ACRL: American City Racing League season opener race report

Peter Zarcades, Team Las Vegas Take ACRL Victory at Phoenix's Children's Hospital Benefit - Dubrovich, Schroeder Capture Class Wins in ACRL Season Opener

Phoenix, AZ April 1, 2001 - Peter Zarcades picked up where he left off his 2000 Championship season, starting 2001 with a win from the pole. Zarcades is already ahead of last year's pace, when he came away from the Phoenix season opener with only sixth-place points, but went on to win six poles and four races in 2000. Qualifying, held in 90 degree plus temperatures on Saturday afternoon, didn't yield any new records, although Zarcades had been four-tenths of a second under last year's qualifying record in practice.

At the green flag, Zarcades' Team Las Vegas Pennzoil-sponsored Swift rocketed away from second fastest qualifier John Ostlund of Team Fresno and Team Hollywood's Fiorenzo Tirinnanzi. Zarcades' Las Vegas teammate Brad Pierce slotted into fourth, followed by Denver's Marvin Jones, who had qualified fifth. Tirinnanzi spun on lap two, dropping to sixth, but worked his way back to fourth, where he remained despite a badly deteriorating right front tire. Marvin was running in fourth, but came up with a transmission full of neutrals on lap six, and retired. Zarcades built his lead to about five seconds, then maintained that interval to second-place Ostlund for the remainder of the race. Ostlund had his hands full with Pierce, and the pair remained locked in battle right to the end of the race. Brad Krause, returning to the series for Team Fresno, moved to fifth on lap nine, and held the position to the checker, with Dave Jansen of Team Salinas behind him in sixth. Promising newcomer Chad McQueen of Team San Diego was unable to start the race due to overheating problems.

Although Super Sports 2000 cars occupied the first five finishing positions, Dan Dubrovich brought his Sports 2000 Doran home first in class for Team San Diego, winning from the class pole. Dubrovich was absolutely dominant, qualifying .8 second faster than second-place Ferguson, and winning by a margin of 52.4 seconds. Behind him was one of the best races of the day, as Team Denver's Jeff Littrell passed 2000 Champion and S2 Rookie of the Year David Ferguson for second place on lap three. Littrell maintained the position for 20 laps, but his ignition went south just 7 circuits from the end, and he finished a disappointing fifth in class. Ferguson hung on for second, followed home by Littrell's teammate Doug Ota and Jay Messenger of Team San Diego. Gary Holcomb took a class sixth for Team Hollywood. Lone S16 entrant Paul Schroeder finished 13th overall, an appropriate number given the bad luck of an evil-handling, brakeless car. Thanks to Schroeder's points, added to the first and third of Zarcades and Pierce, Las Vegas took the team crown by a considerable margin. As icing on the cake, the promoters of the event, Phoenix Region SCCA, awarded Pierce the "Best in Show" placque and a $250 check, with $250 also donated to the Phoenix Children's Hospital. Special thanks to JoAnne Jensen and the Arizona Region SCCA for a great event.

The American City Racing League will return to Phoenix on April 21 as part of the Grand American Road Racing weekend. The ACRL series, using a unique team racing concept, races Cosworth-powered Super Sports 2000, Ford-engined Sports 2000, and Toyota-powered Sports 1600 cars, with drivers required to run Hoosier ACRL-stamped R-45 compound tires and Union 76 Racing Fuel.

<pre> Phoenix Childrens Hospital Race Results:

Finishing position, start position ( ), driver, team, chassis, class, laps complete, qualifying time, best race lap, reason out (if any).

1 (1) Peter Zarcades, Las Vegas, Swift, SS2, 30, 1: 00.161, 1:00.637 2 (2) John Ostlund, Fresno, Carbir, SS2, 30, 1:00.526, 1:01.486 3 (4) Brad Pierce, Las Vegas, Carbir, SS2, 30, 1:00.922, 1:01.302 4 (3) Fiorenzo Tirinnanzi, Hollywood, Carbir, SS2, 30, 1:00.703, 1:00.714 5 (7) Brad Krause, Fresno, Carbir, SS2, 30, 1:02.365, 1:02.249 6 (6) Dan Dubrovich, San Diego, Doran, S2, 29, 1:02.138, 1:02.332 7 (10) David Jansen, Salinas, Lola, SS2, 29, 1:04.090, 1:04.062 8 (8) David Ferguson, Salinas, Swift, S2, 29, 1:02.950, 1:03.698 9 (12) Doug Ota, Denver, Swift, S2, 28, 1:05.308, 1:04.220 10 (13) Jay Messenger, San Diego, Swift, S2, 28 1:05.610, 1:06.342 11 (9) Jeff Littrell, Denver, Swift, S2, 28, 1:03.650, 1:03.524 12 (14) Gary Holcomb, Hollywood, Swift, S2, 27, 1:05.857, 1:06.428 13 (15) Paul Schroeder, Las Vegas, SVC, S16, 18, No Time, 1:07.794 14 (5) Marvin Jones, Denver, Carbir, SS2, 6, 1:01.157, 1:02.562 15 (11) Chad McQueen, San Diego, Swift, SS2, 1:04.761, DNS 16 (DNS) Dennis Pavlina, Fresno, Doran, SS2, DNS, DNS

Race Time:  31:01.972              Race Length:  45.3 Miles
Track Length: 1.51 miles       

SS2 Fastest Race Lap: 1:00.637 (Zarcades) SS2 Winner's Margin of Victory: 6.201 seconds S2 Fastest Race Lap: 1:02.332 (Dubrovich) S2 Winner's Margin of Victory: 52.342 S16 Fastest Race Lap: 1:07.794 (Schroeder) S16 S2 Winner's Margin of Victory: N/A

Phoenix Team Points: Las Vegas 245 Denver 180 Fresno 173 Salinas 143 Hollywood 142 San Diego 142

2001 SS2 DRIVER POINTS 2001 S2 DRIVER POINTS AFTER 1 RACE: AFTER 1 RACE: 1 Zarcades 102 1 Dubrovich 102 2 Ostlund 93 2 Ferguson 93 3 Pierce 88 3 Ota 88 4 Tirinnanzi 84 4 Messenger 84 5 Krause 80 5 Littrell 80 6 Jansen 76 6 Holcomb 76 7 Jones 73

2001 S1600 DRIVER POINTS AFTER 1 RACE: 1 Schroeder 100 2001 TEAM POINT STANDINGS (AFTER 1 RACE) 1 Las Vegas 245 2 Denver 180 3 Fresno 173 4 Salinas 143 5 Hollywood 142 San Diego 142

- Roger Diez