Several moves were made during the off-week regarding privateer drivers. Fernando Nery was able to find a secondary sponsor, Coldaire Lite, which will adorn the hood of his car for the rest of the season and provide a much needed financial boost for him. Also, Venom USA Works Team has extended a contract offer to Jamie Rourke, which would expand the team to two cars, and ARC would provide an additional 60 funds per race to the team in the hopes of improving its performance. Two new Privateers have also joined the series. Jason Funtig has bought a used car from a team, and will be driving it as the #130 Thunderhead Power Tools car. Funtig has a lot of road racing experience, and could be a threat to get into the mains with a decent car. Kamui Sako also enters the series with his newly purchase AR2, the #101 sponsored by Fruit Gold Lemonade. These two new drivers should be fun to keep an eye on through the rest of the series.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Friday, June 27, 2014
Round 3 at Iconiq
The scene in victory lane after the Race of Iconiq looked much the same as the previous two rounds, with the Volcano Motorsports team celebrating their third win in as many races. An elated Josep Lettenberg declared during his interview "We've got something really special going on here. Two wins in a row for me, plus one for my teammate. Also finally recording a one-two finish for the team, it's really just crazy. I'm telling you, this is the team to beat right now. We'll be going for the season win. Mark my words, we can do it." The Razgriz Racing Team also had a good day, with it's drivers coming in the 3 and 4 positions. "We had a strong run, but we just didn't have anything for the Volcano cars today. We both drove out hearts out, Karl and I, but it just wasn't enough. We'll work on the cars some more during the off week and hopefully come back stronger at Citios," said Jake Sanson after the race. Rocco Salzani had a little bit of a disappointment in the A-Main after winning the B-Main. "I just needed to go faster, that was all. We had a good car, but I wasn't driving it quite well enough to be able to do anything with it in the A-Main. I guess I just let the other drivers get into my head."
The Last Chance Dash saw a lot of drama, and Brandon Odor and Stuart Townsend were able to advance, leaving Jan Van Koelic and Ana Patrice on the outside looking in. "Wow, what a race that was," declare Odor after climbing from his car. Ana Patrice had taken the lead early in the first lap when mayhem broke loose behind her. While attempting to pass Patrice, Stuart Townsend tried to squeeze into a gap that just wasn't there, and ended up taking Jan Van Koelic into the sand trap of the final turn with him. Van Koelic had nothing nice to say on the radio after the incident. This gave Odor the chance to slip by into second, and Townsend and Van Koelic were left to play catch up. The two of them did not get along well together the next couple of laps, banging and bumping into each other as neither was willing to give quarter. It ended up with Van Koelic bouncing over the sunk tire in turn two, effectively ending his race as Townsend continued on to eventually take second. After the race, Van Koelic was seen sprinting over to the Orange Racing Team Austria team trailer, but was stopped by series officials before he could reach the trailer. "I'm hopping mad right now. First, he puts me into the dust with a stupid move, then he tries to push me into the wall on the main straightaway, then finally I guess he got tired of trying to be subtle and punted me right into the sunk tire. I'd love to go over there and give the moron a little piece of my mind. He'd just better watch out next round, I won't hold back if he's in my way." Of course, Townsend had a different view on the situation. "It was just hard racing. We're all scrambling, we've only got a short distance to go to be able to get into the first two positions to be able to move on. My advice to him would be to stick his head in a bucket of cold water to cool off, and then go hang up his helmet. He's a has been, all he can do now is whine, apparently."
Several teams had some struggles once again, including Vemac Grand Prix, which again failed to advance either driver. "It's tough," said team owner Bird. "We just need to work on our program and build better cars. We're letting the team and sponsors down. We've already lost one, we don't need to lose these other ones, too." [R]Garage also failed to advance either of their drivers during the race weekend. "We are getting better," said Shu Ito after finishing fourth in his heat. "The other teams are just getting better faster than we are, it seems."
In an impressive debut, privateer Blake Lodando finished fourth in his heat after qualifying 14th. "Hey, that's not too shabby," he said after climbing out of his car. "First round of racing, and we beat a lot of other privateers. I'm pretty happy." Missing from the race yesterday was Jamie Rourke, who could not bring up the funds to pay for the entry fee. Rumor has it that he will be added to the Venom USA Works team as a second car, as the team wishes to expand its operation. Another rumor has a couple more privateers entering the next race with cars purchased from other teams, possibly some of the used cars of the upper rank teams. This could make an interesting race at Citios with more drivers in contention. Jason Funtig is one name that has been brought up as a potential entry, but he was unavailable for comment.
The Last Chance Dash saw a lot of drama, and Brandon Odor and Stuart Townsend were able to advance, leaving Jan Van Koelic and Ana Patrice on the outside looking in. "Wow, what a race that was," declare Odor after climbing from his car. Ana Patrice had taken the lead early in the first lap when mayhem broke loose behind her. While attempting to pass Patrice, Stuart Townsend tried to squeeze into a gap that just wasn't there, and ended up taking Jan Van Koelic into the sand trap of the final turn with him. Van Koelic had nothing nice to say on the radio after the incident. This gave Odor the chance to slip by into second, and Townsend and Van Koelic were left to play catch up. The two of them did not get along well together the next couple of laps, banging and bumping into each other as neither was willing to give quarter. It ended up with Van Koelic bouncing over the sunk tire in turn two, effectively ending his race as Townsend continued on to eventually take second. After the race, Van Koelic was seen sprinting over to the Orange Racing Team Austria team trailer, but was stopped by series officials before he could reach the trailer. "I'm hopping mad right now. First, he puts me into the dust with a stupid move, then he tries to push me into the wall on the main straightaway, then finally I guess he got tired of trying to be subtle and punted me right into the sunk tire. I'd love to go over there and give the moron a little piece of my mind. He'd just better watch out next round, I won't hold back if he's in my way." Of course, Townsend had a different view on the situation. "It was just hard racing. We're all scrambling, we've only got a short distance to go to be able to get into the first two positions to be able to move on. My advice to him would be to stick his head in a bucket of cold water to cool off, and then go hang up his helmet. He's a has been, all he can do now is whine, apparently."
Several teams had some struggles once again, including Vemac Grand Prix, which again failed to advance either driver. "It's tough," said team owner Bird. "We just need to work on our program and build better cars. We're letting the team and sponsors down. We've already lost one, we don't need to lose these other ones, too." [R]Garage also failed to advance either of their drivers during the race weekend. "We are getting better," said Shu Ito after finishing fourth in his heat. "The other teams are just getting better faster than we are, it seems."
In an impressive debut, privateer Blake Lodando finished fourth in his heat after qualifying 14th. "Hey, that's not too shabby," he said after climbing out of his car. "First round of racing, and we beat a lot of other privateers. I'm pretty happy." Missing from the race yesterday was Jamie Rourke, who could not bring up the funds to pay for the entry fee. Rumor has it that he will be added to the Venom USA Works team as a second car, as the team wishes to expand its operation. Another rumor has a couple more privateers entering the next race with cars purchased from other teams, possibly some of the used cars of the upper rank teams. This could make an interesting race at Citios with more drivers in contention. Jason Funtig is one name that has been brought up as a potential entry, but he was unavailable for comment.
Monday, June 23, 2014
New Sponsor for Vemac Grand Prix
After having struggles the first two rounds, Godzilla Performance Auto Parts decided to terminate their contract with Vemac Grand Prix. In response, Vemac GP signed Oterra as the new sponsor of the #9 car.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Round 1 at Maple
It was an elated Volcano Motorsports team that headed down to victory circle at Maple on Saturday afternoon after a thrilling victory by Samuel Highcliff with a last lap pass on his teammate Josep Lettenberg while also holding off Destiny Racing's Rocco Salzani in a three way battle through the final corners. "Man, what a great race," said Highcliff in victory lane. "This Venom STR was fast all day, took the pole with it, and now the win. That was quite a battle to get here, but we came through. Tell you what, it feels good to be here right now, I feel like I really earned it." Highcliff and teammate Lettenberg were battling most of the race, but on the last lap Rocco Salzani managed to sqeeze through to second by following Highcliff when he made the pass. "I wasn't sure that it was going to work, but I tried it anyway, and ended up second instead of third. So I guess that paid off for me," said Salzani. "Wow, what a race. If this is any indication of how the rest of the season is going to go, the fans are in for some good stuff." Josep Lettenberg seemed a little disappointed in his third place finish. "I mean, I had the lead going into the final lap. I knew it was going to be close, but I didn't expect to get nudged into third. I'm not mad or anything, it was just good, hard racing. But I definitely could have driven those last few turns a little better."
Meanwhile, with all the celebration taking place, there were several teams that had their struggles in the first race of the series. Both of the planetgenerally.de cars failed to advance from the heats. Team engineer Mark Welsh took part of the blame. "We just weren't quite as ready as we could or should have been, and that's on me. We did some testing at our shop, and went out to a track to test, but I guess we could have done more work to make these cars better. We'll be back next week, though." Another team that seemed to have first day jitters was Herbal Productions. "It really sucks, you know?" said Gote Garde after finishing last in his heat. "We had great expectations today, and unfortunately they didn't get lived up to. We really need to work hard to be ready for Dropez next week." Another letdown, although a little more successful, was Peninsula Motorsport's Niko Tomas. Tomas started the day on a high note, qualifying 4th after being at the top of the speed charts for a while with his time. He then finished second in his heat, then dead last in the B-Main, ending his day. "I just don't know what happened. We started off great, I hit it almost perfect in qualifying, then I get to the races and everything just kind of started to come unglued. It's not the car, the car ran fine. I just screwed up big, and I'm sorry for my fans, my team, and Chekit Credit Cards. I'll look forward to doing better for them next week."
The privateers seemed to fair alright, but not as well as the big teams, which comes as no surprise. Dale Aceman was fairly happy with his run. "Hey, I ended up third in my heat, and was able to make it to the B-Main from a very competitive last chance dash. I'm pretty happy, we learned some things and will come back stronger next week." On the down side of things was Jamie Rourke. "I really needed a good run today. Getting to one of the mains would have been awesome. But it just wasn't in the cards. I qualified slow, and raced even slower. Well, we'll do some work on the car this coming week and try to come back stronger next week."
Next week's race is a street course, Dropez. The Loco Hot Sauce Street Race of Dropez will go green on June 16th. The podium may look a little different this week, as the track is totally different than Maple. It is a very wide open track with long straights where cars can pick up a lot of speed. We will see who will come out on top in the second round of the NAGRCA GT Series.
Meanwhile, with all the celebration taking place, there were several teams that had their struggles in the first race of the series. Both of the planetgenerally.de cars failed to advance from the heats. Team engineer Mark Welsh took part of the blame. "We just weren't quite as ready as we could or should have been, and that's on me. We did some testing at our shop, and went out to a track to test, but I guess we could have done more work to make these cars better. We'll be back next week, though." Another team that seemed to have first day jitters was Herbal Productions. "It really sucks, you know?" said Gote Garde after finishing last in his heat. "We had great expectations today, and unfortunately they didn't get lived up to. We really need to work hard to be ready for Dropez next week." Another letdown, although a little more successful, was Peninsula Motorsport's Niko Tomas. Tomas started the day on a high note, qualifying 4th after being at the top of the speed charts for a while with his time. He then finished second in his heat, then dead last in the B-Main, ending his day. "I just don't know what happened. We started off great, I hit it almost perfect in qualifying, then I get to the races and everything just kind of started to come unglued. It's not the car, the car ran fine. I just screwed up big, and I'm sorry for my fans, my team, and Chekit Credit Cards. I'll look forward to doing better for them next week."
The privateers seemed to fair alright, but not as well as the big teams, which comes as no surprise. Dale Aceman was fairly happy with his run. "Hey, I ended up third in my heat, and was able to make it to the B-Main from a very competitive last chance dash. I'm pretty happy, we learned some things and will come back stronger next week." On the down side of things was Jamie Rourke. "I really needed a good run today. Getting to one of the mains would have been awesome. But it just wasn't in the cards. I qualified slow, and raced even slower. Well, we'll do some work on the car this coming week and try to come back stronger next week."
Next week's race is a street course, Dropez. The Loco Hot Sauce Street Race of Dropez will go green on June 16th. The podium may look a little different this week, as the track is totally different than Maple. It is a very wide open track with long straights where cars can pick up a lot of speed. We will see who will come out on top in the second round of the NAGRCA GT Series.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
New Privateer and a driver bio
Just announced today, Robert Haks will join the series in his #928 Venom STR starting in round 2. "Unfortunately we couldn't get the car quite ready for this race weekend, but we'll be there in Dropez for the next round." Haks brought in a lot of money from a previous racing venture, but has been unable to woo a sponsor for the series.
For today's driver bio/interview, we were able to bring in Karl Weiss for a brief chat with NAGRCA TV host, puttz.
puttz: So, Karl, when the call came in from Razgriz Racing, how did you feel?
Karl Weiss: I was excited to be able to race in this series with the organization. I had a chance to drive a preliminary version of this series in the test season, and I felt pretty good in the cars. I think I actually feel more comfortable in the Speedtec cars run by Razgriz than I did in the Venom STRs in the test season. I think Razgriz is a solid organization and can help propel me to the championship.
p: What do you think of the new race format this year?
KW: I think it'll be more much more intense. As you know, there were only eight cars in the test season, so not a huge amount of pressure to perform. With twenty four cars that make it into the race, the competition will be a lot tighter. Then throw in the last chance dash and the B-main, and I think we have a recipe for success with the fans. Of course, it makes my job a lot harder, but I feel like with this solid team I will be able to come through.
p: Before NAGRCA GT, what kind of racing did you do?
KW: I used to race touring cars back in Germany. I got a lot of experience driving on tracks around Germany and Austria. I was set to drive a DTM car, but that deal kind of fell through when the sponsorship didn't sign with the team, so that was disappointing. I kept driving various touring car circuits, then I got the call from NAGRCA wanting me to test out some GT cars for a new series. I jumped at the opportunity, did some testing, and got hired to drive for a team during the test season. Now I'm all set to go.
p: What do you think of your new teammate, Jake Sanson?
KW: He should be fun to work with this year. I haven't seen him race yet, but from the testing sessions we've had so far, I think we have a winning combination. He's focused and wants to learn more, and I'm happy to give him all the help he needs. I hope that my experience in racing will teach him a thing or two throughout the year. He's also not afraid to be aggressive, just so long as he doesn't take me out, I'm good with that *laughs*.
p: One last question for you Karl. Which team do you feel is the biggest threat to Razgriz Racing this season?
KW: Well, I kind of hate to say before the season starts, don't want to put a target on our backs early. There are a couple of teams I think need to be watched out for, but I won't name them right now.
p: Okay, fair enough. Thanks for your time Karl, good luck on the track this weekend.
KW: Thank you.
For today's driver bio/interview, we were able to bring in Karl Weiss for a brief chat with NAGRCA TV host, puttz.
puttz: So, Karl, when the call came in from Razgriz Racing, how did you feel?
Karl Weiss: I was excited to be able to race in this series with the organization. I had a chance to drive a preliminary version of this series in the test season, and I felt pretty good in the cars. I think I actually feel more comfortable in the Speedtec cars run by Razgriz than I did in the Venom STRs in the test season. I think Razgriz is a solid organization and can help propel me to the championship.
p: What do you think of the new race format this year?
KW: I think it'll be more much more intense. As you know, there were only eight cars in the test season, so not a huge amount of pressure to perform. With twenty four cars that make it into the race, the competition will be a lot tighter. Then throw in the last chance dash and the B-main, and I think we have a recipe for success with the fans. Of course, it makes my job a lot harder, but I feel like with this solid team I will be able to come through.
p: Before NAGRCA GT, what kind of racing did you do?
KW: I used to race touring cars back in Germany. I got a lot of experience driving on tracks around Germany and Austria. I was set to drive a DTM car, but that deal kind of fell through when the sponsorship didn't sign with the team, so that was disappointing. I kept driving various touring car circuits, then I got the call from NAGRCA wanting me to test out some GT cars for a new series. I jumped at the opportunity, did some testing, and got hired to drive for a team during the test season. Now I'm all set to go.
p: What do you think of your new teammate, Jake Sanson?
KW: He should be fun to work with this year. I haven't seen him race yet, but from the testing sessions we've had so far, I think we have a winning combination. He's focused and wants to learn more, and I'm happy to give him all the help he needs. I hope that my experience in racing will teach him a thing or two throughout the year. He's also not afraid to be aggressive, just so long as he doesn't take me out, I'm good with that *laughs*.
p: One last question for you Karl. Which team do you feel is the biggest threat to Razgriz Racing this season?
KW: Well, I kind of hate to say before the season starts, don't want to put a target on our backs early. There are a couple of teams I think need to be watched out for, but I won't name them right now.
p: Okay, fair enough. Thanks for your time Karl, good luck on the track this weekend.
KW: Thank you.
Saturday, May 31, 2014
The Privateers
The ARC Venom STRs
#103- Dale Aceman (American Racing Company)
Venom USA Works Team
#110- Jamie Rourke
Rourke Racing
The Weston Typhoons
#100- Forrest Evers
Forrest Evers
#111- Steve Sinzer (TKO Motor Oil)
TKO Motor Racing
#333- Xavier Mathis (Mathis Motors)
Mathis Motors
The Speedtec AR2s
#112- Roland Heuber
Heuber Motorsports
#404- Fernando Nery (Nery Enterprises)
Fernando Nery
PGR, ORTA, and Destiny Racing
The Speedtec AR2s of planetgenerally.de
#18- Heiner Neuer (Fine Line)
#19- Jan Van Koelic (Tip Top Shape Gyms)
The Weston Typhoons of Orange Racing Team Austria
#5- Vince Rosek (Banner)
#99- Stuart Townsend (Hurricane Apparel)
The ARC Venom STRs of Destiny Racing
#12- Ana Patrice (Loyal Lumber)
#16- Rocco Salzani (Poultry Shack)
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