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2005 MMRA Grand National
Race - East
Friendship Motor Speedway, Elkin, NC - August 26-27
The Eastern Grand National race was our first time ever
renting an entire facility for one of our events, and it turned out to be a
great experience. It was awesome to have our minicup and Baby Grand
racers experience what it is like to be a big time race car driver with
driver introductions, autograph sessions, and full victory lane interviews.
The Future Stars race was the first event of the evening and
Donald McIntosh led the field to the green flag after a four car invert.
There was lots of close racing, particularly in the top 5 positions.
Between driver introductions, the national anthem, and a long race, our kids
may have started to get tired as we saw more cautions toward the end of the
feature. With only two laps to go, a scary looking crash in turn 4
involving Chelsie Roe brought the field to their fourth caution of the
night. During the caution period rain started falling, slickening the
track and ending the event at 48 laps with Jacob France in the lead.
Jacob was able to enjoy the double pleasure of winning both the Grand
National race and the overall Future Stars championship.
Fortunately the rain shower was brief and the hot track
quickly dried, allowing the Open Division to get on the track. Indiana
racer Don Gettelfinger lead the field to the green for what turned out to be
a caution free race. The racing was fierce for positions 2 through 6
for much of the race, as Joseph Meyer assumed the lead on lap 10 and pulled
away from the group vying for second. Our Open Division racers put on
a driving clinic as they showed how to race hard and clean with the running
order changing often. In the end, Joseph Meyer won his third Grand
National race in a row, but this time his performance before the event also
earned him his first overall Open Division championship.
In the PRO Division, Chris Wilson started the weekend by
setting fast time and increasing his points lead over Tyler Brown to three
points. That lead would evaporate over the course of a race just as
intense as the NASCAR finale at Homestead. Due to the invert, Tyler
started on the pole but slowly fell to fourth in the first half of the race.
Chris on the other hand was working his way up to second by lap 8. It
appeared Chris had the title well in hand, but 50 laps is a long race, and
in the second half, Tyler started moving forward while Chris fell back.
At lap 50, Tyler was second and Chris 5th - leaving them with an even score
of 201 points. The tiebreaker is the Grand National finish - handing
the title to an ecstatic Tyler Brown. In the PRO Division there were
two ecstatic guys - Tyler for winning the championship, and Danny
Trent for winning his first ever MMRA race. He sure picked a good one,
and served notice that he will be a force to be reckoned with in 2006.
We are looking forward to getting photos from the
photographers soon, so be sure to check back for photos and more updates on
the event soon.
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