Posted (10/07/2003) -
Danville, Virginia - The Virginia round was the 10th of 11 in the 2003 Grand-Am Cup championship. The Planet Earth Motorsports team knew that these last two events were crunch time.
The weather at Virginia was sunny with no rain all weekend. Both Joe and Wayne Nonnamaker took their time getting up to speed during the test day and practice sessions. Joe repeated his Mont Tremblant Qualifying performance by placing 6th in the GSII class for the 2nd straight time.
The race started off with many of the GSII competitors again going for it all in the first couple of laps. Joe took his time as everything sorted itself out in front of his SpeedSource Porsche. Then as the race unfolded, Joe started his march to the front. Each lap, the GOJO supported #41 would pass one car at a time. Soon, Joe was in 2nd place, with the only the Mustang rocket way far in the lead. But Joe's consistency paid off as the Mustang had difficulty staying on track, going off twice. This put Joe in the lead, and amazingly by 1 full lap
When it finally came time to pit and change drivers, Wayne found himself with a rather dubious task of staying out of everyone's way and maintaining a one lap lead. The Planet Earth Motorsports crew did an excellent full green pit stop, and put Wayne back out in front.
Wayne paced himself to the end, and to the Victory Flag. The team's main competition for the championships - Bell Motorsports and Mike Baughman Racing all unfortunately had bad luck. This puts the team well in the lead going into the final round at Daytona.
Partners in the 2003 Campaign are GOJO and ORISON Marketing. Further Support includes Fikse Wheels, Kempthorn Auto Mall, Pagid Brakes, SpeedSource, TheRaceMarket.com and TheRaceSite.com
Close battle at Mont
|
