ACRL: Mid-Ohio report

Fergus, Team Columbus Score at Mid-Ohio

Lexington, OH, August 12, 2000 -- John Fergus got a great start from the pole and drove away from the competition in his Fergus Companies Carbir Sports 2000 in the American City Racing League preliminary to the CART Champ Car race here. Behind him raged a race-long battle for second place between his teammate, Craig Chima in a Lola and the Pratt-Miller of Team Philadelpia's A.J. Smith. Smith held sway until lap 16 of the 22 lap race, but a missed shift on the back side of the course gave Chima the break he needed to take the position. Smith stayed with him to the checker, but could not re-pass. Further back, there was a tremendous fight for position among Jeff Clinton (St. Louis, Lola), Dan Dubrovich (New York, Doran), Bob Liebert (Columbus, Miller), David Chesrown II (Chicago, Swift), Bart Wolf (Milwaukee, Lola), David Dullum (Washington DC, Lola), Martin Ryba (Chicago, Lola), and John Burke (New York, Carbir). Serious nose-to-tail and side-by-side racing ensued until attrition began thinning the ranks. Team Columbus driver Jason Engel blew an engine in his brand-new Carbir and parked it on lap eight, then Clinton lost a wheel on lap 12 while running fourth. Dubrovich pitted with suspension damage after contact with Liebert, resulting in a stop and go penalty for Liebert. Mike Borkowski, sitting in for Duke Johnson in the No. 4 Team St. Louis Carbir, started last in the S2 field due to electrical gremlins in qualifying, and charged through the pack to a fourth-place finish.

Gari Chaffin took his team Chicago Swift to victory in the Classic Sports 2000 division, leading every lap from a class record pole. Jack Banha of Team Philadelpia ran a close second until a broken header slowed his Swift. His second place clinched the S2 championship, however. Dave Ogden took third for Team St. Louis in his Tiga after Glenn Jividen Jr. (Columbus, Swift) dropped out with mechanical problems and Brad Lehmann (New York, Swift) spent several laps in the pits.

A bad throttle position sensor ended Adam Burrows' string of wins, although he did qualify on the pole for the Sports 1600 class. Team Boston teammate John Faulkner took his first class win, followed home by another Team Boston driver, Bill Haney. Burrows' third place clinched the S16 Drivers' Championship for him.

The City Team trophy went to Columbus, who had a combined team points total of 233 with a first and second (Fergus and Chima) and a 21st contributed by Jividen Jr.'s CS2.

The American City Racing League Eastern Division will end their season at Watkins Glen August 26 with the Grand American series. The ACRL series, using a unique team racing concept, races Ford-engined Sports 2000, and Classic Sports 2000 cars, as well as Toyota-powered Sports 1600 cars, with drivers required to run Hoosier ACRL-stamped R-45 compound tires and a spec fuel.

Mid-Ohio Race Results:
Finishing position, start position ( ), driver, team, chassis, class, laps complete, qualifying time, best race lap, reason out (if any). <pre> 1 (1) John Fergus, Columbus, Carbir, S2, 22, 1:26.900, 1:27.535 2 (3) Craig Chima, Columbus, Lola, S2, 22, 1:28.003, 1:28.025 3 (2) A.J. Smith, Philadelphia, Pratt-Miller, S2, 22, 1:27.871, 1:28.042 4 (23) Mike Borkowski, St. Louis, Carbir, S2, 22, 2:14.872, 1:28.831 5 (11) John Burke, New York, Carbir, S2, 22, 1:29.809, 1:28.845 6 (8) David Dullum, Washington DC, Lola, S2, 22, 1:29.430, 1:28.592 7 (9) Martin Ryba, Chicago, Lola, S2, 22, 1:29.525, 1:29.326 8 (7) Bart Wolf, Milwaukee, Lola, S2, 22, 1:29.332, 1:30.127 9 (6) Bob Liebert, Columbus, Miller RM-2, S2, 22, 1:29.044, 1:29.470 10 (10) David Chesrown II, Chicago, Swift, S2, 22, 1:29.606, 1:29.957 11 (13) Jim Ballard, Philadelphia, Lola, S2, 11, 1:30.492, 1:30.647 12 (15) Joe Blacker, Washington DC, Lola, S2, 22, 1:30.885, 1:330.948 13 (14) Gari Chaffin, Chicago, Swift, CS2, 21, 1:30.718, 1:31.565 14 (16) Jack Banha, Philadelphia, Swift, CS2, 21, 1:31.344, 1:31.974 15 (18) John Faulkner, Boston, SVC, S16, 21, 1:32.786, 1:32.260 16 (21) Bill Haney, Boston, SVC, S16, 21, 1:34.861, 1:33.381 17 (17) Adam Burrows, Boston, SVC, S16, 20, 1:32.004, 1:32.098 18 (5) Dan Dubrovich, New York, Doran, S2, 20, 1:28.966, 1:229.286 19 (22) Dave Ogden, St. Louis, Tiga, CS2, 19, 1:43.407, 1:42.890 20 (20) Brad Lehmann, New York, Swift, CS2, 12, 1:33.826, 1:32.887, Mech. 21 (4) Jeff Clinton, St. Louis, Lola, S2, 11, 1:28.695, 1:29.154, Mech. 22 (19) Glenn Jividen Jr., Columbus, Swift, CS2, 11, 1:33.736, 1:33.666, Mech. 23 (12) Jason Engel, Columbus, Carbir, S2, 7, 1:30.019, 1:30.688, Mech.

Race Time: 31:50 minutes                    Race Length:   49.676 miles
Track Length: 2.258 miles                   S2 Margin of Victory: 6.707 sec
CS2 Margin of Victory: 14.314 sec       S16 Margin of Victory: 27.944 sec

S2 Fastest Qualifying Lap: 1:26.900 (Fergus) S2 Fastest Race Lap: 1:27.535 (Fergus) CS2 Fastest Qualifying Lap: 1:30.718 (Chaffin) - New Qualifying Record CS2 Fastest Race Lap: 1:31.565 (Chaffin) S16 Fastest Qualifying Lap: 1:32.004 (Burrows) S16 Fastest Race Lap: 1:32.098 (Burrows) TEAM SCORING (Mid-Ohio) 1 Columbus 233 2 Philadelphia 207 3 Chicago 198 4 St. Louis 168 New York 168 6 Boston 152 7 Washington DC 137 8 Milwaukee 70

S2 DRIVER POINTS                    CLASSIC S2 DRIVER POINTS        
AFTER 5 RACES:                      AFTER 5 RACES:
 1    John Fergus         492       1  Jack Banha (R)       297 (Champion)
 2    A.J. Smith (R)      453       2  Alain Nadal (R)      102
 3    Dan Dubrovich       433 *        Scott Livingston     102
 4    Craig Chima         371          Gary Chaffin (R)     102
 5    John Burke          362 *     5  Dave Ogden (R)        88
 6    Jeff Clinton        356       6  Brad Lehmann (R)      84
 7    Bob Liebert         351       7  Glenn Jividen Jr. (R) 80
 8    Jim Ballard         332       
 9    David Dullum        277       
10    Darryl Shoff        253       S1600 DRIVER POINTS
11    Martin Ryba         245       AFTER 5 RACES:
12    Duke Johnson        221 *     1  Adam Burrows    498 (Champion)
13    David Downey        181       2  John Faulkner   374
14    Andy Lally (R)      162       3  Bill Haney      186
15    Bart Wolf (R)       131       4  Darius Grala    181 
16    David Ferguson (R)  119       5  John Warner     176
17    Mike Borkowski (R)   84       6  Chris Dyson      84
18    Clint Field (R)      70       7  Mel Hawkins      80 #
19    David Chesrown II (R)64       8  Steve Knight     80 #    
20    Joe Blacker (R)      58      
21    Jason Engel          50              

* Denotes Western Division crossover points # Denotes Eastern Division points deducted for crossover to Western Division

                                                  
TEAM POINT STANDINGS           
 (AFTER 5 RACES)                
1   Philadelphia    952
2   Columbus        929
3   Boston          895
4   St. Louis       815
5   New York        697
6   Chicago         553     
7   Washington DC   335
8   Portland        296
9   Milwaukee       128 
10 Salinas          110 
11 Miami              63