NASA Great Lakes visited Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisc., in May. The field was split between American Iron and American Iron Extreme entries.
In AI qualifying, TJ Bain in his white Firebird was on pole. In AIX it was Stephen Post in his white SN95 Mustang. Lap times for both the AI and AIX classes were similar this weekend, creating some rivalry between the classes. Soon after the start, an accident in Turn 1 brought out the double yellow. TJ Bain held the lead for AI and got the win, followed by Todd Davis in second in his Buick Grand National, and Cody Burt in third in a Fox body Mustang.
In AIX, Stephen Post got the win, followed by Laddie Pesek Jr. in second, Jeff Henderson in third and James Pesek in fourth in his yellow Mustang.
Long straightaways create a lot of speed and long braking zones. Road America is not the place to have braking issues, but Todd Davis had a mysterious problem from the start of his race weekend. On late Saturday, he found the cause of the issue: a cracked front control arm. It was kind of odd that it came up right at the start of the weekend. Maybe it happened while in the trailer driving through construction outside Chicago.
After some time with a borrowed welder, Davis fixed it, but other damage was done. Todd made setup changes to compensate, but trust in his brakes was gone. Cody Burt suffered an engine miss every time he hit serrated curbing. Road America is known for its gators! They are everywhere, and the fastest line is just at the edge of them or just over them. Luckily he resolved the issue for Sunday.
With the long straights at Road America, issues come up from speeds that are seen only at this track. That’s what happened to TJ Bain’s hood. At top speed it was trying to fold itself in two! Bain kept his speed in check until he could come up with a temporary fix.
On Sunday track conditions improved and lap times came down. TJ Bain was quickly below the AI lap record in practice, but he would have to keep that pace in the race to break the record. Steve Post grabbed the AIX pole and TJ Bain the AI pole.
TJ Bain got the win and the track record of 2:30.245 on Sunday! Cody Burt moved up to second, and Todd Davis took third. Travis Davis, no relation to Todd Davis, was fourth in his racing debut. He drives a white and orange former Continental Challenge Mustang. Steve Post got the win again in AIX on Sunday, Laddie Pesek Jr. in second, James Pesek in third and Jeff Henderson in fourth.
