Autobahn Country Club opened the last race weekend of September with the Pro and Sportsman Chase Race classes. 14 drivers took to the grid for the Pro class, and qualifying times were 14.4 seconds between Pro’s quickest and slowest qualifier. Patrick Dillon being Pro’s first driver let out of the pits having set a 2:57.4 compared to the last driver to be let out of the pits, Edward Litchstein who set the quickest qualifying time with a 2:43.0 around Autobahn’s 3.56 mile long full circuit.
Over half the grid were Spec Miata drivers, as they got practice for Sunday’s Spec Miata round, with the other cars being GT Porsche’s who were practicing for Saturday’s GT Challenge round. Six drivers had at least one “breakout” during Pro’s six lap race, and after penalties were applied, SM2 fan favorite, #808 Bob Reisinger was declared the winner, with Patrick Dillon second and third place Andrew Talandzevius rounding out the podium, getting demoted to third after “breaking out” once, costing him a Pro class win.
Chase Race Sportsman would have six drivers signed up to fight for three podium spots. This became five drivers, after fastest qualifier, Ron Van Dyke, had a transmission failure, thus causing him to miss the show. This meant that Tim Milne, who set a time of 2:54.8, was Sportsman’s final driver let out of the pits, setting a lap 15.7 seconds quicker than the first driver let out of the pits, Mike Gaynor, who set a 3:10.5 to be our first Sportsman driver let out of the pits, 19.8 seconds prior to Tim Milne. Gaynor started with a 6.6 second advantage ahead of Doug Warlick, who would battle Gaynor all race long. Warlick got ahead of Gaynor mid-race, but Gaynor would not let Warlick out of his sight, keeping on him until the end. Doug Warlick would hold off Mike Gaynor to the win by 0.041 with Sportsman’s sole non-miata, first on the road but demoted to third after two breakouts, David Batanovic finishing third driving his Porsche.
