Monday, July 31, 2006
The Skip Barber Race Series staff, crew and most importantly, the drivers, love coming to Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant. The track is fun, fast and smooth, the people are great, and life outside of pit lane – restaurants, night life, things to do – is stellar. This year’s Mont Tremblant race weekend was a triple header of Midwest, East and Masters National races. Lots of drivers, lots of fun, and plenty of side-by-each racing…
Peter Ludwig (in car) scored a pair of wins in the Skip Barber Masters National at Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant. Points leader Chris Willcox (l.) finished second in both races. John Peterson (r.) had problems in Saturday’s race (scored 10th) but came back strong on Sunday to finish third. Ludwig leapt from fifth in points to second behind Willcox (225 to 139). Quentin Wahl (not shown) was P3 on Saturday but DNF’d on Sunday and is third in points, just 7 behind Ludwig.
Leland Englebardt welcomes his accolades for winning the Saturday Sportsman Midwest race after a race-long battle with Tim George, Jr., and Tom Capizzi.
Regional race results, lap charts, qualifying, etc.Here are the Regional and Masters National photos from Le Circuit Mont-TremblantMasters National resultsMIdwest and East points standings are hereThe remaining 2006 race schedules are hereLast Minute News We were able to add a
Lapping day at Lime Rock Park. It’s scheduled for Wednesday, August 16. It has a capacity of 12, so if you’re interested, please call your Series Advisor! OK, back to the Mont Tremblant stuff…
G1R1 (Sportsman Midwest) For the first 11 of this 13-lapper, Leland Englebardt and Tim George, Jr., shared the lead – Leland laps 1 to 7, Tim 8 – 10, Leland lap 11. On lap 12, George fell from second to fourth, giving P2 to Tom Capizzi (up from eighth) and third place to Ryan Ruzinski. Mike Kolacki came home fifth, followed by Dale Kistler-Collins, Shantanu Reddy, Dirk Daems, Kasey Kuhlman and Mark Fee.
G1R2 (Sportsman Midwest) Englebardt led the first lap but fell off the road on lap two and that gave George, Jr., the lead. But two laps later George, Jr., had his moment, rejoining 11 th and that gave Capizzi a lead he wouldn’t relinquish despite being hassled the whole rest of the way by Ruzinski, finishing P2 a bit less than a second behind Capizzi. Fee, meanwhile, took very little time coming from 10th on the grid to third (just four laps) and George, Jr., recovered nicely for fourth, nipping Daems at the line. John Potter was seventh, Kolacki eighth, followed by Englebardt and Kistler-Collins.
G3R1 (Championship/Sportsman) This mixed-category contest had two winners: Craig Duerson in Championship, and Julia Landauer (ninth on the road, first in Sportsman). In Championship, young Hayden Duerson hung on near the front while Revere Greist led the first three laps but by the time his Dad Craig started poking around, Hayden went to P4 and stayed there. Duerson the Elder and Greist had a great battle, swapping the lead five times in five laps, but the lap eight changeover was the last – Greist went from first to third, second being taken by Peter Ludwig – with Duerson leading the final six circuits. Brent Milner was fifth, Dom Bastien sixth, with the final two Championship spots taken by Bill Hammer and Jim Craige. In Sportsman, Landauer led flag-to-flag, Lee Carpentier ran second the entire race, as did Leon Blaiweiss in third. Angelos Angelopulos took over fourth from Stephan Sorbarto midway through. Bruce Gingrich, Daems, Ryan Booth, Kistler-Collins and Marc Charbonneau rounded out the top 10 in class, with Michele Marden and Erik Brumme rounding out the field.
G3R2 (Championship/Sportsman) Landauer won Sportsman again, but this time instead of ninth on the road, she was sixth, again in front of Carpentier and Blaiweiss, who were just a few feet apart across start-finish. In Championship, Ludwig took charge early and led every lap. Greist hounded Milner for the first couple of laps and when he took over second place on lap three, that was that. Milner hung onto P3 for five laps but Craige really wanted it and got it on lap eight. Bastien got fifth.
G4R1 (Sportsman East) A big, big group of 19 didn’t faze Julia, as she led the whole way. Capizzi and James Booth never let her out of their sight, while George, Jr., had to recover from a lap-one mistake that saw him go from 15 th to fourth at the checker! Marden was in the hunt, too, coming home fifth, about five seconds behind winner Landauer. Chris Brassard, Charles McManus, Frabrice Weill, Ted Jewell and Russell Gee rounded out the top 10.
G4R2 (Sportsman East) Landauer again had the measure of the field and took her fourth win of the weekend! J. Booth and Capizzi were going at it for second for the first nine laps, while Carpentier and Pat Daly were rocketing up from the back. By lap seven those two came up on fourth-place Marden. Carpentier dispatched her the next lap, then Daly -- boy oh boy, was he ever hauling the mail -- got her one lap later – the same lap that Carpentier went around Booth for third. When second place Capizzi’s lap 12 error took him out of the fight, that put Carpentier into second and Daly into third. But there was one lap to go, and Daly pounced on Carpentier. So it ended Landauer, Daly (from 14th!), Carpentier, Booth and Marden.
G5R1 (Championship East + Championship Midwest) Lots of fast guys in this combo; there were eight lead changes and counting the polesitter, five different leaders. Greist was poleman, Stevan McAleer led laps one, three and five, Alex Doman led lap two, Craig Duerson laps 10 through 12, and Pter Ludwig lap four and laps six through 10. And the most important lap, the last one, as he took over the lead when Duserson made a mistake and fell to sixth. So on the road at the line it was Ludwig (Midwest), Greist (P2 M.W.), McAleer (first in East), Hammer (second E.), Craige (third E.), Duerson (fourth E.), Quentin Wahl (P3 M.W.), John Peterson (fourth M.W.) and Milner (fifth E.). Martin Zimmerman was fifth in Midwest (14th on the road).
G5R2 (Championship East + Championship Midwest) Ludwig made it a bit easier on Timing & Scoring with a flag-to-flagger, Greist taking second-place honors in similar fashion. McAleer again was third on the road and first in the East. Doman was running fourth on the road with one to go but he fell three spots on the last lap, giving the spot to Peterson (third M.W.). Milner came home fifth (P2 E.) while Craige was sixth (P3 E.).
Coming up…The Skip Barber National Presented by RACER heads to the Grand-Am Trois-Rivieres (“Three Rivers”) pro weekend August 4-6. The next Regional race is the all-singing, all-dancing event at Mid-Ohio, September 1-3: Midwest, East, Masters National (rounds 13 and 14) and National (rounds 11 & 12).Mid-Ohio is the second-to-last Race Weekend of the year for the East and Midwest series; the East finale is October 12-14 at Lime Rock Park, and the Midwest wrap is September 29 – October 1 at Road America.Also, we wanted to tell everyone that the 2006-2007 Southern Region opener is going to be November 17-19 at Road Atlanta (which is also rounds 17 & 18 – the season finale – of the 2006 Masters National). This is going to be an awesome weekend, so go ahead and make your plans to be there. Rick Roso
