Norman Sweeps Watkins Glen Weekend
Watkins Glen, NY - Ryan Norman, driving the No. 48 Swift 016/Mazda for K-Hill Motorsports, took the lead from the outside front row on lap one, and never looked back, taking his third victory of 2016 in Sunday's Atlantic Championship Series race at Watkins Glen. Keith Grant started on pole and finished second in the No. 40 Swift 016/Mazda from Polestar while Bruce Hamilton won the Atlantic Challenge in a K-Hill fielded Swift 014/Toyota.
"It was a great start, I made the pass in the esses and almost (crashed) going through the bus stop motocross style on the curbs," said Norman, who extends a quickly growing Atlantic points lead by sweeping rounds three and four of the 14-race season.
Polestar's Grant finished second after another strong qualifying performance.
"Ryan put on a show jumping the curbs through the bus stop, I thought he was going to lose it," Grant noted.
Lee Alexander put in a strong performance to finish third despite a quickly developing mis-fire ahead of Comprent Motorsports' teammate Rich Zober in the No. 66.
Completing the top five was Kirk Kindsfater, bouncing back after a rough race on Saturday.
While Hamilton swept the weekend in Atlantic Challenge, the focus was on the race for second in Sunday's event.
Mark Sherwood, in his RT-41/Toyota, tracked down John Burke's Swift 014/Toyota for the position, with the two swapping second back and forth, and Bob Corliss arriving to make it a three car scrap for the position. Burke ended up off course mid-way through the race, leaving Sherwood to grab a strong second place finish in class ahead of Comprent's Corliss.
Connor Burke and Dudley Fleck, who scored a second place trophy on Saturday, both failed to finish.
Next up, Formula Race Promotions heads to VIR the first weekend of June.