Road
Atlanta PCA Club Race
March
30-April 2, 2006
The Road Atlanta PCA Club Race is always one of the best attended races
of the season. With the addition of an enduro group this year, the
competition was sure to be tougher than ever.
Sprint
Races
In the sprint race, Bill Martin, Rick Brownyard, and Michael Branning
were running in group 3. This was Bill's first time at Rd Atlanta,
and he qualified in 6th position in D. Rick also qualified 6th
coming off his convincing E class win at Roebling last December.
He would start 18th overall. Michael was running in the biggest
field of F cars possibly in history. He started the sprint in the
top 15 in class and 33rd overall.
As he grew more familiar with the track, Bill moved up through the
field, running as high as 2nd overall. He took the checker 3rd
overall. Rick also had a great race moving up 10 positions overall
and took a spot on the class podium in 3rd. Michael's charge
through the strong F cars moved him into the top 10.
The group 1 sprint held the fastest cars, including the always-fierce
GTC3 class. Anthony Jernigan and Kim Linville competed in C3,
while Leh Keen was looking to repeat his dominance from Sebring in his
GT3RS. In typical fashion, Leh was consistently at the top of the
time sheet, and he earned his 5th consecutive overall pole
position. A perfect record in the RS. Anthony qualified just
outside the top10, and Kim started 21st in class, 40th overall.
At the start of the race, the much lighter and more powerful turbo car
on the outside of the front row took the lead from Leh. No matter
how much of a run Keen got on the turbo, the power difference prevented
Leh from sticking a pass. Leh crossed the finish right on the
bumper of the turbo, well ahead of his class competition, but just shy
of another overall win. Anthony had a pretty rough race and
improved his overall position by 1, despite a tire mark on the
fender. Kim made up significant ground through the race, picking
up 7 positions overall.
Enduros
Our 3 stock class cars stayed for Sunday's enduros, with Mike in the
first race, and Rick and Bill in the second. Michael took the
green flag 9th in class, 13th overall, and he managed to maintain his
class position and pick up one place overall.
Cory Friedman joined Rick for the second enduro group, and Cory
out-qualified every stock class car (including B and C class cars) and
would start 6th overall. Bill began the race 4th in class, but did
not stay there. He moved up an amazing 15 positions overall to win
his class and finish in the top 5. The only stock class car ahead
of him was a B class GT3. Cory turned the car back over to Rick at
about the half-way point of the race with almost a full lap lead over
the next E class car. Rick easily held on to the class win, and
lost only 2 overall positions to higher-class cars.
In all, our customers took home 1 win and 3 podiums in the sprint races,
and 2 class wins in the enduro. This was a pretty big event, and
everyone had a great time and had some impressive results. We're proud
of all of our racers. The next big PCA event is at Watkins Glen
and June, and we hope for and expect a similar performance. |
