Category: Lotus79

It was pole sitter Robert Love that led the field to the green flag and took and early lead. The racing was pretty hard right off the bat and that resulted in a massive accident after some 6 laps, that forced a lot of drivers to pit and use their repair; After that, it was still furious and several yellows thinned out the field. The second half of the race, things calmed down. Stuart Wright and Bill Smithem were running for the win together, but Wright unfortunately was caught speeding on pit road on his last stop, which gave Smithem a comfortable lead. Fozillo stretched his fuel to secure 2nd but was disqualified for reaching the incident limit on the last lap. Breuning sputtered across the line to grab 2nd. Fozillo was award third as he completed 99 laps.

Stuart Wright salvaged his race with 4th and Jack Wilson was 5th.

Breuning qualified on pole, but the battle for the quickest lap time was very close; The first 5 cars on the grid were within a second. First to third, 0.121 seconds.

At the start, it was Smithem that looked to take the lead, with Breuning on his inside in turn one. Approaching the tight section around the fountain, Smithem took the safe way and let the #61 go. The margin between Breuning and Smithem remained close, while Smithem was dealing with Austin Dilts, who passed him for 2nd only to miss turn one a lap later – ending his race. Smithem was back in 2nd, but a little bit further behind now. The pitstops widened the gap even more and Breuning took the win, ahead of Smithem and Morgan Smith. Larry Eaglen and Ian Wilson rounded out the top 5.

Erter and Fozillo battled out front for most of the race, with Erter leading all but four until the pair pitted on lap 57. Smithem and Brown ran one two until an incident dropped Smithem to fifth. A bit later Brown, after leading several laps, came together with Fozillo, dropping to fourth.

The race finished in a two lap shootout after that caution, with Erter on the top step, Fozillo second, and Smithem third. Top five was rounded out by Brown in fourth and Eaglen in fifth.

Starting from the pole and leading flag to flag, Marc Breuning claimed the championship despite only his first win this season here at Laguna Seca in the finale. Only Bill Smithem had a chance in the championship, if he would’ve won and Breuning would have been 5th or lower. It was not to be. Smithem was 2nd, ran a solid race. Phil Peterson joined them on the podium with his best finish of the season in 3rd. Larry Eaglen was 4th and Don Warren, who struggled after a good start in 2nd, brought it home in 5th.

Mike Erter and Don Warren occupied the front row at the beginning of an epic battle amongst them, Marc Breuning and Bill Smithem – with Chris Brown in the mix for a bit as well. The race was run without cautions. Breuning had the fastest pitstop, but Erter, Warren and Smithem soon caught up again. At the end, it was 4 wide to the finish with Warren inching ahead on the outside and taking the win from Erter by 0.003, with Breuning third at 0.092 and Smithem 4th at 0.103. Safe to say that’s the closest the top 4 had ever finished. Andrew Forrester brought it home in a solid 5th.