Category: Season 12

Pole sitter Breuning had a 13 pt deficit on Smithem going into the finale, meaning that Smithem needed to finish in the top 5 to secure his first title. Which he did. He ran a solid and careful race and finished on the podium behind Breuning and Mike Erter, who had a good dice for the lead – swapping positions twice. As always in this Lotus 49, a little mistake has big consequences and Breuning got lucky when Erter went wide in the carousel. Rod Potgieter, who started on the front row, finished 4th – also finding out that small mistakes take you back a ways. Phil Peterson rounded out the top 5.

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.

Breuning led the small field to the green flag tonight. The five drivers engaged in close and fair racing all race long, with a few yellows to bunch them right back up when someone messed up. On the final lap it was Erter leading ahead of Wilson and Breuning, who tried to go through the middle going into turn 3. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough room for this ‘dash for the cash’ move and everyone got caught up in the melee. Wilson survived with the least damage and drove across the line in first, with Breuning following on 3 wheels. Erter was too damaged like the rest, but was classified as 3rd, with Smithem and Peterson respectively scoring 4th and 5th with the same fate.

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.

Rod Potgieter put himself on the pole with Breuning alongside; They battled for the lead for a few laps until Potgieter spun out of the hairpin and Breuning, taking over the lead, crashed a lap later exiting turn one. Danny Passmore took over and also messed up, leaving the way open for Bill Smithem. Potgieter, who drove a battered machine but didn’t need to stop, held on to 2nd, with Ian Wilson proving ‘easy does it’ actually does it and got him 3rd. Breuning managed to take 4th and Wardlow rounded out the top 5.