Race 03: Round of Carbondale

Spoiler:

Devereux Celebrates Second Win of 2012, Hits Out at Johaanes

Frenchman Adrien Devereux made it clear that he intends to be the first driver to repeat as series champion since Leonid Roderick in 2000 by winning the 2012 Round of Carbondale. Devereux insisted he was not given the win due to a right-rear tire failure on Kevin Dwyer's car that brought out a late-race caution.

"I would have caught the 41 car anyway, he was wearing his tires out way too fast." the Frenchman said.
"I didn't bother racing him too hard and saved my tires for the end. It didn't look like his car was driving very well.

Devereux took time to hit out at Chris Johaanes, after the latter spewed oil all over the track after engine problems took the American out with 8 laps remaining.

"Greg might have crashed because the track got even worse when the 64 car decided to act like a child and put oil all over the track. I heard that someone was putting oil all over the track and I wasn't surprised when Carl [Walter] told me who it was... he had the whole infield to pull off in."

Woodard responds to Devereux's 'arrogant' comments

"While he may have 'caught me' if that caution had not come out, it wouldn't have been due to my tires being worn down. No, in fact, the post race inspection came up with my tires being in excellent condition. The fact of the matter is, I nearly beat him in a fair race, in a car considered underpowered due to my teams limited operations and he [Devereux] probably can't stand it. The crew really set up my car just right, and the pit crew got their butts in gear for the race. If that caution hadn't come out due to Kevin Dwyer losing his tire, I would have kept the lead. And maybe, just maybe, Adrien would have raced me in a shootout to win it. Just because I have those yellow stripes on the back, DOES NOT mean I drive like a rookie. I do appreciate honest criticism, however, I will not be talked down to as if I'm a child. Like anyone else, I do make mistakes, and that one little goof up cost me the checkered flag, I managed to recover and finish in the top 5. If that and leading the most laps don't count, I don't know what will." Woodard finished, he decided not to take swipes at Johannes, even if said driver had held him [Woodard] up early in the race and spilled oil over the race track with 8 laps to go.

Recarmier once again fails to deliver

A dream season for Rene Recarmier already appears to be heading south after getting caught up in several incidents,relegating his #12 Gasnier Spahi all the way down to 23rd,just 1 position ahead of where he qualified.

"I not happy at this current time,but future should look better.European road courses coming up should really suit me,especially the French round.Should do better in coming races." ,remarked the 23 year-old French rookie.

Power Praises Griffith Carbondale Effort

"Now that's what I'm talking about, right there!" said a relatively exuberant William Power.
"That's why we brought the man on board! That was a great hard charging effort today and we need to see more of that and less of the other stuff."
Griffith finished in 13th place after qualifying it the 36 slot. Griffith moved up 23 positions to take the race "Hard Charger" award.
"More importantly, he preserved his equipment. It can be told now, but one reason I was so upset by his recent shenanigans was that we just didn't have the resources to commit to someone who went out and purposely destroyed equipment." Power stated.
"We've had all the series we're involved with change chassis designs and/or body styles but unprecedentedly did it all in the same season. Master Cup, ARLA, TM Lights, and to a lesser extent, the ASCC-- all of 'em switch up on us. This put a major hurt on us at PSI. Our resources were being spread pretty thin, and Griffith wasn't helping out the cause any with his antics. We're finally getting up to speed, as evidenced by Libby Bell's win at MyCheese Road America. The James Dalton fiasco put us in a hole that I didn't think we were ever going to dig ourselves out of. We've been behind the 8 ball all season long. But things are starting to look up now and Griffith's performance really gave our efforts a much needed boost," Power continued. "I've been fast to criticize him, but let it be said that I'm quick with the praise when it's deserving."
Kurt Plissken happened to be passing by, and he was asked about Griffith's performance.
"Yeah, Andy did a good job today."
"Yep. Andy put forth a... darn it Kurt, now you've got me doing it.... Anthony put forth a tremendous outing for us today," Power chimed in.
"I've yet to figure out why they ripped the whole front end off my car for such a minor collision," Plisssken queried.

Carbondale to predict Woodard's season?

Gerald Lamb, the owner of Woodard's team, gave his two cents on how Carbondale could be a predictor on how Woodard's 2012 season could wind up, he and the team are currently in Piqua Ohio for the ARLA and TM Lights races.

"As long as he doesn't use up his tires like he did during the race, yes Greg, I'm saying that you're in denial... I can contend how it feels to get cheated out of a win, but we have to deal with it..." He continued, "As long as Greg can keep the car off the other cars and the wall (for the most part) as he did here, and we don't through tires as fast as Saar lose their engines we can get Greg over the line first. As long as none of us drop the ball, we should do okay.

We did well at Carbondale, we kept our cars in one piece and we can celebrate the fact that our drivers are actually finishing rather well overall."

Greg got to responded flatly, "He's the boss, sure, I don't like how things turned out at Carbondale. But things could have turned out worse, right? With my tires the way they were, we were shocked that I kept a top 5 position. Minimal resources were all we had and I worked with what I had."

Gerald Lamb also commented on the Hodges-Walter team issue over in England, he stated it was none of his business, and he and the others weren't going to petition any decision by officials. When asked why Greg's car literally accelerated past everyone during the Round of Carbondale, he stated that because the team focuses the most money into the TM Master Cup program, they built one of their more solid cars. Hopefully, the car do well on road courses, which is a primary focus for the team this year.