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May 17th & 18th American Iron Race Report
It was a very warm weekend in Pueblo as the 2008 "American Iron" Rocky Mountain Region season continued at Pueblo Motorsports Park. Saturday's American Iron qualifying had Tommy Schlender on the pole way out in front of the pack with 1:42.165. Robbie Scranton qualified 2nd with a 1:45.463 and Raybob Coleman 3rd with a 1:45.072 rounded out the top 3. Kent Thornbery pushed his GTO to a 1:46.865 qualifying time. In the 5th spot on the grid was Johnny Ellis with a 1:47.527. Followed by Bill Cherf with a 1:54.179. Last but not least, Scotty Koerner brought up the back of the AI field. Billy Harding missed qualifying do to a broken clutch in practice. Cody Powell was out do to an Engine failure back in the shop.
When the green flag dropped Tommy Schlender and his Pontiac Firebird were gone, leaving all the rest of the AI field. Other than making their way through small-bore lap traffic the AI race was very uneventful and finished about like it started.
The finishing order for Saturday was as follows:
1st Tommy Schlender #55 Pontiac Firebird
2nd Raybob Coleman #43 Chevy Camaro
3rd John Ellis #141 Chevy Camaro
4th Robbie Scranton #31 Chevy Camaro
5th Scott Koerner #11 Pontiac Firebird
Saturdays Race
1st place American Iron
Tommy Schlender
2nd place
Raybob Coleman
3rd place
Johnny Ellis
4th place
Robbie Scranton
5th place
Scott Koerner
DNS Billy Harding #8 Ford Mustang
DNS Bill Cherf #984 Chevy Camaro
DNS Kent Thornbery #67 Pontiac GTO
DNS Cody Powell #93 Chevy Camaro
Sunday May 18th
Sunday morning's American Iron qualifying was cool and dry. The warm weather was going to stay for the whole weekend.
Tommy "too fast" Schlender took the pole in his Pontiac with a very fast 1:42.821, almost a full 2 seconds ahead of the rest of the AI field. Behind Tommy was Robbie Scranton and his Z28 with a 1:44.671 and bringing up the 3rd spot was Raybob Coleman with a disappointing 1:46.025. The rest of the AI qualifying field consisted of Bill Harding with a 1:46.558, John Ellis at 1:47.271, and at the tail end was AI Rookie Scott Koerner hitting a 1:52.441 in his Formula Firebird with a repaired engine coming off his DNS in March. Also failing to qualify on Sunday morning was Kent Thornbery with a broken power steering pump and Bill Cherf with engine tuning problems.
Before the race, the grid was inverted so our AI newbie Scott Koerner got to start in the front. By race time it was over 80 degrees with a strong wind from the NW. We gotta throw out a big thanks to Kurt Hansen of Race Central Fame for pacing both Saturday and Sunday’s races.
At the drop of the green it was a melee down the long straight to T1. Tommy, Robbie Scranton and Billy Harding got the jump on the other AI cars and grabbed the line into 1. Before T1 Wild Bill Harding got the Cobra Mustang out in front and stayed there until Tommy caught him in T7. It was a drag race to 8 and after some tire to fender contact Tommy came out in front for the next drag race to T9. Billy Harding stuck it out in 2nd for the rest of the race. Mean while in 3rd was John Ellis the 2007 AI rookie of the year fending off a hard charge by Robbie Scranton. Raybob was stuck in the battle of the SU Cobra's but eventually would get to the race for 3rd with Johnny Ellis and Rob Scranton. It was a battle of the Camaro's as another SU Cobra wanted through the AI battle for 3rd. Ellis and Scranton stayed in front of the blue cobra but Coleman got pimped again and fell back to 5th. Ellis kept his 93 Z28 in front of Scranton's 02 SS for a couple more laps until Raybob got back to the battle for 3rd at T9. Scranton & Coleman freight trained Ellis into T9 and took advantage of their bigger brakes to get the run into T10. By the time they all got down the straight into T1 Robbie Scranton stayed in front and Ellis took 4th leaving Coleman in 5th again followed by Scott Koerner. Robbie caught all the breaks as the AI pack caught the small-bore field of Spec Miata's and Spec 944's. With only a couple laps to go Robbie Scranton checked out to secure his 3rd place finish and left Raybob knocking on Johnny's back door. There was a local caution in T7 that made it harder for Ellis and Coleman to catch the rest of the AI front, but with one to go Coleman got his 96 Camaro SS around Johnny's 93 Camaro Z28.
Your finishing order for Sunday was as follows:
1st Tommy Schlender #55 Pontiac Firebird
2nd Billy Harding #8 Ford Mustang
3rd Robbie Scranton #31 Chevy Camaro
4th Raybob Coleman #43 Chevy Camaro
5th John Ellis #141 Chevy Camaro
6th Scott Koerner #11 Pontiac Firebird
DNS Cody Powell #93 Chevy Camaro
DNS Bill Cherf #984 Chevy Camaro
DNS Kent Thornbery #67 Pontiac GTO
Congrats to all of the AI Racers. ________________________
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RayBob,,,,,AI #43 RMR
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