Awesome super fast and flowing courses were what we needed in NER! We run on so
many postage stamps that hitting the second turbo is impossible...
10 cars, 4 trophy spots
First run by Leverone set the pace with a 71.586. Mike Soloman followed with a
72.762 and I had a 72.596+1. Yikes! Nick was really putting the heat on all of
us.
Second runs saw Nick improve .3 for a 71.229. Mike went 71.858 and I had a
70.993+1 (seeing a trend develop?).
Final runs had a DNF for Nick - the hood popped up to the half latched position
and he was red-flagged, Soloman DNF'd by over-shooting a gate and I got all
crossed up in a fast section for a 72.329 - you guessed it, +1. OK, fast raw
time on Saturday, now I was running for pride... Day one results:
Leverone 71.229
Soloman 71.858
Bettencourt 72.993
Kim 73.796
Sunday saw a similar situation: Leverone rips a run to serve as notice:
42.054. Mike follows with a 43.105, and I am in with a 41.628+1. OK, this is
starting to get out of hand. 4 runs and 4 cones...not good. But WAIT! Chang
Kim lays a blistering 42.665 and it is clean, jumping into 3rd.
Second runs had Nick improving by .3 again for a 41.725 - but this time he has a
cone. Soloman runs a 42.489 and I put a flipping run in the books with a 42.442
- .8 slower than my first run scratch but at least I am clean. Chang has major
cone trouble but is now down to a 42.306 raw.
Final weekend runs were all or nothing for everyone: Nick wanted the win, Mike
wanted to catch him, Chang wanted 3rd place and I wanted respect! Nick led off
with an amazing 41.383. Mike now needed over a second and a half for the win
and only got .1 to a 42.391. I ran a fast 41.423, exactly .050 behind Nick for
the day and .15 behind Mike for the weekend. Chang now rips a 41.955 to keep
the Vette's in the hunt.
Hit the rev-limiter in the RX-7 in second gear in two separate spots on a 40
second course...awesome.
Final results:
Leverone: 112.612
Soloman: 114.249
Bettencourt: 114.416
Kim: 115.751
Thanks to all the National staff and NER! Congrats to Nick and Mike. The
Bettencourt/Leverone tandem in Topeka is gonna make a run at the Gold!
Andy Bettencourt
|