Race 06: Round of Sweden

Results
Points

Spoiler:

RyanB06 wrote:

SPOILER:

Spoiler:

4 years of futility ended with win for PSI and Lycoia at the Round of Sweden.

Kurt Plissken and his crew made mincemeat out of the rest of the field to take the lead from Arto Kekkonen during the second cycle of pit stops. Starting just ahead of teammate Greg Woodard, Plissken in the #16 Snake Coils Lycoia Interceptor won his first race in four years. Woodard, who finished 6th, was rather pleased with how the race turned out. "Look, it's great that I got a points finish after last week, but damn, Plissken finally broke his winless streak!" He told a reporter who asked him about how he felt. "He deserved it, especially after what happened last year with Tonare, the whole team deserved this win, and hopefully we can keep the momentum going into Karjala. Plissken kept building up better runs and it finally paid off for him." Lycoia's phone lines winded up being overloaded on people calling in about the race. "This is what we were looking forward too." Edward Thorton, a upper level manager in the Lycoia Research and Development Labs wrote on the company's Facebook page. "We put what we had into these cars and it really paid off, I guess Lenard is actually happy one of it's investments is paying off significantly... now only if we can get our ARLA program back in order." He, of course, was describing the issues plaguing Lycoia teams in the ARLA Elite Series.

Plissken Escapes Sweden With Victory!

Last year at Gothenburg, Kurt Plissken was embroiled in a full fledged battle with Master Cup officials who had suspended him from the previous race, his own teammate, and most of the time his almost completely new and untested equipment as well as fighting the bumpy and challenging track surface. Plissken managed to salvage a 19th place finish in spite of all the adversity and turmoil surrounding both him and the event at Göteborgs Motorbana .

  This time around the Round of Sweden was a much more serene experience for the controversial American driver. This time around just about everything was different for Plissken and PSI. A new chassis supplier and a new teammate combined to form a new atmosphere.

  "I'm just glad to finally shed the "One Hit Wonder" label," Plissken exalted. Plissken earned his second career win and his first in almost four years since the Round of Indianapolis in 2009.

"I've heard all the stuff people have been saying about me for years-- how Power should look elsewhere and dump me, how it wouldn't get it done we me at the wheel, how PSI should have fired my crew chief-- all that type of crap." Plissken vented.

Several times the last few years shoddy pit work or odd strategy decisions seemed to doom fine efforts by the team and especially Plissken. "There's a lot of times I've been encouraged to have some "heads roll" for some of the things that have happened to us in the pits-- but I felt like we were developing team chemistry. It took longer than I thought-- but it's finally paying off for us now," William Power stated.

"If not for this pit crew-- we would not have won this race. Period. They did a fantastic job and deserve all the credit for this win," Plissken stated. "We needed everything they gave us today because Arto Kekkonen was closing fast. We won this race as much in the pits as we did on the track."

I'm just glad that long time sponsors like Snake Coils and Engine Joe's finally got into victory lane with me!" and exuberant Plissken shouted as the pandemonium erupted in the PSI pit area.

Plissken's teammate, Greg Woodard finished 6th putting both PSI cars in the top 10. Plissken also garnered Lycoia's first win in the TM Master Cup series.

"I could feel something special building up to this win-- hopefully it will continue to grow and expand into special season," Plissken responded.

"Lycoia is the best car we've had since the Predator," PSI owner William Power stated at his post race interview. "Nothing against Tonare-- but that deal was struck at the 11th hour and we were behind the 8 ball all year. It was a complete disaster. The Predator was something else-- fast, agile, and tough-- you just couldn't destroy it-- and we tried. It ran well on all track configurations and surfaces. Our Lycoia Interceptors are almost as good already and will soon surpass the Predator in all respects-- it's just a matter of time now. The factory support from Lycoia has been nothing short of phenomenal."

Kurt Plissken moved up four spots to 5th in the points championship with the win, but still a hefty 125 points behind Adrien Devereux -- but the double points Karjala Grand Prix is looming next on the schedule. After a rough start to his season being swept up in incidents not of his own doing, Greg Woodard cracked the top 20 by virtue of his 6th place run.

"We're definitely taking this car with us to Karjala and hope to duplicate our success there," Plissken let slip.