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Who will take home the WIN?
24th November 2008
8AM Saturday morning emotions were escalated and stress was at its peak for the Championship contenders in the SR3 class. Who was to take home the win for the 2008 Radical Cup series?
In qualifying Tim was quick to put his Marine Corps SR3 on pole in hopes of taking the lead over the four points Dave Tweedlie had coming into the final race weekend. With only one Radical Cup race completed, an impressive 2nd went to Trevor Allen with Dave Tweedlie close behind.
As the green flag dropped Bart Carter (Inv.) lead the field of 17 drivers through the first turn and sailed away. A cloud of smoke arose in turn 3 as Trevor Allen was shoved off the track. He would later charge back up the field to finish a well earned 5th. A fight for victory between the SR3 title contenders had heated up and soon they found themselves off track. Quickly regaining speed Dave took the lead, but with flat spotted tires Tim victoriously passed for the win. Bart would have taken 1stoveall, but as fate would have it Ken Davis brought home the gold. If not for the championship at stake, I think the most favorable battle was mid pack between Lee Alexander and Craig Oka. Great job to Ryan Carpenter, Joe Schifini, and Lee Alexander who greatly improved their lap times in the race, as well as Jorge Barba who came home with a 3rd.
Sunday the Final Round - Nails bitten, stomachs in knots, I could hardly watch as the Radical Drivers raced through turn one, then two and oh my gosh three!
After a flat tire stopping his efforts short on Saturday, Dyno Don Simons undoubtedly had his best performance of the year qualifying on the pole, drove away from the field at the green and never looked back. His fastest lap was only .6 shy of the SCCA CSR track record. Not bad Dyno...
While Bart Carter's SR8LM may have been able to hang with Don he eventually succumbed to fuel starvation (er....no gas in the tank) and didn't finish. Ken Davis the current Cal. Speedway CSR track record holder also ran into trouble breaking a throttle cable on his Ralt RT-40 and dropped out while running 3rd.
The hotly-contended SR3 class lived up to its reputation in the final round at California Speedway. Tim Day and Dave Tweedlie battled to the last lap, last corner to decide who the Champion would be. Dave led the final lap until a seriously flat spotted tire slowed him in the final corner to give Tim Day the advantage and the win. Further action found Cyrus Shargh jumping up 2 positions in the final race to take a well-earned 3rd in the Championship. Most impressive was Trevor Allen for his run in the top five all weekend and beat most the regulars on Sunday to take home a 3rd place trophy.
Radical Cup race organizer Jeff Shafer had this to say, “I’ve seen my fair share of racing, but nothing has compared to the show these guys have put on. O.K. maybe I'm a bit bias having some personal interest in this, but my hands were shaking the whole time. To see where these guys have come from is amazing. We ran this event last year and everyone now is clearly driving seconds faster. Some have bigger engines and cars to credit, but people like Craig Oka & Cyrus Shargh were driving the exact equipment they had last year and are minimum 2 seconds quicker!!! I'm proud to be a part of an ever improving group of drivers."
Congratulations Tim for a well deserved championship. Make us proud at Spa!
Thank you for all your support through the 2008 season. We hope you will all join us in 2009.
