January 28, 2005

This Ain’t No Nismo… This Ain’t No Fooling Around

            With the performance of his season Nismo’s Frank Adams blew away the field to take his first podium.  Even though Dutton still has a sizable lead, it looks as though Adams will at least overtake local favorites Sanghavi and Thompson for second in the Rookie class.

The Pro ranks are equally interesting.  Toyota is getting poised for a second half recovery.  Lucas was driving good but is still getting accustomed to his new MM chassis.  “It is certainly more predictable and will be easier to tune.” Lucas said.  Meanwhile Morrison made it to the final in his tried and true X chassis when Hester had to park it in the pits with a steering failure early on in the qualifier.  The rising sun was smiling on Nismo as Santamarina took his heat easily to keep his pole position in the All-star main.

It seems that RedLine Racing’s Gary Stephenson and Reggie Barnes have standing reservations in the main and proved that they are still in the hunt and worthy of those spots.  Because of which RedLine has a commanding lead in the team points and unless Toyota pulls out some stellar performances it is likely to stay that way.  However, Santamarina ran away with the win when the RedLine duo got caught up in traffic and failed to put in clean laps to catch the crafty Cuban.  “We’re in the final stretch now so either you come to race or leave it at home.”  Said 3^rd place finisher Barnes who narrowly lost to his teammate.

Gary had his run but is still resting in the top spot by consistent top two finishes after his hat trick at Oppenheimer.  Santamarina is only 6 points behind with Barnes and Hester within 15.  Will it be a sprint to the finish between Stephenson and Santamarina or will Barnes, Hester and Morrison sneak back to take the top three?

Level Playing Field

With all but one driver racing Mini-Zs the bar that was raised by RedLine Racing has been matched and the points say it all.  

Results:

Pro: 1 - A. Santamarina, 2 – G. Stephenson, 3 – R. Barnes, 4 – K. Morrison

Organizer's Notes:

Time Trial is next and then the track changes.