PUEBLO, Colo (June 17, 2012) – Round Four of the 2012 SCCA Club Racing Majors Championship concluded on Father’s Day at the Rocky Mountain Invitational. The Invitational event featured 10 SafeRacer National Series classes, with a round of racing on Saturday followed by a 10-lap qualifying race on Sunday morning and a 21-lap feature race later in the afternoon.
Michael Pettiford opened the day with a win in the qualifying race behind the wheel of the Super Touring Under class No. 41 Go 4 It Racing Schools/Hoosier Tire Pontiac Solstice. Once on pole, Pettiford led flag-to-flag over the 21-lap race for his second win of the weekend.
In the same group, Bill Tolley got the jump on the Spec Miata field from the second position in the No. 69 Speedracers Mazda Miata, but polesitter and qualifying race winner Mark Franklin chased him down in the No. 25 Rocky Mountain Petrophysics/Race-Keeper Miata for his second win of the weekend.
Tyler Hunter’s No. 22 Volkswagen Vortech won the Formula Vee qualifying race to start Group 2 from the overall pole, but problems knocked him from the feature race on lap seven. Paul Eric Taylor’s No. 47 Mysterian crossed the stripe just 0.784 second ahead of Mark Felson’s No. 4 Fones West Digital Systems Vortech for the win. David Vincent went flag-to-flag for his second Formula 500 win of the weekend in the No. 5 XT Racing/Rod End Supply KBS Mk VII.
Group 3 featured an action-packed race, with the battle for the E Production lead coming down to just a couple of laps to go. John Longwell’s polesitting No. 38 LEDfoot Motorsports BMW 328is and Rick Krosdrosky’s No. 77 Kosmic Enterprises/Over Fifty Motorsports Caterham 7 made contact with just a couple of laps remaining in Turn Nine, sending both cars off track and bringing out a one lap full-course caution. Both cars were able to continue, though the caution pace allowed Rick Harris’ No. 8 JPM/Hoosier/Red Line/Hawk Mazda Miata to close to F Production leader Eric Prill’s No. 7 Jesse Prather Motorsports/Hoosier Tire/OS Giken Mazda Miata.
Longwell motored by on the restart, but both Prill and Harris moved back around for the overall lead and continued to battle for the class win. Harris made a move for the lead with one lap to go, but couldn’t make the pass stick and Prill took the overall and class win. Longwell held on for his victory, with Alex Burnett’s No. 76 Datsun 510 winning in H Production.
Rusell Lindemann scored Group 4’s overall win in the No. 16 Rocky Mountain Tire and Auto Formula Mazda, his second win of the weekend following his second pole position. Sunday’s win came in 100 degree temperatures, quite the contrast from a wet Formula Mazda race on Saturday. John Butkovich’s Formula F polesitting No. 23 Front Range Motorsports Van Diemen RF00 only lasted seven of the 21 laps, with teammate William Brown inheriting the lead and taking the win in the No. 161 Front Range Motorsports Swift DB-1.
The weekend concluded with Michael Cameron driving the No. 10 machine around polesitter Steve Stansfield’s No. 29 Realtec Spec Racer Ford for a 5.645-second win.
More information on the SCCA Majors Championship is available at www.scca.com/majors.
Rocky Mountain Majors Invitational
