Two of the podium finishers in GTS3 had endured enough trouble in the qualifying races that when the green flag dropped on the Championships race, they were surrounded by GTS2 cars, not their GTS3 competitors.
Hugh Stewart was DQ’d Saturday for being over on horsepower. That it was by just .83 horsepower that put him back to 36th of 38 cars on grid was tough to swallow. 2008 GTS3 Champion Drew Ewing cut a tire in the third turn in the qualifying race, which ended his race and put him back to 24th on grid.
Stewart ended up working his way forward to second, and even with the safety car, he couldn’t improve his position.
“It was very difficult,” Stewart said. “I started from dead last and worked through most of the field and tried to get back up to Edgar and got close, but couldn’t get him.”
Ewing was having troubles with traffic, but ended up finishing third.
“I think I was up to second when we had that yellow come out and I could see the leader, and unfortunately I got held up by one of the GTS4 cars,” said Ewing who uses a wheelchair to get around. “He held me up terribly and I had a five-second lead on the third-place car, and he held me up until the third place car got around me, then let him through and then waited half a lap and then waved me by. He’s a fellow Southeast driver, so I’m not real happy about that. We had high hopes for getting to the top of the podium at the beginning of the weekend, but considering everything that’s happened to us over the course of the weekend I’d say this is a pretty damn good finish.”
Up front, Edgar Cabrera started on the GTS3 pole and third overall, and finished on top for his first GTS3 Championship.
“I had a good start at the beginning and then the double yellow goofed everybody up,” Cabrera said. “I was just trying to stay away from the 22 car of Hugh Stewart. It was a great race all around. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
