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| The battle between Justin and Steve allowed Michele to pull away from them a bit, but it almost seemed too late to be able to do anything about catching up to Edo and the M-Factory Acura Integra. |
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| Once the battle between the Infiniti G20 and Honda S2000 settled down, both cars started catching back up to Michele's Scion tC. The tC's weight problems started surfacing as the race wore on. Michele's lap times kept increasing and she started to report via team-radio that the car was very difficult to turn and manage. |
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| Like sharks smelling blood in the water, Steve and Justin continued to close the gap on Michele. Here you can clearly see that the two chasing cars could keep a much tighter line through the Omega. It was really only a matter of time before Michele would have to concede. |
As the three cars entered turn 8, Steve started giving Michele the business and filling her mirrors full of G20. Coming up to turn 9 they encountered some Miata traffic and the three MPTCC cars were on each others bumpers! Thanks to the traffic Steve was able to carry enough speed through the straight to successfully complete the pass at turn 1 and continue to pull away through turn 2. By now Justin had the radar-lock on Michele and was ready to take his shot coming down the Omega. Michele drove a defensive line and blocked the attempt, which allowed Steve to continue to pull away from them.
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| Steve Rockwood and the MotoIQ Project Infiniti G20 taking over second place and pulling away from the pack at turn 2. |
It would be one more lap before Justin could complete a pass on Michele. Instead of trying to pass her coming down the Omega, Justin waited a few more seconds and passed the tC after the Omega as they approached the entrance of turn 8. At this time Michele was a sitting duck, with her tires completely wasted there was nothing else she could do. Her only choice was to limp the car to the finish line in order to collect very important championship points.
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| Before Steve could get too comfortable in second place, Justin made sure Steve's trip to the podium would not be an easy one. Unfortunately for Justin the G20's new Toyo RRs were not dropping off and Steve was able to continue driving consistent lap times. Though Justin was able to set a faster lap time than Steve during the race, Steve was still able to hold him off and earn himself a second place finish. |
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| At the end of the 30 minute stint, Edo would be the first one to cross the finish line. His fastest lap in the race was a 1:32.873, which was a little over half a second faster than his qualifying time! |
