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10:00am rolled around and it was time for the MPTCC field to report to pre-grid and prepare for the first qualifying session of the weekend. The MotoIQ Project G20 and Edik's DA Integra were the sole MPTCC competitors during the morning practice session, but for qualifying it would be a completely different story. Not only were all MPTCC competitors present, but there would be more cars than usual on track for this weekend's qualifying sessions. Driving Concepts was having their Competition Driving School this weekend, so in order to make time for their pupils, race groups A and C's qualifying sessions were combined.
The additional traffic of the combined race groups proved to not be of much concern to the MPTCC field and this can be directly attributed to the superb job NASA does evaluating and preparing their racers. Though the the traffic was not an issue, there were plenty of other “incidents” that would have an impact on the way the season championship would play out. Steve Rockwood needed to put the MotoIQ Project G20 in front of Michele's tC in both races in order to cut and surpass the 2 point lead Michele had on third place. For those of you who are not familiar with the MPTCC points system, this is how the points are awarded for each race:
| 1st = 20 points |
| 2nd = 17 points |
| 3rd = 15 points |
| 4th = 13 points |
| 5th = 12 points |
| 6th = 11 points |
| 7th = 10 points |
| 8th = 9 points |
| 9th = 8 points |
| 10th = 7 points |
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So as you can see a 2 point lead can be quite significant, especially if the competition is consistently finishing races. It's easy to deduce the importance of having a reliable race car that can not only win, but finish every race. The MPTCC rule book allows each racer to drop their lowest score of the season. With the Scion Racing/Dynamic Autosports tC not completing the minimum number of laps (half the race laps) to score points during the last race at Autoclub Speedway and the MotoIQ Project G20 being down and out during the last race at Willow Springs, not finishing either of the Buttonwillow races was not an option for either racer.
