Category: Season 12

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.

Driver	Finish	Start	Fastest	Incidents	Points
Marcellus Breuning	1	1	1:14.556	0	22
Bill Smithem	2	3	1:14.622	5	16
Philip Peterson	3	6	1:15.577	5	14
Larry Eaglen	4	4	1:15.542	13	12
Donald Warren2	5	2	1:14.593	18	10
Stuart Wright	6	9	1:17.178	15	8
Andrew Forrester2	7	7	1:17.308	20	6
Fozzy Fozillo	8	5	1:15.587	8	5
Jack Wilson21	9	10	1:20.374	20	4
JD Wardlow	10	8	1:19.626	20	3

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.

Driver	Finish	Start	Fastest	Incidents	Points
Donald Warren2	1	2	0:47.697	0	20
Mike Erter	2	1	0:47.778	0	17
Marcellus Breuning	3	6	0:47.828	0	15
Bill Smithem	4	3	0:47.568	0	12
Andrew Forrester2	5	8	0:47.918	0	10
Stuart Wright	6	12	0:47.973	0	8
Larry Eaglen	7	10	0:47.934	0	6
JD Wardlow	8	11	0:48.85	4	5
Les Bentz	9	9	0:48.355	0	4
Ian Wilson2	10	5	0:47.820	0	3
Chris C Brown	11	7	0:47.776	0	2
Jack Wilson21	12	4	0:48.88	10	1

Pole sitter Marc Breuning had a tech issue while gridding, so he started from the pitlane behind everyone else. Don Warren took the lead ahead of Rod Potgieter. It took Breuning about half the race to work his way to the lead, but then a slow pitstop put him behind leader Warren again and he couldn’t make up for it in the final ten laps. Warren to the victory, Potgieter was 3rd. Phil Peterson and Larry Eaglen rounded out the top 5, having had a good race between each other and Andrew Forrester, who had to settle for 11th at the end due to a spin.

Driver	Finish	Start	Fastest	Incidents	Points
Donald Warren2	1	2	1:14.132	2	21
Marcellus Breuning	2	1	1:13.677	1	17
Rod Potgieter	3	3	1:15.222	0	14
Philip Peterson	4	5	1:14.906	2	12
Larry Eaglen	5	4	1:15.416	5	10
Ian Wilson2	6	7	1:15.332	3	8
Bill Smithem	7	11	1:15.927	1	6
Glenn Sprechini	8	10	1:16.452	0	5
Jason Cotcher	9	13	1:15.22	4	4
Stuart Wright	10	12	1:18.182	8	3
Andrew Forrester2	11	6	1:16.26	8	2
Chris Augustine	12	8	1:15.921	20	1
JD Wardlow	13	9	1:17.166	17	0

Pole sitter Marc Breuning led the race until a technical issue took him out on lap 33, trying again after that but the tech issue persisted, and his race was done.

Goerge Sandman, who had started last on the grid, had worked his way to 2nd by then and took over the lead. Rod Potgieter followed, now in 2nd and Fozzi Fozillo in 3rd. Bill Smithem and Larry Eaglen rounded out the top 5.

Driver	Finish	Start	Fastest	Incidents	Points
George Sandman	1	10	1:4.770	0	20
Rod Potgieter	2	4	1:5.368	5	16
Fozzy Fozillo	3	5	1:5.772	3	14
Bill Smithem	4	3	1:4.795	6	12
Larry Eaglen	5	6	1:6.89	11	10
Ian Wilson2	6	8	1:6.217	13	8
Marcellus Breuning	7	1	1:4.725	4	8
Chris C Brown	8	9	1:9.318	19	5
Donald Warren2	9	2	1:5.572	10	4
Glenn Sprechini	10	7	1:6.929	1	3
Mike Erter	11	11	1439:59.1000	0	0
JD Wardlow	12	12	1439:59.1000	0	0

Polesitter Bill Smithem started fast with front row starter Breuning and rookie Austin Dilts on his tail, but unfortunately he ran wide exiting the final turn on lap 4 and spun into the inside wall. He was forced to pit and wound up finishing 8th, while Dilts and Breuning raced for the win. Dilts took the lead with a better executed pit stop, but Breuning stuck to him for a bit until small mistakes started coming and he lost ground. Austin Dilts won his first outing in the 79s, with Breuning holding on to 2nd, Mike Erter in 3rd, Rod Potgieter in 4th and rookie Morgan Smith in 5th.

Driver	Finish	Start	Fastest	Incidents	Points
Austin Dilts	1	3	1:53.204	16	21
Marcellus Breuning	2	2	1:53.544	9	16
Mike Erter	3	4	1:54.884	2	14
Rod Potgieter	4	5	1:54.993	15	12
Morgan Smith3	5	10	1:54.890	22	10
Larry Eaglen	6	11	1:55.359	11	8
Ian Wilson2	7	12	1:56.122	2	6
Bill Smithem	8	1	1:53.666	9	6
Don Anderson2	9	13	1:56.6	11	4
Chris Augustine	10	14	1:56.749	19	3
Glenn Sprechini	11	9	1:55.29	11	2
Fozzy Fozillo	12	6	1:55.122	10	1
Stuart Wright	13	19	1:58.103	4	0
Caleb Rybalka	14	18	1:56.995	15	0
Chris C Brown	15	17	1:59.894	15	0
Pierre Binette	16	8	1:55.884	16	0
Andrew Forrester2	17	16	1:56.910	20	0
JD Wardlow	18	15	1:58.592	10	0
Philip Peterson	19	7	1:58.215	11	0
Les Bentz	20	20	1439:59.1000	0	0