Press Release...
August 11, 1997
MIRacing World Internet Endurance Racing Series, 6 hours of Mid Ohio Race
Week Summary!
An Internet Audience of 25,000 attended The World Internet Endurance
Racing second stop of the season at Mid Ohio, Saturday. This proved to be
the cleanest race that has been run in any Internet Endurance Race thus
far! Not a single crash in the entire six hours! Gulf/Jag took First
Place with a time of 5:11:12.4 and Jake "Snake" Myers' turned fastest lap
at 1:08.915. With a strong the tail wind the fastest cars were reaching
speeds as high as 199 mph down the back stretch! Coming in second was
Team SAVATS #2 with a time of 5:14:31.8. In third was Team Black
Squirrel, which is a team put together by the mysterious Trader Ski,
pulling drivers from all around the world!
Qualification was the usual confusion and frenzy resulting in an event
with only 4 qualified cars. Teams had to draw lots for provisional
positions. "Actually," said Bill Wells, President of MIRacing, "a large
number of our Team's Members were involved in other racing events
scheduled for the same weekend. Terry Vreeland and Sean Gorman of SCCA
Racing were unable to attend, and then just as they found a possible stand
in, Trevor Murphy had a major hard drive crash that could not be repaired
in time for the race. Matt Stasiak was unavailable from Team USA, and
George Sandman of Gulf/Jag blew a hard drive and CD Rom simultaneously
while practicing on carburation day, they went on to win, regardless of
their problems. Stephen Miller of Miller/McEwing Racing was out, but the
Team brought in rookie Carlos Fernandes and made the field. Also missing
was Mike West of IGN Mercedes. This meant that nearly half the teams had
a missing driver and the result was mass confusion bordering on hysteria
for some."
It seems that the sudden change of weather at Mid-Ohio was not a
very big problem, as Pole Sitter, Art Jones, of Team SAVATS, recounts,
"The wind change was noticeable from the get go. In qualifying I almost
blew the engine up on the back stretch first lap out. Dove into the pits
and made adjustments on 5th and 6th gear. I did one or two laps in
qualifying just to put the car back on pole position.
"First couple laps," Art said, went interviewed during the race,
"were a bit tricky with the cold tires and heavy fuel load. The wind was
not bothering the car too much, other than the gain of about 5mph on the
back stretch. On lap 6 I caught the back of the field and began overtaking
slower traffic. The first stint was pretty uneventful, I worked on just
maintaining a nice smooth consistent run. The car is handling great today
and the wind is a real help overtaking cars down the back stretch. I made
3 stops during my stint and was becoming more and more confident with the
car. I only had one close call when a lapped car squeezed me onto the
grass in the esses. I lapped second at about 60 to 70 laps. He fought with
me for a couple corners and then it was bye-bye. I am real pleased with my
first stint. It went according to plan, nice and conservative. I look
forward to jumping into the car for the 3rd stint. I am going to push as
hard as I can to the end to insure a good finish for TEAM SAVATS." Art
Jones did just that taking second with co-driver Loren Wong, some 3
minutes and 20 seconds behind Gulf/Jag.
Arthur Axelrad of Gulf/Jag, also felt the effects of the wind to
be beneficial, "Our car was a bit loose with full fuel but I adjusted the
anti roll bars one click and that did the trick. Wow! The car was a
rocket down the back-straight reaching 199mph." After his opening shift
he said, "The traffic wasn't terrible but we touched them a few times
ending in a spin once in a while, but no damage. They were all real quick
360's costing me about 5 sec each time, I recovered from them quickly. I
am glad for once we come into the pits after the first session in
first...best lap so far was a 1:08.915"
Third place went to the Black Squirrel Team. This all rookie team
includes Byron Forbes of Sydney Australia, Rudy de Wit of Holland, Richard
San Jose and Jason Quin both from the USA. When asked about his all
rookie team, Trader Ski grinned, "Well, we have a chance to win, because
the others might lose. Actually, this is a building year. I want to
create a winning team....that takes time."
Many thought that SAVATS #2 car was the favorite, but after Long
Beach's close finish no one was certain. Loren Wong of SAVATS #2 said,
"SAVATS is the boss. I think he's the best driver we have and Art Jones
is AWESOME at Mid-Ohio. SAVATS is the Champion of the team, but Art is
your favorite here today. Plus he's the co-driver of our
Lola/Honda/Goodyear car with me. I think Art could probably win the thing
by himself."
SAVATS said that it felt, "Like I'm at the end of a giant
KITE...," regarding the weather. "The car feels good, for the
conditions... It's very very windy out there, but it's the same for
everybody, so it doesn't bother me too much mentally. The main concern
for us is to get through traffic cleanly. The cars took up a lot of room,
I was surprised to get through as cleanly as I did sometimes." When asked
if he felt much pressure with the race as close as it was, "I don't ever
feel pressure... I will just turn up the wick a little more, that should
be sufficient to carry us through. I'm glad it's closer... that makes my
adrenaline flow super fast... I love it close!" Unfortunately for SAVATS,
co-driver Kaaveh Akbari stalled in the pits and electrical problems kept
them out for nearly 1 and a half hours towards the end. SAVATS #1
finished fifth after taking the lead at 2 and a half hours into the race.
Miller/McEwing Racing, who took fourth overall had quite a rough
day but performed admirably for a rookie team. "I got bumped off once in
turn one, Carlos got sideswiped into the pit lane and got black-flagged
for speeding otherwise we have had a tire get blown, but no major dramas.
We are not very fast but we are consistent. I have never raced at
Mid-Ohio."
In all there were four lead changes and 2 cars finished on the
lead lap. 12 hours at Portland are the next stop on August 30.
MIRacing's live coverage begins 2 hours before the race which starts at
1400 UST or 9 am Eastern Daylight Time, http://www.MIRacing.com.
Drivers Championship Table; Total Points Through Round 2:
Pos Driver Team Total Points
1 Jake Myers Gulf/Jag 38
2 Arthur Axelrad Gulf/Jag 37
3 Kaaveh Akbari SAVATS #1 35
3 S. Savats SAVATS #1 35
5 Art Jones SAVATS #2 21
6 Greg Fung IGN Mercedes 20
6 Gregory Alferov IGN Mercedes 20
6 Loren Wong SAVATS #2 20
6 Mike West IGN Mercedes 20
10 Bob Roberson Team Momo 18
10 Bob Turner Team Momo 18
12 Charlie Vehle Team Cyberslug 17
12 Todd Liebelt Team Cyberslug 17
12 Byron Forbes Black Squirrel 17
12 Rudy de Wit Black Squirrel 17
12 Jason Quinn Black Squirrel 17
17 George Sandman Gulf/Jag 14
17 Miles McEwing Miller/McEwing 14
17 Carlos Fernandes Miller/McEwing 14
20 Terry Vreeland SCCA Racing 12
20 Stephen Miller Miller/McEwing 12
20 Trevor Murphy SCCA Racing 12
23 Bill Briggins Team USA 10
23 Terry Neve Team USA 10
Constructor's Championship Table; Total Points Through Round 2:
Pos Team Total Points
1 Gulf/Jag 38
2 Team SAVATS #1 35
3 Team SAVATS #2 21
4 IGN Mercedes 20
5 Black Squirrel 18
6 Team Cyberslug 17
6 Team Momo 17
8 Miller/McEwing Racing 14
9 Miller/McEwing-SCCA 11
10 Team USA 10
11 SCCA Racing 1
