Where there are no limits, there’s Super Unlimited, and this year’s field was populated with some fast and interesting cars.
At the green flag, Freda jumped out to an early lead over Palmer’s West WX10 racer with Davison not far behind. Then a full-course caution was enacted when ST2 driver Greg Vannucci dropped two wheels at the exit of Turn 12 and spun backward into the inside wall on the front straight. Fortunately, Vannucci exited his car and walked to the ambulance on his own. The field circulated while the crews cleared the car and the debris from the course.
When the track went green again, there wasn’t much time left in the race. Still, for Palmer, there proved to be too much time left. His car suffered mechanical troubles in the closing laps and dropped out of the lead to finish third.
“I had a great race up till second or third to last lap,” Palmer said. “I felt a pop in the rear and then the car wouldn’t turn right anymore, so I just limped the rest of the race. I don’t know what it is yet. It was disappointing, but I’m glad everybody made it out of the race. It was a good race. Everybody was sportsmanlike out there, and I had a lot of fun until the car broke.”
Freda, whose driver cooling system broke on the second lap, finished second in his 1972 Camaro.
“All that physical fitness training came in handy,” Freda said. “The car was good. We were pretty even in the corners but he was leaving me on the straights, so I just kind of settled in. We finished where the car should have finished. It was perfect.”
Mike Howard piloted his C6 Corvette from sixth on grid to a first-place finish and a Championship.
“I got caught up in traffic and he started pulling out on me and I was trying to catch him in the straightaways, and then I got caught up in the same traffic he was in, and by the grace of God, I saw him start going up in smoke and slowing down,” Howard said. “So I hammered it down and kept it going.”
