It is always exciting to visit a new track and the RP team showed everyone how to learn and race fast. After a busy day of testing, the Zs hit the track running on Saturday giving Ken a 1st place finish and the pole for Sunday’s race with Brian fighting it out to the last second for a photo finish at the line to take 3rd place.

The NJ region rules dictate that your finishing position in Saturday’s race define your starting position for the Sunday race. With Ken on pole and Brian right behind him they pushed the entire race. Ken had 1st place locked down while Brian was racing hard all the way to the checkered flag to take 2nd in another photo finish.

Meanwhile, Scott Brunk raced hard in SSM on both Saturday and Sunday for a double win. After finally resolving his car’s ECU issues, he is able to remain strong throughout the race and take home the wins that he much deserves.

Finally in the SRX7 race, Kevin Hutchens battled Alexander Schafer all weekend with both races coming down to a photo finish. Kevin was able to grab 2nd on Saturday while dropping back to 3rd on Sunday (by only 0.032 seconds). You can watch the HD video here:

MARRS6 NJMP Lightning Group 7 Sunday Race July 19th, 2009 from SRX Kevin on Vimeo.

The Spec Miata race on Saturday yielded a 2nd and 3rd place finish (results) for Ken and Brian respectively. Ken’s performance during the weekend gave him both the pole and the win (results) in the Sunday race while Brian finished 4th on Sunday.

The SSM race on Sunday (results) gave Scott Brunk a 3rd place podium finish to continue his steady collection of points for the season.

Kevin Hutchens fought his way up to 4th place in the SRX7 race (results) after the RP guys cleaned out his carb yielding an extra 3 seconds of lap time to bring him up to competition speed. You can watch the whole Group 4 race in HD on viemo.

Saturday Ken had pole and I started 7th after a problem in qualifying with an air pocket in the cooling system necessitated ending my session after but only 4 laps… Ken finished 1st and I rallied back to a photo finish 3rd place finish…I missed 2nd place by .018… I lost at the loop but had it at the line, scoring is done at the loop.

Sunday Ken started from the pole…I started from 3rd….the accident involving Bret, Mike Collins and Brian Price resulted in a black flag all and the resetting of the field in original starting position. Bret was originally gridded second but since he couldn’t continue I assumed the 2nd place position for the regrid. Ken led every lap of the race and I had a hard fought battle with Kevin Kopp and pulled out the 2nd place finish at the end.

Both yellow RP Performance / Performance Auto works cars took top honors on Sunday in Spec Miata finishing 1st and 2nd. Sunday and 1st and 3rd Saturday.

Here are the current points standings for both SM and SSM as of May 15th.

SM

Ken 1073
Big Z 830
Meat 795
Price 645

SSM

Brunk 895
Zettersom 760
Pressman 730
York 670

On Mother’s day of the double header weekend, Ken qualified 3rd and Brian in 5th for the SM race. Ken pulled off a 1st in the MARRS point (2nd overall) with Brian earning 4th (5th overall). Scott qualified 2nd and finished with the win. The weekend yielded great points for the team RP: Ken is leading the SM MARRS series with Brian right behind him in 2nd. Watch for them to continue this domination at MARRS4 at the end of the month.

We had great weather for the SARRC/MARRS double header at VIR over Mother’s day weekend. The RP team continued their performance from MARRS1 and took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, in MARRS points in the SM race on Saturday. Brian qualified 4th after realizing a problem with his car and switched to the backup car to finish 4th overall and 3rd in MARRS. Tom Bourne started 2nd and got hit on the start going through turn 1 but kept it together to ran a few laps with Ken and the rest of the leaders and lay down a personal best time of 2:20.8. Ken put the car on poll with his best lap to date: 2:20.3 and stayed out in front to finish in 1st. In SSM, Steve Hunt was off to a great first time race at VIR until another car spun in front of him going into Rollercoaster leaving him nowhere to go and ended his race weekend. Kevin Hutchens was also a first timer at VIR in his SRX7 and finished his 2nd race on his novice permit to get signed off on his license. The Sunday race had a crazy start, some of which has been captured on this video.
Saturday Race Results: SM Race SSM/SRX7 Race 
Sunday Race Results: SM Race SSM/SRX7 Race 

RP picked up where we left off last year and the first race weekend gives us a strong start to the 2009 Season. On Saturday, Ken was fighting with transmissions problems and got caught up with another car under the bridge into turn 10. Brian finished 5th after struggling with mechanical issues as well. The RP team worked hard to get both cars in working order for the Sunday race and it paid off: Ken started in 3rd and Brian in 6th and they finished in 2nd and 4th respectively. Ken was running 3rd but passed Mike with one lap to go to take 2nd while laying down a hot lap of 1:27.6. In SSM: Scott had a great finish in 2nd on Saturday. In Sunday’s race he started in 4th and battled with Ed York in a two car race for 2nd place until his far fell off pace with mechanical issues. He kept it together and finished a respectable 19th in a 54 car field.
Race Results: SM Race SSM Race