Wing Sprints are racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway tonight after Cup qualfying. They are racing on the 1/4 mile bull ring for 50 laps. USCS is the host which is a Southern 360 group that mainly races on dirt.
There are a few midwest drivers (or drivers that race here) such as Troy DeCaire, JoJo Helberg, Brian Gingras, Garrett Green, Tom Patterson, Dave Baumgartner.
Later today check pavementsprints.com and the Twitter feed (on homepage, near bottom of page) for updates at the track.
As luck would have it, the company car developed a miss in the engine coming up I 75 in Georgia then a severe pull just south of Atlanta. I gave it the afternoon off in hopes of it correcting itself (which amazingly it did).
I got in and parked as qualifying was going on just after 12 noon. USCS had a window from 12 to 2pm to run its qualifying and heats. I never saw qualifying times myself but the track itself was a handful. The front chute is asphalt with a few bumps in the braking zone into 1&2. Both ends are sealed asphalt to loosen up the Legends cars. Transition off 2 onto asphalt then onto the concrete pit stall lane before diving across the starting area of their local drag racing lanes (read track grip compound) to the slicked up 3&4 and back onto the frontstretch banking. It was plenty entertaining just to watch the drivers figure out the track.
The 50 lap feature rolled off just after 9pm. It was not easy to even guess a crowd count in that place. There were some people in the frontstretch grandstands but also a good sized group of people along the ends of pit lane. It was fun to see Hank Lower's grandson Jerry Kelley (car chief Keselowski 2) sitting along pit wall with the rest of the nascar people.
Fast qualifier Brian Gingras and Jojo Helberg started up front by virtue of USCS' passing points system with Troy Decaire third. Gingras took the lead over Helberg with Decaire in tow. Lapped traffic came early and often giving the leaders a good tussle. Decaire lost his front wing in one salvo then battled brake problems ultimately finishing fifth. Gingras held the lead through two cautions but never really broke contact from Helberg. With four laps remaining Helberg found Gingras blocked up top by a lapped car and charged past both to take the point. He pulled away marginally for the win.
After the race Gingras lamented he ran the top too long and gave Helberg the look and that was all it took. Helberg said he was giving it all he had throughout the entire race and knew he had to take the chance with four to go.
Local Indiana Open Wheel dot com maestro Tom Paterson came home 11th and said he would love to have started the day with the setup he ended the day with. His changes included outside weight and a stern one sided conversation with the right front tire regarding its responsibilities. The PDP pilot has raced with USCS sporadically throughout his career towing from his Argos, Indiana, homebase to compete in the Carolinas and beyond only to return and support events within Indiana the same weekend.
