Author: cpradmin

It was pole sitter Bill Smithem leading the field to the green, with Don Warren alongside and Breuning 3rd on the grid. The race saw some feisty close racing with Jack Wilson, Ian Wilson and Matt Ortscheid, while the top three starters mixed in occasionally. The first pitstop was done under the only caution of the race, which happened when Peterson and Jack Wilson touched. Wilson got the worst of that but was able to continue and fought his way back forward.

The green flag stops stretched the field a little more and, in the end, Breuning lost touch due to an off sequence pitstop. It was Smithem and Warrne for the win, Warren grabbing it at the line by 0.037 of a second.

Driver	Finish	Start	Fastest	Incidents	Points
George Sandman	1	1	1:12.615	0	22
Bill Smithem	2	2	1:13.438	4	16
Marcellus Breuning	3	3	1:13.227	2	14
Jeremy Binion	4	5	1:13.298	0	12
Larry Eaglen	5	4	1:13.840	8	10
Donald Warren2	6	6	1:13.901	2	8
Matt Ortscheid	7	8	1:14.955	2	6
Andrew Forrester2	8	7	1:16.50	16	5

George Sandman dominated at the streets of Long Beach, leading the event from flag to flag in a blistering pace. Smithem, who started from the front row alongside, was lucky to escape a misjudged pass by Breuning on lap one at the end of the backstretch. Smithem kept in 2nd place, while many others behind had all sorts of trouble, allowing Breuning to come back to the final podium position at the end. Jeremy Binion was 4th and Larry Eaglen rounded out the top 5.

Driver	Finish	Start	Fastest	Incidents	Points
George Sandman	1	1	1:12.615	0	22
Bill Smithem	2	2	1:13.438	4	16
Marcellus Breuning	3	3	1:13.227	2	14
Jeremy Binion	4	5	1:13.298	0	12
Larry Eaglen	5	4	1:13.840	8	10
Donald Warren2	6	6	1:13.901	2	8
Matt Ortscheid	7	8	1:14.955	2	6
Andrew Forrester2	8	7	1:16.50	16	5

It was Chris Brown that started his home race from the pole position, but Breuning, Warren and Smithem soon worked their way forward. Breuning and Warren scuffled a little in the first half of the race and the battle intensified the closer they came to the end. An unfortunate Net-Code event sent Warren into the wall, leaving the way open for Breuning, with Smithem right on his tail as well as Forrester and Ortscheid. On the final lap, Smithem and Forrester touched slightly, sending the former into the wall. Breuning held on to the lead, followed by Forrester and Ortscheid while Eaglen and Wilson rounded out the top 5.

Driver	Finish	Start	Fastest	Incidents	Points
Marcellus Breuning	1	3	0:23.237	5	21
Andrew Forrester2	2	7	0:23.180	4	16
Matt Ortscheid	3	8	0:23.116	0	14
Larry Eaglen	4	6	0:23.96	4	12
Jack Wilson21	5	5	0:23.169	10	10
Bill Smithem	6	2	0:23.158	8	8
Donald Warren2	7	4	0:23.144	4	6
Phil Peterson	8	9	0:23.116	22	5
Chris C Brown	9	1	0:23.312	8	5

Don Warren led the field to the new season’s first green flag but went a little deep into one and saw Breuning sneak through. Breuning extended the lead, but on lap 4 missed turn 5 and dropped back. Helped by the expected misfortune of others, he came back to the front and took the lead when Eaglen missed turn 7. Equally lucky was Bill Smithem, who started from the pit lane with a tech issue and made it back to P2 at the end. Eaglen got 3rd back after a speeding penalty on pit lane, when Phil Peterson spun on the penultimate lap, but Peterson hung onto 4th ahead of Don Warren who, after his own set of mishaps, still finished 5th.

Driver	Finish	Start	Fastest	Incidents	Points
Marcellus Breuning	1	2	1:5.778	0	21
Bill Smithem	2	3	1:6.428	2	16
Larry Eaglen	3	4	1:6.273	2	14
Phil Peterson	4	6	1:6.857	6	12
Donald Warren2	5	1	1:5.532	4	11
Ian Wilson2	6	5	1:6.429	2	8
Chris C Brown	7	8	1:12.386	16	6
Matt Ortscheid	8	9	1:8.427	6	5
Andrew Forrester2	9	7	1:9.341	6	4

Marc Breuning led the field to the green flag and never looked back, although a lengthy pitstop evaporated his 12 second lead and gave 2nd placed Bill Smithem another chance at it. Breuning didn’t budge and took the win, with Smithem 2nd and Larry Eaglen 3rd. Which reflected the final championship standings perfectly, as Breuning, Smithem and Eaglen were 1-2-3 in the points as well. Rod Potgieter finished the race in 4th and Phil Peterson rounded out the top 5. Indy winner Andrew Forrester finisehd 5th in the point standings after having been as high as 2nd, he unfortunately missed a few races.

Next season, the 17th already, will start next week at St.Petersburg.

Driver	Finish	Start	Fastest	Incidents	Points
Marcellus Breuning	1	1	1:13.611	0	22
Bill Smithem	2	2	1:13.709	11	16
Larry Eaglen	3	3	1:15.52	6	14
Rod Potgieter	4	4	1:15.8	9	12
Phil Peterson	5	5	1:15.396	3	10
Ian Wilson2	6	6	1:15.462	8	8
Chris C Brown	7	7	1:18.766	14	6
Andrew Forrester2	8	9	1:16.667	20	5
Donald Warren2	9	8	1439:59.1000	0	0