In a change of pace, we started things off with everyone's favorite: Junior Karts! In Junior A, Riley Heaton leads Tyler Cormier in a class of 6. The kids took care of cleaning off the course (at least the inside line, hopefully) for the very competitive ladies classes. Tamra Hunt took the morning off after a drivetrain issue was spotted before competition started. Her CSP car was repaired for afternoon runs, and she went straight to the lead on her first 2 runs to lead Shelly Monfort into Sunday. L2 was subject to some confusion after Jennifer Bedel ended up with an errant time that showed her in the lead, but once things were sorted out she dropped to third behind Cindy Duncan as Rachel Baker was forced to find a ride in a C6 Corvette when her Porsche developed engine troubles. L3's leader, Laura Campbell, was able to escape mechanical difficulty to take a tenth and a half lead over Sara Odioso, with Heather Everett following in third.
In second heat, A Street led the way as Tom O’Gorman jumped into a BFG shod C6 Corvette and immediately went to work. Resident class alien Mark Daddio suffered cone troubles in the morning, but cleaned it up in the afternoon to finish 3 tenths behind O'Gorman. O'Gorman took to the Vette quickly, with his afternoon runs securing him the top spot in the PAX listing for the day. Expect Daddio to come back tomorrow with a plan of attack to try and take the top spot, while O’Gorman attempts to execute a pair of runs as perfect as his hair to keep his place at the top of the index. Over in the land of BS, it’s all C5's in the top spots. Justin Barbry leads Brian Johns with Matthe Feeney and Andrew Graul close behind.
Third heat is even more Corvettes, with SSR dominated by Hoosier shod Z06's. Matthew Braun started the day with the lead and held onto it through the afternoon as Sam Strano, Grant Reeve, and Josh Luster all within a second of him. Sunday will likely reset conditions with even more rubber on the course, and a night of pouring over data and video. Chances are these guys will be searching for thousandths of a second when all is said and done. Let's just keep talking Corvettes with CAM, also in 3rd heat. Danny Popp leads the way with a full 1.5 second lead over Mike Losert. Shawn Lambert, Jon Caserta, and Justin Lau aren't far behind, and they’ll all be battling for the 2nd spot tomorrow.
In 4th heat, CSP is a close race with class leader Billy Davis having mechanical issues. In summary, they're spending the night swapping a new head onto their Miata, with Mike Kline just 8 hundredths of a second. In ESP, Bryan Mancuso made huge changes after morning runs to take his Mustang to the top spot, just 2 tenths ahead of David Heinrich. Ron Bistrais is less than a tenth back from there in a borrowed Mustang as his car suffered mechanical issues before competition started.
That’s it for Saturday action here in Wilmington! We're off to go repair cars, rest up, and review data before tomorrow.
