Friday’s Chase Races
As construction for Autobahn Country Club’s North track continues, Friday’s Chase Races made a rare appearance for just the South Track. This upped the lap count from our usual six laps, to 10. Despite the change of plans, we still had a 12 car field for our Pro class, with all but two drivers racing Spec Miata’s to get practice for Sunday’s Miata double headers.
The two Porsche GT’s of John Van Houten, and Bob Noorian set the pace in qualifying, with Noorian putting down a blistering 1:27.9, with Van Houten setting himself a 1:29.2. The fastest two Miatas in Chase Race Pro qualifying stood as Greg Sorg, and Jim Dvorak, setting 1:39’s, three tenths off each other. The quickest and slowest Spec Miata were just under six seconds off each other, as Mark Stadalsky set a 1:45.5, making him out first driver to go out onto South track for our 10 lap Pro Chase Race. After all the cars were let out, it was not long until we had our first retirement, as John Van Houten pulled in after two laps because of a coolant leak in the pits. All 11 remaining drivers would not have issues and would complete the race, as Mark Stadalsky was able to stay out in front for the whole 10 lap event, winning by 1.613 seconds, just ahead of a tight battle for second between Mike Ryan, and Bob Reisinger, with Ryan barely beating Reisinger to the line for second by 0.062. Art Ziesmer would finish fourth, and Tim Milne rounded out Chase Race Pro’s top five, benefiting from two drivers receiving breakout penalties.
Our Sportsman Chase Race class was just short of half the car count of Pro, with five drivers, three of which were Spec Miatas. Ron Van Dyke in his Porsche GT was the quickest qualifier with a 1:38.2, four seconds quicker than our quickest Spec Miata, Gary Longo’s 1:42.2. Doug Warlick’s 1:49.7 gave him the fifth and final spot in qualifying, thus making him the first driver to be let out for Chase Race Sportsman’s 10 lap race. Ron Van Dyke’s lap was over 10 seconds quicker than Doug Warlick during qualifying, meaning that when Van Dyke was eventually let out from the pits, he was already one lap behind Warlick. That however was quickly taken care of, as Ron Van Dyke not only unlapped himself, but during the race, he would get passed everyone, passing Charles Colvin, driving his BMW Z3 instead of his usual Zenos, and Sportsman’s three Spec Miata drivers, all of whom Van Dyke managed to get around on the final lap taking Chase Race Sportsman victory. Gary Longo would also get around those ahead of him during the race to finish second, as Doug Warlick barely managed to keep Sportsman’s final podium spot by just .060 ahead of fourth place Tim Milne with Charles Colvin rounding out both the top five, and the Chase Race Sportsman field.
