Europe Invades NTT;
Stage Set For Sunday's Spa Championship
Sweeping the top four spots in the final qualifying event for Sunday's "Nail That Track" Spa Championship Race, an incredibly strong European contingent lead by Germans Michael Kissling (Eagle) and Stephan Beck (Lotus) announced with authority that they would be a force with which to be reckoned.
With many of the stronger North American drivers giving themselves the day off after a heavy week of wrestling with the nerve-wrenching Spa circuit, Kissling, Beck, and fellow Germans Jo Lueg (Eagle) and Alexander Marx (Ferrari) captured the top four spots in the Saturday race in an exceptionally tidy and *** manner. Their performance was punctuated by two drivers with qualifying times below 3:17 for the first time in the series (Kissling at 3:16.69 and Beck at 3:16.99) and the fastest race lap of the series, which also was below the 3:17 benchmark (Beck at 3:16.93).
So with the top North American drivers, including series-leader Marty U'Ren and favorites Chris Cavin, Pat Dotson, Francois Dubuc, and Steve Blankenship, returning to the fray Sunday, the stage is set for a truly international showdown to determine the NTT Spa Championship. The field will be battling for the quadruple points available in the Championship Race, which, when added to the drivers' current totals, will determine the NTT Spa Champion.
A complete race report documenting what is certain to be an exciting event will be published in the "News" section of The APEX ( http://www.racesimcentral.net/) and in RAS on Monday.
Current Standings Entering Championship Race
Driver
Points
1
Marty U'Ren
3340
2
Francois Dubuc
2930
3
Peter Marak
2486
4
Jack Rambo
2337
5
Jeff Eiland
2317
6
Scott Velez
1974
7
Chris Cavin
1700
8
Larry Heir
1408
9
Dave Swoboda
1313
10
Alexander Marx
1194
11
Dave Ewing
1145
12
Aubrey Windle
987
13
Michael Kissling
850
14
Pat Dotson
790
15
Stephan Beck
790
16
Steve Blankenship
790
17
Jo Lueg
732
18
Jake Myers
621
19
Jason Nickol
568
20
Pierre Robitaille
568
21
Clark Stephens
518
22
Mitch Alatorre
518
23
Mike West
376
Championship Race Points Schedule
Position
Points
1
3400
2
3160
3
2928
4
2704
5
2484
6
2272
7
2072
8
1876
9
1688
10
1504
11
1332
12
1164
13
1008
14
856
15
712
16
572
17
444
18
324
19
208
20
100