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AMSRA Race #3 - Keystone Raceway
Hey AMSRA racers...you missed a great race at Keystone this month. The track was fast and the competition was hot. Pro racers Terry Kelly, Mike Shaw and John Martin from Team Kelly made the trip up from Atlanta, Tampa and Tennessee respectively just to race in this race. Pro racer Jay Kisling from Team Fast Ones was also on hand and most of the fast local racers from Keystone showed up and raced every class.
We had the largest fields of the year show up to do battle on the King. In Nascar and GT-1 we needed multiple mains for amateurs and had separate races with full fields for the experts as well.
So here are the details.
The Indy car race was first up as always. Dave Demott, who is has been the dominant racer in this class again jumped out to the early lead followed by Lou Cicconi, Matt Bruce, Joseph Rosales and local ace Randy Korh who was driving a car Lou loaned to him. Disaster stuck in the first heat for Joseph as a marshal with his shirt untucked would lean over the track to marshal another car and would put an end to Joseph's race as the damage done would take two heats to repair. Such is life with open wheeled slot cars. The race was very closely contested over the first four heats, but then Randy Korh would begin to get the hang of the car Lou loaned him and started winning every heat and even set the fast lap time for the race by more than a tenth over the field. Dave would stay close, but would also have some problems. In the end the race would finish with Randy in first, Dave in second, Lou in third, followed by Matt Bruce and Dom Roselli.
Indy Car Laps Best lap time
Randy Kohr 303 4.38
Dave Demott 292 4.49
Lou Cicconi 289 4.44
Matt Bruce 274 4.55
Dom Roselli 263 4.87
Nascar was up next and we would separate Amateur and Expert. The Amateur race was up first and we raced one big round robin. There was a group of racers running in the 4.7's and 4.8's and it looked to be a very close race until Bobby Davis III came onto the track and started running fast lap times on nearly every lane he would run on. Bobby III would quickly set the pace and run away and hide up front for the win by twelve laps over his father Bobby Davis Jr., Matt Ramirez, Dale Grainger and our own Bill "Xman" drill.
The expert Nascar race was a very fast crowd. With five national champions in the eight car field, this was a preview of the expert field at our upcoming Nats. Pro racer Jay Kisling would battle with Mike Shaw, Terry Kelly and John Martin for nearly the entire race and were setting some blistering lap times. However, Lou Cicconi was dialed in and coming off the slower lanes and would start reeling them in one-by-one. However Lou would run out of heats and would finish just two back of Jay for second place. Mike Shaw would take third, followed by John Martin and Terry Kelly. Great job Lou!
Amateur Nascar
Bobby Davis III 286 4.60
Bobby Davis Jr. 274 4.76
Matt Ramirez 271 4.78
Dale Grainger 269 4.87
Bill Drill 257 4.88
Expert Nascar
Jay Kisling 299 4.50
Lou Cicconi 297 4.54
Mike Shaw 295 4.44
John Martin 294 4.56
Terry Kelly 291 4.49
GT-1 was up next and with twenty-two racers entered, we run two mains for the Amateur division. The local boys would show their home track advantage and would take the top five spots in this race. Matt Ramirez would come away with a convincing win over Tom Miller, Matt Light, Bobby Davis III and Dale Grainger.
The GT-1 Expert race was again a full field and Team Kelly racer Mike Shaw was in a "zone of his own". He not only set the only sub 4.0 time, but drove a very strong race. Lou Cicconi would be the only racer to seriously challenge Mike for the lead, but in the end Mike would take the win by twelve laps over Lou and Joseph Rosales would finally have a car make it to the end of a race and would take third over Team Kelly racer John Martin for fourth and Bobby Davis III would take fifth.
Amateur GT-1
Matt Ramirez 310 4.22
Tom Miller 306 4.22
Matt Light 303 4.33
Bobby Davis Jr. 292 4.39
Dale Grainger 290 4.16
Expert GT-1
Mike Shaw 334 3.94
Lou Cicconi 322 4.05
Joseph Rosales 318 4.28
John Martin 316 4.06
Bobby Davis III 309 4.10
The GT-12 was run as two mains to determine one overall winner. Mark Greene would enter this one and would show some of his horsepower early in the race and would quickly take the lead. Lou Cicconi would be taken out early by an another that would cost him a with a gear and Joseph Rosales would have his third DNF of the day. So with two cars out Terry Kelly and Mark would check out from the rest for the field and race the rest of the race separated by less than a lap. However, in the end Mark would take the win by seven over Terry. Matt Bruce would take third, followed by Matt Ramirez and wing car racer RJ Finley.
GT-12
Mark Greene 360 3.56
Terry Kelly 353 3.57
Matt Bruce 325 3.83
Matt Ramirez 323 3.78
RJ Finley 322 3.65
Thanks to Mark and John for a providing us all with a great raceway and to Mac for helping them run some of the races. We all had a great time and look forward to the next opportunity to race at their fine raceway. This track is the venue for the USRA National Championships that will be held at Keystone in April 2005. The USRA Nats is one of the largest and most well attended races in the world and whether you a novice, amateur, or expert racer you should make a point to attend and participate in this event.
As well, our AMSRA Championships are just two months away. This promises to be a racing experience you will not want to miss. Racers from all over the country are coming to this event. Top experts, top amateurs and many novice racers have committed to coming and supporting our organization and making this the largest AMSRA event to date. My commitment to everyone that attends is to have a very well organized event, fair rules, fast competition, great prizes, and most of all for everyone to have fun and be part of an event that we all can be proud of. Mark your calendars for the 24-25-26 of February. I will be posting more information about the race schedules in a couple of weeks.
Our next AMSRA event is at Dom's on Saturday, January 15th. If you haven't been out this year to race with us, dust your stuff off and come have some fun. If you need more details, post here and I will be glad to provide whatever information you need.
Until then. be well and beinit.
Joseph Rosales - Series Director
AMSRA -Northeast
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