Coming off his strongest weekend in the past year at Putnam Park, Scott Berkowitz showed up ready to win in GTS3. Unfortunately, a dyno check Friday found him about 20 horsepower too high for the class, forcing him to bump up to GTS4, a class for which he was over weight. But it would not matter much.
The track was wet for qualifying and Berkowitz was still the overall leader. Second in GTS and fifth overall was Mike Ward again, followed by Brad Waite and Ed Baus, both in GTS4, and Korey Deason, the first in GTS3.
The race itself was run in drying conditions, but Berkowitz’s wet-surface skills dominated, giving him the overall GTS win and taking GTS4 by 1:19 over Waite, who was followed by Baus and Tim Haines.
Second in GTS was Ward, a respectable 50 seconds behind Berkowitz, followed by John Graber and Todd Sloan. Deason took the win in GTS3 over Breck Lewis, Paul Davison and Bob Wisen.
In Sunday’s race, Berkowitz went around the outside of Waite in the first turn and took the lead. However, his lead came to a crashing end when a spinning Corvette in the Keyhole neglected to brake sufficiently and drove into the nose of Berkowitz’s car, ending his weekend.
The race was marred by two full-course yellows, one for Berkowitz and the other for a pile-up in Madness when a Corvette spun in front of a stampede of fast cars. Before the second yellow, Pedri took the lead, but Waite realized that the racing starts when the yellow goes down, not when the green flies. That got him a fantastic jump on the field and put him back into the class lead.
On the final lap, Waite was leading Baus and Pedri, but on the run out of the fast Turn 11, Pedri got a spectacular run on the other two. Into the braking zone for the Carousel, Baus moved left looking for a way around and Pedri slid into the slot, leaving his braking very late — too late — to the point he couldn’t get it stopped before tagging Waite’s 997 in the right rear.
The tap knocked Waite offline, opening a gap for Pedri, who took it and led the trio to the flag. The pass was ruled as contact with deviation and Pedri was repositioned after the fact to second, giving Waite a hard-fought win. Baus was third, followed by Haines.
The GTS3 win went to Sacha Clark, followed by Matt Palmieri, Davison, and Deason. GTS2 went to Mike Ward followed by Graber and Eric Hartwig. — Scott Good
Coming off his strongest weekend in the past year at Putnam Park, Scott Berkowitz showed up ready to win in GTS3. Unfortunately, a dyno check Friday found him about 20 horsepower too high for the class, forcing him to bump up to GTS4, a class for which he was over weight. But it would not matter much.
The track was wet for qualifying and Berkowitz was still the overall leader. Second in GTS and fifth overall was Mike Ward again, followed by Brad Waite and Ed Baus, both in GTS4, and Korey Deason, the first in GTS3.
The race itself was run in drying conditions, but Berkowitz’s wet-surface skills dominated, giving him the overall GTS win and taking GTS4 by 1:19 over Waite, who was followed by Baus and Tim Haines.
Second in GTS was Ward, a respectable 50 seconds behind Berkowitz, followed by John Graber and Todd Sloan. Deason took the win in GTS3 over Breck Lewis, Paul Davison and Bob Wisen.
In Sunday’s race, Berkowitz went around the outside of Waite in the first turn and took the lead. However, his lead came to a crashing end when a spinning Corvette in the Keyhole neglected to brake sufficiently and drove into the nose of Berkowitz’s car, ending his weekend.
The race was marred by two full-course yellows, one for Berkowitz and the other for a pile-up in Madness when a Corvette spun in front of a stampede of fast cars. Before the second yellow, Pedri took the lead, but Waite realized that the racing starts when the yellow goes down, not when the green flies. That got him a fantastic jump on the field and put him back into the class lead.
On the final lap, Waite was leading Baus and Pedri, but on the run out of the fast Turn 11, Pedri got a spectacular run on the other two. Into the braking zone for the Carousel, Baus moved left looking for a way around and Pedri slid into the slot, leaving his braking very late — too late — to the point he couldn’t get it stopped before tagging Waite’s 997 in the right rear.
The tap knocked Waite offline, opening a gap for Pedri, who took it and led the trio to the flag. The pass was ruled as contact with deviation and Pedri was repositioned after the fact to second, giving Waite a hard-fought win. Baus was third, followed by Haines.
The GTS3 win went to Sacha Clark, followed by Matt Palmieri, Davison, and Deason. GTS2 went to Mike Ward followed by Graber and Eric Hartwig.
