GATEWAY - Wow, what a track...

For several vApex driver, we had to purchase Gateway… so there were some real novices taking part in round 8 of the IndyCar OPEN Lite Series. Andy and Rick Yeager did most of our race chassis setup and Dave developed the qualifing set.

During practice, a high 24 seemed to be a fast time, but in qualifing Joe Flanagan and Brad Walters pulled out all the stops and laid down low 24s to lock out the front row; Joe’s pole was a 24.413… Wow! Dave qualified P4 with a 24.7, Mikey got P8, Rick P9, Andy P10, and Brian P11 all with 25.1s. Thus, the 15-car field was set to battle under the lights at Gateway. Yahoo!

The race started well for most vApex guys, even though this was a new track for most of us. Dave and Brian were with the lead pack during the first stint, while Andy, Rick, Rick Y (Ricky?), and Mikey seemed to be locked together mid-pack. After the first caution, Brian caught a curb in T4 and got loose, causing some damage but not enough to put him out. About L25 Mikey attempting to drift T1/2 and in the cloud of smoke a few guys got caughtup, but no serious damage… but, Mikey’s night was over. There were a few minor incident throughout the night, but mostly clean , QUICK racing – this place is fast and the T1 entry/T2 exit is key to being fast.

During one of the cautions, Rick got a black flag entering pit road with the pack for, apparently, passing a car still on-track, which put him a lap down. Dave, Andy, and Ricky continued to stay with the leaders and Dave had a podium going… right up until he had to stop for fuel! Crew chief please!!!

At the checkers, B rad Walters took the Win, Uncle Pete “Rambingberg” got P2, and Kevin Chalk took P3 that should have, woud have, but didn’t happened for Dave. Always steady Andy earned a solid P4 and Ricky rounded out the Top 5. Rick was P6 a lap down. Brian was P11 (12 laps down) and the weirdness that is Gateway caught Mikey out with P13… 51 laps down! Say What? The Sheriff – 51 laps down, say it ante so Joe!

Once again, our vApex driver had a great night, it was so cool to see all those vApex team liverys on-track, and we all had a great time. So, as the League heads back to a road course (thank you), Mikey is leading and holds a 24 point advantage over Dave (P2), Andy is P4, and Ricky is P9. Kevin, who had missed a couple of events is P11 and Rick, who had missed three races, is P14.

The lingering question is: Where are Kevin, Ted and JC? We miss you guys!