Happy Birthday Bentley Boy!!!
The newly 40 year old Guy Smith came through in a hard fought race to bring the Dyson Bentley combination their first win together as well as the first win for Bentley on North American soil. To add to the Bentley joy, Butch Leitzinger came through to finish a very tight third overall. For Smith, it was a sweep – fastest lap, pole and race win.
The second place finisher? None other than Johnny O’Connell, who with his second place finish, combined with the dnf for Mike Skeen, unofficially hands O’Connell another series championship.
In GTS, a bizarre start incident took out both Kia entries, throwing open the season championship. On the start Mark Wilkins snapped a half-shaft and was collected by an unsighted Nic Jonsson. The class was won by Nick Esayian and his Aston Martin. A determined charge from Lawson Aschenbach, and a great duel with Jack Roush Jr resulted in a 4th in class finish and allowed the Camaro driver to close to within 2 points of Mark Wilkins, unofficially.
Early leader, Robert Thorne, was taken out in traffic and dropped to 6th overall. As previously mentioned, Mike Skeen retired, due to an axle failure at the start, with Ryan Dalziel (clutch) and Tim Pappas (engine drive belt) both also dropping out while running strongly in their classes.
The finale will take place on Saturday afternoon, with an exciting finish expected in the GTS championship and a number of runners looking to get their names on the win sheet at the final round.
