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| June 20, 2012 News |
| SCCA: Plenty of Exciting Action in Annual June Sprints Weekend at Road America |
Two days of racing at the 57th WeatherTech Chicago Region SCCA June Sprints concluded a spectacular Father’s Day weekend (June 16-17) at the famed four-mile Road America circuit.
Racing got underway at the June Sprints on Saturday afternoon. With Group 3 on the grid, the skies opened up for the anticipated rain shower.
The rains plagued the entire race featuring Formula F, Formula Enterprises, and Formula 1000, with the field being black flagged on two separate occasions for safety in the treacherous conditions.
Patrick Gallagher skated to the overall win in Formula Enterprises in the No. 98 Jay Motorsports/CTL Engineering FE machine, ahead of a heard-charging Scott Rettich in the No. 17 Alliance Autosport/Springboro Car Wash machine.
The FB race came down to decisions made in the pits while the field was black-flagged. Brandon Dixon changed to rain tires as allowed under the rules, but also adjusted the ride height in the No. 7 Citation Engineering/Hoosier Tire Citation F1000 which sent him to the back of the field for the restart. Dixon still carved through the field to win when the course went green again.
Ethan Shippert finished fourth overall in the No. 55 Shippert Racing/Lucky Strike/Tool Van Diemen RF97k to win Formula F.
Though the track was dry, Sunday morning’s races got off to a spectacular start when Doug Peterson’s No. 87 3Dimensional.com Formula Mazda took a wild ride across the top of the pit straight wall just after the green flag in what became a five-car incident involving an additional Formula Mazda and three Formula Atlantic machines. Thankfully, all drivers walked away from the incident, but the long clean-up shortened the Group Four race to just seven laps and the remaining races to just nine laps instead of the scheduled 12.
Once Group 4 restarted, Jason Byers drove the No. 8 Swan/Hoosier Swift 014.a to a 4.48-second win overall and in Formula Atlantic. Jason Vinkemulder (No. 10 Vinkemulder Financial Star Mazda) was able to hold off George Jackson (No. 06 Quality Tower Services Star Mazda) and Robert Noell (No. 27 Star Mazda) for the Formula Mazda win, with Gerald Szykulski winning Formula Continental in the No. 31 Rotary Systems Van Diemen DP over Nikki Coello’s No. 81 PouredFoundations.com RFR F2000.
As always, the Formula Vee race at the WeatherTech June Sprints was hotly contested. After a number of lead changes in the Group 6 race, Michael Veracins No. 65 Speed Sport/Veetech/Hoosier Speed Sport AM-5 led the draft to the checkered flag just ahead of Chris Jennerjahn’s No. 48 Jennerjahn Machine Inc Vortech and Ron Whitston’s No. 5 Subway/Hoosier Protoform P2.
Michael Mueller, from nearby Plymouth, cruised to a Formula 500 victory in the No. 24 MJ Manufacturing/Fibeco Red Devil to take the overall win in the group.
More information on the WeatherTech Chicago Region June Sprints is available at http://www.junesprints.com |
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