Other open wheel

SBRS: Detroit Results, Round 5

(DETROIT, Mich.) June 18, 2000 -The last two rounds of the Barber Dodge Pro Series have provided 80 minutes of racing and Jon Fogarty of Portola Valley, Ca. has led every single lap run. Fogarty, driving the Thomas Fogarty Winery Barber Dodge ...

Edited: Dec 29, 2009, 6:56 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

(DETROIT, Mich.) June 18, 2000 -The last two rounds of the Barber Dodge Pro Series have provided 80 minutes of racing and Jon Fogarty of Portola Valley, Ca. has led every single lap run. Fogarty, driving the Thomas Fogarty Winery Barber Dodge Reynard, won round five of the Barber Dodge Pro Series on Detroit's Raceway on Belle Isle at the CART FedEx Tenneco Grand Prix of Detroit. He did so from pole as he did the previous round at Lime Rock Park, and did so withstanding pressure for much of the race from Jamie Menninga. Fogarty ultimately crossed the finish line ahead of Matt Plumb, who squeezed past Menninga late in the race, by 3.878 seconds.

Fogarty made the win look easy, yet he felt it was anything but.

"It looked easy, but it really wasn't. There's huge differences in the between the grip level on the concrete and the asphalt, and those concrete patches are usually somewhere after the turn in point. So as you turn every thing feels cool, then you hit those patches and all hell breaks loose," Fogarty, 25, said. "I always had the threat of Jamie right behind me and Matt was there too, but I just kept my head down."

Fogarty withstood fairly constant pressure from Menninga who midway through the race was right on Fogarty's tail. Traffic eventually became a factor, and he was able to draw away.

Meanwhile, Plumb, in the No. 17 CAM 2 Dodge Reynard set about turning some extremely fast laps. Once Plumb was able to get passed Alexandre Sperafico in the early going, he set about reeling in Menninga. At quarter distance he was five seconds adrift. At three-quarter distance, Plumb used traffic to his advantage to sneak passed Menninga into second place. Traffic was almost again Plumb's ally as he was able to make a stab at Fogarty, yet the leader kept out of trouble and stayed the course.

"I'm going to walk way with a smile, but I'm not completely satisfied. I had my heart set on a first place. Coming off my crash at Lime Rock, this is a better turn of luck, but first place was what I was I was looking for," said Plumb who records his career best finish.

Menninga for his part had the potential for the best finish of his two-year Barber Dodge career. Afterwards he was disappointed at surrendering that honor to Plumb, also in his second Barber Dodge year. His Detroit result equals his best Pro Series finish, which came also at Detroit last year. This finish he hopes will provide a kick-start to his year.

"Overall I'm happy with third," Menninga said who drives the Event Marketing Enterprises, Inc. sponsored car. "It's good to be back up on the podium. Jon was better on cold tires at the beginning of the race, but once I got comfortable with the conditions I tried to give him a run. When Matt was catching me I tried to look forward, but we caught some lap traffic and I had to ease up on the throttle. That left a gap, and he got me."

The early going of the race provided many exciting moments. The confines of the barrier lined temporary circuit provided little margin for error that caught out a few of the drivers. Once the race settled into its rhythm, the fourth through seventh place train of Andre Nicastro, Roger Yasukawa, Nilton Rossoni and Sepp Koster pressed ahead in metronomic fashion. Just behind that group was Brent Sherman followed by Peter Boss, the race's Most Progressive Driver, who vaulted from a 17th starting position to finish ninth. Rounding out the top-10 was Sweden's Thed Bjork. He drove the entire race with his left front wing askew, the result of a miscue with another driver on the pace lap. In spite of the errant wing, he went on to a solid Top-10 run.

Round six of the 2000 Barber Dodge Pro Series will take place at the Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio in support of the CART FedEx Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland on July 2. This round of the Barber Dodge Pro Series will be televised on ESPN2 on July 6 at 6:00 p.m. EDT.

Top 15 Point Standings after 4 rounds:

Fogarty, 82; Koster, 57; Rossoni, 53; Andy Lally, 49; Plumb, 46; Ryan Hunter-Reay, 44; Yasukawa 39; Boss, 37; Alexandre Sperafico, 36; Michael Valiante, 34; Menninga 34; Nicastro, 27; Bjork, 27; Sherman, 25; Jonathan Macri, 16

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Open Telefonica round four Albacete

Next article JRCS: Sears Point Opener

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Winners and losers from MotoGP’s contentious Qatar Grand Prix

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

10 min

Winners and losers from MotoGP’s contentious Qatar Grand Prix

Five things we learned at MotoGP's controversial Qatar Grand Prix

MotoGP

Qatar GP

Five things we learned at MotoGP's controversial Qatar Grand Prix

Who slept worst last night: Fernando Alonso

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

1 h

Who slept worst last night: Fernando Alonso

Carlos Ezpeleta: Qatar GP “noise” left MotoGP unnecessarily exposed

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

1 h

Carlos Ezpeleta: Qatar GP “noise” left MotoGP unnecessarily exposed

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts