Retro CART League
Final race for the 3rd season at Laguna Seca saw Rick Ravon and Johnny Hamby on the front row of the grid and at the head of the field battling for the lead. Third placed Breuning made a few mistakes and lost some ground but managed to stay ahead of Bill Smithem in 4th.
Ravon concludes the season as Champion with no less than 7 wins! Breuning is 2nd and Bill Smithem takes 3rd in the championship by 1 point over Chris Brown.
The first race Retro CART League ran at Miami Speedway was not one with a high car count, but definitely one with great action! Chris Brown took the pole, his first ever in the league, and he led most of the way. After the pits stops Breuning and Hamby had worked their way up top, but Brown ran a tight line and snuck underneath Breuning to grab the lead, which he held until a little wiggle made it all go south. Breuning was lucky enough to escape the mayhem and won the race under yellow. Darryl Wineinger was second and Gregg Herr third.
Confirmed champion Rick Ravon qualified his #1 machine on pole once again at Watkins Glen, but his lead role was short lived when he missed a shift and spun, lucky not to hit anything. He continued and had his work cut out for him. On the second lap, front row qualifier and new leader Sean Langton found similar fate when he overdid it on the throttle just a little, but enough to spin him around. Hamby, who was faster at the start than Breuning, took the lead and was faster than anyone pursuing him. He pitted on the same lap as Breuning did, but somehow the tank didn’t get filled enough and he had to make a second stop just before the end, handing Breuning the win free and clear. Ravon saw his effort to catch up rewarded with 2nd and Hamby rounded out the podium finishers.
In a small field tonight, Rick Ravon wrapped up his championship bid with a solid win from the pole, leading most laps as well. Mike Zakar started strong in hot pursuit of the leader, but was the first to find out that turn 1 and 2 can be a little tricky once the rear tires run a little hot. Unfortunately, Chris Brown was not lucky enough to miss the mayhem and saw a 3rd position end in the pitlane.
Bill Smithem and Austin Dabbs had similar problems. Paul Krumrei ran a strong race and finished 2nd, with Breuning finishing 3rd.
Johnny Hamby qualified on pole only 0.001 faster than Rick Ravon. At the start of the race, Hamby took the lead for less than half a lap, only to see Ravon run away with the race today. A brief battle with 3rd place qualifier ended when Breuning spun off. He dropped to 5th and on lap 10 was caught by a spinning Steve Kubay at the exit of turn 1. Kubay soldiered on, albeit with a damaged left side, to finish 4th. Hamby and Jason Wells joined Ravon on the podium.
Pocono proved to be a handful this evening for round 6 of the Retro CART League Season 3; The early leader was Ryan Freeman, who wound up leading the most laps but ended his endeavor in turn one later in the race as he was fighting for position with Robert Love. Paul Krumrei was an early challenger for the lead, but he too fell victim to the car snapping on him in turn 1. Hamby experienced the same fate when he briefly led at the end. Love went on to win ahead of Chris Brown and Neil Canning after a thrilling race that saw the top 5 battle for the top honors in the closing stages.