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.

Driver	Finish	Start	Fastest	Incidents	Points
Marcellus Breuning	1	1	1:8.61	4	22
Mike Erter	2	3	1:7.941	0	16
Bill Smithem	3	4	1:8.347	3	14
Rod Potgieter	4	2	1:8.361	3	12
Philip Peterson	5	5	1:8.672	4	10
Larry Eaglen	6	7	1:9.656	8	8
Donald Warren2	7	6	1:8.427	8	6
Jack Wilson21	8	8	1439:59.1000	0	0
Stuart Wright	9	9	1439:59.1000	0	0

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.

Driver	Finish	Start	Fastest	Incidents	Points
Jack Wilson21	1	2	0:39.958	8	20
Marcellus Breuning	2	1	0:39.775	10	17
Mike Erter	3	3	0:39.834	6	15
Bill Smithem	4	4	0:39.892	8	12
Philip Peterson	5	5	0:39.951	4	10

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.

Driver	Finish	Start	Fastest	Incidents	Points
Bill Smithem	1	3	1:19.238	4	21
Rod Potgieter	2	1	1:18.793	2	17
Ian Wilson2	3	5	1:20.232	2	14
Marcellus Breuning	4	2	1:18.884	5	12
JD Wardlow	5	7	1:22.197	11	10
Danny K Passmore	6	4	1:19.677	4	8
Austin Dilts	7	9	1:19.421	2	6
Andrew Forrester2	8	8	1439:59.1000	5	5
Philip Peterson	9	6	1439:59.1000	0	4

Bill Smithem started from the front row and took the lead right off the bat, closely followed by Breuning until another tech issue ended his pursuit.

David Brown and Rod Potgieter joined Smithem on the podium, with Ian Wilson and Tommy Cook rounding out the top 5.

Driver	Finish	Start	Fastest	Incidents	Points
Bill Smithem	1	2	1:5.44	0	21
David E Brown	2	5	1:5.225	1	16
Rod Potgieter	3	4	1:5.436	4	14
Ian Wilson2	4	6	1:6.119	6	12
Tommy Cook	5	7	1:6.864	5	10
Marcellus Breuning	6	1	1:5.451	2	9
Donald Warren2	7	3	1439:59.1000	3	6

Starting from the pole, Breuning led flag to flag at Mid Ohio. Bill Smithem had to recover from a spin in turn one and reclaim 2nd from Mike Zakar, who finished 3rd. Rod Potgieter finished 4th and Andrew Forrester made it to another top 5 finish!

Driver	Finish	Start	Fastest	Incidents	Points
Marcellus Breuning	1	1	1:23.963	0	22
Bill Smithem	2	2	1:24.164	5	16
Mike Zakar	3	4	1:25.214	1	14
Rod Potgieter	4	3	1:24.796	8	12
Andrew Forrester2	5	8	1:28.848	8	10
Philip Peterson	6	6	1:25.842	13	8
Stuart Wright	7	7	1:29.792	10	6
JD Wardlow	8	9	1:28.772	17	5
Donald Warren2	9	5	1439:59.1000	0	0