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ACRL: East Mid-Ohio Race Report

Fergus, Livingston Take ACRL East Inaugural, Columbus Wins Team Honors Lexington, OH June 5, 1999 -- The American City Racing League Eastern Division kicked off its `99 season before a huge crowd of race fans at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car ...

Edited: Dec 24, 2003, 6:55 PM

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Fergus, Livingston Take ACRL East Inaugural, Columbus Wins Team Honors

Lexington, OH June 5, 1999 -- The American City Racing League Eastern Division kicked off its `99 season before a huge crowd of race fans at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car extravaganza. John Fergus dominated the proceedings, parlaying fastest practice times and a pole qualifying performance into a convincing race win. Fergus took off at the green and gradually eased his Team Columbus Fergus Companies Carbir into the distance. "It wasn't as easy as it looked, but the Carbir chassis was great and the new Hoosier R45's were fantastic," said Fergus. Martin Ryba put his Team Chicago M-1 Toolworks Lola into second qualifying position and finished in the same spot, also with a considerable margin over his nearest competitor. Dave Gill, sitting in for new dad David Downey, brought his David Gill Pontiac Team Columbus Lola home in third, although he had a pair of competitors nipping at his heels for the last several laps. Duke Johnson's Team St. Louis Subway-sponsored Carbir went from ninth to finish fourth just a couple of car lengths behind Gill, setting second-fastest lap in the process. Johnson finished just ahead of Jason Engel's Team Columbus Motor Sports Production Lola after one of the best battles of the race. Another dandy battle raged behind them, between Johnson's St. Louis Teammate Jeff Clinton, Team New York driver Jim Ballard, and Lynn Trapp of Team Chicago. Ballard's teammate Dan Dubrovich ran fourth in the early going, but fell afoul of lapped traffic while battling with Engel, causing Dubrovich to spin in the Carousel. He rejoined in tenth position, and eventually finished ninth.

The Classic Sports 2000 class result was rather surprising. Polesitter David Chesrown II's Team New York Lola failed to answer the bell due to an engine problem discovered after qualifying. In the race, 23 year old Charles Livingston quickly took his Team St. Louis March to the head of the Classic pack and held on for the win and CS2000 fast race lap. "We found the right setup after qualifying, and the car was just great," said Livingston, who posted a race lap 2.5 seconds faster than in qualifying. Behind him, Gari Chaffin (Team Detroit Swift) used all his considerable racing savvy to take second, just ahead John Green's Team Cincinnati Tiga. "I picked up a bad push in the car, and it was all I could do to hold him off," said Chaffin. His teammate, Steve Steeb, was fourth in his first-ever outing at Mid-Ohio.

By virtue of Fergus' win and Gill's third place, Team Columbus took the team victory with an accumulated point total of 190, which included Fergus' two point pole bonus. Team Chicago nipped St. Louis for second in team points, 166 to 164. The ACRL East series for Sports 2000 and Classic Sports 2000 cars makes its next appearance at Watkins Glen on June 12-13.

Fin Srt Driver Home Car Lap Time Speed 1 1 John Fergus Columbus Carbir 22 1:27.583 1:28.991 2 2 Martin Ryba Chicago Lola 22 1:28.289 1:29.714 3 3 Dave Gill Columbus Lola 22 1:28.963 1:29.531 4 9 Duke Johnson St. Louis Carbir 22 1:30.808 1:29.472 5 5 Jason Engle Columbus Lola 22 1:29.304 1:29.508 6 7 Jeff Clinton St. Louis Lola 22 1:30.257 1:30.250 7 6 Jim Ballard New York Lola 22 1:29.805 1:30.608 8 11 Lynn Trapp Chicago Lola 22 1:31.247 1:30.064 9 4 Dan Dubrovich New York Doran 22 1:29.083 1:30.238 10 12 David Stefke Cincinnati Doran 22 1:31.639 1:31.102 11* 16 Charles Livingston St. Louis March 22 1:33.822 1:31.584 12* 14 Gari Chaffin Detroit Swift 22 1:32.039 1:31.348 13* 15 John Green Cincinnati Tiga 22 1:33.233 1:31.827 14 8 Craig Chima Akron Lola 21 1:30.650 1:31.651 15* 17 Steve Steeb Detroit Lola 21 1:34.517 1:33.579 16* 18 Glenn Jividen Jr. Cincinnati Tiga 20 1:37.665 1:35.823 17* 13 Bob Liebert Columbus Lola 10 1:31.659 1:31.319 18* 6 David Chesrown II New York Lola 0 1:30.904 No Time

* Denotes CS2000 car.

Race Time: 33:32.014 Race Length: 49.676 miles Track Length: 2.258 miles S2 Fast Race Lap: 1:28.991, Fergus CS2 Fast Race Lap: 1:31.584, Livingston S2 Margin of Victory: 14.64 seconds. S2 Average Race Speed: 88.882 mph CS2 Margin of Victory: 7.294 seconds CS2 Average Race Speed: 85.827 mph

Team Points:

1. Columbus 190 2. Chicago 166 3. St. Louis 164 4. New York 146 5. Cincinnati 128 6. Detroit 119 7. Akron 58

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