Matthew Wasilewski looked like the man to beat in ST4 all weekend. He was the fastest of the field. Some suspension damage during the qualifying race knocked him out, then an overheating issue crept in on lap 12 while he was leading the Championships race and knocked him out again. Two laps later a double-yellow brought out the pace car.
That put Andre Eisenbach firmly in command of ST4, and he maintained a solid lead over Jeffrey Birdwell. In the end, Eisenbach took the top step on the podium.
“Man, what a roller coaster ride,” Eisenbach said. “We had a well sorted car, but best laid plans, we had ABS issues, we had lots of other issues but Team Edge Motorworks from Fremont they did a hell of a job getting the car always back on track even when I went off in Turn 2. It’s absolutely amazing. Thank you to the Edge family.”
Jeffrey Birdwell started from fourth and had some contact early on, which required him to keep the car cool and contend with slight understeer, he advanced to finish second in ST4.
“We got in to it with one of my buddies over there and went into the grass, ripped the front of the splitter off, so the whole race was really just about trying to keep the front end of the car alive,” he said. “But yeah, the yellow flag there saved me a little bit. But we cooled the car down and got lucky, I guess.”
Third place went to Louis Chatroop, who was driving the Team Performance Eurowerks BMW M3. Chatroop started from second on grid.
“The traffic didn’t seem too bad. The car handled exactly as Performance Eurowerks out of Buffalo Grove, Ill., said it would, and I honestly couldn’t be happier. Where we came on traffic wasn’t even a factor because the car did exactly what I thought it would do,” Chatroop said. “When you’re out there with good equipment, it can be easy. I’m just really excited to be here. This is honestly a dream come true.”
