Race 02: Round of Carbondale

Atkins 'beat up' after another bad start with Tutino

Ben Atkins has said that the bad start he has experienced in his second full-time season has got to him after a seemingly good run at Carbondale was ruined in the middle portion of the race after Dan Mackay wrecked himself off of the bumper of Axel Andersson. Mackay slid back up onto the track and collected Atkins and Packer Carroll. While Atkins finished the race, he would fall 4 laps down over the course of the race due to his car getting significant damage.

Atkins had yet to score any points after a prior DNF at Auto Club, while his new teammate, Benoit Voeckler, has already scored more points for Tutino this season than Atkins has in his whole tenure.

"It's pretty degrading, to be honest." said Atkins, "I work my ass off to get on the lead lap, just to get taken out by some clueless punk. I can't wait for Velocity to go under so that 'Dumb Mackay' can't take anyone else out. It's ridiculous at this point."

"While I don't feel comparing us at this point is fair, yeah, I feel the pressure from being nearly 20 points down on my team mate. We're two races in and the fans, undoubtedly, will be commenting on how I'm doing compared to him. I've been taken out, and I know neither incident I would taken out in was my fault, but I still feel like I'm underperforming."

Next week, the series will roll into Road Atlanta, which is where last season, Atkins started to turn his season around with a solid points finish. Atkins will be looking to do the same this time around, but the main aim is to stay out of trouble.

Microtransaction Studios to sponsor Donzelo?

Rumors have surfaced that mobile video game developer Microtransaction Studios has wanted to sponsor the #180 Velocity Motorsports Entry of Carlos Donzelo. It has been also rumored that Carbondale is the last race Donzelo will run, but Microtransaction Studios would give enough money for the rest of the entire season. Microtransaction Studios has been known notoriously for their games that put micro transactions at their highest priority and with the enjoyment of their fans not even on the list, but since 90% of their fans are complete and utter idiots no one questions. Microtransaction Studios CEO Andy Johnson said, "I would hate to see an Australian team to fold so early into the season, we already bought out an Australian team in the APRS, we want god to want to erase our sins."

Plissken "Annoyed" With Tenchi

While fighting for the lead during the Round of Carbondale, Kurt Plissken became quite annoyed with the #25 car of Yamino Tenchi.

"Don't get me wrong," Plissken clarified. "I'm all for racing to get laps back, but she was [expletive deleted] 3 laps down at the time. She held me up and let Kekkonen get away from me on a few restarts."

Plissken did eventually take the lead in the race, but a cut tire forced him to pit off sequence. PSI feels that was because having to deal with the Pika-mobile of Tenchi caused the issue. "If she had been close, I woulda let her by on the cautions. But if that's how she wants to play it-- so be it. I hope I'm in a position to repay her in the near future," glared an obviously irritated Plissken.

On a positive note, Pissken's pit crew consistently beat Leonid Roderick and others back out onto the track after following them into the pits.

"Our guys did a fantastic job today in the pits," Plissken agreed. "They kept me up front all day."

Mechanical gremlins plagued Plissken during the 8th restart on lap 104. "Our Big Ass Solutions Lycoia was geared more for long green flag runs. If you watch closely, Kurt didn't restart very well and would drop back a bit before he got up to speed. Once up to speed nobody could catch him. We just had way more cautions today than we anticipated," Crew Chief Herald Helman stated.

"Yeah, I revved it a little too high a little too long that last restart," Plissken admitted. "Back further in the field, I didn't think I could wait to get up to speed. I blew it. Plain and simple."

Greg Woodard snared a top 5 finish for PSI and the #41 team. Both Plissken and Woodard are 6th and 7th respectively in the overall points after 2 events and the teammates are separated by only a single point.