In a race the featured nose-to-tail racing throughout the field, Brad Rampelberg emerged victorious, winning the SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup event at Road America on Sunday.
The line-up was revised prior to the race as fast qualifier, Mathew Pombo, withdrew from the field, as did his teammate Mark Pombo, following an issue in qualifying that deducted two points from Mathew Pombo in the quest for the season championship. This moved Rampelberg, the second-fastest qualifier, to the pole.
The 45-minute timed race took the green at 2:33 p.m.
Rampelberg led the field into the first turn, with Lyonel Kent in second. Kent took the lead from Rampelberg in Turn 5. Later in the lap, Ara Malkhassian also passed Rampelberg to claim second. At the end of the first lap, the top four were Kent, Nick Evans, Malkhassian, and Rampelberg.
On lap two, Evans took the lead from Kent.
A full-course yellow appeared while the field was working lap four when Tim Probert made contact with the wall in the kink, spreading debris on the track.
During the caution, Rampelberg pitted and returned to the track.
The race restarted on lap six with Kent leading, followed by Evans, Malkhassian, Justin Piscitel and Russell Walker. Piscitel took third from Malkhassian in Turn 5.
The top five were running extremely close on lap seven. Evans and Kent were side-by-side in Turn 1, with Piscitel just behind the pair.
For several laps, Evans, Rampelberg and Kent swapped positions and ran nose-to-tail. The entire field was extremely tight on lap nine as 10 of the 11 cars still running were just 5.5 seconds apart with a lap time of approximately 2 minutes and forty seconds.
At lap 11, the top six were Evans, Rampelberg, Kent, Piscitel, Cooper and Malkhassian, with the top three in a breakaway from the rest of the field.
At Turn 5, on lap 11, Rampelberg took the lead from Evans. Kent, who had been running third, lost the front pack draft and slipped back into the field.
The field remained close at the start/finish line on lap 13. Rampelberg and Evans were nose-to-tail, with the next five cars right behind them in a tight pack.
Rampelberg and Evans swapped the lead several times on the lap and at the end of lap 15, the white flag came out on the timed race. Rampelberg was in the lead, followed by Cooper, who slipped back to fifth on the final lap, Evans, Piscitel and Malkhassian.
At the checkered flag, Rampelberg took the win by 1.457 seconds. Malkhassian came from fifth to second on the final lap, and Nick Evans finished third.
The margin of victory was deceptive, as the field had already slowed down, taking the yellow and the checkered flag together, following a serious incident between Turns 4 and 5 on the final lap.
Jeff Mosing and Kent apparently collided on the final lap, spreading debris across the track and destroying Kent’s car.
Fortunately, both drivers walked away from the wreck.
After the race, Rampelberg was happy to discuss the win.
“I got lucky at the end. The car was awesome. My teammates (Cooper and Michael Carpenter) helped me to the win,” Rampelberg said.
SUMMARY
Fin Start Car # Driver Laps Running/Reason out 1 2 4 Brad Rampelberg 15 Running 2 4 11 Ara Malkhassian 15 “ 3 5 28 Nick Evans 15 “ 4 8 89 Justin Piscitel 15 “ 5 10 84 Michael Coooper 15 “ 6 7 14 Mark Carpenter 15 “ 7 9 77 Jesse Combs 15 “ 8 14 39 Kristine Craine 15 “ 9 3 13 Lyonel Kent 14 Contact 10 12 30 Jeff Mosing 14 Contact 11 11 29 Russell Walker 14 Contact 12 13 26 Tim Probert 2 Off Course 13 1 01 Mathew Pombo 0 DNS 14 6 63 Mark Pombo 0 DNS
15 15 23 Jimmy Burke 0 DNS
Mary ChampionRoad America