2012 CRL Developmental Division - Round 2 - Portland

A few notes:
-I opted not to do a video of this one, just to cut down on the amount of work.
-Cy, this race was run before Jahgee was banned from the boards. His entries have since been dropped.
-Racerfan275, this race was run before you gave me Aaron Hill's ratings.

In only its second race in its existence, the CRL Developmental Division had to deal with wet weather as it moved up the Pacific Coast to Portland, Oregon. The rain stopped a half-hour before the race, but cloud cover and temperatures in the low 40s ensured that the track wouldn't dry very much. Miranda Leckliter sat on the pole, a week after her dominant win in Irwindale. With an improved engine and setup package, Mattias Jeruvicius, who finished tenth at Irwindale, occupied second spot on the grid. On the second row were the two drivers making their debuts this weekend, Austrian Mattias Schleir and Canadian Deagan Ross.

The action began at the very back of the grid, coming to take the green flag. As the field rolled away, 24th place starter Casey Carpenter noticed a tire going down, so he slowed up. Unfortunately, he held up last place starter Aaron Hill. Hill attempted to pass Carpenter on the inside coming onto the frontstretch, but Carpenter needed to pit, so he ended up putting Hill into a half-spin coming into the pits. While Carpenter should've been patient and let Hill go through, Hill should've gone around Carpenter on the outside. Both drivers had nasty things to say about each other on their radios.

Back at the front of the grid, Leckliter got a poor start, spinning her wheels on the wet track while trying to gain speed. Jeruvicius took off with the lead, and Schleir moved into second before Turn 2. Ross would also get around Leckliter for third before the first lap was halfway done. A lead change also looked imminent, as Schleir was all over Jeruvicius' back bumper, but as the two cars hit the frontstraight to complete the first lap, Jeruvicius put some daylight between himself and Schleir.

After a couple of laps of riding around, things behind Jeruvicius went crazy. On Lap 4, Ross passed Schleir for second. Leckliter then passed Schleir for third. On the same lap, Brett Waterhead got around John Pagen for fifth.

One lap later, Waterhead and Pagen moved past the now free-falling Schleir for fourth and fifth, respectively. On Lap 6, Carl Minor passed Schleir for sixth. At the same time, Waterhead got third from Leckliter, and Pagen immediately followed suit, knocking Leckliter back to fifth. Towards the end of Lap 6, Waterhead grabbed second from Ross.

A lap later, Pagen took third from Ross, and Minor knocked Leckliter back to sixth.

Ross lost another spot on Lap 8, as Minor got him for fourth. Schleir fell back even further, getting passed for seventh by Feliks Kaminski and eighth by Liman Mills.

As the race reached its halfway point, things settled down, except for a few battles outside the points.

Just past the start of Lap 11, though, the fans got back to their feet, as Pagen grabbed second from Waterhead. Schleir then got a spot back, passing Mills for eighth, as Trevor Souza followed Schleir, and took ninth from Mills. Back at the front of the field, Waterhead fended off a challenge for third from Minor.

On Lap 12, things heated up at the very bottom of the points-paying positions, as Rallen Hayden passed Daniel Fischer for 11th.

One lap later, Minor finally wrestled third from Waterhead.

With six laps to go, things quieted down again, and Jeruvicius' lead over Pagen was almost six seconds.

The shuffling returned with five laps to go, as Leckliter got back into the Top 5, passing Ross. Schleir got another spot back, passing Kaminski for seventh.

With four laps to go, Schleir got around Ross for sixth, and a battle for second was taking shape, as Minor hounded Pagen. That battle would go for naught, though, as Minor ran wide coming out of Turn 3 with three laps remaining, allowing Pagen some breathing room.

Things settled down for good, and Jeruvicius picked up his first win in North America, leading all 20 laps, and beating Pagen by just under five seconds. Minor held on for third. On the final lap, Fischer held off a challenge from Jared Goshen for 12th, hanging on to the final point.

Jeruvicius received the bonus point for leading the most laps, while Leckliter got the bonus point for winning the Simple Green Pole Award.

Despite the Carpenter-Hill shenanigans coming to the green flag, the Reject of the Race has to be Petey Jaconson. A week after finishing second at Irwindale, Jaconson finished 24th today after starting eighth.

The series now takes a month off, as they will not travel to Japan with the Modified Division, who will be kicking off the inaugural Global Cup in two weeks. The Developmental Division's next race will be a Friday night affair at Watkins Glen. Both Hill and Dan Olivier, today's 21st place finisher, have told the media they expect to have much improved cars by the time The Glen rolls around.

Here are the Top 12 finishers (points scored in parentheses):
1. Mattias Jeruvicius (21)
2. John Pagen (16)
3. Carl Minor (14)
4. Brett Waterhead (12)
5. Miranda Leckliter (11)
6. Mattias Schleir ( 8 )
7. Deagan Ross (6)
8. Feliks Kaminski (5)
9. Trevor Souza (4)
10. Liman Mills (3)
11. Rallen Hayden (2)
12. Daniel Fischer (1)

And now the finishers outside the points:
13 12 00 J Goshen -21.18 20 0 124 Running
14 16 14 S Williams -21.44 20 0 121 Running
15 17 1 N Nkemakonam -21.75 20 0 118 Running
16 14 874 S Ragnarsdottir -22.81 20 0 115 Running
17 21 37 E McSwegan -26.75 20 0 112 Running
18 22 13 D Raymer -33.43 20 0 109 Running
19 19 19 F Azzaretto, Jr. -34.36 20 0 106 Running
20 18 46 J Stud -35.13 20 0 103 Running
21 20 36 D Olivier -35.45 20 0 100 Running
22 25 21 E Molina -36.07 20 0 97 Running
23 23 33 Z Rockensock -42.42 20 0 94 Running
24 8 99 P Jaconson -43.98 20 0 91 Running
25 26 44 A Hill -45.45 20 0 88 Running
26 24 12 C Carpenter -1:25.33 20 0 85 Running

Driver points
Manufacturer points