Our second round of our Chase Race Pro, and Sportsman classes took place on Friday, with both classes having larger entry lists than they had two weeks ago. We had a whopping 22 drivers racing in our Pro class, in a mix of Spec Miata’s and GT cars. We had a 35 second gap between our last place and first place qualifier in Pro, with Tom Herb setting a blistering 2:25.9 in his GT1 Porsche.
A combination of the 35 second gap between the first let out driver, of SM2’s Mark Stadalsky, and the quickest qualifier who was let out last of Herb, it gave us a unique situation where the first let out driver, Stadalsky had completed his first lap before the fastest four drivers in qualifying of David Hurt, Tony-Diar Bakerli, Bill Keeley, and Tom Herb were let out of the pits, with Herb having three other drivers of Tim Milne, Greg Ginger, and Bill Hamel also completing their first laps before Herb was let out on track. Herb would thankfully get around the four leaders right before race leader Mark Stadalsky had to pull off the track on the second lap because of a mechanical failure, giving us our second red flag in not only our second Chase race of the season, but also in Autobahn’s Chase race history. SM2 rookie, Dean Schilling also had a mechanical failure, ending his race, alongside second fastest qualifier, Bill Keeley, who pulled into the paddock after the red flag, not returning to the race once the red flag was lifted. The race would restart, giving us a four lap dash, giving us a clean run to the end. With the lack of breakouts, our finishing result was similar to how our drivers crossed the line, with Mike Ryan taking victory, just over two seconds ahead of second place Gavin Schilling, who finished ahead of a photo finish for the final podium spot, as Tim Milne would hold off Bob Reisinger by just over a tenth for third, with Art Ziesmer rounding out the Chase race Pro’s top five.
The Sportsman class was up to five entries, two more than Sportsman’s first race, two weeks before. Charles Colvin, driving his Zenos was the quickest qualifier with a 2:42.8, with Doug Warlick in his Spec Miata the slowest qualifier, 28.1 seconds off Colvin’s time with a 3:10.9. The Sportsman drivers would surprisingly have zero breakouts between them, with both Jeff Guebert, and Charles Colvin moving up one position each, both getting past Mike Gaynor. Despite both Eric Adams, and Jeff Guebert both managing to get within two seconds of Doug Warlick, they were not quick enough to catch up to the #777 with Warlick taking the Sportsman class victory, ahead of Adams, and Guebert who rounded out the podium, with Colvin, and Gaynor rounding out the top five.
