Dash Cup Exhibition Tour - Race 2

The Road America circuit was the next destination for the Dash Cup American Exhibition Tour, and starting out front was Leslie Riggs. On her outside, coming off a stunning Daytona win was Ashley Flynn. Orvell started third, Andrew O'Reilly fourth and Oak Treediee fifth. Riggs and Flynn both broke the 2:06 mark, while slower cars ran 2:26... Azarov must have went off. Pastor Grosjean shocked the field by qualifying 15th.

Into the first turn, the field is close, and there they go! Jack Parker digs into the tire wall really hard, and Sean Sanchez smashes into the back of his! Yevgeny Kuznetsov is around too! Ben Atkins and Jacob Tremblay get together too, but they both save it! Now Natalie Kendall is off! Verity Logan too! A chaotic first two corners here at Road America!

Leslie Riggs still leads after this crazy start, but Jakob Hughes is right on her doorstep; a burst of speed the Australian never really shown in the other part of 2012. It's clear his car is fast, but Riggs leads the first lap.

The field settle out, and string out. Pastor Grosjean's been off a few times, but he's running pretty much last anyway, so he doesn't matter too much. The standard top 5 at the moment is Riggs, Hughes, O'Reilly who is having an amazing run, Matt Tremblay and Cassandra Collins, who's made her way into the top 5 in 3 laps after starting 18th! Amazing drive from the 16 year old! Atkins sits in 6th after fighting through the field as well though.

Pit stops occur on lap 5 of 10, and Collins passes Tremblay in the pits! An amazing move out of pit lane and great great work by the Kwik Fit crew, and now she's trying to pass O'Reilly for third! Oh my goodness, Cassie Collins gets a huge boost of speed out of nowhere, and now she's looking to take her first podium! Unbelievable!

It's really down to the wire with two laps to go now, and Hughes makes the move into turn 1! Cassie Collins is catching in third! Oh my goodness, she could win this! Riggs holds on to the lead for now, but Hughes is right there!

Riggs manages to hold off a hard charging Hughes to lead every lap in a dominating performance, reminiscent of Osaka to win at Road America! Hughes gets second and... Matt Tremblay gets third? Where's Cassie Collins... she's out of gas!!!!! Cassie Collins runs out of gas with just two corners to go from her first podium... Oh no I feel so sorry for her... Atkins takes home fourth, and Andrew O'Reilly will take the points lead after a fantastic top 5 run.


(OOC: I wrote this just like Benatar would commentate. Ignore the cheesiness.)
Results
Points

O'Reilly Takes Exhibition Tour Points Lead After Road America

Andrew O'Reilly proved today at Road America that he might be a force to reckon with in next year's 2013 Dash Cup season. After coming home 2nd at Daytona, O'Reilly had another impressive run, staying in the top-5 all day and managed to end up 5th. He now takes the American Exhibition Tour points lead after 2 of 5 races.

"For a second, I forgot that they were counting points! Anyway, another great run for the Westockin guys. Had some good racing with Cassie Collins and a few others there. This is such a beautiful circuit. I hope we can come back in the future. Also, I just wanna tell everyone to keep thinking about Tom [Delgado] and Ashley [Tucker]. They're going through some rough times now. Hang in there," said O'Reilly after climbing out of his black #9.

O'Reilly is referring to the recent health problems that have plagued the former TM Master Cup Series star and part-time Dash Cup Series driver, Tom Delgado.

The next Dash Cup American Exhibition race will be held at the Decatur Raceway.