Race Five - Wednesday Night Thunder

May 27, 2009 - Fresno, California
Sarah Nagura reporting for MicroSPEED

Because this coming Saturday is John Champion's wife's birthday the regularly scheduled event was moved up to, well, today. Wednesday Night Thunder is a rare occasion, but by working with GENEROUS employers and babysitters we managed to get everyone to Sequoia Speedway for an afternoon of racing. The program was the short version, remote timing and short 5 lap heats with 10 and 15 lap mains.

The heats went off well although for the secong week in a row nobody went perfect on the night. Pete McKay was fast qualifyer and even set a new track record in the process. It would seem that the motor woes of the last two races hd been solved.

In the C Main it was John Champion on the inside, Jose Mendoza in lane 2, Dan Yslas in lane 3 and Carlos Mosqueda on the outside. On the start Dan jumped out of his lane and although he didn't block traffic the real crash came after he got back on the track plowed hard John Champion who had spun in turn 2.





Champions car lost it's wing and top part of the molded in roll cage in what has been the first failure of an AMG body in more than 15 years. The crash was so severe it caused Dan's car to lose a pick-up shoe and spring, which cause it also not to continue. At this point the C Main was stopped and both Mendoza and Mosqueda advanced to the B Main.

Nothing nearly as spectacular occured in the B Main although both Mendoza and Mosqueda failed to transfer, being beaten by myself and Ray Yslas to meet Pete and Yoshi in the A Main. It was my first Main win and the first time I had driven my own car since the first race of this series.



In the A Main Pete had the pole, I had lane 2, Ray was in lane 3 and Yoshi was lest to the outside. The 15 lap race had two fouled starts when Yoshi kept jumping Pete in turn 3 trying to get any advantage he could. Once we did get a good start we got in five good laps before Ray spun going into turn one and Yoshi crashed them both out and into the entrance of the pits. Both cars continued but at the back of the pack, which left me to try and dispose of my dad. Which I actually did. At lap 15 I crossed as Pete made his way down the back straight, taking my first ever event win. As a condition of that win I got to write this race summary.



I don't know how to figure the points but I'm sure that Yoshi or Pete will in the next day or two. Pete gave Champion a new body that will be on his car on June 6th.

Points after 5 races.

1. #10 - 94 points
2. #67 - 66 points
3. #11 - 60 points
4. #10R - 59 points
5. #27 - 42 points
6. #2m - 41 points
7. #69 - 33 points
8. #23s - 16 points

Hi Sarah!!

First, congrats on the win of the event!! Hopefully you did a bit more celebration other than writing the race report! LOL! And second, awesome job on the race report and pics! Us racing fans love pictures of the action!

Way to move up in the points! You are within a point of taking Yoshi! Don't let him have an inch on the next race. hehehehe Sorry Yoshi!

Glad to hear you guys had a great race last night!

PD2

Happy Birthday to Mrs. John Champion! Hope Mr. Champion treats Mrs. Champion to a great day!

PD2

Sarah, Great race report!........Hope to see you winning more often so we get these reports with pictures & everything!