Neal Johnson "storms" thru to victory at Portimao!


It was a beautiful sunny day here on the southern coast of Portugal, with deep blue skies, warm gentle winds, and the stunningly picturesque backdrop of Portimao. That is, until the Neal Johnson storm front rolled thru the Autodromo International do Algarve! In fact once the green flag dropped the LMPC class was a constant whirlwind for the 1st consecutive 10 laps. Having set poll with a blistering lap, Neal Johnson appeared to make an uncharacteristically bad start, letting both Team Barista's Brian Farmer and Hein Houweling by before the exit of turn 1. Hein proceeded to apply the pressure on Farmer, relentlessly attacking like a rabid dog, until finally on lap 5 they would actually exchange the lead multiple times on a single lap. It was not long however before Johnson recovered from his faulty start and began to make it a 3 way battle. Neal eventually got by Hein and when he caught up to Farmer there would again be multiple exchanges for the lead until lap 10 when Johnson sealed the deal for good. He would go on the lead the remainder of the 55 lap event followed home by Farmer in 2nd, and rookie sensation Val Hoggard in 3rd.







Back in the GTC class it was Team Arctic's Scott Clark who was raining on everyone’s parade. Scott too it appeared was slightly slow off the grid, but took the point back going deep into the braking zone for turn 1. Scott would go on to take the GTC victory, followed home by a hard charging Rob Berry in 2nd, while CMS rookie Franck Feldhuez racks up another top 3! This year’s crop of rookies here at CMS in the 1st half of the 2011 season just continue to amaze!













The next event in the CMS World Division will be the GT Challenge event at Watkins Glen on Sunday 04/17/11.

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