On July 13-14, Autobahn Country Club hosted round four of the Midwest CMC Racing Series. This midsummer race is always hot, and this year was no different, with temperatures in the low 90s and crushing humidity. Saturday’s practice and qualifying went smoothly for all competitors except for Robert Salus, who was working on a new strategy for slowing down the competition by dropping his exhaust on the track — twice.
Derek Wright had the pole by driving .5 faster than his closest competitor with a time of 139.005. Bryan White schooled the field on the start, moving up from 6th to 3rd in one fantastic move on the outside of Turn 1. Derek Wright and Kent Owens did not disappoint, continuing their battle for the points championship with Wright winning the race. Their fast lap times were an incredible .002 seconds apart! Kent had the fastest lap time of 1:38.730, while Derek drove a 1:38.732. Tim Bennett rounded out the podium in third with a 1:39.5 lap time.
Sunday brought even warmer temperatures and no shows from Team Road Rage and Robert Salus for qualifying. Team Road Rage has been fighting a pesky T5 transmission, and Salus had real-life commitments, forcing both teams not to participate in the Sunday events. In the true spirit of CMC, Kent Owens loaned Bob Denton the “right sized” rear sway bar to help Denton in the development of this new car in its season debut. The loaner was helpful to Denton because he was finally able to break into the 1:39s. The order of qualifiers was Wright, Bennett, Denton, White and Owens.
The best way to describe Sunday’s race was hot, long and close. It was a 40-minute race in a heat index of 97 degrees. Bennett and Denton finally had a breakout race, being able to apply a little more heat on Wright and Owens. In a grand gesture of generosity, AI racer TJ Bain loaned Bob Denton new tires for the race. This was the last piece of the puzzle that Bob needed to make the car competitive, and the competition was tight. Wright, Denton, Bennett, and Owens were only .4 seconds apart in lap times, and all competitors were never more than ten car lengths apart! Wright won his second race, with Owens, Bennett, Denton and White rounding out the field.
