress was all there was to be heard. With stout lines of racers waiting to practice, this class has become the battleground for all levels of sponsored drivers, from 50% to full factory support. Only two drivers managed 49 lap runs, and they couldn't have gotten much closer on the clock. In practice race #32 Naoto Matsukura initially set the TQ at 49 in 8:06.9, but only a couple races later Marcus Mobers officially set the pace with a 49 in 8:06.5. When these two presumably resort together in the second round of qualifying the sparks are going to fly as the clock winds down towards the end.
Legends OnRoad The 2012 "class de especial" is actually two classes in one! By signing up for one Legends class, every competitor gets to race with Legends drivers from the other discipline. Road racers racing oval and oval racers racing on road, all for the price of one entry. The cars are RJSpeed Legends kits, running the RJSpeed rules package to keep the playing field intnetionally level to an amazing extent. Rick Vessel took up the challenge in a serious way putting two laps on his competition. We'd like to think his nitro car experience helped him out here, but maybe not. :p
Modified TC From the slowest to the fastest, Modified TC took to the track with hotlaps right from the get-go! Spectators sitting at the edge of the track were visibly shocked as the first few laps unfolded. Using every inch of the back straight lane to square up and blast towards the sweeper, these racers kept the wrecking to an absolute minimum and showed great respect for their machines and their fellow competitors. In fitting with the theme of the day there was a two man shootout for the top spot with no one else on that lap to share in their fun. Perennial fast guy Paul Lemieux was the first onto the 29th lap with a 5:10, but one race later Sweden's Alexander Hagberg better the time by a staggering 4 seconds! The top ten came from both practice heats of Modified TC, so the resort after round 1 is going to be an all out hotlapping-fest!
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