Group-A Racing Drivers Earn More Wins & Podiums at Road America
In front of yet another huge crowd on the NTT Indy Car weekend, Group-A Racing drivers earned more wins and podiums in the Blue Marble Cocktails Radical Cup races.
As always, the promoters were able to gather an immense amount of track time for the competitors, even on the ultra-high-profile NTT Indy Car weekends. Radical Cup competitors had a total of 6.5 hours of track to themselves. Throughout the 5 practice sessions the Group-A Racing Drivers all took turns at the top of the time sheets in all three classes, picking up where they left off at Barber, setting the bench mark.
In qualifying Steve Jenks put in a great lap in his SR10 for the platinum class. The immensely tight competition though would see him qualify second, only .009 of a second off the pole over the course of the 4-mile lap! Reece Everard would capture the Motul Pole Award in PRO 1500 with a mega lap to stun the field. Newcomer Jack Yang qualified inside the top 10 making immense progress throughout the weekend. Reid Stewart qualified 3rd in PRO 1340 which was only .25 of a second off the pol, in yet another ultra-tight session.
Race 1 Steve Jenks got the jump to take the lead in Platinum class from pole sitter Louis Schriber, but he had defending champ Al Miller on his tail. Reece Everard was able to pull out a gap in the PRO 1500 class over his competitors. Reid Stewart was able to move up to 2nd from his 3rd starting spot. Unfortunately, by that time, he lost a lot of time to the leader and defending class champion Mike Anzaldi. Jenks would lose the lead mid race to Al Miller but the two were still nose-to-tail battling it out. Everard continued to build a gap for his lead in the PRO 1500. Despite the huge deficit he had in the beginning, Reid Stewart kept running the leader down the entire race. Meanwhile Jack Yang had moved up steadily from his 10th place starting spot in PRO 1500 to now be running 8th. Full course yellow would come out with about 7 minutes to go, Sadly the cleanup was too immense to get done in time, with the race finishing under yellow. Jenks would earn another podium in 2nd in Platinum, Reece Everard winning PRO 1500, Jack Yang finishing 8th on debut in PRO 1500 and Reid Stewart finished 2nd in PRO 1340. After this race Group-A Racing drivers were now leading the championship in all 3 classes.
Race 2 had a mixed weather forecast in the air, with dark skies overhead. Jenks would start on pole in Platinum, Everard 2nd in PRO 1500, Yang 8th in PRO 1500 and Stewart on pole in PRO 1340. At the start, Group-A Racing drivers took the lead in all 3 classes. Everard sadly had contact on the opening lap avoiding a spinning car to damage his nose and splitter, causing him to retire the car early. Jenks would lose the lead mid race as it started to sprinkle, to 12 hours of Sebring winner Jon Field, while Stewart continued to build his lead in PRO 1340. Jack Yang would steadily move up yet again, especially as the rain became heavier. Eventually series officials would red flag the race to bring everybody in to change to wet weather tires and do a 2 lap dash to the checkered. On the last lap, Jenks would have a crash in turn 1 while running in fourth, and a few moments later, things get worse with Reid Stewart crashing out of the lead in PRO 1340 in the same corner. Jack Yang, though, continued to march forward and find his footing in the wet and earned a 3rd place result on his debut weekend!
Unfortunately, race 3 saw a withdraw of Jenks and Stewart with too much damage to fix at the track, leaving just the two PRO 1500 drivers of Everard and Yang. Everard again took the early lead but with defending class champion Gustavo Rafols all over him. A mid race mistake would see Everard lose the lead and a 4 second deficit. During the pit stop sequence found only in race 3, Everard would close that gap back down to 1.5 seconds but would see huge steps of improvement in his lap times.
“To have all 4 drivers take home hardware is absolutely fantastic” said team manager Jonathan Scarallo. Everybody under the tent with the drivers and team are continuing to do a great job. This past weekend was another great testimony to how Group-A Racing operates but also how tough the Blue Marble Cocktails Radical Cup has become. The Group-A Racing boys are constantly towards or on top of the results sheet, but the moment one small detail is not executed or does not fall your way, you quickly move down the order. There has become no room for error in this series which is really awesome. Everybody under our tent with the drivers and team are continuing to do a great job but we can’t let up on any detail because the competitors are right there to take advantage of it.”
You can re watch the live stream of the races on the Radical Motorsport Youtube page. Next round of the Blue Marble Cocktails Radical Cup will take place July 7-10 at the historic Watkins Glen International. For all things pertaining Radical Motorsports such as car sales, parts, test & race opportunities in Blue Marble Cocktails Radical Cup contact Jonathan Scarallo info@GroupARacingTeam.com 631-974-4379.