Qualifying Saturday at the National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park was dry and fast, so fast, the top three qualifiers broke the track record.
Bob Denton nabbed the pole, with Kent Owens in second and Derek Wright third. Tim Bennett was fourth, followed by Pete Loftus, John Kelchen, Bryan White and Todd Johnston.
Denton led for about four laps with Owens and Wright just tenths of a second behind. In Turn 6, Denton blew it, going in too hot and going four-off. This allowed Owens to pounce and take the lead. One lap later the field went full course caution due to a couple of cars off and a blown engine. On the restart, Owens took off and Denton was kind of asleep. Owens got a fantastic jump on Denton, Wright and Bennett. Bunched up with traffic in turns 2 and 3, Wright had a great run on the outside and passed Denton and numerous out-of-class cars on the straight. When Owens Wright and Denton got to turns 5 and 6, Owens was leading. Wright got cut off by an ST3 car, causing him to go off. Denton then got second place and Bennett passed Wright. Later Wright was able to retake third from Bennett. Denton was able to catch up to Owens but not overtake him. Owens drove an error-free race to take the win. Congratulations to Kent
Sunday Qualifying was 45 degrees and a cold steady rain. All the CMCers went out for qualifying. The order was Kent Owens, Derek Wright, Bob Denton, Tim Bennett, John Kelchen, Bryan White, Pete Loftus, and Todd Johnston.
The standing start for the race was good and Owens, Wright and Denton ran nose to tail for several laps until they hit slower traffic. On Turn 20-something Owens got slowed by some lapped traffic with Wright close behind and Denton was able to get in on the inside and take Wright and challenge Owens for the lead. Denton could not make the pass stick and going into the Sink Hole he gave way to Owens. The battle for first, second and third for the remaining laps was intense, and those positions were never but a few tenths of a second apart. The spray and windshields fogging was blinding. The battle went on for the entire 45-minute race, with Kent getting the victory by 0.408 seconds. The margin at the finish was actually the largest gap of the race, as both Denton and Owens buggered up Turn 1 on the white flag lap and Owens managed to recover a tick more quickly. Denton finished second with Wright in third.
