Posted (06/11/2001) -
A story book weekend saw the USFilter Planet Earth Motorsports go 1-3-4 in the fifth race of the ten race Grand Am Cup series.
Practice In practice the Planet Earth Motorsports was fastest in both practice sessions. Once the #41 Comptech Sport Integra was fastest, and once the #42 Orison Marketing Integra was fastest.
Qualifying Qualifying was a set of mixed fortunes for the team. Mike Fitzgerald in the #42 Orison Marketing Integra GS-R went out and set the fastest time early in the session. As Fitzgerald was trying to better his time, his left rear hub broke leaving him stranded on the track. Thankfully, despite the best efforts of the factory #69 HART Civic, the pole time stood and the #42 Orison Marketing Acura Integra would start from the first place spot.
Wayne Nonnamaker was qualifying the #41 Comptech Sport Acura Integra GS-R when on his warm up lap an oil leak developed. Nonnamaker could only get one lap in before he was black flagged for the excessive oil spilling from the back of the car. Nonnamaker was able to put the car third on the grid with his one timed lap.
The #43 Drink FLA OJ / Don Velcio CPA Integra was qualified by Don Velcio in eighth place, ahead of a factory Hyundai Tiburon and the Lucas Motorsport Honda/Acura effort who were at their home track as well.
The Race The race saw Mike Fitzgerald drive the #42 Orison Marketing Integra to a commanding lead in the early stages of the race. The #41 Comptech Sport Integra, started by 23-year-old Wayne Nonnamaker, moved to second and stayed with Fitzgerald for several laps before an electrical glitch dropped the car back in the running order.
As the #41 Integra had some problems, it was decided that Will Nonnamaker would now co-drive with Fitzgerald, and at the first yellow, Nonnamaker got in behind Fitzgerald. A lucky break on the second yellow allowed the #42 Orison Marketing Integra to be ahead of the overall leader while all the other cars in class were behind the overall leader. This effectively gave the #42 Acura Integra a one lap lead on the rest of the class, and Will Nonnamaker now only had to make sure to stay out of trouble in order to take the win.
In the meantime, the #41 Integra pitted and put Fitzgerald in the car to replace Wayne Nonnamaker. Fitzgerald spent the next two hours making up for the electrical glitch that the car had suffered. By the end of the race, Fitzgerald had moved the Comptech Sport Integra up to a third place finish giving the USFilter Planet Earth Motorsports effort its eighth podium finish in five races in the C2K class. With only fifteen podiums availibe in the first five races, the USFilter Planet Earth Motorsports effort has taken over half of the available podiums in the first half of the season.
The #43 Drink FLA OJ / Don Velcio CPA also had a very strong run throughout the three hour endurance race. Don Velcio had started the car and did a great job driving on his home track of Mid Ohio. Velcio turned the car over to Roy "Gator" Mitchell. Over the remaining stages of the race the young driver brought the car home to a fourth place finish in only his sixth race ever, professional or amateur.
"It was an exciting race for the USFilter Planet Earth Motorsports team," said winning driver Will Nonnamaker. "We got a lap on the field by the yellow being timed just right for us. After that, I just took it easy and tried to stay out of trouble. "Iron Man" Mike [Fitzgerald] did a great job for us today. He started this car, and got in the #41 car and finished it in third. Whenever you have an asset like Mike on your team you have to use him, and we got our full use out of Mike today."
The win for Will Nonnamaker put him in the points lead by two points
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