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.