Historic Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisc., was the scene of the final event of the inaugural Midwest Spec E30 season. It was time for the rookies to have their turn in the spotlight. Newly-minted Spec E30 racers Robert Schmitt and Rob Rhodes finished off their first season with two clean races.
Cold air and a grippy track were the ingredients for fast lap times. In qualifying, Robert Schmitt set the pace with a 2:52.464 lap around the 4-mile course. Rhodes, who hadn’t turned a wheel at Road America, outside of Forza Motorsport 4, was well off Schmitt’s pace at 3:02.678. Afterward, Rhodes was heard complaining that someone kept moving the carousel!
In the first of two races, Rhodes hung with Schmitt for a few laps. Schmitt was able to amass a twelve-second lead, and recorded a Spec E30 record lap of 2:54.648. Rhodes was able to pin down the carousel and closed the best-lap gap to .6 seconds with a 2:55.296. Congratulations to Robert Schmitt for his first career win! In the second race, history repeated itself as Schmitt cruised to another win and another lap record of 2:50.678.
With Schmitt’s two wins over the weekend, he jumped Cameron Bullard into the second spot in the season points standings behind Midwest Spec E30’s first season champion, Tom Tiede. Congratulations to Tom for his championship win, and congratulations to Schmitt and Rhodes for completing their first season of racing.
