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| September 28, 2012 |
| Indoor News: Grand Prix NY - Fall League Round 1 Report |
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Tuesday, September 18th Grand Prix NY kicked off its fall adult racing league. This season there are 35 competitors in three different weight classes. The rules this season have been tweaked slightly from last season, with the biggest changes being a 3 minute qualifier as opposed to last season’s three lap qualifier and having the grid for the second heat set by inverting qualifying. Also, karts are now switched between heats.
Despite some stormy weather in the area, most competitors were able to make it to the track, although high winds made some roads impassable and a few were not able to attend this evening. The first on the track out this evening was the GTU group (175lbs.) and with a couple of last season’s contenders off to school, there was now room for some new blood in the group. In qualifying, local Pro, Stevan McAleer, showed everyone how it was done by grabbing pole (25.675) with a time seven tenths faster than last year’s champion, Gary Megennis. Third was Ironman veteran Gene Thyer another tenth behind Megennis. At the drop of the green for heat one, McAleer showed why he is a Pro and walked away from the field, leaving Megennis, Thyer and Steven Eickelbeck to battle for runner up honors. Megennis was able to hold on for the second place finish, while Eickelbeck got turned around and dropped to seventh which allowed Brian Castellano into the third and final podium spot. In heat two the grid was reversed and that put rookies Eva Kaplan and Vidish Nahar on the front row. At the start, Eva was able to hold off Vidish while in the back, McAleer started his relentless move through the field trying to go from last to first. By lap sixteen he was on Eva’s tail and a nice inside out move on the front straight put him in front on lap eighteen as they crossed the line. Eva, however, had the preferred line and was able to retake the lead going in to the first corner and defended to the end to notch her first victory of the season. McAleer was second and Mark Eickelbeck battled back from a poor result in heat one to grab third.
The next group up this evening was GTO (205) and like the GTU field, there was a good mix of returning veterans and new folks. With eleven drivers this class is very competitive, especially on the Uptown track that was being run this evening. In qualifying, the top three drivers were separated by a mere seven hundredths of a second! On pole with a time of 25.855 was Andrew Wood while second was Ennis Bragg and third Chris Johnson. In heat one the top three took off and ran nose to tail the entire race and would finish the way they started. Heat two saw a lot more action as the field was again inverted. This put rookies Patrick Venus and Specter on the front row with veterans Jim Patton and Tom Casper in row two. At the start, Jim Patton was able to make the most of the confusion and he rocketed out to first. Behind him, Fernando Marques also got away cleanly and was into second by lap twp followed by Bragg and Caspar. By lap ten Ennis and Caspar caught Patton and when he made a mistake in the esses they went by him into first and second. Patton held third until the final lap when he got together with Megennis and wound up dropping to seventh.
The final group this evening was the GTBB (245lb) group, and like GTO there was a mix of returning veterans and newer drivers. At the end of qualifying, returning champion Cory Rossi had a slim two hundredths advantage over Dave Harmon to win pole. Bill Strachan was right there as well, only a few tenths off for third on the grid. At the start of heat one, the field was tightly bunched as there were only eight tenths separating first from seventh on the grid. While there wasn’t a lot of passing at the line there were some very good races and Rossi held on for the win, two tenths ahead of second place Harmon. Strachan was a second behind in third. For heat two, rookie Peter Perdikogianni was on point with Anthony Wildey in his sophomore season next to him. At the drop of the green Adrian Salageanu was able to slip by from his fourth starting position to grab the point while Wildey and Perdikogianni diced behind him. Coming from the back, Rossi, Harmon and Strachan were battling hard. Harmon tried an aggressive move coming out of the downhill corkscrew and wound up in the wall which let Rossi and Strachan back through. At the end, Salageanu coasted to an easy victory while Gary Proft and rookie Marc Foto took second and third honors. |
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