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Club Racing Season Ends with Solid
Runs at SCCA Runoffs
WAKARUSA, Kan. (Oct. 15, 2009) -- The 2009
SCCA Club Racing season came to a close for Prather Racing with the
National Championship Runoffs at Road America Sept. 22-27. While it was
the first time since 2001 that a Prather Racing car didn't either start or
finish a race first, the team experienced several great runs and finishes
at the new event venue.
Defending E Production National Champion Jesse
Prather qualified his #34 Prather Racing/Moss Motors Mazda Miata second on
the grid, but unpredictable weather before the race allowed other drivers
to gamble on their tire choice. As the cars pulled off the grid, rain
began to fall, making for tough conditions for the start of the race. When
the polesitting car spun in Turn One, Jesse took the lead, tip-toeing
around the high-speed course. The conditions were too difficult to
navigate on slick tires, and Jesse only made it to Turn Eight before he
too spun, handing the lead off to cars with either intermediate or rain
tires.
After two laps, Jesse pitted and the Prather team
jumped into action. Not accustomed to doing tire change pit stops, they
did a great job and spent the least amount of time in the pits of the cars
that needed to change tires. Nonetheless, Jesse was in a major hole when
he returned to the track in 30th place, nearly three minutes behind the
leader and just barely on the lead lap. Over the next eight laps, Jesse
set fast lap after fast lap, working his way up to sixth place and gaining
more than a minute on the eventual winner, Sam Halkias in a Triumph TR6.
This year, the Prather Miata was driven by both Jesse
and Kent. Kent had a solid week, driving something other than an MGA at
the Runoffs for the first time in his career. The GT-Lite class #26
Prather Racing/Moss Motors Miata was an experiment in 2009, and shows
great potential to build upon in 2010. Kent qualified a solid seventh and
was in a great battle within the top 10 before he lost the draft down Road
America's long straightaways and eventually finished 11th.
F Production again had the best representation with
Prather Racing tuned, prepped and supported cars. Defending Runoffs
Champion Rick Harris qualified third and finished second in his #8 Prather
Racing/Goodyear/WBR Graphics Mazda Miata. He was just 0.063-second ahead
of Eric Prill's #7 Prather Racing/Hoosier/FIGHT-MS/ESCP Lotus Super Seven.
The duo had a great race-long battle for the lead with several cars in
what many referred to as the "race of the weekend."
Bob Bramlage (#83 Prather Racing/Sparkwraps.com
Miata) and Serge Lentz (#2 Belgo-Am Racing/Driven Performance Miata)
brought their Prather-powered Miatas home 12th and 13th, respectively.
John Steflik had a great run going in his #06 Sparkwraps.com/Prathers
Miata but retired from his top-10 battle early with a mechanical issue.
Bill Allman had his share of challenges during the
week in his GT-2 class #28 Mazdaspeed/Carstar Mazda RX-7, but had a good
race to finish eighth.
In all, Prather Racing cars won Midwest Division
Championships in GT-2 (Crispin Beaver), GT-Lite (Kent Prather), E
Production (Jesse Prather) and F Production (Bob Bramlage). Additionally,
Eric Prill took the Southwest Division F Production title, as well as the
Nationwide Points Championship in F Production.
Prather Racing would like to congratulate all of its
customers on another great season, as well as thank all of its sponsors
from 2009, including Mazda, Moss Motors, Goodyear, Afco, Torco and Carbotech. We look
forward to an exciting and successful 2010 season.
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