GPNY Round Five Adult League
Posted by Tom on 02/23/2011
Round five of Grand Prix NY’s Adult Racing League was held this past Tuesday.
In the face of yet another winter blast it was only fitting that this round was held on GPNY’s Supertrack in the wet. Because of the inclement weather the heat races were dropped to 10 laps each.
First up this evening was the GTU class (175lbs) and from the drop of the flag, Bobby Sayers was the class of the field. Sayers put on a dominating performance all evening and qualifying was just a taste of what was to come. With a 1:20.803, Sayers was four seconds ahead of Michael Cohen and Roland Krainz who wound up second and third of the grid, respectively. At the start of Heat One, Sayers checked out and coasted to an effortless 30 second win. Behind him, Cohan and Krainz were mixing it up, with Krainz getting by Cohen for second on lap 3. Charging up from fifth on the grip was John Sweeney who battled past Cohen to secure the third position by lap 7. Sayers wound up setting fastest lap of the heat with a time of 1:18.133. Heat Two inverted the grid and that put Phil Paraggio and Anthony Corsetti on the front row with Cory Fancher and Andrew Wood behind them. There was a melee at the start that dropped Paraggio off point and into third before the end of lap one. Capitalizing was Wood who grabbed the lead and held on until an unforced error going into the esses dropped him back to third. Storming their way through the field were Sayers and Cohen. Sayers made the best of Wood’s spin to grab the lead on lap four and Cohen was past Corsetti on lap 8 to grab second while Corsetti had to settle for third. Sayers wound up setting the fastest lap of the evening (1:17.226) and grabbed the maximum bonus points.
Second up was the GTO (205lb) class and Sayers stared where he left off in GTU. Someone asked him what made him so fast and it’s rumored that his response was ”boxers, definitely boxers” why? That’s because Sayers is the RainMan – just like in the GTU rounds he was untouchable in qualifying and both heats – he was nearly 2 seconds faster than the field throughout the evening. Behind him in Heat one was Ennis Bragg, Tom Casper and Michael Cohen. The duo of Casper and Cohen dodged a spinning Bragg on lap two and fought hard the entire race. Bragg was able to get back past Casper to grab third by the end of the heat. Heat two inverted qualifying and that put Nick Altomare and Benny Greenstein on the front row with Steve Woodstead and Louis Berrick behind them. At the start both the top rows had spins and other problems that let DImi Vagios up into first with Dirk Ludl close on his heels. Taking full advantage of the first lap carnage was Sayers, who was into fourth from his tenth starting position by the end of lap one! He pulled off the sweep of the evening with an eighth lap pass of Vagios . Sayers set the fastest lap of the evening with a time of 1:05.096.
Last up this evening was the GTBB group (245lb). Jeff Castellano qualified on the pole with a time of 1:23.174. Rauert Peters was second while Dave Harmon was able to beat out Bill Povall for third. At the drop of the green Castellano took off, but Povall was able to work his way into second and hound Castellano until the end of the race. A ways behind them was Harmon who wound up in third. In the second heat we had Bill Strachan and Adrian Salageanu on the front row with the Povalls, Buzz and Bill behind them. At the start Salageanu was able to get past Strachan for first while Bill Povall was able to muscle his way into second. By lap two he was into first and that’s where he and Salageanu would finish. Behind them Peters and Castellano were battling with a couple of Black flags being thrown in the process. Keeping his nose clean was Buzz who would up taking third place honors.
Round Five Heat 1
GTU Class
Bobby Sayers
Roland Krainz
John Sweeney
Michael Cohen
Andrew Wood
Anthony Corsetti
Phil Paraggio
Ron Tocci
Cory Fancher
Round Five Heat 1
GTO Class
Name
Bobby Sayers
Michael Cohen
Ennis Bragg
Tom Caspar
Dimitrios Vagios
Dirk Ludl
Louis Berrick
Nick Altomare
Steve Woodstead
Benny Greenstein
Round Five Heat 1
GTBB Class
Name
Jeff Castellano
Bill Poval
Dave Harmon
Buzz Poval
Adrian Salageanu
Bill Strachan
Gary Proft
Rauert Peters