60+
Racing Adventures-9th Round at Road America
The 9th Round
of the 60+ Racing Adventures League (12 Event Season 3) for drivers age 60 and
older ran Wednesday, 8/9 at Road America, running the Pro Mazda. 24 drivers
participated. It was broadcast by RaceSpot TV.
Portugal’s
Antonio Reis posted his second win of the Season in a Group 1 Race. Ann
exciting event with lots of action, especially the competition for 2nd place.
The Group 2 “second chance” race was won by Florida’s Mark Robertson, the first
for him this season.
With 18 races now
completed in 9 “events” there has been seven different winners. Three drivers,
Antonio Reis, Steven Carkner and Donald Strout have each won two Group 1 races.
Reis and Strout have each won 5 races (2 Group 1 and 3 each Group 2).
Not
long after the start, a hard charging and impatient Jos van de Ven, starting in
P2, assumed the lead using the draft to pull aside Reis entering T5. The
draft would prove to be both blessing and curse here as it enabled cars to pull
beside, but not necessarily ahead. Many lead changes and passing for position would
occur with “late braking contests”. Some, drivers would “go defensive” like
John Unsbee in the yellow car in P5 is doing above. Others would go
“aggressive” and drive two wide, side by side thru the corners to fight for
their standing. The ends of each of the three long straights were scenes of
battles nearly every lap, ad nauseam. To some, it was exciting—to others simply
frustrating.
By the end of the first lap, Reis
had regained his lead and the order remained the same as the start, as they
enter three wide into turn 1 with Andrew Fidler either trying for an inside
pass or playing “head games” with Carkner beside him. (Only Andrew knows the intent.)
Entering T5 on lap 3, Steven Carkner passed van de
Ven for P2, while John Unsbee dives into the turn to pass Andrew Fidler for P4.
Donald Strout (P6) is braking early, thinking “These guys are wild!”
On
the next lap, van de Ven watches as Steven Carkner uses the draft to execute a
very late pass into T1. Later, Unsbee
moves into P3, passing van de Ven, who now, perhaps may be thinking the same as
Strout.
Sure
enough, after continued battling, Carkner spins it in T8, causing mayhem behind---allowing
Reis to gain a significant lead. (As viewed from van de Ven’s cockpit.)
Avoiding a spinning Carkner, Strout and Fidler came together with both suffering damage. Carkner’s teammate Mark Robertson was able to steer his way through to take over P3!
Unsbee, with some aggressive driving was able to hold off van de Ven and led
after T5 on the next lap 7, but the side by side action bunched up the field,
now three wide exiting the corner. Strout would take over P3, passing Robertson
before the bridge.
On lap 8, van de Ven is back in P2, with Unbee pushing Strout off track as they
go side by side in T5, contesting P3.
This enabled Andrew Fidler to pass Strout who by now is a bit
frustrated.
Following behind Fidler, Unsbee and van de Ven on lap 10,
Strout gets a massive draft as the three cars ahead go three wide entering the
Canada corner. As Filder moves right to
avoid Unsbee, he bumps Strout who maintains control and passes them both.
On lap 12, Fidler
attacks Strout on the inside at the entry of T1. (Déjà vu Lap 1) It would not
work, but it apparently unsettled Strout enough that he began “looking in my
mirror for Fidler or Unsbee on the entry of every turn” and ultimately Strout
lost control in the Canada corner, ending his race.
John Unsbee would
draft past Fidler and they battled for P3 much of the last lap. Unsbee forced
Fidler off track on the straight as Fidler was about to leapfrog past. Unsbee would hold off Fidler for the rest of
the lap and finish 3rd behind van de Ven in P2, and the winner
Antonio Reis.
Reis essentially
was unchallenged after Carkner’s spin on lap 6. He would finish with a 3.8
second lead.
Donald Strout set
the pace with Pole Position for the Group 2, “second chance” race, joined on
the front row by Steven Carkner. Interestingly, the second row was taken by
Mark Robertson (Carkner’s teammate) and Joe Renn (Strout’s teammate). Strout led the field for the first lap until
the Canada Corner where Carkner used the draft to make a bold inside pass.
Carkner would go off track on the exit, but masterfully maintained control. Later he would comment, echoing Senna about the pass, “the opportunity arose and I took it!”
With Strout
in hot pursuit, and surely (Strout) now not in the mood for moderation, Carkner
missed the exit in the last turn and slowed slightly. Strout was hard on the
gas toward the apex, closing at a more than a 5 mph speed difference (89 vs 84)
and ran into the rear of Carkner.
Strout spun,
hit the wall, ending his race and a very frustrating day.
Carkner,
although damaged, was able to soldier on essentially following his teammate
Mark Robertson, protecting him from challenges mounted by John Morgan and
Remigio di Pasqua who would finish P3 and P4.
Strout, the League Organizer would comment, John Morgan gets the award for
“best sportsmanship” of the race.
After nine events, the Team #1 of Carkner, Lawrence,
Robertson, and Andy Morgan still holds a substantial 45 point lead. Team #8
with John Morgan, Marcel Guiterrez, Ron McManus, and Richard Coulombe held
their 3rd position, but fell to 22 points behind the 2nd place Team
#4 of Remigio di Pasqua, Jose Campodonico and Antonio Reis.
Only 3 points behind in 4th is Team #2 of Fidler, Raspaldo, Bonasera, and Dummer. Team #5 with Strout, Renn, Baldwin and Galloway falls to 5th place, 2 points back. Team #6 of John Unsbee, Jim Oliver, Michael Key and P J Salley is in 6th only 4 points behind Team#5.
The series maintains a Driver Championship and a Team
Championship. Team assignments are determined by the League Organizer to
pair up 3 or four drivers that together have a “fair” chance compared to other
teams.
In other words, less experienced or accomplished drivers are paired with the more experienced so each team is deemed to have a “fair” chance to win the Team Championship that pays $100 to the Winning Team, $50 to the 2nd Place Team and $25 to the 3rd Place Team for the Season.
In an effort to insure this continued “fair” chance, three teams that have had members unable to participate/contribute were combined for the second half of the 12 race season--this change tightened the race considerably with only 31 points separating 2nd from 6th.
In the Driver’s Championship, Jos van de Ven still is in 1st. Bill Lawrence is 3rd. Andrew Fidler jumps to 2nd. Steven Carkner is 4th. Strout drops to 5th and essentially is out of contention as he does not plan on running the last three races. Neither Lawrence or van de Ven plan to race at Richmond, so Fidler could theoretically pull ahead of van de Ven if Fidler were to win.
The Driver's Championship counts only finishes in the Group
1 race and uses the Grand Prix points system, so a driver winning a race scores
25 points, where a driver placing 3rd scores 15 points--hence with the points standings
this close, with 3 races to go--the Driver's Campionship is far from being
decided.
Winning drivers this
Season:
Steven Carkner (2) Grp
1
Antonio Reis (5) (1 in
Grp 1, 3 in Grp 2)
Donald Strout (5) (2
in Grp 1, 3 in Grp 2)
Bill Lawrence (2) (1
in Grp 1, 1 in Grp 2)
Andrew Fidler (2) (1
in Grp 1, 1 in Grp 2)
Jos van de Ven (1)
(Grp 1)
Mark Robertson (1) Grp
2
The next event for the
60+ guys is Richmond (oval), on August 16.
