Team Faessler, with young Brian Faessler behind the wheel, pedaled to the win in Saturdays STR1 race, and scored a track record. And he did it in the rain. Ray Sweers captured the silver, followed by David Davison in his new stock car. The rest of the field was huddled in their toters, praying for sun.
In ST2, ever-present Greg Vannucci in his Lotus Exige Cup car laid down some blazing wet laps, with his best a 1:58.5. Unfortunately for Vannucci, Tony Weisenhahn, after doing a rain dance all night, piloted his AWD Subaru to the fastest lap of the race and the overall win. Weisenhahn started in the second wave, and set a best time of 1:56.3. Chris Durbin fought his way to third.
Sunday was a new day. First let’s talk about track records. ST2 had Greg Vannucci laid down a blistering 1:30.541 for a new track record. STR1 saw Scott Welham in his well-prepped Viper set a track record by logging a 1:28.440! Super Unlimited saw David Pintaric in his Corvette put down a smoking 1:25.220.
Now for the races. Pintaric was able to get the power down and take the pole to the lead in the Super Unlimited class. The Riley Mark XI of Rob Gewirtz was all over Pintaric, but the Viper’s straight-line power was too much to overcome. It came down to the wire, with Pintaric securing the win by a mere .287 seconds! Gewirtz took second, followed by Randy Walker in third.
In STR1, Scott Welham battled Mike Edmonson and his Corvette and Team Faessler in their turbocharged Mustang. After 12 hot laps the three finished within .7 seconds of each other, displaying the best battle of the day. It was Team Faessler who took first place by running the third fastest lap, followed by Edmonson running the second fastest lap and then Welham taking third despite running the fastest lap of the race and setting a new track record.
In Sunday’s ST2 race, three Corvettes, a Subaru, a Lotus and Mustang battled. James Forbis pilots his blue Corvette at Mid-Ohio a lot, race and TT, every event, and the investment paid off. He held off Vannucci and his track-record-setting Lotus to take the win. It was a tight battle and great to watch. Chris Durbin once again piloted his Mustang to the podium in third, narrowly avoiding some on-track incidents and once again proving a solid performance is often rewarded.
