(Elite Series) Races 4 & 5

Harry S. Enola Leads TDR to Victory at Tulsa, Tammy Barnton Wins Her Heat

Tom Delgado Racing made it back to back televised races as the Sarge, Harry S. Enola, took the ProLaps 100 in Tulsa, capping a very good night for TDR. Tammy Barnton won her heat earlier in the night to get into the feature. Enola had to hold off a hard charging Bob Stephans, who suffered heartbreak on the second to last corner.

Tom Delgado Wins on Home Turf

Tom Delgado showed he was still a force to be reckoned with as he took the checkered flag in the JINX Power at the Glen, leading the final few laps after taking the lead from BlackDiamond Racing's Brian Sendack and never looking back. This is Delgado's first win in his own equipment since 2008 when he won the season-ending Twilight 100 at Daytona. Delgado, 40, has already signaled his intention to retire at the end of the 2015 season, and he has now assured that he will go out with at least one win. The only bad part of the day for Delgado was in victory lane where he had to be helped out of the car by his crew as he continues to deal with near-cripping back pain, which will cause him to retire.

"It's one thing to win, but it's a whole different beast when you win in your home state" Delgado said in the Watkins Glen press center. "We hit it perfectly late in the race, got ourselves in position to contend, and then we were able to make the most of it. This win belongs to the #37 crew, they got everything right and put me in a winning position" Delgado added.

Macena not amused at early crash at feature

After finishing 4th on his 50/50 Sprint, Gabriel Macena was visibly happy getting out of his car."It is great to have finished so far ahead in a dirt track, really, really happy about this, if I finished çast in the feature, wouldn't be a problem."

And then he finished last on the feature.

"(laughs) I knew I wasn't gonna do well here, but on lap one was way too early, o course I wanted to finish, but this is a temporary setback. We'll catch up at the Glen."

Best showing for Macena Motorsports in 2015 takes place at the Glen.

After a poor qualifying effort, Gabriel Macena had only one thing in his mind, finishing. He did so, and survived to close the day in 18th place, while his teammates also had productive days, with Luc Pellerin, the rookie, finishing inside of the Top 30 and Ross Carter having a legit shot at victory, ending the day in 6th place, one position shy of the top 5.

Needless to say, the team celebrated as if they had won.

Team Owner Gabriel Macena stated quickly after the race: "Carter showed thm how fast we are, only if Luc and I had good qualifying runs, but you can't win all of them, what we have to do is get that Rookie of the Year thingy. We comin' after everyone in the paddock, and sooner or later, we'll break through."

Macena sits 13th place in the FARC Elite Series Championship Standings, highest position in his 2 years career in the serie.

Taylor gets 16th in first start of the year.

After being sideline due to sponsor issues, Cade Taylor finally showed up at Wakings Glen for his first start of the 2015 campaign. The only notable incident was being dumped by 2014 champion Ryan Matthews in the Inner Loop. On the radio, Taylor was pissed that someone of his caliber would result to dumping a team with no resources like his. Taylor also said that the whole Matthews family is bad drivers, a shot after Ryan's sister-in-law Kellan, who has been having problems in Dash Cup this year.

Pellerin happy to be running, thinking bigger picture.

Pellerin didn't finish in the top 30, but that didn't keep the FARC Truck driver down.

Interview : I'm thinking big picture, sucks that our car wasn't like Ross's who had a great day! We're running for Rookie of the Year, and not DNF'ing is our goal. The 83 is running the whole 2015 season, unlike us, but hopefully we have less bad races to gain an advantage!

Todd Rowe has a solid run at ProLaps 100 but fails to qualify for JINX Power, has nothing against between what happened with him and the defending champion

"It was a bit disappointing that we couldn't qualify for Watkins Glen, but you know what, I am still very proud of what happened at the ProLaps 100 for a small team like ours. Hell, we got 5th and survived every lap! That track was so loose and everyone was going all over the place, there is no way I could get upset with the contact between Ryan Matthews and myself. He got a good run, I got loose and the end result resulted in me getting a minor spin. I would also like to say sorry to Kyle Cobb for getting into him at the end there. But yeah, proud we got 5th, sucks we didn't get in at the Glen but its a step forward in the way of progress". - Todd Rowe

Richler considering GRI long-term future after failing to qualify for two consecutive races


After the Alaska-native driver's second DNQ of the season, and her career, Caitlin Richler admitted that Gravity Racing, Inc, the team that picked her up for an extremely limited schedule for the 2015, may not be her long term solution in her career. Richler was left without a ride when Desert Star Motorsports acquired the assets for HQS Racing, and Desert Star elected to sign Bradley Carlisle and Kyle Gaffigan instead of retaining Tammy Barnton, who had already signed a contract at Tom Delgado Racing.

"It's disappointing since these cars were and still are so strong, but I've felt like I've not been getting the good stuff from the team" said Richler, "I know I can drive road courses well, but it just wasn't there today. I thought we'd slide our way in like a DM to an inbox, but we just didn't have it today."

"It's hard to take defeated selfies too, so that blows as well, right?"

Richler will try her hand the next race at Toledo Speedway in Ohio, the home state of GRI and their team owner, Packer Carroll

Pacer Protests Officiating @ Tulsa; Demands that Enola's Victory be Revoked

22-year-old former FARC DiEmAr Regional Cup racer Joshua Pacer made his debut this weekend in the ProLaps 100 at the Tulsa Expo Center in Oklahoma. The rookie scored a 5th-place finish in his first career start after an attrition-filled heat race, the second one of the night. However, the feature would not go as well, as he would not be in contention to start the race's first attempt at a Green White Checker finish. His car had been damaged from multiple accidents, the first of which occurred when Pacer's #480 Saar drifted up turn 4 before spinning across the nose of eventual race-winner Harry S. Enola.

Despite the video evidence showing that Pacer was almost unarguably at fault for the collision, the Wyoming native clearly had a different opinion on the incident, and he made very clear during his post-race interview that he was upset at the Tom Delgado Racing driver.

"I was working up towards the front when [Enola] turned right down into me and put me in the wall. That was a cheap move and it's [expletive] that the guy gets to keep his win. The officials are a bunch of [expletive] morons if they're gonna let drivers wreck whoever they want and still hand 'em the trophy! I hope they get their heads on straight and throw the book at him."

With that, Pacer returned to his hauler. His next race will be at the Johnson State Fairgrounds, which will be in his home state at a track where he has more experience than any other on the 2015 FARC Elite Series schedule.

Furious Walls wins first FARC pole, crashes out in first Tulsa heat

Jacob Walls knew the rules, but that didn't mean he had to like them.

The 20-year-old Arkansan won his first-ever Karl's P1 Award for what would be just his second FARC Elite Series points race. It was also MT Motorsports' first-ever pole position in FARC, even back to the days of the sanctioning body being known as ARLA.

But Walls wouldn't start first, because the ProLaps 100 race promoter inserted a twist for heat qualifying: the fastest qualifier for each heat would roll a die, and the number rolled would depend on how much the field would be inverted. Walls rolled a five, meaning the Top 10 would be inverted.

His luck would only get worse, as, on Lap 7 of the first heat, he ended up in a multi-car crash coming out of Turn 4. The #44 car ended up on its left side, its nose in the wall. Defending series champion Ryan Matthews was among the others involved. Walls dropped out of the race, and finished 20th, well below 12th place, the last transfer spot into the feature.

Walls did not hide his frustration after the crash.

"It's ridiculous. I don't care if it's a rule or not. We won the damn pole, and we should be allowed to start first," Walls said. "If they want to mix up the field, why even have qualifying? Just draw starting positions. We ended up around a bunch of people who have clearly never raced on dirt in their careers. If this series wants to use gimmicks, just go all-out, don't sprinkle 'em here and there."

Team owner Mark Mummert didn't like the change, either, but expressed his frustrations in a calmer tone than his driver did.

"We had a car that could win at least our heat, and Jacob got a raw deal," Mummert said. "He really needed some motivation after what happened at Columbia, and a pole position definitely gave that to him. But then, the inversion deal happened, and we were behind the 8-ball again. I think we would've been fine if we'd managed to finish in the Top 12, and get another shot at starting first in the feature, but, it wasn't meant to be, I guess."

Walls very nearly won the season-opening Rookie Shootout in Texas back in February, only to be held up by the slower car of Trueman Ellison with two laps left, and end up finishing in fifth. Walls didn't hold back his frustrations on that day, either.

But that race wouldn't have counted towards his career stats. This one would've.

"This team finally won a race at Texas last season [with Jon Halks], and we feel like we're building on that progress, but, we need the luck to stay on our side," Walls said.

Shane Williams will drive the 44 car at the next FARC Elite Series race at Watkins Glen. Jacob Walls will return in the following race at Toledo.

Rivers Somewhat Disappointed But Not Surprised

After starting in the back Jay Rivers' stayed there for pretty much the whole race, which might have something to do with the setup and Blue Jay Racing's lack of experience in the series. Jay Rivers the sole driver of the team was reportedly disappointed, but understood that they were out there to get experience and hope to get a good finish by capitalizing off the troubles of others. "We are a team that went from a dirt track, to an asphalt series, of course we're in way over our heads. Glad the car was mostly undamaged, hopefully we can get some pointers from the other teams."