Texas Electric Onroad Series – Report

The penultimate round of the 2017 Texas Electric Onroad Series was held in San Antonio, Texas. Hosted by the Alamo City Racing Club, the race took place at a local community park on a converted tennis court. The abrasive tennis court surface provided high traction, but also high tire wear. The track itself was large and flowing, allowing for high speeds and some extremely close racing. Unforgiving wooden lane barriers made driving a clean race essential, as one wrong brush against the boards could send a driver back to the pits early. The event featured six different race classes. In Modified Touring, Chris Tosolini would take both TQ and 1st in the A-main. Ron Atomic would post the single fastest lap in the main, while working his way from fourth on the starting grid to finish second overall. John Hodges would round out the top 3 drivers.

Modified Touring top 5 results:
1. Chris Tosolini
2. Ron Atomic
3. John Hodges
4. Andrew Doherty
5. Chris Adams

In 17.5 Touring, Andrew Doherty captured the pole position, but an early mishap in the A-main would send him all the way back to the 7th position after only four laps. Not deterred, Doherty would set the fast lap of the race, and eventually work his way back to the front to capture 3rd overall. Chris Kemper, who qualified second overall, grabbed the outright lead early in the race and never looked back finishing at the top of the podium. Rounding out the podium in 3rd was Johnee Fenimore.

17.5 Touring top 5 results:
1. Chris Kemper
2. Johnee Fenimore
3. Andrew Doherty
4. David Narviaz
5. Billy Land

The 25.5 Touring A-main was about who could survive till the checkered flag. Top Qualifier, Joe Maxey, along with the second and third place qualifier would all have their race cut short. Taking advantage of the demise of the top qualifiers, Aaron Grant would work his way up from 5th to take the top podium position. Jacob Aguirre would also work his way from the back of the pack to claim the second place finish. Perhaps the most impressive result was the third place finish of Jose Isales. Isales lost a wheel during the race, but was able to continue on and finish the remaining third of the race on only three wheels. Although his lap times would suffer, it was enough to hold on to the remaining podium position.

25.5 Touring top 5 results:
1. Aaron Grant
2. Jacob Aguirre
3. Jose Isales
4. Brian Montgomery
5. Jay Black

In USGT, Billy Land would capture the overall TQ honors by a mere 3 tenths of a second over 2nd place qualifier Chris Jones. The tight qualifying would only foreshadow an even closer A main race between the top two seeds. Chris Jones would have the faster car in the main, but Land ran consistently tight racing lines making it difficult for Jones to find room to make the pass. An unsuccessful attempt to make a pass in the last stretch leading to the finish line, Jones crossed the line a mere 5 hundredths of a second behind Land. Jacob Aguirre would move from 6th on the starting grid to find the remaining podium position.

USGT top 5 result:
1. Billy Land
2. Chris Jones
3. Jacob Aguirre
4. Sean Bloch
5. Wayne Stuntz

The 17.5 12th scale class witnessed an exciting finish with Johnee Fenimore trailing Jim Harnett for the majority of the race. However, in the final turn before the finish line, Fenimore would make the pass on Harnett to take the top position and finish in front of Harnett by half a second. TQ setter RJ Labrador would round out the top three positions.

17.5 1/12th scale top 4 results:
1. Johnee Fenimore
2. Jim Harnett
3. RJ Labrador
4. Roman G

The large open track was a perfect venue for the GT8e class. Paul Gaertner would claim the TQ position, as well as lay down the fastest lap of the A-main. However, Aaron Grant would overtake the lead from Gaertner early in the main, and would never give back the position. Gaertner made a charge at the end of the race, but in the end would finish half a second behind Grant. Wayne Stuntz captured the final podium position.

GT8e top 5 results:
1. Aaron Grant
2. Paul Gaertner
3. Wayne Stuntz
4. Damien Vela
5. DR RC

Source: Texas EOS [texaseos.net]