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 |
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 |
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 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 |
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 |
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.
Revised 5/14/03