ACRL: Watkins Glen report

Watkins Glen, NY, August 26, 2000 -- John Fergus won the race and the Sports 2000 championship in convincing fashion from the pole in the final race of the 2000 ACRL Eastern Division season. Fergus qualified his Team Columbus Carbir with a new record, 1.4 seconds faster than next-quickest qualifier A.J. Smith of Team Philadelphia. At the green flag, Smith and Fergus immediately pulled away, running nose to tail until Smith overcooked it and smote the guardrail at the exit of the "Boot", losing the rear bodywork of his Pratt-Miller. Following drivers managed to avoid the errant bodywork, all except Duke Johnson, who spun and hit it, damaging his own tail. Johnson pitted for repairs and rejoined at the end of the field, then worked his way up to 10th before dropping out with an engine miss. Smith then pitted for a new tail and re-entered under green just in front of leader Fergus, only to go a lap down two laps later. He, too, retired shy of the finish. Meanwhile up front, Craig Chima followed teammate Fergus, holding off the two Team New York cars of Dan Dubrovich (Doran) and John Burke (Carbir). These positions held to the checker, while Jeff Clinton's Team St. Louis Lola maintained fifth place for 11 of the 12 laps. Coming out of the final corner, Team Philadelphia driver Gerry Green, in his first ACRL outing, nipped Clinton at the line with a two-wheels-in-the-grass overtaking maneuver. Martin Ryba (Team Chicago, Lola) finished seventh, and Joe Blacker (Washington DC, Lola) had a nice run to eighth. Bob Liebert (Columbus, Miller) finished ninth after qualifying tenth.

Due to the early full-course yellow for Smith's incident, the race was running to the 30 minute time limit, rather than the scheduled 15 lap distance when new ACRL driver David Shaver (Washington DC, Swift) had a frightening crash at the exit of the "Inner Loop" when something apparently broke in the car's suspension. Shaver exited the car under his own power, but the cleanup was projected to be extensive, and officials elected to throw the checker two minutes early rather than finish under caution. Shaver was transported to a local hospital for observation after the race, but was released in time for the evening awards banquet. In the Classic Sports 2000 class, Jeff Wayland (New York), Swift) parlayed his pole position into a victory over season champion Jack Banha (Philadelphia, Swift). Wayland's finish, combined with the third and fourth place finishes of Dubrovich and Burke, gave New York their first team victory of the season, but Philadelphia scored enough points to clinch the team championship. John Faulkner (Boston, SVC) drove to a convincing victory in Sports 1600, bettering his pole qualifying time by 1.2 seconds in the process. He was followed home by teammate and S1600 Champion Adam Burrows, Dag Grala, and Bill Haney.

This was the last in a six-race series for the American City Racing League Eastern Division, sanctioned by Grand Am. 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.

Watkins Glen Race Results: <pre> 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, 22, 1:56.590, 1:58.103 2 (3) Craig Chima, Columbus, Lola, S2, 22, 1:58.166, 1:58.542 3 (4) Dan Dubrovich, New York, Doran, S2, 22, 1:58.462, 1:58.500 4 (6) John Burke, New York, Carbir, S2, 22, 1:59.510, 2:00.007 5 (9) Gerry Green, Philadelphia, Pratt-Miller, S2, 22, 2:00.190, 1:59.273 6 (5) Jeff Clinton, St. Louis, Lola, S2, 22, 1:58.803, 2:00.049 7 (7) Martin Ryba, Chicago, Lola, S2, 22, 1:59.771, 2:00.097 8 (11) Joe Blacker, Washington DC, Lola, S2, 22, 2:01.751, 2:00.538 9 (10) Bob Liebert, Columbus, Miller RM-2, S2, 22, 2:00.546, 2:00.684 10 (15) John Faulkner, Boston, SVC, S16, 22, 2:04.697, 2:03.491 11 (17) Adam Burrows, Boston, SVC, S16, 22, 2:05.112, 2:04.376 12 (14) Darryl Shoff, Philadelphia, Swift, S2, 22, 2:04.478, 2:04.135 13 (12) Jeff Wayland, New York, Swift, CS2, 22, 2:03.462, 2:04.008 14 (19) Darius Grala, Boston, SVC, S16, 22, 2:09.789, 2:05.100 15 (13) Jack Banha, Philadelphia, Swift, CS2, 22, 2:04.284, 2:05.081 16 (16) Bill Haney, Boston, SVC, S16, 22, 2:05.094, 2:04.825 17 (18) David Shaver, Washington DC, Swift, S2, 22, 2:05.205, 2:04.370 (Accident) 18 (8) Duke Johnson, St. Louis, Carbir, S2, 22, 2:00.115, 2:00.566 (Mech) 19 (2) A.J. Smith, Philadelphia, Pratt-Miller, S2, 22, 1:57.974, 1:59.017 (Mech) 20 (20) Albert Ruiz, Miami, Pratt-Miller, S2, 22, 2:11.990, 2:13.499 (Mech)

Race Time: 28.00minutes Race Length: 40.8miles Track Length: 3.400 miles S2 Margin of Victory: 1.817sec CS2 Margin of Victory: 9.361 sec S16 Margin of Victory: 8.031 sec

S2 Fastest Qualifying Lap: 1:-56.590 (Fergus) - New Qualifying Record S2 Fastest Race Lap: 1:58.103 (Fergus) - New Race Record CS2 Fastest Qualifying Lap: 2:03.462 (Wayland) CS2 Fastest Race Lap: 2:04.008 (Wayland) S16 Fastest Qualifying Lap: 2:04.697 (Faulkner) S16 Fastest Race Lap: 2:03.491 (Faulkner) TEAM SCORING (Watkins Glen) 1 New York 232 2 Columbus 195 3 Philadelphia 193 4 Boston 188 5 St. Louis 124 6 Washington DC 120 7 Chicago 73 8 Miami 46

                    
FINAL S2 DRIVER POINTS:         FINAL CLASSIC S2 DRIVER POINTS: 
 1    John Fergus          594     1  Jack Banha (R)       390 
 2    Dan Dubrovich        521*    2   Alain Nadal (R)     102
 3    A.J. Smith (R)       508         Scott Livingston    102
 4    Craig Chima          464         Gary Chaffin (R)    102
 5    John Burke           446 *       Jeff Wayland (R)    102
 6    Jeff Clinton         432     6   Dave Ogden (R)       88
 7    Bob Liebert          418     7   Brad Lehmann (R)     84
 8    Jim Ballard          332     8   Glenn Jividen Jr.(R) 80
 9    Martin Ryba          318     
10    Darryl Shoff         317     
11    Duke Johnson         279 *   FINAL S1600 DRIVER POINTS:
12    David Dullum         277     1  Adam Burrows        591 
13    David Downey         181     2  John Faulkner       476
14    Andy Lally (R)       162     3  Bill Haney          270
15    Bart Wolf (R)        131     4  Darius Grala        269
16    Joe Blacker (R)      128     5  John Warner         176
17    David Ferguson (R)   119     6  Chris Dyson          84
18    Mike Borkowski (R)    84     7  Mel Hawkins          80 #
19    Gerry Green (R)       80     8  Steve Knight         80 #    
20    Clint Field (R)       70
21    David Chesrown II (R) 64        
22    David Shaver (R)      61    
23    Albert Ruiz (R)       52
24    Jason Engel           50    

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

                                                  
FINAL TEAM POINT STANDINGS:             
1   Philadelphia    1155
2   Columbus        1124
3   Boston          1083
4   St. Louis        939
5   New York         929
6   Chicago          626       
7   Washington DC    455
8   Portland         296
9   Milwaukee        128
10  Salinas          110
11  Miami            109