Lamb Triumphant in MX-5 Cup Round Two at Mazda Raceway
MONTEREY, Calif. - Competing in just his second SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup race, Todd Lamb, of Atlanta, Ga., captured a hard-earned win in Round Two of the 2009 Championship at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, part of the Verizon Festival of Speed Presented by SPEEDCOM. Marc Miller, of Holland, Mich., and Stan Wilson, of Mt. Juliet, Tenn., completed the podium.
Todd Lamb leads at Mazda Raceway (Al Merion photo).
Lamb may have started and
finished the race in the top spot, but there was plenty of action between the
green and checkered flags. Driving the No. 84 AMG Racing MX-5, Lamb was already
shaking off advances from Miller on lap two of the 24-lap, 53.712-mile race.
Miller finally got the job done on lap six, but was only able to hold the lead
until lap eight, when Lamb retook the position, diving to the inside in Turn
11.
Miller continued to hound
Lamb for the lead, but also had to contend with Ara Malkhassian in the No. 11
ALARA Racing MX-5, who set the fastest lap of the race in pursuit of the
leaders, a 1:43.716 (77.681 mph). Malkhassian was removed from the equation on
lap 16, when he slid deep into the gravel at Turn Six, necessitating a
full-course caution so his car could be extracted.
With the race more than half
complete, the yellow flags were just what Lamb was hoping for and exactly what
Miller didn't want.
"I was pretty happy to see
the yellow come out,” Lamb said. “It let me cool my tires down, regroup and get
back to it when the green flag came out.”
“I was not happy to see the
yellow flags,” Miller countered. “We had a good gap. I was very comfortable and
set into a rhythm. We had set up our car for longer runs. It seemed like Todd
was starting to pick up a little bit of an understeer and my car was getting more
of an oversteer on exit, which was keeping it nice and free. I had a great run
coming up the hill out of Turn Six and then I see Todd waving his hand and the
double yellow. I thought, 'well, that"s it then.’”
When green flag racing resumed
on lap 20, Lamb and Miller held their positions, while Stan Wilson launched
past three cars and suddenly found himself in third.
“Over the course of my
career I’ve had the fortune of timing restarts well,” Wilson said. “I think it was a little bit of
a blessing in addition to skill, because the guys in front of me seemed to
check up at the last minute and went two-wide, so that allowed me to pass three
cars on the inside going into Turn One.”
Wilson proceeded to crank up the pressure on Miller who thought
he was setting up Lamb for a pass on lap 21, when he was actually opening up a
window of opportunity for Wilson.
“I’d been so good through
Three and Four,” Miller recalled. “I would roll through there and get a good
run on Todd, so I checked up just a little bit and that seemed to be the lap
that Stan got an even better run through Turn Four. He got alongside me going
into Turn Five. We came out side-by-side and I had a little bit of a better
run. I thought, ‘if he’s nice, he’ll let me take him in Six, if not, I’ll have
to give it up,’ and he wasn’t so nice about it, so I let him have it.”
No sooner was Wilson around Miller,
than Miller took the spot right back the following lap. With only two laps
remaining in the race, Miller ran out of time to catch Lamb, who took the win
by 0.205-second.
“We didn’t do a lot of long
runs this weekend,” Lamb said. “We just didn’t have the car quite ready to go
at the beginning. All-in-all, it came around and ended up being a lot better
than I thought it was going to be. I thought I was going to pick up a huge push
throughout the race, but it ended up being pretty neutral till the end.
“When I saw Marc and Stan
side-by-side I figured it was going to slow them down a little bit, so I tried
to keep a steady pace and started to pull away. I even backed off a little bit
to make sure I wasn’t making any mistakes. That allowed Marc to close up a
little at the end, but that was fine with me, because I just needed to be ahead
at the checkered.”
Lamb averaged 68.470 mph en
route to his first MX-5 Cup win in only his second race with the series, his
first coming back in 2006 at Mosport.
“I didn’t expect this,” Lamb
said. “I was hoping, but I knew that there’s some tough competitors in this
series. I didn’t know what to expect really. I knew we were going to do our
best and get the car handling right, but from there it was just up to me
driving. We’ll be back for New Jersey
and hopefully the rest of the season.
“MX-5 Cup is a lot of fun.
There’s a lot of close, tight, fast racing. This is a great group of guys and
there’s a lot of comradery in this paddock. This series is just fantastic.”
Finishing second, Miller
holds onto his lead in the MX-5 Cup Drivers’ Championship. The driver of the
No. 28 Team MER/MOCA/RaceforAutism MX-5 holds an 18-point lead over Justin
Piscitell, followed by Brett Smrz, Zach Ply and Wilson.
“The first part of the track
I was a bit quicker [than Lamb],” Miller said. “In Turns Three, Four I gave up
a little bit, and in Turn Five, but through Turn Six I tended to get a pretty
good run up the hill. Todd was a bit of a machine through Nine and 10, so it
was pretty evenly matched. It seemed like whoever was following the other could
take advantage of the draft and capitalize on any little mistake.
“I’ve got to give it to
Todd, I felt like I didn’t make any mistakes, but Todd didn’t make any mistakes
either. I think it was a really clean race. Certainly it feels good for Team
MER to finish second. We’re carrying a pretty good legacy and I hope to continue
this success throughout the year.”
Shortly after losing the
second spot to Miller, Wilson nearly saw a podium finish slip away, as
Piscitell dove his No. 89 ALARA Racing/DAMG Racing/MAZDASPEED MX-5 to the
inside of Wilson’s No. 92 Hale Motorsports/Wilson Racing MX-5 exiting Turn Six.
“Justin was faster up the
hill, from Turn Six to the Corkscrew,” Wilson
said. “He made a clean pass. He had me on the left side, which is where you
want to be set up going into the braking zone for the Corkscrew. I thought, ‘well,
I don’t want to go side-by-side through the Corkscrew, because one of us will
end up four wheels off the track,’ so I tucked in behind him.
“I stayed on him all the way
through Turns Nine and Ten, thinking that if there was any chance, I could maybe
get a better launch out of Turn 11. I had mentally decided that there wouldn’t
be any chance, but at the last minute, with as hard as I pushed him into the
braking zone, figuratively speaking, he overshot the corner and got his car
sideways. I was able to drop into second gear and launch out of Turn 11 faster,
and that allowed me to beat him to the flag.”
In addition to the podium
finish, which was a first for Hale Motorsports, Wilson collected the Carbotech Hard Charger
of the Race Award for advancing 10 positions in the race.
“This whole effort with Hale
Motorsports has been about focus from the beginning,” concluded Wilson. “The team hasn’t
been able to celebrate a podium finish before. I had my head down today and I
was determined.
“This feels fantastic. I
haven’t been on the podium for a Pro race since 2007. It wasn’t expected. I was
focused on moving up in the points. The Hard Charger would have been nice,
because of our dismal qualifying position, but making the podium was like
winning the race.”
Taking advantage of
Piscitell’s mistake, Smrz, of Coeur
D’Alene, Idaho,
picked up a spot on the final corner to finish fourth in the No. 6
AMG/InTouchPhysicalTherapy MX-5. He was followed across the line by Ply, of Joliet, Ill.,
in the No. 27 Team MER/Insight Beverage Co. MX-5 who finished fifth.
Piscitell recovered to
finish sixth.
Jeff Mosing, Robert
Michaelian, Max Riddle and Lyonel Kent completed the top 10.
Round Two of the SCCA Pro
Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup will begin airing on syndicated cable and
satellite networks on June 12. A full broadcast schedule is available at
www.mx-5cup.com.
MX-5 Cup Rounds Three and
Four will take place June 12 – 14, at Thunderbolt Raceway, in Millville, N.J.
