ACRL: Sears Point race report round seven

Sonoma, CA October 14, 2000 - Peter Zarcades took his Team Las Vegas Swift to another dominating victory in round seven of the eight-race American City Racing League season, taking a wire-to-wire victory from pole position with a 28.868 second margin of victory. The win also clinched the first Drivers Championship for Zarcades, an ACRL regular for all 13 years of the series' existence. A first-lap tangle in Turn One took three of the fastest cars out of contention, eliminating second and third quickest qualifiers Fiorenzo Tirinnanzi (Team Hollywood, Carbir) and Steve Romak (Team Fresno, Carbir), and putting John Ostlund (Team Fresno ,Carbir) at the back of the field after a pit stop to check for damage. While Zarcades motored away from the field, Margie Smith-Haas (Team San Diego ,Falcon) settled into second place ahead of Sandra Popescu (Team Salinas, Swift) who held third until she severed a plug wire on lap eight and began dropping back through the pack. Ostlund, recovering from his tail-end restart, moved smartly through the pack and was pressing Smith-Haas for second when a full-course caution came out on the final lap for the stalled Team Denver Lola of newcomer Ron Gangemi in Turn 11. A frustrated Ostlund was forced to hold position behind Smith-Haas for the final go-round, taking third at the flag. Battles for position raged all the way through the field from green flag to checker, with Marvin Jones (Denver, Carbir) taking his series-best finish, a fourth place in class.

The Aerocell Sports 2000 battle was a dandy, with polesitter Michael Scully running as high as third overall for much of the race, and second fast qualifier David Ferguson (Team Salinas, Swift) stalking him all the way. The win, combined with two points for pole, gave Scully the points lead in class, just three counters ahead of Feguson going into Sunday's season finale. Team Denver's Jeff Littrell, who had showed much promise earlier in the season, returned to the series and captured a podium finish in third aboard his Swift. Harry Hoffman, in only his second ACRL outing, came home fourth in S2 with his Team Fresno Swift after a race-long battle with the Team Denver Swift of Doug Ota. Paul Shroeder, the lone Sports 1600 entry, mixed it up with a number of the Sports 2000 cars and thoroughly enjoyed his uncontested first in class.

Team Las Vegas took a well-deserved team victory, which was unusual in that three of the four team drivers had captured the pole in their respective classes: Zarcades in SS2, Scully in S2, and Schroeder in S16. An ecstatic Chris Ronson joined the wreath-adorned trio on the podium, and was presented one of his own for the team win. It was Ronson's first ACRL race in the 2000 season since he was sidelined with ankle injuries in the Rolex 24 at Daytona early in the year. Denver maintains the team points lead by a mere 10 markers over Las Vegas and Salinas, who are tied for second.

The American City Racing League Western Division, using a unique team racing concept, races Cosworth-powered Super Sports 2000, Aerocell-sponsored Sports 2000, and Toyota-powered Sports 1600 cars, with drivers required to run Hoosier ACRL-stamped R-45 compound tires and Union 76 110 octane Racing Fuel.

Sears Point October 14 Race Results:

<pre> 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, 14, 1:34.973, 1:37.916 2 (5) Margie Smith-Haas, San Diego, Falcon, SS2, 14, 1:38.928, 1:40.422 3 (4) John Ostlund, Fresno, Carbir, SS2, 14, 1:37.880, 1:39.577 4 (6) Michael Scully, Las Vegas, SR71, S2, 14, 1:39.872, 1:41.208 5 (7) David Ferguson, Salinas, Swift, S2, 14, 1:40.422, 1:41.154 6 (8) Marvin Jones, Denver, Carbir, SS2, 14, 141.056:, 1:42.357 7 (10) Jeff Littrell, Denver, Swift, S2, 14, 1:42.805, 1:42.618 8 (12) Harry Hoffman, Salinas, Swift, S2, 14, 1:43.132, 1:42.622 9 (DNQ) Chris Ronson, Las Vegas, Carbir, SS2, 14, NT, 1:42.418 10 (9) David Jansen, Salinas, Lola, SS2, 14, 1:41.799, 1:43.921 11 (13) Doug Ota, Denver, Swift, S2, 14, 1:44.619, 1:45.658 12 (14) Gary Holcomb, Hollywood, Swift, S2, 14, 1:45.448, 1:45.457 13 (15) Paul Schroeder, Las Vegas, SVC, S16, 14, 1:45.933, 1:47.507 14 (11) Sandra Popescu, Salinas, Swift, SS2, 13, 1:43.049, 1:42.806 15 (18) Ron Gangemi, Denver, Lola, 11, 1:46.547, 1:47.778, Spin 16 (2) Fiorenzo Tirinnanzi, Hollywood, Carbir, SS2, 1, 135.022:, 4:27.415, Accident 17 (3) Steve Romak, Fresno, Carbir, SS2, 0, 1:35.903, NT, Accident

Race Time: 28:49.036 Race Length: 35.28 miles Track Length: 2.520 miles SS2 Margin of Victory: 28.868 seconds S2 Margin of Victory: 1.039 seconds SS2 Fastest Race Lap: 1:37.916 (Zarcades) SS2 Pole: 1:34.973 (Zarcades) S2 Fastest Race Lap: 1:41.154 (Ferguson) S2 Pole: 1:39.872 (Scully) S16 Fastest Race Lap: 1:47.507 (Schroeder) S16 Pole: 1:45.933 (Schroeder)

Sears Point October 14 Team Points: 1 Las Vegas 255 2 Salinas 214 3 Denver 210 4 Fresno 140 5 Hollywood 113 6 San Diego 93

SS2 DRIVER POINTS AEROCELL S2 DRIVER POINTS BEST 6 OF 7 RACES: BEST 6 OF 7 RACES: 1 Peter Zarcades 547 1 Michael Scully 568 2 Fiorenzo Tirinnanzi 494 2 David Ferguson (R) 565 3 Margie Smith-Haas 489 3 Doug Ota (R) 484 4 David Jansen (R) 435 4 Gary Holcomb (R) 445 5 Sandra Popescu 434 5 Jeff Littrell (R) 425 6 Marvin Jones (R) 425 6 Joe Moran (R) 403 7 Stephen Romak 355 7 Harry Hoffman (R) 160 8 John Ostlund 340 8 Joe Casanova 157 9 Dennis Pavlina 314 9 Ernie Spada (R) 93 10 Rick Lee 266 10 Leo Giroski\ 84 11 Brad Pierce 235 11 Jeff Anderson (R) 76 12 Jay Messenger 219 12 John Bachofner 73 13 Bob Schader 193 Roger Heyl (R) 73 14 John Hill 181 Ron Gangemi 73 15 Tom Kreger 93 15 Erik Giroski (R) 70 16 Rick Ferguson 84 16 Jeff Read (R) 70 17 Chris Ronson 80 17 Bob Levenson 67 18 Eddie Jones (R) 61 18 Dan Dubrovich 0 * 19 Rick Eickhoff 58 19 Duke Johnson 0 * 20 Duke Johnson 0 20 John Burke 0 *

* Western Division points transferred to Eastern Division

S1600 DRIVER POINTS TEAM POINT STANDINGS Best 6 of 7 RACES: (AFTER 7 RACES) 1 Mel Hawkins 481 1 Denver 1343 2 Steve Knight 453 2 Las Vegas 1333 3 Mike Anderson 288 3 Salinas 1333 4 Paul Schroeder 204 4 Hollywood 1114 5 Phil Fogg 173 5 San Diego 1060 6 Mark Kenworthy 168 6 Fresno 993 7 Graham Fotheringham 88 7 Portland 779 8 Los Angeles 269 9 Tampa 140 10 Vancouver 99