Race 11: Round of Ohio

that was a surprise winner, congrats on Michael Sykes on winning, 2 first time winners in a row.

Mummert thrilled with Top 20 in first start

Kraig Mummert's first TM Master Cup Series start could only have been better if he had won the race. In his first race deputizing for Woody Watts, Mummert finished 11th in a race where his car started out slow, but progressed after pit stops.

"Early on, we weren't good. We got lapped, and we fell back through the pack," Mummert said. "But after the pit stop, the car started to come in the way I wanted it to. We got our lap back, and finished in the points on the same lap as Michael [Sykes, the race winner]."

That's one major goal Mummert got out of the way.

"Scoring points is a must if you want to stay in this series. If you don't score points, you're not performing, and you won't be here long."

The next race is at Road America, a road course, the same type of track Mummert picked up his lone CRL Modified Division win, which came at Portland International Raceway in Oregon.

"I'm excited to go to Road America. I like road courses, I've won on a road course, plenty of opportunities to pass. I can't wait."

im surprised, not a lot of wrecks in this one.

Sykesy finally pulls through! Congrats!

Plissken Irate at Pit Strategy

For the second time in his career, Kurt Plissken feels he had a TMMC victory snatched from his grasp, not by another driver's actions, but by his own pit strategy.
"Once we got up front, I thought we had the car to beat," Plissken explained. "As long as it stayed green, we seemed to put more distance between us and the #45 car. Even after restarts, we kept pulling away."
Then inexplicably, crew chief Harold Hellman called Plissken into the pits.
"I don't know why he did that. I guess he wanted to check out what happened after me and Zelda collided. I don't know why, we were winning and pulling away. That's the second time this has happened. Instead of three Master cup wins, I only have one.
Plissken is referring to the 2008 Mansfield race which he was leading. Hellman called him into the pits and the team took on four tires. Ross Peterson took only two tires. Peterson's car got out of the pits faster than Plissken's and when the rains hit, it virtually handed the race win to Ross Peterson.

Plissken managed to finish 7th at Ohio today and is left to ponder what could have been... again.

On another front, PSI owner William Power broached the subject of Zelda Ashby's yellow flag collision with race leader Plissken.
"All I know is that Rip Tyler got docked 25 championship points for virtually the same incident that occurred in the most recent ARLA race," Power queried. "I'm not asking for Zelda to be punished, I was hoping the ARLA officials would see this and make an adjustment accordingly. 25 championship points is a huge chunk!"