Author: Gregg Ginsberg

After having won the 2009 MARRS ITA championship with just a single race win in what was essentially a Spec Miata with upgraded race tires, Brian Price hade a lot to prove. He arrived at the first Mid Atlantic Road Racing Series event with a new car, purpose-built for the class, and was ready to do battle with series and class regular Gregg Ginsberg in his Honda CRX and past MARRS champion Ed York, in his newly built Mazda Miata.

Qualifying

Faced with a newly patched Summit Point Raceway and mixed weather conditions, Price and the other 12 combatants in ITA took to the track for Saturday morning qualifying, sharing the surface with a gaggle of competitors in T3, IT7 and Spec RX7.

Having rained during earlier sessions, what the drivers would see was a mystery. Price and Ginsberg were on their Hoosier slicks, York on his intermediate Toyos, and other strong runners such as former MARRS IT7 champ Owen Schefer and Brent Simonson mounted Hoosier Radial Wets.

Immediately, the drivers witnessed how the remnants of the rain pooled at the transitions between old and new pavement, making for a trecherous first few laps, but as the weather warmed and the sun made its entrance, the track quickly dried, leaving those equipped for wet running in the lurch. Brian Price, in his #51 RP Performance / Unlimited Auto Body / Performance Auto Works Mazda Miata rose to the occasion and set a blistering fast lap of 1:25.696, besting the current track record by almost a half second.

York qualified for the Saturday afternoon race on the outside pole almost four seconds off of Price’s pace, with Ginsberg two tenths further back in third position.

Second year racer Mike Bletzacker would qualify fourth in his Honda CRX, while Mark Johnston in his Nissan 240sx and Owen Schefer in his Miata would qualify closely behind.

10-Lap Qualifying Race

While many of the front-running ITA cars were grouped closely together at the front of the pack for the start of Saturday afternoon’s 10-lap qualifying race, the spectre of the faster T3-class cars wreaking havoc for the ITA cars in the dry conditions was always a possibility.

As the cars came thru Summit’s Turn 10, ready to take the green flag for the first time in the 2010 season, polesitter Price jockeyed towards the center of the track, muscling York’s car towards the left edge of the track. When the starter raised the green flag, this gave Ginsberg the opportunity to claim the inside lane and move head towards Turn 1. Unfortunately, that clear real estate disappeared quickly as York and Price started moving back to the right.

Faced with the possibility of being forced off track, Ginsberg let out of the gas slightly and filed in behind the two Miatas heading thru Turns 1 and 2 and down the short straight to Turn 3.

During that time, the superior horsepower of Alan Hime’s T3 Honda S2000 helped get him to Turn 3 even with Ginsberg. This separated Ginsberg from the lead pack and he would be unable to recover during the course of the race.

York hung with Price as long as he could, but at the end of 10-laps, Price had set a new ITA track record of 1:25.800, eclipsing former ITA champ AJ Nealey’s best lap time of 1:26.174, and had taken the checkered flag a full 10.5 seconds ahead of York.

Ginsberg crossed the line another eight seconds in arrears, followed by Mark Johnston, Mike Bletzacker, Andrew Johnston, Brent Simonson, and Jack Raymond.

Although there was precious little jockeying for position between the front runners, Tommy Thompson and Cesar Ochoa in their Neons and Dahl Curry in his Miata were closely packed and fighting for position the from green to checker.

18-Lap Feature Race

On Sunday afternoon, it was time for the 18-lap feature race. Grid positions for this race were set by fastest Saturday lap time, therefore Brian Price and his Miata were assured pole position.

The T3 car of Alan Himes took the outside pole, Ed York in his York Automotive Miata was to start third, Mark Johnston in his Aflac Nissan 240SX fourth, Ginsberg in his Casa de Amigos / AllSports GP / Dahl-Morrow International CRX would start fifth, and Mike Bletzacker in his 3D Racing / ESI Honda CRX would close out the third row in 6th position.

The cars ambled down the front straight waiting for the starter to raise the green flag. Waiting until the front row of cars was almost under his starting stand, they were off. Himes’ T3 S2000 superior speed beat Price to Turn 1 while York and Ginsberg filed in behind.

Mark Johnston continued his run from the outside position running side-by-side with Ginsberg heading into Turn 3. The two cars came together, allowing both Johnston and Schefer to gain 3rd and 4th positions in ITA.

Price again quickly gapped York and proceeded to run his race unencumbered by all but Himes’s S2000. Rounding Turn 10 to begin Lap #2, York had already built a considerable lead on Johnston and Schefer.

Making a run out of Turn 10, Ginsberg passed Schefer on Summit Point’s long front straight and then passed Johnston in Turn 2. This left Ginsberg to make up a seemingly insurmountable gap to York’s Miata and left Johnston and Schefer to battle door-to-door for position until the checkered flag flinally waved.

Although slowly reeling York in, by lap six the ITA leaders started to encounter the rear of the Spec RX7 race, and lapped traffic would present an excellent opportuning for Ginsberg to take fight for second place.

By lap eight Ginsberg had wheeled his CRX to within 10 car lengths of the York Automotive Miata when both drivers came upon the weekend-long battle between the Dodge Neons of Thompson and Ocha, and Dahl Curry’s Mazda Miata.

As all five cars headed out of Turn 8 and up the hill towards the Turn 10, York attempted to use the Neons as picks, hoping to not only slow, but halt Ginsberg’s advance. Instead, Ginsberg hung just feet from York’s rear bumper as both cars rounded Turn 10 in 3rd gear. Ginsberg drafted York’s Miata down the front straight, popping out to attempt a difficult outside pass going into Turn 1. Succumbing to the pressure, Ginsberg missed a shift, grabbing fifth gear and taking his CRX off-course, giving York all the gap he needed to take the car home in 2nd place, 21 seconds behind Brian Price.

While York and Ginsberg cruised the final laps to their podium positions, Mark Johnston and Owen Schefer battled it out, door-to-door until Johnston had his own “excitement” at Turn 1 with mere laps to go. This allowed Schefer to grab fourth while Johnston fell into the waiting clutches of Mike Bletzacker, but eeking out a fifth place finish over the CRX by just 1.2 seconds.

A little further back, Brent Simonson battled closely with Mark’s brother Andrew in his #02 Adrenaline Automotive Integra, with the Acura taking seventh place and the Simonson’s Miata just 0.4 seconds further back in eighth.

Having earned the maximum possible 400 MARRS points and a new track record, Brian Price takes his #51 RP Performance / Unlimited Auto Body / Performance Auto Works to Virginia International Raceway, where he’ll twice do battle with York, Ginsberg, the other strong MARRS racers, and the best of the Southeast Division’s ITA drivers over Mother’s Day weekend.

Notes:
You can view the author’s in-car video of this race at http://vimeo.com/11257943
You can view in-car video of MARRS races from various classes at http://vimeo.com/groups/marrs/videos

The authors in-car video. Higher resolution available via links above:

ITA Feature Race — MARRS 1 — 4/25/2010 — Summit Point Raceway from Gregg Ginsberg on Vimeo.