Racine, Wisconsin – Race Report
The fifth race of the season and the first chance to drop a low score from your points total happened last weekend in Racine. The Racine track is located on one of the smoothest parking lots anyone has ever seen. The layout this year had a really good flow with a couple challenging sections that made for a really fun race track. It also had some boards that loved to shake your car parts up a bit. While the weather held out on Saturday for the first few rounds of qualifying and practice……Sunday brought the rain. Some of us who could not be there Saturday showed up early to try and get a little practice before the 4 th and final qualifying round. Right around 7:30am the skies started to sprinkle and eventually turned into some heavy rain. With the wind picking up and humidity off the charts it looked bad, but the radar showed we just needed some patience. After a few hours the track crew had the blowers out and started to get things back in shape. Everyone had a little bit of time to try out the track and then moved right into the last round. With a few changes from the late arrivals the overall qualifying positions are listed below, followed by the Top qualifiers pictured with their TQ Pilsner glasses and “Bud pole” award.
1/8 th Open – Mike Pulfer
1/8 th Masters – Dan Louis
200mm Sedan Open – Tom Esposito
200mm Sedan Masters – Mike Garcia
The mains kicked off with the 1/8 th B-Main. John Schweitzer jumped out front but was quickly reeled in by Mike Chiappetti. Mike took over the lead until the first pit stop when Mike Becker charged to the front and would never let it go. Mike held on to second and stayed one lap up on the eventual third place finisher Al Broecker. The final results for the B-main are as follows:
1 st Mike Becker 116 Laps 30:07.58
2 nd Mike Chiappetti 114 Laps 30:00.88
3 rd AL Broeker 113 Laps 30:13.90
4 th John Schweitzer 109 Laps 30:10.35
5 th Gary Anderson 87 Laps 26:45.22
6 th Lon Burling 36 Laps 11:50.83
7 th Wayne Broeker 19 Laps 10:18.98
Next up was the Sedan B-Main. Phillip Neiswinger took the early lead but was lost it to Nick Altieri on lap 6. Nick started to run some quick laps and pull away but fell out of the race on lap 23. Phillip held the lead from then on over series newcomer Tony Muhammad who took second. Mike Parker made a charge at the end but came up less than 3 seconds shy and had to settle for third. The final results for the B-main are as follows:
1 st Phillip Neiswinger 106 Laps 30:13.20
2 nd Tony Muhammad 103 Laps 30:02.11
3 rd Mike Parker 103 Laps 30:04.88
4 th Gerald Argalas 93 Laps 29:31.67
5 th Mike Estep 40 Laps 18:40.14
6 th James Palansky 26 Laps 14:16.76
7 th Nick Altieri 22 Laps 05:55.43
The Next race was the 1/8th A-Main. TQ Mike Pulfer was putting down some fast laps and putting everyone farther back in his mirror until around the 78 lap mark when he started having trouble spending time in the pits. Wes Lion Took over the top spot and fought off Dan Louis to take the win. Mr. Louis has taken his driving to another level this year and is very competitive. Dennis Young ran his own race and came home third. The final results for the A-main are as follows:
1 st Wes Lion 123 Laps 30:00.24
2 nd Dan Louis 122 Laps 30:10.66
3 rd Dennis young 116 Laps 30:14.67
4 th Mike Pulfer 115 Laps 30:11.00
5 th Kurt Lechel 115 Laps 30:11.92
6 th Ron Trobaugh 103 Laps 27:40.79
7 th Ted Hammer 63 Laps 15:19.46
8 th Mark Sweeney 62 Laps 15:17.07
The Sedan A-Main started with Tom “those are my F'n pliers” Esposito leading the way. Tom seemed to have his car dialed into the track better than anyone this weekend and that paid off with TQ and one fast car in the main. Espo got caught up in the back straight and gave up the lead to Andy Power about 10 laps in. Espo was coming back in a hurry to challenge when he ran into some more trouble in the pits and gave up second place to Fabio who also had his car working well. Fabio took the second spot and Espo held on for third.
The final results for the A-main are as follows:
1 st Andy Power 121 Laps 30:13.97
2 nd Fabio Evangelista 119 Laps 30:09.04
3 rd Tom Esposito 112 Laps 28:45.19
4 th Dorian Tisdale 111 Laps 30:07.30
5 th Mike Garcia 102 Laps 30:00.59
6 th Steve Lazarus 94 Laps 30:08.50
7 th Mario Liberman 42 Laps 11:36.34
8 th Ted Hammer 18 Laps 04:44.08
The GT A-Main developed into a battle between Lon Burling and Mike Cooper. This was not only a battle for the race but also a battle shaping up for the top spot in this year's overall point standings. Lon stayed out front and kept Cooper in second even with a flameout in the pits. Another flameout later would put Cooper out front with less the 5 minutes to go. Lon was running hard to make a challenge but caught a piece of the chicane and broke a tie rod. Tom Fears nursed a hot motor and striped second gear to take home third. The final results for the A-main are as follows:
1 st Mike Cooper 99 Laps 30:07.90
2 nd Lon Burling II 89 Laps 27:05.95
3 rd Tom Fears 74 Laps 24:37.14
4 th Jerry Rogers 70 Laps 28:27.96
5 th James Palansky 51 Laps 30:14.18
6 th Karl Ennulat 41 Laps 16:34.54
7 th Mike Lyday 29 Laps 09:31.70
Thanks to all the racers who came out to support the Midwest Series and the Racine club. I know the last few races were close together and most everyone understood the difficulties of trying to schedule 6 races around everything else that gets packed into the Midwest during the short summer racing season.
The final race will be in Toledo, OH. Toledo is more or less middle ground for all those who are travelling so I hope everyone can make it. See you all there!
Thanks, Bye.
Andy Power – Series Director
Email: andyp.323@gmail.com
Mike Cooper – Webmaster, GT rules author.