Group-A Racing Earns 2 Podiums at COTA Placing them In Championship Contention.
Group-A Racing scored two more podiums in the most recent round of Blue Marble Radical Cup at Circuit Of The Americas. placing the team and its driver, Steve Jenks, within striking distance of the championship going into the final round at Road Atlanta in a few weeks.
The event started on Friday where all the Blue Marble Radical Cup teams gain a tremendous amount of track time with three 45 minute practice sessions. The time was very important to Group-A Racing and its driver. Steve Jenks had never competed at COTA and it was the team’s first visit with the Radical. Both got up to speed quickly ending the day 3rd fastest in final practice.
Saturday presented qualifying and two of the weekends three 45 minute races. Qualifying did not go as planned with a cold front moving in, throwing a curveball based on the data and knowledge gained the day before, resulting in only a 7th place qualifying effort. Knowing the speed they had before and Steve Jenks ability to move forward in prior races, everybody still felt confident in race one.
Jenks would do just that, instantly moving up a few spots. All throughout the race he was running down the leaders, setting some of the fastest laps of the race as he moved his way up to 3rd! However, time would not be on their side as he was about to catch the two leaders and had to settle for 3rd after starting 7th.
Race two saw Steve Jenks get a tremendous start and be side-by-side for the lead going into turn 1 on the opening lap. Unfortunately, championship leader Al Miller misjudged his brake marker in turn 1 and collided with an SR8 in front. The spinning car caused Steve to go off track to avoid the car and had to come to a stop to avoid hitting him. This resulted in the entire field passing by. Luckily, the safety car was deployed allowing the field to bunch back up. Even still, Jenks had a long road ahead being at the end of the line in the big Radical Cup field. When the green flag dropped Steve wasted no time moving his way back up and using his pace advantage in his Group-A Racing machine. Setting tremendous lap time, he moved forward and charged all the way back to 6th from last! A great comeback and a big swing in championship points saved.
Race three had Group-A Racing driver Steve Jenks starting on the second row in his SR3 1500 class. The race would immediately go yellow and then to red flag, with two cars in the back colliding. The red flag had the race shortened to a 20 minute race with Steve restarting 3rd with championship rivals around him. Jenks and Gorkski went back and forth the entire event with Steve having to settle for another podium in third. With championship leader Al Miller having issues in two of the races and the very tight competitive nature of the Radical Cup, the top 4 in the points are now only 23 points apart. This places Group-A Racing and Steve Jenks within striking distance at the season title in their rookie season going into the finale at Road Atlanta.
“Steve really continues to do a great job learning all of these new tracks for him. That along with being super consistent all year has now placed him in contention for the championship going into the final race. We’ve been really fast all year, on the podium many times now and always right there to win. Steve has been to Road Atlanta which will help his learning curve be less steep, hopefully helping us snag this title at the very end!” said Group-A Racing owner Jonathan Scarallo.
"I felt like we had the speed to win at COTA which was exciting given that I was new to the track and Group A had not run a radical previously at COTA” commented Steve Jenks. “Group A really had the car dialed in for the 3 races and I could battle with the frontrunners. The Blue Marble Radical Cup features really close racing and I definitely learned a few race craft items for next time that will help bring home a win. But, definitely fun to be on the F1 podium I had seen on TV for 2 of the races. Looking forward to Atlanta as that track is a favorite and we are bringing a strong race car."
Drivers interested in test & race opportunities along with Radical Sports Car purchasing info, contact Jonathan Scarallo via 631-974-4379 info@GroupARacingTeam.com