Fresh off a win at Chuckwalla in February, Ryan Pond started Saturday’s race from third only to lose two spots in Turn 1. He got one back in Turn 3 when he repassed Hannah Grisham, who had started behind him. Pond and Rob Burgoon got a little too close early on in the fast Turn 8 and Pond dropped two wheels and fell back. He was back on Burgoon’s bumper at the exit of Turn 9 the next lap and around him the next time into Turn 2. After that, Pond was gone and took a convincing win. Jeremy Barnes finished second, with Burgoon in third.
For Sunday morning’s inverted qualifying race, Sean Douglass started from pole, with Grisham in second because her car broke in Saturday’s main. Marc Minasian started from third. Grisham ran away with it, earning pole position for the main race, followed by Burgoon in second Ken Saward. Barnes would have had third easily, but he ran out of gas late in the race.
For Sunday’s main, Grisham jumped ahead and maintained her lead for one lap when Burgoon got around her going into Turn 1. Double-yellows came out when a Spec E30 came to rest on its floorboards on a berm at the exit of Turn 1. At the restart, Grisham and Pond drafted past Burgoon into Turn 1 to put him back to third.
Two laps later, Pond got around Grisham to take first, a position he would hold till the end.
“The restart was awesome,” Pond said afterward. “It was Rob, Hannah and me, and Hannah had momentum so I followed her through Turn 1, gave her a little bump in the straight and we both got by Rob pretty clean, and then we were off to the races.”
Grisham ended up finishing second, her second podium of 2018.
“We both went by Rob on the restart and then after that it was just Ryan and me for the rest of the race,” Grisham said. “On the last lap, I tried to get him, but he was protecting his line, so it didn’t work, but it was a good race.”
Meanwhile, Barnes had clawed his way forward to take third away from Burgoon and hold it till the finish.
“I had a great dice with Rob Burgoon toward the end,” Barnes said. “It’s great fun racing with someone you can trust, who gives you one car width and 1 inch, not 2 inches and no less than that. I thought that Rob and I could work together to catch up to Hannah and Ryan, but it was too little too late.”
