JRL: Voss And Ramsden Glitter On The Vegas Strip!
- NR2k2
- Published ()
- JustRacin League
With style the king of rock and role himself would envy the JustRacin League hit the desert oasis of Las Vegas this week! And with racing fit for King Richard there was something for everyone this week, even if your not royalty.
They say the glitz and glamour of Vegas can be a cruel mistress, but the racing this week in both divisions was well worth the effort and when all was over the racing shined like the lights of the strip.
The exceptionally tight racing that has come to characterize the Stock division again made for the most carnage and of course some of the best racing on Tuesday. The field was set with the traditional four tenths of a second separating the top 32. Tracy Dean pulled off a bit of a shock and grabbed the pole from second place starter Kevin King by a whopping three one thousandths of a second. If there is ever any question about the competitiveness of the JRL, Stock qualifying always puts those questions to rest.
As the teams took to the track for the start of the UAW-Daimler Chrysler 160 early connection problems jumbled a lot of the field and saw many different strategies begin to form. With the majority of the races 8 cautions flying in the early stages of the race, some drivers had not considered a long green flag run in their early pit decisions. But with about 60 laps to go the green flag flew and yellow would not be seen again till late in the race.
With tire conservation now coming into play the field began to morph as drivers in the front who had not pitted started sinking and those who had pitted slowly started to rise to the top. As the end of the race drew near drivers who could not make it on fuel or tires started a round of pit stops that saw a very tenuous situation arise.
Several drives now at the front believed they could make it on fuel and where planning on staying out till the end. With others on new tires something was bound to break and eventually it did. With about 15 laps to go the caution finally flew and everyone scrambled into the pits for a late race shoot out.
Unfortunately for about half the field that had pitted under green this meant being caught one or more laps down with no shot at the win. With 13 laps to go the League Administrator made a decision to call the "10 lap rule" which further complicated the situation for the cars not on the lead lap.
The shoot out was in the front though, and with 12 laps to go the battle began. It was all out war in the top 10 and the lap down cars where engaging in a grudge match of their own, and just when things started to settle; another caution! This time pitting wasn't an option as 5 laps would remain to be run under the green flag.
In one of the most dramatic races the JRL has staged in its history Roger Voss held of a hard charging Mike Ramsden taking the jackpot and winning the UAW-Daimler Chrysler 160 in a photo finish! With less then half a second covering Tracy Dean, Chris Mangano and Tom Oliver completing the top 5, this race was one to talk about.
Voss for one was happy to see the late race caution, saying of his win and holding off Ramsden "Mike was working me over there pretty hard and I almost lost it going into 1 and had to hammer the gas coming out and drive it in to [turn 3] pretty deep."
On the other hand of course Ramsden was hoping the race would stay green. Ever gracious in defeat though, Mike had this to say of Voss' win; "I said I was gonna work him over and I did. Good job to Rog [on a] well deserved win... we worked together the second 1/2 of the race... he is the man!"
With the action of Tuesday night behind, the Modified division race had a lot to live up to on Thursday and it was another great race. Although by the end of the day it was business as usual up front.
Qualifying for the UAW-Daimler Chrysler 200 got off to a rousing start as Dmitri Charaev took the pole in dominating style with almost a tenth of a second lead over second place starter Scott Hieronymus. Unlike the Stock race which saw 40 drivers make a qualifying attempt, this race only saw 28 drivers show up so everyone made the show.
With only 5 caution flags slowing the pace for 18 of the 134 laps this race defiantly tested the new tire model for NASCAR Racing 2002. Most of the race saw Dmitri up front as he led 102 laps of this race, only in the late going would he see a significant challenge.
Another late race caution at the end of a long green run would tell the tale of this race. With 5 laps to go Mike Ramsden bulldozed his way to front with dominating force and took the checkers from several cars that had stayed out hoping to be able to hold off the pack and pocket a win, but 40 lap tires where no match for the freshly serviced - high air pressure/high grill tape cars - that restarted behind them.
The top spots where jumbled quite a bit because of the differing strategies at the end as Dmitri Charaev, Paul Rigney, CW Webster, and Erick Thomas followed Ramsden to the line in the top 5. Erick Thomas, in fact, was running in 12th position before the last caution.
So Las Vegas was defiantly a good gamble for Voss and Ramsden this week as well as the JRL, with some of the best racing on the net this week!
Points Rundown
In a new feature this week, let's take a quick look at how the points battle is shaping up for the still young JustRacin season.
The Stock division naturally enough is the tightest battle at the moment as six drivers have either taken a pole or a win thus far. Tracy Dean is our leader but has yet to win a race, though with an average finishing place of 3rd and 3 top 5's in the 3 races he is defiantly looking good. 15 points back is Tom Oliver, the Daytona winner who, along with Roger Voss our 3rd place runner, has an average finishing place of 4th. Erick Thomas and Bob Fellenbaum finish out the top 5 in points 86 behind Tracy.
The Modified division is another story completely though, as Mike Ramsden is in the lead with 3 wins in the 3 race season, which figures out to an average finish of 1st, go figure! Erick Thomas is in 2nd, 67 points behind Ramsden, with 2 top 5's and has yet to finish outside the top ten. Tom Robbio, Dmitri Charaev, and Joey Caporicci are the remainder of
So that's how the racing is shaping up headed into the fastest track in NASCAR the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Please check back here next week for a complete rundown of the action from the MBNA America 200 and 250, it should be exciting!