 Mixed Results for MGR Racing at Willow Springs
Phoenix, AZ, February 13th, 2005.
The first race weekend of the season turned out to be more eventful than expected for Team MGR Racing. Friday’s practice session saw rain falling continuously on the track. Several ASC teams did take advantage of the Friday test day to run in the rain on Willow’s main track. Manuel Gil del Real driving the Symbolic Ford Taurus #27 achieved the third fastest time in the rain with a lap in the 1:36 range. As a comparison, Ross Thompson was able to achieve a 1:33 and Ken Stinnett had a best lap time registered at 1:34. Overall, not a bad rain test session for MGR.
Saturday morning, although not raining, the air and track were cold and the rain had washed all of the rubber off of the track. Practice was the first sign of trouble for the Symbolic #27 car. With speeds and rpm going up as a result of the dry track, Manuel Gil del Real reported an engine "miss" in the top end. After practice Crew chief, Adam Davis spent the time double-checking all the components. Everything seemed to be in order as they prepared to qualify. While Mike Arnheiter captured the first pole of the season at 1:25.863, MGR’s car was still misfiring through the session causing Manuel to fall about six seconds off the pace. When the first race began, even in the warm up lap Manuel Gil del Real said over the radio, “something is not right”. After a couple of green laps, he decided to bring the car back to the garage rather than risk hurting the engine or getting into an accident. Adam Davis and the rest of the Team had a long night ahead of them trying to get the Symbolic #27 ready for Sunday’s race.
By Sunday’s practice session in the morning, the car appeared to be fixed. This time, Manuel Gil del Real captured the third fastest practice time. Team MGR Racing was all smiles after that. Now the focus was to achieve a good setup for qualifying. Manuel qualified in fourth position just a few hundredths of a second behind Scott Ivie, who was driving EMF’s Ford #10 car, promising a great show for the start of the race.
Manuel had a great start being able to pass Scott before turn one. He started to chase Evans and Ochylski running in first and second place respectively. This battle held up for the first two laps. On the third lap, Scott Ivie, who was also being chased by Al Balding, hit Manuel’s car in the right rear quarter panel while driving out of turn four. This contact put Manuel’s car into a spin and for all purposes, out of contention for the race. By the time he was able to get back on track, all ASC cars had passed him and he started a mad chase from the last position. “I can’t believe Scott hit me like that in turn four…” Manuel said to Adam on the radio. Turn four is a downhill, off camber turn where cars are on the edge of traction, making it hard to recover from any contact.
During the next few laps, Manuel was able to regain some lost ground and get back to fifth position. A full course yellow brought the field back together behind the pace car. Now Manuel had his sights on the four cars ahead of him hoping for a clean re-start that would enable him to gain a few more positions, and possibly contend for a podium finish. Unfortunately, a re-start never happened. The emergency crews encountered some difficulties retiring a disabled car off the track and the race ended under yellow.
Overall, a mixed weekend for MGR Racing with great performance in the rain, engine troubles, contact at the track, and a great recovery to finish fifth on Sunday.
Team MGR Racing and the American Stockcar Challenge series continues next month at California Speedway for round two. Be sure to visit HYPERLINK "http://www.MGRRacing.net" www.MGRRacing.net for up to the minute Team information, Race Schedule, In Car Videos, Photo Galleries and much more.
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