Race 12: Round of Ohio

Leckliter finally scores points!
After struggling for his first 2 races, Leckliter finally nabs points after running in the top 5 for most of the race.

"Don't know what the hell Griffith was thinking, guess he just can't handle the fact that another Tonare was doing better than him."

Leckliter's final Independents Trophy appearance will be at Quincy, and he has an outside shot at winning the Independents Trophy title.

Rough Day for Tom Moore at Ohio

Tom Moore returned to the place where he finished 2nd the year before, but ended up with a problem filled day where he ended up 24th. Moore was running in 14th when he got loose into the corner and got bumped out of the way by Louis Kingston. Moore told us, "The back end of the car got damaged in an earlier caution, which caused the car to get looser than it was before. When I got spun, I was real loose entering the corner and tried to recover. While I think Kingston could've given a bit more room, that was my fault. It's too bad we couldn't capitalize on what was a top 10 to 15 day. We'll have to pick it up in our last two rounds to have a shot at the Independent's Trophy. Qualifying at Indy would be a great start."

Steudler with suprise podium finish

After a tough season with Manticore Engineering, Scott Steudler  was able to hop into the 70 ALERT Inglesby, and after inital problems during practice, Steudler was able to recover nicely for a 3rd place finish, his first podium finish since finishing 2nd in Sweden last season.

"These guys were able to get all the problems worked out of this car that we had, and even with little practice time, we were able to score a big podium finish out of this car.  Manticore has a good group of guys, I will never rip on them, but ALERT has put out a car that is pretty damn competitive.  If we can get a good run of practice in at Quincy, I think this is a car that could win a race.

The next race at Quincy will be a first for Steudler, as he will be racing on track with his uncle, Marty Steudler, for the first time ever in the TM Master Cup series

"He raced a bunch in the 70's and 80's, so it has been awhile since he has been in this level of racing, but from what Uncle Marty has told me, he feels he can be able to put a competitive car on the grid.  The guy has still raced a ton since his last race nearly 30 years ago, so it's not like we are blowing dust off of him to race.  This is a dream come true for me, since Uncle Marty was the man that helped me get to this spot in my career, and be able to race in the TM Master Cup series.

Marty Steudler had this to say when asked about the race at Quincy

"Yeah, it has been awhile since I had raced in the series, a lot has changed. But I feel that I should be able to hang with a bunch of these young guns no problem. Grand Detour is a track that fits how I race perfectly, so I shouldn't have too many problems. It will be great racing with my nephew, sort of a dream come true for the both of us.

Eichholtz Happy With 12th Place

"You know, the pace wasn't there in qualifying and we started towards the back. Things got a little intense when [Chris] Johannes broke in the middle of one and two and stacked the field up. A lot of the race was fun, just riding around trying to get what we could get, and avoiding the 416. We got caught out with Melanie's engine dying, but we kept at it. We had the scare with Troy Adams sitting in the middle of the track, and I did enough to avoid that, which I didn't do so well in the Lights race at Darlington, so there's some improvement. *laughs* Towards the end, the handle went away on the thing and I was holding Mathias [Taube] up a bit, but it just got wicked the last quarter of the race. Finally, a good points haul this season."

Eichholtz will compete in the Round of Wisconsin on July 28th and the Independent's Trophy Invitational on August 18th, before finishing his TM Lights campaign. Eichholtz has stated that his plans for 2014 are up in the air.