2009-10 Round 10
Landscape Artists GP - HO Road America
Round 10 of 14
February 18, 2010
FAST FACTS
The Papa Murphy’s Grand Prix
WHAT: The Papa Murphy’s Grand Prix
WHERE: Waukesha, Wisconsin, HO Road America
WHEN: Thursday, February 18th 2010, 7pm
U.S. TELEVISION SCHEDULE: Time Warner Cable Channel 1111 (Check Listings), Google Video
2008 CHAMPION: Larry Rotter
2008 POLESITTER: John Shea
TRACK LAYOUT: Road course
RACE LENGTH: 20 minutes
TRACK RECORDS: Qualifying - 2003, Phil Cianciola, 51.906 Race – 2008, Larry Rotter, 226 laps, Fast Lap – 2003, Phil Cianciola, 3.953
RACE ROUND: 10 of 14 in the 2009-2010 HO Indy Slot Car Series
INSTANT REPLAY: The 2008-09 season began at a different venue as problems at the Mini Mile forced the season opener to HO Road America. Dan Margetta would start from the pole for the newly formed BMW Racing Team. The first heat race of the night began as a runaway for Larry Rotter, but as the heat would come to a close El Gato would be feeling the heat as Dan Margetta would put on a late race charge, but spin while trying to make a late race pass.
Mike Fiztlaff would wind up third in the heat one lap down.
The second heat would feature Ev Kamikawa, Dean Strom, Matt Hayek and hometown driver Amy Butler. Butler would control this heat leading by 5 laps at the halfway point, and cruise to the win by three laps over Dean Strom. Ev Kamikawa would finish third while matt Hayek would round out the heat in fourth place.
Heat three would feature one of the rookie contenders John Wiedemann, John Shea, and Tom and Andy Spehert. What seemed to be a competitive heat halfway through the event became a Tom Spehert runaway. The Boiler would turn a three lap lead into an eleven lap lead at the finish. John Shea was second, John Wiedemann third, and Andy Spehert a distant fourth.
The fourth and final heat race of the night had Chris Spehert, Mike Kristof and Mark Walczak. This race was over early as Walczak would jump out to a nine lap lead by the halfway point, and make it thirteen laps in the end over Chris Spehert, with Mike Kristof finishing in third place.
In the finals Tom Spehert would jump out to a ten lap lead at the halfway point leaving the other driver to fight for second place. As Walczak and Rotter pushed each other for second place they started to whittle into Spehert’s lead. As his lead shrank, Tom began having handling issues in the red lane. Luckily for Spehert his lead would hold as he beat Larry Rotter by three laps. Mark Walczak was third while his BMW teammate Amy Butler would finish fourth.
THE Papa Murphy’s Grand Prix HISTORY (10 events, 1998 - Present)
Year Race Winner
1998 Phil Cianciola
1999 Dan Margetta
2000 Phil Cianciola
2001 Phil Cianciola
2002 Larry Rotter
2003 Larry Rotter
2004 Phil Cianciola
2005 Dan Margetta
2006 Mike Fitzlaff
2007 Dan Margetta
2008 Larry Rotter
2009 Tom Spehert
2010 ???????????
Top Stories
Both of the top two drivers in the points standing return after missing the previous race. Mark Walczak holds a 27 point lead over Ev Kamikawa with 5 races remaining.