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Darrell Wallace Jr. wins the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race at Columbus Motor Speedway in Ohio
Darrell Wallace Jr. won the inaugural NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race at Columbus Motor Speedway in Ohio and breathed some life into his championship pursuit.
NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Racer Darrell Wallace Jr.
A week after posting one of his worst results in his NASCAR K&N Pro Series East career, Wallace took the lead early in the Jegs 150, at Columbus Motor Speedway, and won his second race of the season.
More importantly, Wallace moved into third place in the East Series standings and closed to 100 points behind series leader Max Gresham.
Wallace was coming off a 30th-place finish at New Hampshire International Speedway on July 15. Gresham, meanwhile, won the race at New Hampshire and built what looked like an insurmountable lead in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East standings.
Gresham finished seventh at Columbus Motor Speedway and saw his lead trimmed a bit. Brett Moffitt was third, his third podium finish in a row, and is second in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East standings, 80 points behind Gresham.
Darrell Wallace took the lead early in the Jegs 150 and won his second race of the season.
Gresham won the pole for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Jegs 150 and led the first 34 laps of the race. Wallace passed Gresham on lap 35 and held the lead for the rest of the race.
Rookie Alex Bowman was the only driver to challenge Wallace for the lead over the second half of the race, but couldn't get passed him.
"Alex Bowman gave me a run for my money there," Wallace said. "He had a good run on me and I just want to thank him so much for running me clean. I got into him at Bowman Gray but we talked about it earlier and it's all good."
Bowman finished second in the race, followed by Moffitt, Matt DiBenedetto and Daniel Suarez, a rookie from Mexico, in fifth. It was the best career NASCAR K&N Pro Series East finish for Suarez.
The Columbus Motor Speedway race Jegs 150 will be broadcast on Speed on Aug. 6 at 6 p.m. ET.
The next NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race is at Greenville Pickens Speedway in South Carolina on Sept. 5.
Belli has raced Pikes Peak three times and has never finished off the podium.
The still icy Colorado Springs air bites hard at 4:30 in the morning as racers prepare for the 89th running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on June 26. The world's most famous hill climb event, nicknamed "The Race to the Clouds" broke a bunch of records this year, and may well go down as the most successful of them all since the race began in 1916. On a morning that has even the sun reluctant to emerge from behind the Rocky Mountains, Italy's Marco Belli and his Zaeta ready themselves for their assault up the big dog.
The Zaeta DT 530 continues to gather attention with its impressive showings by Marco Belli at events such as the 2011 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
After all the usual suspects, Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Ducati, BMW and all the others, took their runs up the infamous 12.42 mile course to the 14,110-foot summit, it was Belli and his Zaeta DT 530 taking third place in the 750cc class and a remarkable seventh place overall (over 90 motorcycles from 125cc to 1200cc).
"I competed with my own bike, a Zaeta DT 530, which I built by myself," Belli told K&N Race News. "I'm directly involved in Zaeta project, which is a flat-track racing bike, now available on the market." Zaeta also offers a street legal model.
Belli and his Zaeta took third place in the 750cc class, and a remarkable seventh place overall.
The Ouroboros Zaeta is the dirt track bike preferred by Valentino Rossi's son Graziano. It was in fact Graziano and Paolo Chiaia that created the Italian-made 530cc single-cylinder.
"This was my third time at Pikes Peak," Belli said. "In 2007 I got second, and in 2008 I also got third, all in the 750cc class."
Not surprisingly, Belli is a very accomplished flat-track racer, "I won three English National Championships (2005, 2007, 2008), three Italian national titles (2001, 2002, 2010), and two European Mefo Cup (2008, 2010)." Belli has also raced flat-track in the US, "I raced AMA flat-track (amateur and Pro), and I also raced in the Nashville, Tennessee AMA Supermotos one time," the K&N sponsored rider added.
Belli currently leads the Italian Flat-Track Championship. "We have already got three races," Belli says, "And there are four more to finish. When I think about it, I feel like I've always used K&N products. My first bike was a moped 50cc Piaggio, which I learned to tune in my garage, and as I grew up I always thought about replacing every stock filter with K&N's."
Allen Johnson grabbed his second pole in a row at Bandimere Speedway
It certainly wasn't easy and didn't come right out of the box, but NHRA Pro Stock Driver Allen Johnson showed during the second day of qualifying during the Mopar NHRA Mile High Nationals, that he and his team have got what it takes for high-altitude tuning when they grabbed their second pole in a row at the event.
NHRA Pro Stock Driver Allen Johnson at Mopar NHRA Mile High Nationals
Pro Stock qualifying for the Bandimere Speedway event was dominated during the first day of activities by eventual event champion, K&N's Mike Edwards after he made the quickest passes of both sessions one and two to hang on to the number one position, at least overnight. Johnson struggled during the first session, pushing the clutch in early and coasted to a 9.249. In session two, Johnson and his team looked more like themselves when they made a serious threat to steal away the number one from Edwards, but they would have to wait until Saturday to make that happen.
Saturday was a whole new ballgame for the driver from Tennessee. During the third session, Johnson jumped up to grab the number one spot, just edging Edwards by five thousandths of a second, with his 6.983. And he and his Mopar sponsored Dodge Avenger weren't finished just yet.
With an adjusted altitude of nearly ten thousand feet, these naturally aspirated Pro Stock engines don't have a whole lot of 'air' to work with and their performance is affected much more than the nitro classes. Johnson and his team still had a few tricks up their sleeve thanks to the extensive testing they have conducted in these conditions and it truly showed in the fourth and final session.
As the pairings go in professional qualifying, Johnson and Edwards were one and two on the sheet coming into the final session and would run each other as the final pair. Edwards made a good run and picked up another two-thousandths, but it would be Johnson making the biggest leap and jockeyed back to the back to the pole that V. Gaines tried to take away in the pair just prior.
"We've tested a lot at this track the last few years and have built up a lot of very valuable data that has contributed to our success," he noted after qualifying was completed on Saturday. "We feel that this is our race, and we do everything we can to perform at our very best level. Tomorrow's conditions should be very similar to what we had today, and we actually left a little bit on the table on that 6.97 run. So there's a chance that we could improve slightly during Sunday's eliminations."
While the number one qualifier was the first for Johnson since the points were reset for the 2012 K&N Horsepower Challenge just three races ago at Norwalk, it was his second of the season, seventeenth of his career, not to mention his third at this very event. With the Denver number one, Johnson acquired the maximum qualifying points of one-hundred and seventy-five, along with the widely appreciated $3,000 low-qualifier bonus check from K&N Engineering.
"You get better with every run. Hopefully you improve with every run. Dad tunes these Hemi engines better with every run. It's a progression. It isn't that we are pulling a rabbit out of the hat, we're just getting better," said Johnson.
It's still anyone's game for the 2012 K&N Horsepower Challenge, but each driver takes each and every race as serious as the next. With a $50,000 payday for the Challenge Champion, the biggest single day payout for any NHRA professional category, each qualifying point is precious to guarantee one's spot in the elite eight. Currently, Erica Enders sits at number one with Jason Line behind fifteen points at number two and Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson and Allen Johnson wrapping up the top five.
The Bandimere event kicked off the "Western Swing", a three race in a row portion of the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle schedule. Next the team's head to Infineon Raceway, in Sonoma, California before wrapping up the "Swing" the following week in Seattle, Washington.
It takes a special breed of riders to compete in flat-track motorcycle racing. Getting on a two-wheel missile, sliding into turns at over 130mph in huge packs on tracks as big as a mile is enough to rattle the nerves of even the most experienced competition riders. And that's why some may have been surprised when Lloyd Brothers Motorsports decided to go with 18-year-old rookie Brad Baker when selecting a rider for their twins program in 2011.
Getting on two-wheels and sliding into turns at over 130mph on tracks as big as a mile is enough to rattle the nerves of even the most experienced competition riders.
But Baker quickly proved that talent, no matter how experienced, can compete at the highest levels of the sport when paired with the right team.
"We talked to a couple of the established top guys, but thank goodness for those unanswered prayers," team owner Dave Lloyd said. "Brad has been a real solid fit with this team and is a breath of fresh air."
Baker has shined all season long. In his first start, he set fast time in all three practice and qualifying sessions, won his heat race, and led 9 laps before settling for a 5th place finish at the famed Springfield Mile in Illinois. After a hiccup in the teams second event of the year, they rebounded for a 4th place on the half-mile in Lima, Ohio.
"It's been great racing for Lloyd Brothers this year," Baker said. "Ever since the first test before Sprinfield, I've felt comfortable on the bike and with the team. It feels awesome being on a team that I can actually have personal relationships with, instead of just showing up and riding."
While most teams would do the mentoring, Lloyd thinks that Baker has brought just as much to his organization as Lloyd Brothers Motorsports has brought to Baker.
"I think we are bringing each other along, actually. We support Brad as he learns what it's like being an expert and riding a twin," Lloyd added. "On Brad's end, he is open minded about riding the Ducati. He gives great feedback and is adapting himself to get the most out of the bike each time out."
Baker has used his rookie status to his advantage this season. "Nobody expects you to win," he astutely pointed out. "So you have less pressure on your shoulders. Of course I set my goals as high as I can, but without the pressure, I just go out and ride."
With 10 events left in 2011, Baker and the team have their eyes set on a win. The team is supremely confident that it has found a rider to forge a relationship with for many years to come. "He's smooth, calculating and aggressive. He truly is one of the professionals in the paddock," Lloyd said.
Baker has his eyes set on a National Championship, a pretty lofty goal for a rookie. But with such a successful early start to the season, Rookie of the Year honors seem to be almost guaranteed, and Baker feels it's time to set the goals higher. If the dream does come true, K&N Filters will be right there with them.
"Lloyd Brothers Motorsports depend exclusively on K&N Products for our air and oil filter requirements. Motorcycle flat track racing is a brutal, dirty environment. K&N Filters keep the inside of our motorcycle engines clean and free of any unwanted dirt and dust while at the same time making the most horsepower that they are capable of making," Lloyd said. "We also use K&N products in our transporter to get us to the track.
Our transporter runs much better with our K&N filter kit and it even gets better fuel mileage."
Lawson says the A310 is difficult to drive, as it was never meant to race on a track, but it is also a lot of fun.
The Dutch Youngtimer Touring Car Challenge is widely popular with racing fans throughout Europe, the races are always exciting and highly competitive, and with races at Hockenheim, Zolder, Spa Francorchamps, Le Mans and Zandvoort, drivers get a chance to drive on some of the most popular circuits in Europe. Yet, perhaps even more important to the series' overall popularity is that the racecars are attainable. "This historic race series is for cars from the 1970's and 1990's," explained team Jaronn Equipe founder and driver, Randall Lawson.
The newly rebuilt and repainted 1979 Renault Alpine was the talk of the paddock at the Le Mans Bugatti Circuit.
Lawson was born in 1962, in Amsterdam, the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. Like so many racers he got his start racing go-karts. In 2000 Lawson jumped into racing Touring Car where is talent quickly flourished. Lawson has so far collected four Dutch Touring Car Series Championships, including the 2009 Youngtimer Division II Championship.
"We made the decision to race with an unusual car, our Renault Alpine A310 V6, which was not intended as a circuit racer, but as a rally car. We took up the challenge and created a circuit winner," commented Lawson after winning the 2009 Championship.
The pink K&N sponsored Alpine continues to outrun the likes of Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, Lotus and any other comers in its age bracket.
Today, the Renault Alpine still successfully competes against the Ford Escort MKI and II, Porsche 914, 964 and 911, De Tomaso Panteras, Ferrari, Mini Cooper, Opel Kadett GTE, Opel Commodore, BMW M3 E30 and 325i, Lotus 47 and even a Trabant (once produced by East German automaker VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke).
Team Jaronn Equipe continues to find ways to keep the Alpine in front of the competition.
In fact, only five weeks after a destructive crash at Zolder racetrack in Belgium, the uniquely painted Alpine A310 and Lawson scored yet another victory at Le Mans Bugatti Circuit. Driving a rebuilt car the K&N sponsored driver was once again too fast for the competition in his class.
"Five weeks was not much time, but enough to make a new winner out of it," added Lawson. With its new pink paintjob the car was the talk of the paddock and attracted a big crowd.
