Race report by Paul Lemieux
The 2011 snowbirds were held from Jan 26-30th in Orlando Florida. We saw a amazing turnout this year so we were really in for some really competitive racing.
Team XRAY had a full team in attendance to assist others. It was Francesco Martini (Italy) Eric Anderson (TN, US) Fred Hubbard (CA, US) Steve Mcnichols (FL, US) Austin Harrison (FL), Paul Lemieux (WI,US) Dave Bowser (FL), Mark Burt (FL), and others.
Practice: in Mod 12th scale Kevin Hebert was very fast along with Markus Mobers, Josh Cyrul, Mike Blackstock and others.
In Mod TC , Hebert, Lemieux, Groskamp, Cyrul, and Marc Fischer were getting around the track very well.
Qualifying:
In mod 12th Josh Cyrul was challenged in several qualifiers by Hebert, Blackstock and others but in the end Josh drove well and was plenty fast and took the TQ in the second round and held it threw the rest. so the grid was Cyrul TQ, Hebert second and Blackstock third for the final.
MOD TC: Paul Lemieux piloted his Thunderpowered XRAY to the front after round one just ahead of Hebert. In round Two and Three Paul held off Cyrul in hopes to keep his TQ. In round 4 it was none other than Jilles Groskamp who put together a great qualifier to capture the TQ from Paul by less than a second, So the grid for the final was set, Groskamp on pole, Lemieux on 2, Cyrul on 3 and Hebert fourth.
Finals:
MOD TC,
This race was the most well executed race by all involved that i have ever seen, Groskamp, Lemieux, Cyrul and hebert took off at the tone and pulled away. All four drivers were on the same straight for the first three minutes with virtually no mistakes from any of them. Cyrul mounted a couple of charges on lemieux but was un able to get by, Lemieux also mounted a couple of charges on groskamp but never got close enough to his bumper to make a move. The win went to Groskamp by a little over a half a second in the end. all 4 drivers drove well enough to win the race but it was Groskamp with a virtually flawless race from the pole who went home Champion.
Mod 12th
At the tone Cyrul took off and gaped the field nicely in the opening laps. from their it was hebert, Blackstock and Mobers. Hebert had some early difficultys and dropped back in the field. Now it was Cyrul still leading with Marc Fischer getting threw the field and running very strongly, Fischer soon had problems also which made the order Cyrul, Mobers and Bump Driver Paul Lemieux who had a horrible start but was working his way up threw the field carefully in third. Lemieux was able to overtake Mobers for second and was closing in on Cyrul, Cyrul got caught up in traffic and was suffering from a tweaked car. in the closing minutes Lemieux closed on Cyrul from 5 seconds to only 1 second behind when the tone sounded. Cyrul came out of the mixed up race with the win, Lemieux second and Mobers taking third.
Here are all the top threes prom each class ran, Congratulations to all!!
Touring expert 17.5
TQ Mike Haynes1 Mike Haynes
2 Travis Schreven XRAY T3 2011
3 Kevin Hebert
12th GTP MOD
TQ Josh Cyrul
1: Josh Cyrul
2: Paul Lemieux XRAY XII
3: Marcus Mobers
Touring stock:
TQ Eric Anderson XRAY T3 2011
1: Austin Harrison XRAY T3 2011
2: Dustin Layne
3: Cory Parsons
Touring MOD
TQ Jilles Groskamp
1: Jilles Groskamp
2: Paul Lemieux XRAY T3 2011
3: Josh cyrul
