Corey Heft, Jamie Tennies, Monti Panzica, Kevin Koback, Jeff Skomski
This unique track location, located in the backyard of MSA Distributing Owner D.R. Findley, provided challenges primarily from Mother Nature. MSA Racing's paved track is a mild banked concrete track with a 285-foot race groove, 16 feet wide lanes with a 3-foot apron. All participating Team 1 drivers represented the Midwest proudly by entrenching themselves firmly in each class. Corey Heft, Kevin Koback, and Jeff Skomski qualified 2nd, 6th and 7th respectively in 1/12th modified while Skomski also qualified 3rd in the 1/10th 4-cell stock. In the 19-turn class, Jamie Tennies and Heft qualified 2nd and 7th overall. In 1/10th modified qualifying, it was Monti Panzica and Koback taking honors as 4th and 7th.
With qualifying set based upon a rain shortened qualifying series (final positions awarded based upon three qualifiers and not the 4 scheduled), attention was turned to getting ready for the triple A-mains on Sunday. Sunday morning brought early morning rain and mist, hampering overall practice time. The mains started at high noon with the main races 1-8 completed which included the first A-main runs for all classes. During the running of the 1/12th modified first A-main race, Koback managed to survive a crash riddled race to take top spot on Lap 10. Koback was thrown every possible scenario as to finding a way to loose the race when he became the race leader by maneuvering through several accidents to gain the lead (he was spun, spun himself in turn 2, was collected in the final lap in which he was turned around and caused Jeff Carapellatti to be spectacularly airborne…). Kevin managed to take the checkered flag in first place, one lap over the field, which would later be designated as the national championship run. Heft well…. he wasn't so lucky in his 1/12th scale Batman paint scheme. It seemed every super hero (the other drivers in the A-main) decided they should trade paint with Heft…. and literally did! Heft started in second but was quickly relegated to 9th by lap three but managed to work himself up to 5th overall by lap 33 where he ended finishing. Skomski was also collected in early crashes and found himself taking Heft's position of 9th at lap 5 but managed to also work to the seventh place at lap 27 where he also ultimately finished.
Local favorite and Hyperdrive Owner, Barry Hill manhandled the 1/10th 4-cell stock class. Skomski threw everything at Hill during qualifying, managing to qualify third. Skomski was hyped for the final and limited chances at the top spot when the A-mains started. Skomski's day went sour quick, when he was collected in a first lap crash thereby making his car inoperable. Skomski ended up tenth in the race and finally tenth for the event.
19-turn class proved to be the most nerve-racking race of the first A-mains. At the tone, local racer and well-known racer, Eric Anderson marched to the lead on lap 2 by passing TQ Johnny Broyles, with Tennies hot on his tail pipes (or as Jamie would say…."I was all over him like a cheap date!") until lap 12 when Tennies fell to 5th due to a track mishap. Anderson looked to have the race won, but Danny King was clipped going into turn 3 on Lap 23 causing his car to be turned against traffic resulting in Anderson to be launched out of the track! Jimmy Flack assumed the lead from Anderson's mishap until a hard charging Team 1 powered Tennies clipped off a 0.1 sec faster laps than Flack to commandeer the lead at Lap 38. The race wasn't over with TQ Broyles still in the hunt. Broyles made it a dash to the finish with Tennies riding the groove cushion allowing Broyles to close in. Tennies squeaked across the line a mere 0.03 seconds ahead of Broyles to capture first pace and the national championship.
In 1/10th modified, Panzica and Koback made hardcore efforts, but were dampened due to spectacular run by TQ Andy McClellan and several on-track incidents. Panzica started 4th was knocked to 10th position by the end of the first lap but managed to work through traffic to 4th position at lap 8 where he ultimately ended the race. Koback managed to drive up to the 6th position by lap 3 until lap 9, when he was sent packing to the ninth position. After finding some clean air, Koback managed a steady run to back to 7th position by Lap 30, the position he ended at the drop of the final flag.
Just at the end of brief break between the first A-main runs, Mother Nature decided to open her chest of tricks and pushed in low cover fog thereby creating a mist. At the discretion of the race director and ROAR officials, the race was called and national awards designated after a 1-hour rain delay due to continued rain/mist, the distance for most participants to drive home, and the desire to reduce and possible damage to anybody race equipment or personnel.
Team 1 drivers attending the event included, Corey Heft, Jeff Skomski, Jamie Tennies, Kevin Koback, Monti Panzica, and Kenny Bergschultz. Congratulations to Jamie Tennies on his 1/10th 4-cell 19-turn championship and to Kevin Koback on his 1/12th 4-cell modified national championship.