Mark Jenkins Recaptures Podium and Finishes Fourth in Championship
ALTON, Va. - The first weekend of October marked the final weekend of racing for the SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup series, with Virginia International Raceway (VIR) setting the stage for the double-header season finale. Located on the border of Virginia and North Carolina, VIR's high-speed, 3.27-mile road course is nestled among trees and hillsides that wait to claim competitors who dare challenge her. With the championship at stake, a bare-knuckle showdown was expected among drivers. However, "fast and clean" would prove to be the winning formula.
Mark Jenkins book-ended his 2009 season with podium finishes (Al Merion photo).
Experiencing VIR for the first time, Mark Jenkins set forth
to tame the wild, dual esses in his No. 25 Traxxas/BFGoodrich/Amsoil/Simpson
Racing Mazda. Being fourth quickest in Friday"s final practice session, Mark
knew he could get more out of the track. However, a pre-race setup change and a
transmission problem worked against Jenkins. Getting a great start from eighth,
Mark ran the outside of Turn One in fourth position, but found the dirt as the
inside traffic forced him off-track and sent him back in the field. Mark
slipped from the critically important draft on the long straightaways and could
only watch as the front-runners slowly extended their leads, leaving Mark to
tie his worst finish of the season with 11th place.
Sunday’s season finale would prove to be a different story.
After changing the transmission and starting over with the chassis setup, Mark
was ready to punctuate the end of the season with a strong finish on Sunday.
Gridded ninth, Jenkins was intent on staying in the draft and racing to the
front. However, mayhem occurred on lap one, with multiple cars making contact
with one another, forcing the No. 25 of Jenkins off-track. Swerving to narrowly
miss point leader Lamb and teammate Mancuso, Mark skimmed the guardrail between
Turns 10 & 11. Jenkins’ off-road experience paid off, as he set his car
into a full four-wheel drift through the grass and dirt, riding the outside of
Turns 11 and 11A to avoid the carnage.
When the green flag dropped again, the field of competitors
set out to race like it was the final lap. Knowing the importance of staying in
the draft, Jenkins laid down fast, consistent laps and picked off car after
car. With three laps to go, Miller, Lamb, and Malkhassian tangled with one
another and raced into a tire wall. Mark was close behind to capitalize on the
incident and immediately seized the opportunity to pass Buras for third place
by attacking the apexes at Turns 17 and 17A with four wheels in the dirt.
Jenkins and Buras raced each other hard on the final lap as Mark held onto the
final podium spot just 3.7 seconds behind first place Kent and 2.1
seconds behind second-place finisher Piscitell.
The third-place finish of Mark Jenkins was his second podium
of the season, the other podium being a second place in the season opener at
Road Atlanta. The "podium bookend" elevated Mark to finish fourth overall
in the Series Championship.
"We threw away yesterday’s setup, dropped in a
different tranny and laid down some competitive laps. I can’t take credit for
today’s podium. I was just the 'monkey behind the wheel.’ Team MER gave the No.
25 Traxxas/BFG/Amsoil/Simpson Racing MX-5 a good platform and my tires never
faded. I have to thank BFGoodrich for that because they had to race on asphalt,
grass and dirt today! Staying fast and clean was the key to the race."
Throughout the year, Mark Jenkins showed he can run
consistently fast and avoid trouble under the closest racing conditions. With
two podiums, three top 5s, seven top10s, one fastest lap of the race and seven
laps led in nine starts (lowest finishes were 11th), Mark has developed into a
driver of contention for 2010. The question is: what will he be racing? Stay
tuned!
