With only six cars racing at Road Atlanta in the Honda Challenge Presented by Honda Performance Development, qualifying was close for Saturday’s race. Kris Popovic earned pole with a 1:41.320, followed by Karl Kondor with a 1:41:516. The next three cars were Shane Lovely with a 1:45.410, Rob Oxford at 1:45.860, and John Reamer with a 1:45.910. Brian Yorks failed to turn on his transponder and started in the back of the pack.
When the green flag dropped for the Honda Challenge cars, Popovic got a great start followed closely by Kondor along with the rest of the pack. Soon the HC cars caught the Thunder Roadsters, allowing Kondor to close in on Popovic’s bumper. Yorks in his S2000 was quick to advance to the front, passing several of the HC cars in the first three laps. Oxford, Lovely, and Reamer put on a show, changing positions almost every lap.
A double yellow was thrown late in the race for a spin by one of the other cars running in the Lightning race, bunching up the field allowing Kondor to close on Popovic. Once more, Popovic got a great restart and pulled away from Kondor. York had caught the two front runners late in the race but dropped a wheel off in Turn 11, causing him to spin, making contact with the inside wall and ending his day.
The race ended with Popovic getting the overall win and fastest lap time of 1:40.568, followed by Kondor, Reamer, Oxford, Lovely and Yorks.
Popovic qualified on pole Sunday, followed by Kondor, Lovely, Reamer, and Oxford. This time the HPD Honda Challenge cars were in the third wave of a split start behind 20 SpecE30s and 12 Thunder Roadsters. Once more Popovic took off, followed closely by Kondor and the rest of the HC cars. These guys really put on a show. It was not long before Popovic and Kondor had worked their way through the SpecE30s and into the group of Thunder Roadsters when a double caution came out from a crash in turn 10A by a SpecE30 car, bunching the field up for a restart.
Popovic took advantage of the restart to become the overall leader and had the fastest lap time for the race of a 1:40.254. He finished first, followed by Kondor, Oxford, Lovely and Reamer. Oxford extended his points lead by more than 100 for the NASA Southeast HPD Honda Challenge championship series.
