2002 NITRO Deadline Da$h
April 19th, 2003

Race Report

The day dawned and fifteen entrants came out to challenge Crystal Rock Raceway's straights and hairpin turns. Practice showed a lot of folks feeling racy and trying to incorporate the latest tweaks to gain speed and consistency around CRRs 9 turns.  As the season has progressed short wheelbase (SWB) cars seems to be fading and long wheelbase (LWB) cars seem to be becoming more popular.  Likewise most racers are going lighter trying to gain speed.  Wayne George took a different approach and turned up with a real  lead sled.  It would be interesting to see which worked better.          

Stock Class

Stock Class was first up. Steve's formerly dominant Lola was loaned out and the new Ferrari 250 GTO SWB was rolled out for its second consecutive start.  Jim was running a SWB Lola and Danger and Dan Luna were running long wheelbase Mako Sharks. The 3-minute/lane qualifying round robin race went as follows:

Laps

Sections

1

Steve Medanic

98

35

2

"Danger" Dan Rothwell

94

6

3

Jim Keen

89

6

4

Brian Zogg

85

28

5

Bill Deuser

82

39

6

Dan Luna

82

37

7

Wayne George

82

37

8

Chuck Keen

81

15

9

Jeff Wright

79

8

10

Kevin Kessler

78

35

11

Mike Block

78

9

12

Rob Reber

73

31

13

Erik Ruud

72

21

14

Dennis Rutherford

49

1

Fastest Lap - Steve

6.924

Race Average -

7.289

Stock Qualifier Laptimes

The three stock class mains were up next.  Steve, Danger, Jim and the rest went at it again.  When the dust settled Steve retained the 4-lap advantage to take the win over Danger.  Dan Luna made the move of the race and improved significantly to take third.  Jim slipped back and fell into a four way battle that ended with Wayne taking third by 7-sections over Jim, Brain and John who were all on the same lap.

Laps

Sections

1

Steve Medanic

132

20

2

"Danger" Dan Rothwell

126

31

3

Dan Luna

117

12

4

Wayne George

115

44

5

Jim Keen

115

37

6

Brian Zogg

115

13

7

John Lillig

115

12

8

Jeff Wright

111

8

9

Bill Deuser

108

15

10

Mike Block

107

38

11

Kevin Kessler

106

17

12

Chuck Keen

106

14

13

Erik Ruud

106

11

14

Rob Reber

95

39

15

Dennis Rutherford

78

43

Fastest Lap - Steve

6.955

Race Average Laptime -

7.248

Stock C-Main Laptimes

Stock B-Main Laptimes

Stock A-Main Laptimes

                                 Kevin's "Mary Kay" Edsel                                                          A-Main Finishing Order

 

Fray Class

After lunch Fray was up. Again there was a fast field. Steve’s yellow Ferrari GTO SWB took the practice race the week before with a 144 - 30.  In the week between the practice race and the Da$h the Ferrari was updated and lapped in the low 6.1 bracket.  Amazingly the GTO was boxed and a new Fandango Mercedes CLK-DTM LWB was rolled out.  The Mercedes cranked a 6.101 Friday night and in practice the car turned effortless 6.2 second laps.  Jim, Wayne, John and Danger did their best and despite turning fast laps couldn’t stop Steve from taking the 3-minute/lane qualifyer by six laps.

 

Jim was running Steve's familiar red Ferrari GTO and finished second only eleven feet ahead of Dan Luna's Mako Shark. Danger's missile took the fourth spot. Danger's GoGo Modena 360 LWB was ballistic and took more than two tenths off of the track record to turn an incredible 6.178 in blue.  Wayne's LWB Mangusta Lead Sled was looking OK in fifth but was a long way back from the leader. 

Laps

Sections

1

Steve Medanic

110

30

2

Jim Keen

104

13

3

Dan Luna

104

2

4

"Danger" Dan Rothwell

103

8

5

Wayne George

102

37

6

Jeff Wright

101

16

7

Bill Deuser

97

20

8

Kevin Kessler

97

9

9

Mike Block

93

41

10

Brian Zogg

93

24

11

Erik Ruud

92

25

12

John Lillig

90

7

13

Rob Reber

88

23

14

Chuck Keen

73

27

15

Dennis Rutherford

71

36

Fastest Lap - Danger

6.178

Race Average Laptime -

6.506

Fray C-Main

The C Main was a war between John and Erik. Running doorhandle to doorhandle the entire race. Neither would concede defeat and when the power went off John took the win by 4-sections after 16 minutes of racing. Rob finished third, 8-laps back from these two but 4-laps up on Chuck. Unfortunately the Trakmate laptime files were overwritten and are unavailable for the C-main.  The race summary file was recreated and can be found here.

Fray B-Main

The B-main was all Kevin Kessler. Kevin led from the green flag and took the win by four laps over Jeff. Mike and Brian had a race long battle. In the last segment Mike was in Blue and Brian was in red. Mike got the better of this race to take third by a lap.

Fray B-Main Laptimes

Fray A-Main

When the power came on Danger led off the line to lead his first and only lap.  Coming out of the infield on the second lap Steve's CLK-DTM took the lead on Red and never looked back to win by five over Wayne George.  The Mercedes appeared to have lost more straight line speed but the handling had just gotten better with the reduced horsepower.  Steve finished with a 144-36 which just beat the 144-30 total of the practice race.  In the final segment, with Steve edging away Danger hit the nitrous and turned the main's fastest lap of 6.215.  That lap was a bit short of what he turned in the qualifyer and despite finishing fourth Danger had the satisfaction of taking the lap record home to Davenport.  In the race Wayne just kept the car on the track turning between 6.6 and 7.1 second laps and overtook the rest of the field. Unfortunately the Mangusta didn’t have what it took to take the win. Jim slipped a bit from second to sixth as Kevin Kessler turned more laps winning the B-Main and took the spot away from Jim. 

 

Laps

Sections

1

Steve Medanic

144

36

2

Wayne George

139

12

3

Dan Luna

138

26

4

"Danger" Dan Rothwell

137

35

5

Kevin Kessler

137

21

6

Jim Keen

136

30

7

Jeff Wright

133

27

8

John Lillig

127

9

9

Erik Ruud

127

5

10

Mike Block

127

3

11

Brian Zogg

126

23

12

Bill Deuser

123

6

13

Rob Reber

119

27

14

Chuck Keen

115

33

15

Dennis Rutherford

98

23

Fastest Lap - Danger

6.215

Race Average Laptime-

6.629

Fray A-Main Laptimes

JL Tuff One Class

The last race of the day was the JL Tuff One race. This was the last race of the season for these heavily restricted cars.  The GS Corvette continues to be the body of choice and again the Corvettes outnumbered everything else combined.  Like the other classes, the cars with the most time on them seem to be the quick ones.  Steve and Jim seem to have the hot cars in this class and have finished first or second all year.  In the previous three races Jim has one win with Steve taking the rest.  Like support races all year this was to be a 3-minute per lane round robin.

When the power came on Steve and Jim went at it again.  Jim gave it his best but Steve's Blue Vette edged away and would win by 8-laps. The blue GS Vette was turning laptimes with the best of the fray cars and the total laps would have put the car second on the Fray grid.  The fast lap of 6.213 would have placed it right behind Danger's ballistic Fray car as well.  Ten laps back from Jim, John, Dan Luna and Danger had a teriffic battle for third through fifth as these three finished on the same lap.

Laps

Sections

1

Steve Medanic

106

9

2

Jim Keen

98

21

3

John Lillig

88

36

4

Dan Luna

88

21

5

"Danger" Dan Rothwell

88

0

6

Mike Block

86

17

7

Kevin Kessler

85

9

8

Jeff Wright

83

0

9

Brian Zogg

82

45

10

Erik Ruud

81

32

11

Rob Reber

74

20

12

Chuck Keen

64

37

13

Wayne George

35

0

Fastest Lap - Steve

6.213

Race Average Laptime -

6.779

JL Laptimes

Again everyone had a good time. The 2002-03 NITRO season's final race will be held at Jeff Wright's new Bucktrack  Many thanks to Erik Ruud, Kevin Kessler and the rest for pitching in and helping out as necessary. The next race at CRR will be a Three-Hour Fray Endurance Race that will be held on Saturday, July 19, 2003.

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Revised 5/14/03