NASA Central drivers converged upon Gateway Motorsports Park March 23, however a storm then took the track back early Sunday morning dumping 10 inches of snow on the ground causing Sunday’s action to be canceled. In fact, 39 years ago to the day was the last road racing event that was snowed out in St. Louis! Saturday’s weather was beautiful with mid 50s temperatures and sunny.
Nine drivers graduated from Competition School on Saturday and successfully completed their first practice race. Congratulations to, Gary Pennington, Nathan Roseborrough, Spencer Smith, Barry Stuart, Tom Lutker, Gene Young, Julie Young, Darren Hofmann and Greg Hartrum.
A strong HPDE field came out to enjoy the day and shake off the winter doldrums. Several are working toward their Time Trial license or competition school later in 2013. Look out TT and race drivers. It’s going to get tough in the near future.
As Sunday was no longer available, Time Trials Leader Robert Vonk decided to split the day in half, awarding TT points as if it were a normal two-day program. The extra chance at points was greatly appreciated by all TT drivers.
With the fastest time of the event, TT1 winner Larry Bailey set the bar pretty high with a new lap record of 1:08.180. Twelve other drivers set new lap records on Saturday. Check out the complete list of Gateway lap records here (LINK: http://drivenasacentral.com/gmprecords.php). TTE saw the largest Time Trials field of the day, with Team Cohn driver Bryan Cohn taking the win over Joseph Sullivan by a scant .045 seconds. Both had a great time running around nose to tail for a few laps. Dan Fargo came in third, and Mark Adams in Team UBR’s new Spec Miata fourth. With only .462 seconds covering the entire TTE field, it might be the closest top four in Time Trials history! Click here (http://drivenasacentral.com/results.php) for all the Time Trials results from Gateway.
The Storm race group saw a great race between Spec Miata drivers Warren Dexter and Ryan Myrehn, who was driving for Team Myrehn. Both drivers led at different points. Their fast race laps were within .009 seconds of each other. Can you get closer than that? Dexter took the win with Myrehn in second and NASA Central Race Director Joel Karns in third. Teammates Mark Adams and Jim Thomas picked up where they left off last season, duking it out for the American Iron honors. Mark piped Jim in the end and nabbed a new lap record in the process. To celebrate Mark took both his and Jim’s families for a week’s vacation to Disney!
