Standridge wins Challenge Series Championship

In probably the most exciting Nationals race in the history of the Factory Five Challenge Series, David Standridge fought his way to the front of the field and took the checkered flag at the Mid-Ohio Sportscar Park ahead of a large field of tightly packed competitors.

Driver’s meeting under the big canopy

FFR’s Andy assisted racers all weekend

It was Kaiser, however, who got the better of the start and jumped in front of Dobyns right away. Close behind, however, were Standridge and Kevin Eves (Team Boothman).  Dobyns didn’t relinquish his position easily however, and maintained steady pressure to get by Kaiser, with Standridge right on his tail.  Within a couple of laps, Standridge was able to pass Dobyns and was putting pressure on Kaiser for the lead.

Halfway through the race, Kaiser got loose in the Carousel, and Standridge was able to squeeze around him and get out front.  At that point he knew that the race was his to lose.  Kaiser, however, was thinking the same thing, and with incredible lap times (including a new track record 1:38.306 lap) was sure that he could recapture the lead with the slightest slip up from Standridge.  It was Kaiser who slipped, however, and in the process of pushing for the lead, spun out, letting Dobyns and Eves pull ahead of him.

Kaiser’s pursuit was relentless however, and he continued to close in on the leaders.   He passed Eves for third, and then Dobyns for second, and again was closing in on Standridge in the front position.  In the meantime, Eves worked his way passed Dobyns to take third place.

As the laps were running down and the end of the race was in sight, Kaiser was still gaining ground on the front runner.  Just as Kaiser had done early on, Standridge also lost a little control in the Carousel, and allowed Kaiser to close in on his back bumper.  It was too late for Kaiser, however, as Standridge crossed the finish line just fractions of a second ahead of him.

The rest of the field had similarly hard fought battles with passes throughout the race.  One of the more exciting cars to watch was piloted by Scott McKay (a significant player in the Florida region), who was forced to start at the back due to an inadvertent rule infraction.  In the course of the 18 lap race, he was able to work his way all the way into 4^th place and into the prize winnings.

To keep things exciting for all of the racers, Factory Five also awarded three TGB pit bikes to the competitors who could most closely guess their best lap times.
 

Factory Five congratulates the entire field of racers for another successful season and exciting Championship race.

The final results for Sunday’s Championship Race are listed below, along with the remarkable lap times the whole field was running.

• Other "What's New" items