vApex Drivers Complete 1st Successful Majors Series

Last Sunday signaled the end of the 14 Race Majors Series with a Late Model NASCAR duel at the bullring known as Myrtle Beach Speedway. The vApex Atlantic Team sealed their 2nd Place Finish in the Constructors Championship with 4 Top 20 efforts from Brian Barney, Andy Banfield, Erich Smith, and Rick McClure. For our first season in a Championship such as this where Individual Driving meshes with working together with Teammates for Race Preparation, I would say we did pretty damn good!!

Erich Smith finished 8th in the Pro Division running 12 of the events and winning 3 Pro events, Suzuka F1, Spa GT3, and the British GP in the Lotus 79, as well as 1 Sportsman event at the Daytona 500. Erich also took 7 Top 5 finishes during the season. He ended up with a total of 2,438 points. A full season next year will make Erich a definite threat to win the Pro Division.

Rick McClure finished tied for 13th in the Pro Division running 9 of the events and ending up with a points total of 1,754.

Brian Barney finished 8th in the Sportsman Division while running just 8 races. He garnered 2 Top 5 finishes on his way to 1545 points for the year.

Chuck Chambliss, who had to step aside due to injury, completed 6 races for the team and had 1 Top 5 Finish. Chuck completed his season in 19th Place in the Pro Division with 1,242 points.

I was lucky enough to run all 14 races to receive The Ironman Award as well as seeing the Checkered Flag at each event. I finished in 6th Place overall in the Pro Division and finished 2nd in the Masters Division for Drivers over 50 years in age. I scored 2,531 points which was 218 points behind the eventual Champion Mike Kelley from the Turn 1 Heroes Racing Team. I won the Indianapolis 500 (Man, I love typing that...) and the Sportsman GT3 Race at the Circuit of The Americas in the Audi R8 GT3.

Thanks to Russell Klaesson and German Afanador who ran the first race of the Season with the Team. Russell won the GT class in the Daytona 2.4 hours in the Audi 90.

I think we can all say we really enjoyed participating in The Majors Series and it was a rousing success. If you enjoy good racing and working with your teammates, while still being in control of your own destiny while driving, this Series is for you. I would encourage you to seriously look at this series and make it part of your "must-do" list.