RJRacing

The unofficial race results are in and RJ Racing has finished third in class in their first Championship Race. The team is still awaiting official results as post race technical scrutineering has not been completed.

John started second in class behind the #7 of Randy Evans and in front of the #97 of Mike Rose, a Southern California competitor with a very powerful car. The Pole sitter led the field to the green flag at a slower than usual rate to try to eeke out any advantage over the much more powerful #97 car. The strategy worked and John held the second spot for the first lap. However, the vastly superior horsepower of the #97 car was able to overtake John’s #23 Weekend-Racer Mazda MX-5 on the long front straight. John held as close as he could to the bumper of the 97 car while building a gap on the #20 car of Bruce Pendleton, the 4th place car that John had battled in the previous qualifying races.

All was going according to plan until John approached the flat out turn 4. Dust was in the air and cars where flying off track left and right. John turned in for the corner and the car continued straight, aimed right for the dirt. A quick correction of the wheel and the car stayed on track. But a quick glimpse showed the first and second place cars in the dirt. The leading #7 car blew an engine and covered the track with oil. Mike Rose’s #97 car also couldn’t stay on track and spin out in the dirt. RJ Racing was now leading but behind the pace car with lap traffic up ahead and a fast Bruce Pendleton behind. The #97 car was able to get back on track and caught up to the pack awaiting the restart.

On the restart John got caught behind lap traffic and was passed on the restart putting him in second. Even worse, the lap traffic was slowing him down and making it difficult to stay with the leading #20 car. With time running out, both John and Bruce were easily overtaken by the more powerful #97 car of Mike Rose down the long Tooele straight.

The final top 3 finishing order on track:

1. Mike Rose
2. Bruce Pendleton
3. John Gibson, RJ Racing

An unofficial third place is a great result for the team’s first National Championship event at new track for RJ Racing. The official results will be available once the sanctioning body finishes their check of the winning car’s horsepower number to make sure it is compliant with the rules.