Turnout for Camaro-Mustang Challenge at the 2015 Eastern States Championships wasn’t what we had hoped four. Just four cars made the trip, and because of mechanical attrition, only two cars made it to the finish line. But four cars is enough for a Championship, and NASA crowned a winner at the end of the race.
Russ Carter had started from pole, but the CMC field was the last field to take the green, so they were most affected by a collision between Elliott Fisher and Team Sarsfeld Racing between turns 3 and 4.
“I got a lousy start,” Carter said. “I guess I won the burnout contest when the green flag dropped. We do standing starts. I was able to stay with the pack. The yellow kept us all together. It’s unfortunate when we’re running in the back of the Thunder group that something happens in front of us and we have to deal with sometimes adverse track conditions, car parts on the track or double yellows.”
After the lap-five double yellow, Carter matted the accelerator and tried to distance himself from second place to take the win.
“It was an absolute blast,” Carter said. “Luckily I already know all my competitors, so it’s an absolute blast to run with people you already know. And I’ve met a lot of other neat people in other classes here, too, so I think I’m going have to expand my geography and start running in other regions I don’t normally go to.”
Bill Purdy got the better of Carter from the start and was all set to draft with a partner, who suffered a mechanical and dropped out. Purdy finished second.
“I got a pretty good start,” Purdy said. “I spun them a little bit, but I got them to hook and got Russ off the start. I was all ready to push the guy in the front and then he had the mechanical. I had the lead coming out of the black flag, so I thought it best to hold my position, play some defense, because I had a pretty loose car. I was either going to give up the spot or spin it into the weeds, but I kept in sight of the leader, but I couldn’t quite get there.”
That left Chris Morris behind in third, but even he suffered a mechanical and dropped out. But because he finished more laps than the other DNF, Morris took third.
“We actually had a great start, but the car started acting up and it didn’t want to go anywhere,” Morris said. “It was a mass air problem, I think. So after a couple of laps, I got tired of dealing with that, so I made it one more lap than the guy who didn’t finish and I was lucky enough to get third.”
