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Posted (07/05/2002) -

With two races in two weekends, it really tested the crew and everyone's stamina. We raced at the Glen on June 22nd and then went from there to Virginia for a race on June 29th.

At the Glen, we were a little apprehensive about the weekend as we would be running five cars for the first time in our team's (Phoenix ProMotions) history. At the previous race at Phoenix we ran four cars (one Corvette, one Acura Integra Type R, and two Acura Integra LSs), but for this race we would be adding a third Integra LS. The third Integra LS was not a serious effort though as mostly we were running it in practice as we were still testing it out to see if it ran fine after building it in just a few short weeks.

On the HRPWorld.com Racing Acura side of things, we were excited for a good race after I qualified second in the #41 King Motorsport Integra. In the race Bill Fenton, in the #27 Integra, and I had a really good race for the first hour and a half of the race. It is so refreshing to be able to race a guy for 90 minutes and not have one bit of contact. Bill and I swapped places for the entire stint, and after we got comfortable with each other, we were both able to trust that we wouldn't hit each other. After we stopped for fuel and the 27 did likewise, they had a 15 second lead. Will was finishing for me and had whittled the lead down to just eight seconds when a car spun in front of him costing him seven seconds. We ran to the end with a fifteen second gap to first, and finished second for the third time in the four race old season.

Our teammates did a very good job this weekend. In the Sports Touring II class, Don Velcio and Tony Nuzzo ran to a fifth place finish. In Sports Touring I we had two rookies to the series and to front wheel drive in the Type R, Bob Fitzgerald (Mike Fitzgerald's brother) and Michiel Schuitemaker. They both did an admirable job and just missed a top ten in the 25 car STI field with an 11th place finish.

On the Corvette side of things, we had high hopes for a good finish. The Orison Marketing Corvette Z06 had went testing twice at Mid Ohio since it won at Phoenix. We had done a lot of development on the car since Phoenix, and hoped that we would score at least a podium and hopefully a win. The race started out fine but less than thirty minutes into the race we lost the right rear half shaft. The crew repaired it, but real problems came late in the race when the car lost its motor. With a race the next weekend at Virginia, the crew had a long week cut out for them with a motor to replace in the Vette.

Our schedule of running back to back races at the Glen and Virginia seemed rough but for Joe's co-driver, Shane Lewis, he had an ALMS race at Mid Ohio the same weekend as Virginia. Shane, not wanting to miss out on driving in either series, rented a car and brought along someone to help him keep awake as he drove from Virginia to Mid Ohio on Thursday night, then from Mid Ohio to Virginia on Friday night, then from Virginia to Mid Ohio on Saturday night. Wow.. what a weekend of driving -- 1,500 miles driving in total -- hopefully Shane had unlimited mileage on the rental car.

The #43 Orison Marketing Corvette qualified fourth, its best performance of the season, and Joe was running in fourth in the race, within shouting distance of '01 Champion Devon Powell when we lost fuel pressure. The crew worked frantically on the car the rest of the three hour race to get Shane Lewis back out at the end of the race so he could score points before leaving for Mid Ohio. Our HRPWorld.com Racing Acura Integra fleet went down to just three cars this weekend, all three of which were Sports Touring II class King Motorsports Acura Integra LSs. In qualifying, we were aided by the fact that Fenton Motorsports regular, Bill Fenton, was not able to make it to the race due to a prior commitment. I got the pole by over

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