In front of a sellout crowd on the NTT Indy Car weekend, Group-A Racing drivers showcased tremendous speed and filled their trophy case during the event.

Group-A Racing entered three cars, one in each class in the Blue Marble Cocktails Radical Cup, Steve Jenks in his new Radical SR10 in the Platinum class, Reece Everard in Pro 1500 and Reid Stewart in Pro 1340. The weekend started with four practice sessions on Thursday. All three drivers started the weekend finishing the first sessions fastest in their class. Jenks & Everard would continue to set the pace in every practice session, with Reid in the top 3 every session.

Qualifying for race 1 would not go completely to plan. Jenks bumped the engine mapping knob on his steering wheel during the session without realizing it, costing him about 30 horsepower, an innocent mistake easily fixed, but would cause him to only qualify 4th. Reece found himself very unlucky with red flag session stoppages, traffic, and cars exiting the pits in front of him and never got a proper clear lap. He would still manage to salvage a 3rd in the Pro 1500 class. Reid Stewart was in an intense session in Pro 1340 and would qualify fourth, but was less than 4 tenths of a second off the pole.

With full horsepower in hand now, Jenks would quickly start moving forward in race one. The Platinum class saw a close nose-to-tail battle for the lead with 5 cars scrapping it out. Jenks did a great job to recover from his 4th place starting spot to finish 3rd on a track that’s very difficult to pass. Reece Everard did exactly the same in Pro 1500, recovering from a disappointing qualifying to finish 2nd in his class as well. Reid Stewart saw himself in a frantic Pro 1340 battle for the lead, driving swapping positions all race and finish a tremendous 2nd in class as well. All three Group-A Racing drivers set the fastest lap of the race in their class results in a clean sweep of Group-A Racing drivers starting on pole for race 2.

Race 2 saw Jenks get a great start from pole in the Platinum class to build a small lead. After an early full course yellow, defending champion Al Miller would get past Jenks. Steve continued to hound the multi time series champion and forced him into a mistake to re take the lead. Jenks never looked back to bring home the win in his debut race weekend in the Platinum class! Reece Everard did not get as good of a start from pole in the Pro 1500 falling to second behind defending champion Gustavo Rafols. After the early yellow though, he re took the lead and checked out from the rest of the field putting on a dominate display to win as well! Reid Stewart,s start from pole in Pro 1340 was not ideal, and a mistake in turn 1 saw him off course and with a spin. This resulted with him in last and many seconds behind the pack. Stewart got the car restarted finally and put his head down to salvage a tremendous 5th,considering how the race started.

In race 3, Jenks started outside pole with a great start edging ahead to take the lead. Unfortunately, he was run wide by polesitter Al Miller with contact to the left rear upright. The damage caused the alignment to go off, with Jenks having to salvage what he could with a wounded car to finish 4th. Reece was starting from pole in Pro 1500, but an electrical glitch on the grid caused the car to not engage first gear. The team scrambled to miraculously get it fixed on the formation lap. With it though, Reece went from starting on pole in his class to now starting last, 32nd overall. He drove with an intense fire in his eye blitzing through the field in an incredible manner. Everard would do a tremendous job to recover all the way back to 2nd in the Pro 1500 class! Reid Stewart started 3rd in Pro 1340 class. He was in another intense battle all race long in 1340 with 5 drivers trading position all race. Stewart would come home with yet another podium result in 2nd!

“All-in-all, I can only be extremely proud and happy with this weekend” stated Group-A Racing manager Jonathan Scarallo. “We put the paddock on notice with all of our drivers’ pace, many poles, wins, podiums, it’s a great weekend. Naturally as fierce competitors though, we are quickly not satisfied and can’t help but feel like we left some championship points on the table. But everybody under the tent is feeling great, nothing but tremendous confidence as a complete unit, which is a great thing for everybody to take to Road America next month and hopefully be better yet again.”

Round 2 of the 2022 Blue Marble Cocktails Radical Cup will take place June 9-12, again with the NTT Indy Car Series. Race fans can re watch the live stream from the Barber Motorsports Park on the Radical Sports Car Youtube page.

Race 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RldAtwXUNA

Race 2: https://youtu.be/8n_6ibMLd3U

Race 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5k63Y25iPI&t=2s

With the new 2022 Blue Marble Cocktails Radical Cup getting ready to launch, the series hosted a two-day test at Barber Motorsports Park. The same venue will also host the season opener in late April, running on the NTT Indy Car Series event.

Group-A Racing entered three cars, one in each class. Steve Jenks, who has been with Group-A since they entered Blue Marble Cocktails Radical Cup, was with the team, but in a new car and class. Jenks was sampling a brand new Radical SR10 in the Platinum class instead of his usual SR3 1500. In Jenks usual SR3 1500, was open wheel driver Reece Everard, who got his first taste of Radical Sports Cars back in October with the team at NJMP. The third was Reid Stewart in his SR3 1340, making his return in his completely rebuilt car.

The Group-A Racing trio showed tremendous pace during the two-day test, constantly monopolizing the top of the time sheets. Steve Jenks would top the time sheet in the Platinum class with his SR10 5, out of the 6 sessions he participated in. In the final session he drove, Jenks set the all-time fastest lap of the test. That lap was also 4 tenths under the track record set a year ago. It was a tremendous debut for Jenks and the team who were using a brand-new car that only ran its first laps just a week before at Carolina Motorsports Park.

In the SR3 1500 class, Everard came out and was immediately to the top of the board. Everard would end five sessions of the six he participated in on the top of the time sheets. Everard got some of his first experience running in a bigger program with the engineering and coaching resources the Group-A Racing program has to offer. He was faster and better every session out, which was very impressive for his second outing in a Radical, and first time in a series hosted outing.

In SR3 1340, Reid Stewart was in his completely rebuilt car with a new chassis, all rebuilt by Group-A during the month of February. There was not a single hiccup or issue with the car running perfectly out of the box. After being out of a car for 6 months, he spent the first day building up to the new daunting Barber Motorsports Park, never setting a foot wrong and progressing all along. On Day 2, he took another huge step of progress, both in technique and the lap time, consistently in the top 2 at the end of the sessions and occasionally at the top of the board during the sessions.

“These two days were a tremendous way for us to kick off the 2022 season” commented Group-A Racing owner Jonathan Scarallo. “The Group-A Racing cars were monopolizing the top of the time sheets in all three classes and everybody definitely took notice. I was very happy with how all the drivers worked individually, but also together to help one another. Lenny did a great job as always on the engineering, as the cars ran perfectly and it was a great start to the year. No points are awarded during a test, but it certainly gives everybody under the tent a ton of confidence for when we come back here next month for when it does count!”

Group-A Racing is a professional race team since 1996 & also exclusive dealer for Radical Sports Cars in the North East. For more information on cars for purchase, arrive-and-drive opportunities with your Radical or using one of theirs, contact Jonathan via 631-974-4379 info@GroupARacingTeam.com