Sonoma, CA Brett Smrz stops Nic LeDuc's winning streak at three. Championship Tied. Global Warming blamed for perfect weather.
The Sunday event for the November round of the Jim Russell Championship started out looking like a repeat of Saturday with Nic LeDuc posting practice times a full second faster than the rest of the field at 1:31.921. Brett Smrz and Caleb Kenney were back in the low 1:33's. This being the second day on the tires for the drivers it is expected that the times are slightly slower but LeDuc's pace was impressive nonetheless.
Qualifying for the Sunday race was the usual 2-Lap run but with a slight twist this time. The cars were not filled with fuel for qualifying which would leave more fuel load for those that chose to save their tires in practice. Smrz had his car tested and found problems requiring a switch before qualifying, Nick Galante could not get his car fired and switched cars also.
Smrz liked the switch and took the pole 1/10 of a second ahead of LeDuc with another 1/2 second to Kenney. LeDuc said he messed up turn 2 and 7 on his best lap to leave himself in second spot. Sunho Lee and Galante were close together in fourth and fifth with Rory Handel and Asseo behind. Asseo would switch cars for the race after a problem was found after qualifying.
For the start Smrz got the jump and led easily into 2 with everyone else getting through clean. Halfway around the second lap Lee made an "attempt" to pass into 7 but got it all wrong and launched himself over the curb which ended his race with suspension and gearbox damage. This left everyone else racing in pairs very close together.
At the end of lap 3 LeDuc made good time through the 125 mph turn 10 and easily out braked Smrz. Smrz got a slightly better run out of 11 and was able to challenge at the kink and the two raced nearly side-by-side into 2. Smrz slightly ahead was not going to give in too easily and claimed the corner as LeDuc went big sideways through the curbing of 2.
For the next 15 minutes Smrz stayed tough with LeDuc right there waiting for a mistake. Meanwhile, Asseo and Galante began to close on Kenney who began hving dificulty with the slower corners. All 3 would end up nose to tail at the finish with Kenney hanging on to third. Over the final 3 laps LeDuc lost touch with Smrz to finish about 7 seconds back.
With one weekend and two rounds left LeDuc leads the overall points by 1 but both are tied when only the best 8 results are counted. If the championship ended now Smrz would take title by having one more second place finish to fall back on. The weather in December could have a major effect on how this will turn out. Both LeDuc and Smrz will have to keep pushing each other to claim the championship.
