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| Mid Ohio Race Notes: Kensai Racing |
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On lap 47, second-place Harvey was involved in a spectacular incident with the lapped cars of Mike Leibl and Cyril Hamelin. Harvey moved to pass the
#189 Trois-Rivieres Honda Civic of Hamelin going into turn one, while Leibl in the #29 Southern Auto Auction Acura tried to pass Harvey (although not for position). At Mid Ohio, it's usually the case that three into corner one don't go, and all three cars suffered extensive damage as the result of the collision. Hamelin's car flipped end-over-end, while Harvey's RSX-S barrel-rolled five times. Thankfully, all drivers walked away with little more than small bruises on body and ego, with perhaps larger bruises on their checkbooks.
Traffic played a huge role in the outcome of this weekend's GAC race, and this was the most obvious example. Thanks to the Mid Ohio safety workers and medical staff that did such a great job of getting the drivers out of the cars and safely attended to.
Povoledo, meanwhile, was circulating in third position, honing in on the #70 Mazda RX-8 of David Haskell and the #01 Cobalt, now with Eric Curran at the helm. The long yellow flag which resulted from the clean-up in corner one allowed time to cool down the cars and tires, which meant the battle for the podium was on with the drop of the green flag.
With the #75 car out, Aaron worked to keep the #76 car in the hunt, moving through traffic and staying with the Cobalt and RX-8. Meanwhile, the #27 RSX-S of Matt and Hugh Plumb was tight on his bumper, and when a lapped Honda Accord ran Povoledo wide, the Plumb car took advantage, dropping Aaron to fourth place.
That was how the event ended, with the #76 car finishing fourth on the road.
However, Grand Am assessed the team a 10-second penalty for a man over the wall before the car came to stop during its pit stop, which relegated them to fifth place in ST.
In all, a weekend of mixed emotions. The team is proud of both cars'
performance, and are thrilled with the fifth place for Thomson and Povoledo (its' second-best of the year, after the fourth place finish of Thomson and Billy Johnson at Laguna Seca). They're also grateful that Taz emerged unscathed from the wreck of the #75 car.
Plans are under way already for the construction of a new car that will appear for the next GA Cup race at Barber in a month's time. No doubt, both Kensai Racing with Compass360 cars will have what it takes to get on the podium there.
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