Race re-cap show now available – Keith Verges Wins Dodge Viper Cup Race 1 at Pocono Raceway Round 5
Long Pond, Pa., Saturday, September 11, 2010 — Keith Verges fought off adversity to score a come-from-behind victory in a wild Dodge Viper Cup race at Pocono Raceway this afternoon. Last-minute repairs caused him to miss qualifying and start dead last in the nineteen-lap race, but he quickly moved through the field to settle in second place behind leader Ben Keating after the first of two full-course caution periods.
“Last to first; there’s nothing better than that,” said Verges, who was already in third place toward the end of the first lap. “Ryan (Schimsk) and Ben (Keating) were ahead of me and they got out of shape going into eight (the last turn before the infield road course joins the high-speed tri-oval speedway). Ryan went off so I got by.”
When the course went green, Keating slowly pulled away from Verges as the two racers separated themselves from the rest of the field.
Schimsk rejoined the fray in last place, trailing dust down the straight while passing cars as he flew through banked Turns 1 and 2 before diving back into the infield. He would eventually catch Eric Galerne, who was having a party on Pocono’s high speed sections. “I love the fast turns on this speedway,” Galerne exulted. Schimsk fought by, but Galerne shot past again going into Turn 1 before giving way and finishing fourth, his best result in three Dodge Viper Cup weekends.
Guest driver Bucky Lasek, the multiple X Games skateboarding gold medal winner , qualified third and ran most of the race in the second pack led by Galerne. He brought out the second full-course yellow with a mishap going into the difficult and bumpy eighth turn. He pitted to check the car and lost two laps to finish ninth in the race.
“This is cool,” he said after his first practice session put him only a couple of tenths behind the top time. Lasek said he has some experience on road courses–including winning the Pro-Celebrity race at the Long Beach Grand Prix a few years ago. “This is the first time I have been in the ACR-X,” he said. “I’m learning how to be smooth, thanks to Cindi Lux.”
Cindi and Fred Lux provide the Vipers and train the drivers invited to participate in Dodge’s Viper Cup guest driver program.
NHRA Pro Stock star Allen Johnson is also a guest driver this weekend. He was consistent in practice, but qualified nearly three seconds faster than his best practice time and ran a conservative race to finish sixth behind Jim Stout. “I wanted to be careful in this first race, but I might step it up tomorrow,” he said. He had some expert advice on how to run the speedway sections of the course. “I was testing Wednesday in Charlotte. Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart came by to watch and they gave me a few pointers.”
The second race is scheduled for Sunday afternoon. Rain is in the forecast.
2 Comments
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