ACRL: Irwindale Speedway Results

Zarcades, Arnold, Team Fresno Take ACRL Victories at Irwindale Speedway By Roger Diez

Irwindale, CA August 21, 1999 - Peter Zarcades of Team Las Vegas scored a victory in the second race in the Motorsport Composites Triple Crown Oval Championship (TCOC) the American City Racing League here. The race was the fifth of the ACRL Western Division's eight race season, and the second of three oval races comprising the Oval Championship. Zarcades also captured the VP Racing Fuels Pole Perfection award, setting the series' first qualifying record of 17.406 seconds at Irwindale. In all, four ACRL drivers qualified below the magic 18.00 second, 100mph mark.

Zarcades was obviously the man to beat from the green flag, his Pennzoil-sponsored Swift pulling away from the field at a steady 2-3 car lengths per lap. Behind him, a battle raged for second among Fresno's Steve Romak, second-fastest qualifier Fiorenzo Tirrinanzi of Team Hollywood, Jay Messenger of San Diego, and Chris Ronson of Las Vegas. The two female drivers in the field, San Diego teammates Margie Smith-Haas and rookie Sandy Popescu, delighted the crowd with nose-to-tail and side by side battle for sixth. 16 laps into the 50-lap contest Tirinnanzi spun back to eighth, but the course stayed green. The hard-charging Popescu finally got by on lap 28, and chased down Ronson just as the yellow came out on lap 30. The caution was the result of Zarcades attempting to lap Tirinnanzi, when the Hollywood driver turned down in turn four, causing contact. Zarcades continued, but Tirinnanzi was into the turn four wall, and the field circulated under yellow while his car was removed. This is where things got confusing. While track officials correctly moved Romak and Messenger into their positions directly behind Zarcades during the yellow, driver-crew miscommunications resulted in some drivers moving up on their own. Zarcades took the flag 2.488 seconds ahead of Romak, with Messenger scoring his first podium finish. Popescu was fourth and Ronson fifth, but both were penalized two spots for improving their position under the yellow. The penalty moved Smith-Haas to fourth, Ostlund to fifth, and relegated Popescu and Ronson for sixth and seventh respectively. Romak leads the TCOC points chase, just four points ahead of Zarcades.

The Aerocell-sponsored Sports 2000 class staged an exciting race-within-a race as well, with victory going to pole sitter Frank Arnold of Team Fresno, 1997 ACRL S2000 class champion. Long-time ACRL competitor Joe Casanova returned to the series for his first outing in two seasons, and came home second for Team Hollywood. Jeff Anderson, the lone Team Reno entry, completed the podium trio for S2000. Michael Scully holds the lead in the S2000 TCOC title chase, five points ahead of Jeff Anderson. Team honors went to Fresno by a 16 point margin over Las Vegas, 248-232. These were the only two teams to have three cars score points. San Diego was third in the team tally with 172.

The American City Racing League Western Division will return to Irwindale Speedway on October 2 for the sixth race of the season and the finale of the Triple Crown Oval Track Championship, with $3500 to be awarded the top three SS2000 drivers and $1000 to the highest-scoring S2000 driver. The ACRL series, using a unique team racing concept, races Cosworth-powered Super Sports 2000 and Ford-engined Sports 2000 cars, with drivers required to run Hoosier R-45 compound tires and VP Racing Fuel.

Irwindale Speedway ACRL Triple Crown Oval Track ChampionshipRace Results: Finishing position, start position ( ), driver, team, chassis, class, laps complete, qualifying time, best race lap, reason out (if any). 1 (1) Peter Zarcades, Las Vegas, Swift DB5, SS2, 50, 17.406, 17.910 2 (3) Stephen Romak, Fresno, Lola, SS2, 50, 17.948, 18.150 3 (5) Jay Messenger, San Diego, Lola, SS2, 50, 18.091, 18.245 4 (4) Margie Smith-Haas, San Diego, Swift Falcon, SS2, 50, 17.988, 18.285 5 (8) John Ostlund, Fresno, Lola 89/90, SS2, 50, 18.486, 18.402 6 (6) Sandy Popescu, San Diego, Swift DB5, SS2, 50, 18.270, 18.322 7 (7) Chris Ronson, Las Vegas, Carbir, SS2, 50, 18.357, 18.169 8 (9) Frank Arnold, Fresno, Swift, S2, 48, 18.679, 18.994 9 (11) Joe Casanova, Hollywood, Swift, S2, 46, 19.892, 19.854 10 (12) Jeff Anderson, Reno, Swift, S2, 46, 20.195, 19.924 11 (13) Rick Eickhoff, Los Angeles, Shannon, SS2, 45, DNQ, 20.320 12 (2) Fiorenzo Tirinnanzi, Hollywood, Carbir, SS2, 21, 17.871, 18.276, Spin 13 (10) Michael Scully, Las Vegas, SR71, 21, 18.790, 19.081, Mechanical

Race Time: 19:51.688                
Race Length:  25.000 Miles
Track Length: 0.500 miles       

SS2 Fastest Race Lap: 17.910 (Zarcades, new record) SS2 Margin of Victory: 2.488 seconds

S2 Fastest Race Lap: 18.994 (Arnold, new record) S2 Margin of Victory: 2 laps

Team Points: Fresno 248 Las Vegas 232 San Diego 172 Hollywood 131 Reno 87 Los Angeles 84

SS2 DRIVER POINT STANDINGS       AEROCELL S2 DRIVER POINT STANDINGS 
 (BEST 4 OF 5 RACES):                   (BEST 4 OF 5 RACES):
 1    Stephen Romak        381     1 Frank Arnold        204
 2    John Ostlund         378     2 Michael Scully      186 
 3    Peter Zarcades       367     3 John Bachofner      181   
 4    Chris Ronson         324       Jeff Anderson       181
 5    Fiorenzo Tirinnanzi  292     5 Ian Wood            172 
 6    Sandy Popescu        290     6 Bill Bachofner      169 
 7    Rick Eickhoff        271     7 Leo Giroski         160
 8    Jay Messenger        237     8 Doug Allen          158
 9    Margie Smith-Haas    212     9 Spencer Trenery     102 
10    Rick Lee             194       Duke Johnson        102
11    Tom Kreger           169    11 Jeff Clinton        93
12    Scott Shelley        160       Joe Casanova        93
13    Joe Giroski          122    13 George Greenwood    80
14    Brad Pierce          80        Brad Arntson        80
15    Charlie Hewitt       70     15 Chris Knight        73    
16    Edd Ozard            64        
17    Dennis Pavlina       61

                 MOTORSPORTS COMPOSITES TRIPLE                   
                    CROWN SS2000 OVAL TRACK 
TEAM POINT STANDINGS        CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
(AFTER 5 RACES)             (AFTER 2 RACES)
1   Fresno        1151        1 Stephen Romak       195
2   Las Vegas     1115        2 Peter Zarcades      186
3   Reno          849         3 John Ostlund        170
4   San Diego     736         4 Chris Ronson        166
5   Hollywood     417         5 Jay Messenger       161
6   Los Angeles   303         6 Fiorenzo Tirinnanzi 147
7   Portland      287         7 Sandy Popescu       146 
8   St. Louis     139         8 Margie Smith-Haas   139
9   Vancouver WA  100         9 Rick Eickoff        137
                             10 Scott Shelley       76
                             11 Rick Lee            58

S2000 TCOC STANDINGS (AFTER 2 RACES) 1 Michael Scully 186 2 Jeff Anderson 181 3 Frank Arnold 102 4 Joe Casanova 93