Saturday’s qualifying was dry enough for slicks but damp enough to keep the times rather high at Road Atlanta in March, with Aiden Crouse taking pole position with a 1:59.660 followed by Brad Miller in P2, Jarrett Jones P3, Grant West P4, Keith Williamson P5 and Scott Carlisle P6.
By race time, the track was drying rapidly and showed a wide, dry line. After the green flag, Miller got a run going up the hill after Turn 1 to beat Crouse to Turn 3 and was followed by Jones, West, Carlisle and Williamson. On the back straight, Williamson pulled Carlisle to get P5 position back and start a run for the front while West got inside Jones to move up to third. Positions two through four started fighting each other letting Miller gap the field by eight to 10 car lengths. On lap three, Williamson got a run out of Turn 7 and pulled past West, got inside of Crouse going into Turn 10a and completed the pass tracking out of 10b.
Williamson put his head down and started working to cut the 10- to 12-car-length gap to Jones in P2. On lap five Miller and Jones caught some traffic at Turn 6, helping Williamson close up on them. On the next lap, Williamson lost about six car lengths to Jones when he caught traffic at Turn 3. A lap and a half later Williamson got a good run out of Turn 7 and quickly got to Jones bumper to start bump-drafting the pair past Miller before they braked for Turn 10b. Jones then washed out a bit in 10b and Williamson got inside and with a bump from Miller the pair got by Jones.
With yellow flags at turns 4 and 5, the race settled in to one of working through traffic while trying to maintain momentum for passes following Turn 5. Jones and Miller threatened Williamson on the last couple of laps, but the race ended with Williamson winning, Miller P2, Jones P3, Yan Dia P4, West P5 and Crouse P6.
Sunday’s track conditions shaped up about like Saturday, with a damp track for qualifying and a dry but green track for the race. Aiden Crouse grabbed pole again with a 1:57.722, with Miller P2, Williamson P3, West P4, Jones P5 and Dia P6.
On the start, Miller got Crouse again following Turn 1, followed by West in P3, Dia, Williamson and Jones. Crouse then got inside Miller for the pass at Turn 10a and Jones got a run on Williamson coming out of Turn 10b and moved up to P5. Crouse started lap two with a defensive line through Turn 1 and Miller passed him on the outside to take back the lead. West got loose in Turn 3, didn’t get a good run down thru the Esses and Dia picked him off tracking out of Turn 5.
Then Jones and Williamson passed West coming out of Turn 10b. On the next lap Jones pushed Dia past Crouse but couldn’t follow him through, leaving the order, Miller, Dia, Crouse, Jones, Williamson and West. Then on the next lap Jones passed Crouse on the outside of Turn 1. Dia, pushed by Jones, was able to get past Miller on the following lap. West got a run on Williamson coming out of Turn 5 and got around him going into Turn 6. Williamson then pushed West, but the pair couldn’t make it around and Crouse and the three leaders started to gap Crouse, West and Williamson as they started a multi-lap battle.
Williamson finally got around West out of Turn 5 but the leaders had gapped them by about 3 seconds. On lap five coming out of Turn 7, Jones got to Dia’s bumper early and started a good bump-draft that get the pair past Miller. The three then hung together and continued to gap the rest of the field.
On lap 13, Dia, closely followed by Jones saw the E30 leader approaching and moved right to let the E30 by on the left. As the E30 was about to pass Jones, Jones moved left and got a bump from the E30 and made the pass on Dia for the lead as the two fell in behind the E30 leader. As Jones, Dia and Miller approached Turn 1, a Miata went off and into the tire wall, and the race was red flagged, with Jarrett Jones winning, Dia P2, Miller P3, Williamson P4, West P5 and Crouse P6.
