Minor Wins at Summit Point over Miller and Searcy

“I just had a great car, we made a significant change last night and it worked,” said Minor, who spun in race one on Saturday while in the lead. “We also saved our extra two tires for the race today, we didn’t even run them in qualifying this morning and that worked big time. Once I got past Audette for the lead I never looked back.”

JDC’s Chris Miller extends his championship lead to 27 points over Matthew Inge, with another 22 back to Remy Audette, with two drops Miller’s lead is 34 points over Inge, with another 34 back to Audette.

As the green flag flew on the field, Audette went by Miller on the outside going into turn one to take the lead. Tim Minor didn’t waste much time either, starting fourth, the veteran got around both Inge and Miller to take second spot by turn four.

The first lap wasn’t even finished when a full course caution came out for a turn five incident involving Jeff McCusker, Victor Carbone and Tom Fatur. Fatur and McCusker retired while Carbone’s Alegra team was able to change a cut rear tire on the #23. Carbone rejoined a lap down.

The first attempt at a restart was waived off as the middle of the field was a total mess, on the second attempt, with the field looking much better, Tim Minor pulled alongside Remy Audette on the outside going into turn one and made it stick, taking the lead. Minor pulled a huge gap out while Audette and Miller swapped second place back and forth multiple times.

Miller and Audette made contact in turn one, slashing Audette’s right rear tire. Audette pitted for repairs while Minor ran away from Miller and Inge, who moved into second and third.

“The battle between the three of us for second was nuts,” said points leader Miller. “Eventually Remy (Audette) and I made slight contact and a few corners later it looked like his tire went down. By the time I got past him Minor was just gone.”

Audette, who finished 16th, said: “It was a tough race and something like this showcases the ups and downs of the sport. This morning we were so happy qualifying second, and now obviously it is a bit different. Minor passed me on the restart and then when Chris (Miller) and I were battling for second, he hit me going into turn one. I was ahead of him on the outside and went to turn in and we made contact. A few corners later the right rear tire went flat and that ended my race. There were so many laps left, he should have waited for a better opportunity instead of risking it like he did.”

Minor’s lead stretched to over 10 seconds at one point, while Miller was able to hold second and keep Inge out of striking distance. Benjamin Searcy was able to reel in Inge and sneak past him, to round out the podium behind Tim Minor and Chris Miller.

“The car was absolutely great today,” said Searcy, who rebounds after being disqualified for being underweight yesterday. “I had a great battle with Inge, eventually got past him and then pulled out a bit of a gap.”

Keith McCrone rounded out the top five for R-Sport. Chris Gumprecht logged his career best finish in sixth with Brent Gilkes, Colin Alexander, Robert Wright and Scott Gesford rounding out the top ten.

Jonathan Scarallo was running sixth when a mechanical failure ended his day. “The brakes went,” commented Scarallo. “I went into turn five, which is a hard braking zone and the pedal just went to the floor. If it isn’t someone hitting me it seems that something stupid happens, we need to start catching a break.”

The series heads to Mid-Ohio on August 13-16 to decide the championship at the season finale.

Race Results:

Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Gap Avg. Speed Best Tm Best Spd 1 88 Tim Minor/M 22 30:37.300 - - 86.213 1:11.975 100.035 2 85 Chris Miller 22 30:48.202 +10.902 +10.902 85.705 1:12.005 99.993 3 10 Benjamin Searcy 22 30:50.848 +13.548 +2.646 85.582 1:12.216 99.701 4 02 Matthew Inge 22 30:52.614 +15.314 +1.766 85.501 1:12.318 99.560 5 5 Keith McCrone/M 22 30:55.209 +17.909 +2.595 85.381 1:12.585 99.194 6 97 Chris Gumprecht 22 31:03.901 +26.601 +8.692 84.983 1:12.659 99.093 7 7 Brent Gilkes/M 22 31:12.218 +34.918 +8.317 84.606 1:13.210 98.347 8 12 Colin Alexander 22 31:12.534 +35.234 +0.316 84.591 1:12.215 99.702 9 90 Robert Wright/M 22 31:12.989 +35.689 +0.455 84.571 1:13.178 98.390 10 47 Scott Gesford 22 31:20.970 +43.670 +7.981 84.212 1:14.023 97.267 11 80 Bobby Caldwell 22 31:21.740 +44.440 +0.770 84.177 1:13.542 97.903 12 96 Alejandro Munoz 22 31:30.381 +53.081 +8.641 83.793 1:14.530 96.605 13 51 Dan Denison/M 22 31:30.547 +53.247 +0.166 83.785 1:14.036 97.250 14 94 Blake Teeter 22 31:34.518 +57.218 +3.971 83.610 1:13.778 97.590 15 33 Len Amato 22 31:37.943 +1:00.643 +3.425 83.459 1:13.266 98.272 16 21 Remy Audette 21 31:14.203 1 Lap 1 Lap 80.674 1:12.520 99.283 17 26 Fabio Orsolon 19 30:59.123 3 Laps 2 Laps 73.583 1:12.600 99.174 18 22 Jonathon Scarallo 17 25:07.118 5 Laps 2 Laps 81.215 1:12.407 99.438 19 27 Craig Clawson/M 12 18:55.523 10 Laps 5 Laps 76.088 1:14.083 97.188 DNF 23 Victor Carbone 10 17:43.996 12 Laps 2 Laps 67.669 1:13.817 97.539 DNF 89 Rob Nicholas/M 7 12:37.134 15 Laps 3 Laps 66.567 1:15.783 95.008 DNF 25 Jeff McCusker/M 4 21:21.623 18 Laps 3 Laps 22.472 1:18.533 91.681 DNF 70 Tom Fatur/M 0 7.392 22 Laps 4 Laps - -.--- -