NJMP National Results and Report
Qual, final Grid:
1) Jonathon Myers, C5 Z06: 1:26.9 (Q1)
2) Andrew Aquilante, Mustang: 1:27.424 (Q2)
3) Dave Sanders, C5 Z06: 1:27.485 (Q2)
4) Matt Pullano, C5 Coupe LS6: 1:28.039 (Q1)
5) Joe Aquilante, C6 GS LS3: 1:28.176 (Q2)
6) Ron Landis, C6 Coupe LS3: 1:29.676 (Q2)
7) Pete Kulka, C5 Z06: 1:29.729 (Q2)
8) Jason Berkeley C6 GS LS3: 1:30.238 (Q2)
Race Results
1) Dave Sanders, C5 Z06: 1:27.840
2) Andrew Aquilante, Mustang: 1:28.360
3) Joe Aquilante, C6 GS LS3: 1:29.073
4) Jonathon Myers, C5 Z06: 1:28.212
5) Matt Pullano, C5 Coupe LS6: 1:29.134
6) Jason Berkeley C6 GS LS3: 1:30.113
7) Pete Kulka, C5 Z06: 1:30.542
8) Ron Landis, C6 Coupe LS3: 1:29.665
Fun race weekend for my first time at NJMP- Great weather, fun folks.
Only downside for me was that my car stopped running on the third lap of the first session of the test day, and I could not get it running again all day, so I had to qual on Saturday morning as my first time on the track, resulting in me being behind the curve all day.
Joe Aquilante sent trucker Bob with a roll-back down to the track Friday afternoon to take the car back to his shop and see what was going on. The car rolled off the truck, and fired right up! They could find nothing wrong. Weird.
AJ was running a new Mustang in T1 trim- minus 200+ lbs of lead, and without the restrictor. Obviously a quick car (in more than capable hands) in T1 trim against the Corvettes. With some further development, when the SCCA plans on merging the faster T2 cars with T1 next year, I would think there should be little adjustment needed for the Corvettes.
We had a split start with all of the T1 cars bunched together, and the group was pretty tight for the first few laps. Than Matt Pullano went for a ride through the grass drivers left between turns 3 and 4 that dropped him back a few spots and spread the field out a bit as everyone behind checked-up. Pete Kulka than did the same thing a few laps later spreading everyone out a bit more. I had a similar agricultural excursion when I caught a slower GT3 car exiting the last turn onto the front straight, and with nowehere to go, I had to bail into the grass or else I would have hit him.
Somewhere in between those issues, Ron Landis had some kind of a problem that caused alot of smoke going into turn 1 and he retired.
Joe A tereated everyone to a fun dinner at the NJMP club house / pub Saturday night. It was nice having a good group of T1 folks out to dinner. Kind of like the "old days."
Great weekend!
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