|
| |
Quick update with details to follow (maybe
even late this afternoon):
4 T-1 cars in attendance, including two of the best cars from NEDIV (Tom Lyons
and Joe Aquilante) that are battling for their division championship.
Chris qualifies third, but five places on the grid (8th - 12th overall) cover
the four T-1 cars. Chris gets held up at the start behind AquaJoe, melee happens
on the outside involving multiple cars and is captured on video by our intrepid
pilot - we're third in T-1 behind Richard Watts (silver #20) and AquaJoe, Lyons
brings up the rear (minus his rear bumper).
Chris hounds AquaJoe for five laps, but Joe is running the "defensive line"
while Richard pulls out a fifteen second advantage. Chris finally gets a better
run out of Oak Tree and outbreaks Joe at the end of the back straight, but Joe
later protests saying the pass was not completed before a standing yellow for a
car off on drivers' right. Chris immediately starts running three seconds a lap
faster than he had been, but Richard is running almost as quick. Then on lap 10
(of 14), Richard is runs a 2:12, next lap is a 2:16, Chris is running sub 2:10's
- the crew starts to hope against hope. Ends up Richard is running out of gas
and the car is starving on right-hand corners, so our hero comes around in the
T-1 lead at the completion of lap 12. Overall leader Joe Hooker (Phil Simms
qualified on the pole but drove off in the esses on lap 3) is closing at 10
seconds a lap, so Chris backs off enough to let one Joe by (Hooker) but not the
other.
After surviving the protest (the in-car videotapes were inconclusive and there
was no worker report of the alleged pass under yellow), we take home the first
place trophy (fifth in five Nationals) and lock up the SEDIV T-1 National
Championship. When I finally go down to get the results sheet we find out that
Chris also broke the T-1 track record with a 2:08.796 - the only T-1 car under
2:09 all weekend.
More later as time (and workload) allows...
|
