David Anderson Wins Champion DaytonaRC Special Event

newsbot · 01-26-2008, 01:22 AM

This time of year we get pretty excited at Champion Motorsports about the Rolex 24 Race at Daytona as well as Speedweeks in general the the annual running of the Daytona 500. We always try to do something special, and this year was no exception. We hosted a Radicals Sportscar Race at the Famed Daytona Road Course tonight in GTR2 with 2 classes of cars (The 252's and RMI's). Special thanks to Champion Community Member Charlie Gog for helping put together the event format as well as donate the race server for tonight. The race also certainly lived up to the expectations we had for it and turned out to be one of the more dramatic finishes we've had in a while.
David Anderson would end up winning the overall race in his Radical 252, with Rich Lee taking the class win in the RMI class, and a very impressive overall P2 finish. Newcomer to the community Eddie Lynch would finish in P3 on the podium.

David Anderson (pictured above) takes the win at Daytona

The night started with Bob Dunlop on the pole, and Tim Collier on the outside of the front row, as both drivers were very fast and looked to be the favorites Dunlop would in fact lead the first half of the race, before pit stops, with Collier chasing closely behind. However, for Dunlop he had a pit road disaster as the crew could not get fuel into the car,and he would have to retire early, ending his hopes for the win. This would put Collier in the apparent driver seat, but he too had fuel related problems. As his car was coming out of turn 4 for his pit stop he actually ran out of fuel. But, was able to coast to his stall for service -- the problem being he lost some precious time to the other front runners.
This series of events would hand the race lead to Rich Lee who was very fast in his RMI and was handling great in the infield section of the road course. Rich would lead for several laps before having to pit for fuel, and hand the race lead over to David Anderson.

Rich Lee was strong and would end up in P2 overall and Class win for RMI (pictured above)

When all of the stops sorted out Anderson had a nice 20 second lead over a battling Collier and Rich Lee for 2nd position. Collier would get around Lee but then later be involved in an accident that would end his night prematurely. It looked as if Anderson would get the win, but there was trouble brewing and a nervous pit crew. The car did not apparently have enough fuel to finish the race, without a stop and go. Anderson would have to severely back off the car and try to go into fuel conservation mode with about 5 laps remaining. This allowed Rich Lee to close the gap to less than 10 seconds, when Anderson would barely make it to the S/F line to win the race on the last lap. With Lee in 2nd, Eddie Lynch would finish in P3 to complete the Podium. Eddie had a fantastic race in his Champion Motorsports Fun Series Debut. Tony Boynton was the final car finishing the event, as the other half of the field was out either due to mishaps or accidents.

Eddie Lynch had a great finish in his RMI Radical in 3rd (pictured above).

Overall it was a great event that had a very fun and dramatic finish. Congratulations to all drivers that participated, and we look forward to doing something similar next year. Event Results can be found HERE

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