Pileggi and Medeiros both score double wins!
Ashland, MA April 23, 2016 – With one of smallest fields of the MARC season the competition was none the less intense; in fact, it ended up being rather hot for a couple racers.
First up was MARC Spec Racer on the Purple Mile. With 7 Pros and 8 Amateur racers in
Spec Racers on the Purple Mile
attendance it was decided to run one large round robin of all 15. It was a mostly clean race with usual couple “big ones” in a couple segments. The Spec racer class is just awesome on the banked sovereign track! It’s going to be a great race at the Nats in 8 weeks!
In the amateur division we had two returning MARC racers Tom Jahl and Rob Blaschke, great to see them both and hope they make more events in the future! Pete Mederios Jr. took the number one amateur spot with some fantastic driving alongside a couple of the pro
Spec Racer Amateur Podium - Hall 2nd, Colligan 3rd, Medeiros 1st, Blaschke 4th
division racers, followed by the always fast Don Hall in second, Jimmy Colligan third, Rob Blaschke fourth, Tom “I don’t need no stinkin’ practice” Bussmann fifth, Tom Smith sixth, Tom Jahl seventh, Pete Medeiros 8th.
In the Pro ranks, what can we say about John Pileggi? This guy is on fire this season! John took top lap totals in all but the blue lane where he tied with Dan to finish first overall bettering his past Spec Racer win on the purple mile from January where he ran 450 laps by ten with 460 laps with his well-tuned Viper! Second
Spec Racer - Pro Podium - Pileggi 1st, Hayes 2nd, Decosmo 3rd, Archambault 4th
was Rob Hayes G3R with 442 laps 41 sections narrowly holding off third place Dan Decosmo G3R with 442 laps 30 sections, Ryan Archambault Viper with 440 laps for fourth, Dave Muse fifth, Jim Macartney sixth, and owner of the speed palace we all call home Peter Lentros in seventh.
After a short lunch break and cleaning of the Scorpion track practice for the 8 brave enough (3 amateur 5 pro) to run Compression Molded Ceramic Magnet Modified took to
CMPM Amateur Podium - Medeiros 1st, Bussmann 2nd, Colligan 3rd
the track for practice. We saw some sub 2 second laps in practice on the center lanes, the gutters were critiqued, studied and setups chosen while temp guns got workouts. Would everyone survive the 30 minutes of racing?
Dave Muse magically loaded the racers into two drawn heats (thanks Dan for the idea) of 4 but still allowing all 6 lanes to be utilized. This left us just enough marshals from the opposite heats. With 4 racers on track at a time the racing was none the less interesting. Cars overheated, armatures went way hotter (Ryan reached 325 enough to bake cookies) than they should. Once the race of attrition was completed in the amateurs Pete Medeiros scored his second win of the day, Tom Bussmann in second, Jimmy Colligan third.
CMPM Pro Podium - Pileggi 1st, Decosmo 2nd, Hayes 3rd, Macartney 4th
The Pro division saw even the seemingly immortal John Pileggi lose an arm (not due to heat). Would he still come out on top after an arm change and keep his win streak alive? Dan Decosmo with a Viper looked like he was going to take the win for a while until he lost a front end, then a pinion! Rob Hayes had various issues, Ryan put on the wrong rear and promptly melted down to a crispy 325 which sure didn’t smell like fresh baked cookies, Jim Mac seemed to have the least car issues. In the end when the smoke and debris cleared it was John Pileggi taking the win (and number 10 of the season) Dan in second, Rob third, Jim Mac 4th, Ryan 5th.
Thanks to everyone for lending an extra hand to keep the day moving with special thanks to Peter for hosting and Dave Muse setting up the heats and running CMPM race.
See you at Rob Hayes 5/14 for G-Jet and SS for the last MARC event of the season!