V8 StockCar Series: Roebling/SIC Report

[V8stockcar]

The V8 StockCar Series made its' annual trek to Roebling Road for the SARRC Invitational Challenge on October 9 & 10. Some twenty five cars were on hand to test the twisting circuit outside Savannah. Roebling, known to be one of the more difficult to pass on tracks in the south east always seems to provide for
some exciting racing. It was sunny but cool for the saturday morning qualifying session and Kurt Roehrig and Tommy "Hollywood" Graham made good use of the favorable conditions with both clocking times under Tony Amico's record. When the session was over, Roehrig had a new V8 StockCar GTA record with a 1:39.984 blast with Graham nipping at his heels at 1:40.050. Dave Machavern took the V8 GT1 pole, Lee Arnold the V8 SPO top spot in his Impala at a quick 1:13.366 and Bob Mayer garnered the V8 GT2 point at 1:13.971. Saturday's race was a ten lap affair, and good shootouts were fully expected in the V8 GTA and SPO classes and we got them. At the green, Graham and his small block Ford Taurus outpowered the LS1 Monte Carlo of Roehrig down the
front straight and led into turn one. For the next eight laps Graham would pull out a couple car lengths down the front straight only to have Roehrig reel
him on the twisting backside. On lap eight, an increasingly frustrated Roehrig took a look inside of Graham in turn four, driving it in deep and as Graham
turned down the two made contact resulting in Roehrigs car becoming airborne sliding down the right side and across the hood of Graham's Taurus. Both
cars went off track but amazingly both drivers had the cars moving again within seconds, and the third place running GTA of Randy Walker never caught them.
Roehrig led to the checker with Graham chasing him to the stripe with most of the right of the body and hood missing. In V8 SPO, Arnold led wire to wire
over a quickly improving Paul Breehne who had started mid pack and was now running time comparable to Arnold. Machavern easily took the GT-1 win
and Bob Mayer won V8 GT-2 over the fast RX7 of Richard Smith. Graham was awarded the GTA win after Roehrig was penalized for the contact between the
two. Roehrig was moved to ninth overall and just behing the GTA car of Bill Porter.

Sunday's feature race was a twenty lapper around the 2.02 mile circuit. Dave Machavern again led wire to wire in GT-1, as did Mayer in GT-2. In V8 SPO
Arnold led from the point for the opening laps but Breehne was closing, using every bit of the power available from his Rousch built small block. Near the mid point of the race, Breehne got under Arnold in turn one and never looked back. Arnold never went far and was at times completely along side of Breehne
in turns three and four but just couldn't get back by. Breehne took the win and closed in on Larry Hoopaugh for the class championship with the win.
In GTA, Graham took the win but not without a determined effort from Kurt Roehrig who gave it all trying to get back to the front from his back of the pack
starting spot. Roehrig was closing on Graham at about one second per lap, fighting through traffic. About mid way, Roehrig got bumped in turn one and spun
losing valuable seconds, but he never relented and at the end had closed again to just a few seconds of Graham. The win by Graham gives him an eight
point advantage for the championship going into the ARRC at Road Atlanta. As mentioned earlier, Bob Mayer won again in GT-2 but had good competition
for most of the race with Richard Smith and Bob Humphreys often just a few car lengths behind. On lap 15, Smith was pushed off the track in turn 3 at high
speed, slid through the grass and impacted the tire barrier hard. Smith was OK but the car will need some serious attention. Richard was having a great
race and was hanging tough with the much higher horsepower Corvette and Porsche.

As always the Buccaneer Region SCCA did a fine job planning and hosting the event and we always enjoy racing with them.

Next up for the V8 Racers is the ARRC at Road Atlanta (American Road Race of Champions) on November 5 & 6. Some forty plus car are expected in the four
classes and the class championships are still up for grabs. The V8 races at the ARRC will be in memory of Joe Mobley of Mo's Gold who passed away this
summer after a battle with cancer. Joe supported the V8 Series for the past two years as well as the Indy Lights Series, ARCA and others. Joe often
helped talented, struggling racers with their programs and he will be greatly missed. The Championship Rings will once again feature the Mo's Gold logo.