AI/SI Race Report Mid Ohio April 17-19

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AI race report from Mid Ohio April 17-19, Great Lakes region. Another great AI/SI race weekend! Just something to get you excited for the upcoming NASA Eastern State Championships AI and SI race!

 

NASA Great Lakes, American Iron, Spec Iron, AIX, Race Report

Mid Ohio April 18-19, 2015

NASA Great Lakes opened the 2015 racing season at Mid Ohio Sport Car Course.

 

Perfect spring weather for the weekend. The track was very green from the winter, but getting better with all of the laps being run on it and the sun keeping it warm. In American Iron, two time and defending series champion Jeff Wood driving the FordRacingParts123.com Mustang was on pole for Saturday’s race. Followed by Jason Lakomiak in 2nd, Elliott Fisher in the KEPICH FORD Mustang in 3rd, Todd Davis in 4th and Mickey Remen in 5th in his ‘new to me’ rare Boss S Mustang. In Spec Iron Audrey Zavodsky in the Poe Motorsports Mustang was on pole with Brent Dominy in 2nd.

At the start Lakomiak got a good run ahead of Wood. Fisher had his typical great start and got along side of Wood. Lakomiak got in the middle of the ST class cars in front at the breaking zone for turn 6. This bottled up the rest of the field at the turn in with Davis and Remen right behind Wood and Fisher. Zavodsky and Dominy were also trying to get through the congestion. Lakomiak was able to pass a few out of class cars to put some space between him and Wood/Fisher. This went on for a few laps until we had an incident at the entrance of Thunder Valley. That brought out the double yellow flags to clean up the track. It also tightened up the distance between Fisher, Wood and Lakomiak. Fisher was able to get ahead of Wood before the double yellow came out, but still had 2 cars between his and Lakomiak. Remen and Davis got closer to Wood, but they had cars in between the battle as well. At Mid Ohio restarts are at the start-fish line on the front straight away as opposed to race starts that are on the back straight away. This bottles up the cars single file in the tight and twisty carousel. When the green came out Fisher had a great jump. He passed Lakomiak add 3 cars ahead of him. Lakomiak quickly got behind Fisher to follow him though the other cars and stay close to the new leader. Lakomiak got a good run out of the keyhole behind Fisher. He was not able to pass at the end of the back straight, but forced Fisher to take the inside line. Lakomiak was then able to use the outside line to get along side of Fisher and then pass in Turn 8. After the restart Wood was stuck with cars between him and the Fisher/Lakomiak battle. Davis and Remen also had cars between them and Wood. Lakomiak kept the lead for the win followed by Fisher in 2nd, Wood in 3rd, Davis in 4th and Remen in 5th. Zavodsky stay just behind the Davis/Remen battle to get the SI win. Dominy was 2nd.

 

In AI qualifying Lakomiak and Wood battled for the pole. Each driver looking for some space to get a clean lap in. Lakomiak came out on top with the pole on the last lap. Zavodsky had the pole for SI. The weather all weekend was warm, sunny and dry. A perfect spring weekend. But, that was going to change right around the start of the race. A large band of rain was moving in and drivers where left to decide if a dry or rain setup would be the ticket to victory. Most, if not all of the car kept a dry setup. But a light rain was coming down when they when out on the formation lap. Lakomiak had a good start from pole and keep the lead when they came out of madness. Wood had keep in touch and had 2nd followed by Fisher in 3rd, Davis in 4th and Remen in 5th. Lakomiak did a good job of working through traffic and had a little gap between himself and Wood. Wood and Fisher kept pushing to keep up. A competitor leaked oil from the start of the carousel to pit entrance. This caught Lakomiak and he went off into the grass. As he was trying to get back on track Wood and Fisher drove by. Davis also slide off the track as with several other cars in the same spot. Soon after the double yellow came out. This packed up the AI field with Wood in 1st, Fisher in 2nd and Lakomiak in 3rd. Wood had a good restart and had Fisher and Lakomiak battling behind him. Remen and Davis where behind the top 3 with out of class cars in-between. Lakomiak fell back from Fisher after 3 laps. Wood kept putting in good laps keeping the lead, but Fisher didn’t give up. The two cars kept the battle on until the end of the race. Wood got the win followed by Fisher in 2nd, Lakomiak in 3rd Remen in 4th and Davis in 5th. In spec Iron Zavodsky got the SI win, Dominy was 2nd. Soon after the race the rain came down!

 

- Jason Lakomiak, NASA Great Lakes AI/AIX/SI Series Director

This race report did not make Speed News due to confusion on how to submit and missing the deadline. (my fault)