ACRL: Eastern Division Atlanta Race Report

Fergus, Harrison Take ACRL East Atlanta Round, St. Louis Wins Team Honors By Roger Diez

Braselton, GA July 24, 1999 -- John Fergus followed his game plan and took off from pole position at the green flag to dominate the third round of the American City Racing League Eastern Division season. Fergus had qualified his Team Columbus Carbir 1.3 seconds ahead of next fastest qualifier and series points leader Martin Reba's Team Chicago Lola. The race was run in changeable conditions, with portions of the track still wet from a recent rain shower. A light drizzle that started during the last half of the race made the going even more treacherous. Behind the flying Fergus, his teammate Jason Engel was locked in a tight battle with Duke Johnson of Team St. Louis as Ryba faded backwards in the early going. Johnson held second for the first four laps, but Engel slipstreamed by on the front straight on lap five. Johnson returned the favor two laps later, diving under Engel in Turn 12 to retake the position. The battle continued until lap 13, when Engel was caught out by the slippery conditions in Turn 5, spun and was unable to restart. Behind this pair was a battle for position among Ryba, his teammate Lynn Trapp, Jeff Clinton of Team St. Louis, and the Team New York cars of Dan Dubrovich and Jim Ballard. Ballard appeared to be the strongest of the group, but several spins put him back to eighth at the checker. Clinton drove a canny race and found himself in third at the flag, with Dubrovich and Trapp rounding out the top five. It was a banner day for St. Louis, which found itself in possession not only of the team trophy for the race, but also the team points lead for the season by two over Chicago. It was also an excellent day for Carbir, whose chassis finished 1-2. An added bonus was the first Carbir win in the F2000 series race which ran just before the ACRL event. On the victory stand, Fergus sang the praises of not only his Carbir chassis, but also of the Hoosier ACRL R45 tires, which he said "performed beautifully" in the treacherous and slippery track conditions. The Classic Sports 2000 class saw a new winner, as Team Atlanta's Pete Harris took the class victory from the pole. Harris, a Road Atlanta veteran, ran the inaugural race at the track 30 years ago! Behind him, Cincinatti's John Green and St. Louis' Charles Livingston battled for second, with Livingston running a second gear borrowed from Green. Unfortunately, Livingston had to make a pit stop for a flat tire, relegating him to a distant third. Green and Livingston are tied for the CS2000 Drivers Title at 281 points each, while Johnson is only one point behind Ryba for the overall Drivers Championship. St. Louis is in the driver's seat for the team points, with 502 to Chicago's 500. Road Atlanta Race Results: Finishing position, start position ( ), driver, team, chassis, class, laps complete, qualifying time, best race lap, reason out (if any).

1 (1) John Fergus, Columbus, Carbir, S2, 20, 1:29.673, N/A 2 (3) Duke Johnson, St. Louis, Carbir, S2, 20, 1:31.084, N/A 3 (6) Jeff Clinton, St. Louis, Lola, S2, 20, 1:32.455, N/A 4 (4) Dan Dubrovich, New York, Doran, S2, 20, 1:31.109 N/A 5 (8) Lynn Trapp, Chicago, Lola, S2, 20, 1:32.597, N/A 6 (2) Martin Ryba, Chicago, Lola, S2, 20, 1:30.992, N/A 7 (7) David Dullum, Washington DC, Lola, S2, 20, 1:32.540, N/A 8 (9) Jim Ballard, New York, Lola, S2, 20, 1:33.144, N/A 9 (12) Pete Harrison, Atlanta, Tiga, CS2, 20, 1:33.805, N/A 10 (13) Bob Liebert, Columbus, Lola, S2, 19, 1:34.238, N/A 11 ((14) John Green, Cincinnati, Tiga, CS2, 19, 1:35.961, N/A 12 (15) Charles Livingston, St. Louis, March, CS2, 13, 1:38.692, N/A, Tire 13 (5) Jason Engel, Columbus, Lola, S2, 12, 1:32.400, N/A, Mech. 14 (10) Jim Bandy, Atlanta, SR-71, S2, 11, 1:33.188, N/A, Mech. 15 (11) Craig Chima, Akron, Lola, S2, 2, 1:33.216, N/A, Mech. 16 (DNS) Kurt Baumann, Washington DC, Lola, S2, 0, No Time 17 (DNS) Jim Johnson, West Palm Beach, Swift, CS2, 0, No Time 18 (DNS) Keith Roberts, Atlanta, Tiga, CS2, 0, No Time

Race Time: 33:47.924                
Race Length:  50 Miles
Track Length: 2.5 miles     

S2 Average Lap Speed: 88.760 mph S2 Fastest Race Lap: N/A S2 Margin of Victory: 31.07 seconds

CS2 Average Lap Speed: 84.381 mph CS2 Fastest Race Lap: N/A CS2 Margin of Victory: 1 Lap

Team Points:

1  St. Louis            181
2  Columbus             166
3  Chicago              156
4  New York             154
5  Atlanta              127
6  Washington DC         73
7  Cincinnati            61
8  Akron                 55

OVERALL DRIVER POINT STANDINGS      CS2 DRIVER POINT STANDINGS 
 (AFTER 3 RACES):                       (AFTER 3 RACES):
  1 Martin Reba         271                 1   Charles Livingston  281
  2 Duke Johnson        270                     John Green          281 
  3 Dan Dubrovich       239                 3   Pete Harrison       102         
  
  4 Jim Ballard         227                 4   Gari Chaffin          93
  5 Lynn Trapp          226                 5   Kent Jones            90    
  6 John Fergus         204                 6   Scott Livingston      84    
  7 John Green          186                     Steve Steeb           84
  8 Charles Livingston  180                 8   Glen Jividen Jr.      80
  9 Craig Chima         169                 9   David Chesrown II      2   
10  Jeff Clinton        164     
11  David Dullum        153     
12  Jason Engel         135                 TEAM POINT STANDINGS
13  Bob Liebert         110                 (AFTER 3 RACES):
14  David Gill           88                    1   St. Louis       502 
15  David Brand          73                    2   Chicago         500 
16  Pete Harrison        67                    3   New York        472
17  Darryl Shoff         64                    4   Columbus        356
    David Stefke         64                    5   Cincinnati      262
19  Kent Jones           60                    6   Akron           180
20  Gari Chaffin         58                    7   Washington DC   153     
    
21  Scott Livingston      55                    8   Atlanta         127
22  Jim Bandy             52                    9   Detroit         119
23  Steve Steeb           50                    10  Reading          67
24  Glen Jividen Jr.      48
25  David Chesrown II      2