Vic Gandhi Captures First Challenge win in Event #4

Gandhi and Betz prepare to battle	John Mackey, Winner Vic Gandhi, Runner-up Al Betz and Bob Trieschmann	Winner Vic Gandhi

There were over 80 Corvettes on the property, with over 75 of them making the call for round 1 of bracket eliminations. Coming into the event, there had already been 3 different winners at each of the events, making for a tight chase early in the season, led by the crazy and senile John Panuzzo, butt of all jokes in the Corvette Challenge.

Round one was run pretty much the way it worked out on paper, with most all of the heavy hitters advancing with a few exceptions, including coordinator and past event winner this season, John Mackey. John gave up his bid to Ken Lynch from Ambler, PA, as he went -.018 on the tree.

Event 4 Ladder

Speaking of red lights in the first round, one of them earned an award. Of course, I'm talking about the "almost perfect award", a plaque presented by Raceway Park to the racer in the first round with a red light closest to .000. This week it was David Tortlolani, who posted a -.002 reaction in the first round.

Another award given away every weekend is the "ohh so close" award, to the racer with the first round loss by the smallest margin of victory. This weekend it was Tony Buonassisi who lost with a margin of victory of .0024. For winning, Tony received a Zaino Starter Kit courtesy of Zaino.

Let's cover these last two awards together, as they're both John Panuzzo related. First is the award he won this weekend, the "closest to dial" award. In round 1, John dialed a 12.99 and ran 12.993 to get the Raceway Park plaque for being the closest to his dial in. The second John Panuzzo related award, is of course, the one he sponsors. It's the John Panuzzo Jr. Memorial Award, given to the racer with the best winning reaction time in the first round. This time it went to James Kovitch for his .002 light in the first round.

Looking at my watch, it's time to jump around a bit, as I'd like to skip to the 3rd round. This was big as we saw the point's leader go out relatively early in eliminations. John Panuzzo lost to Vic Gandhi as Vic cut an awesome .002 light to John's sluggish .153. That was all it took to get the hole shot victory as Vic ran .09 over his number to John's .043 over. Would anyone have enough rounds left to catch and pass John Panuzzo for the lead?

When the semifinals rolled around, with Al Betz, Vic Gandhi, and Rob Farley still in the running, our points gurus in the tower determined that Rob Farley and John Panuzzo were in a tie for the lead, and for Panuzzo, it was now up to Vic to take out Farley for him to hold onto a tie for the top position. Vic came through for John, ousting Farley with a .012 light to Farley's .071. Vic ran 12.833 on a 12.82 to Farley's losing 13.783 on a 13.77 dial.

That brought us to the final round, Vic Gandhi and Al Betz, meaning we'd have another first time winner for the 2004 season. Al Betz, from Warrington, PA, driving his '99 C5 dialed a 13.27, to Vic's C4 dialed a 12.80. At the start, Vic annihilated the tree, a .014 reaction to Al's not too shabby .036. Vic also ran closer to the dial, 12.806, forcing Al to post a 13.200 breakout run. Congratulations Vic Ghandi, this week's champ in the East Cost Supercharging Corvette Challenge.

Looking at the updated points, there's a tie for the lead between John Panuzzo and Rob Farley at 21 points, each with one event win. They're trailed closely behind by John Hadyniak with 19.

Discuss this race here.

Next race

East Coast Supercharging Corvette Challenge helps Toys for Teens & Tots

Corvette Challenge Multimedia

Pictures

We couldn't do it without our sponsors

[home]
modified: December 31, 1969 - 7:00 pm