Pudge luck in full effect as Martin & Evans clash
Pudge Luck seems to be in full effect on the opening day of racing at the Reedy Race of Champions as Ryan Cavalieri made 3 wins from 3 races at OCRC Raceway. Starting from 8th on the grid, the reigning champion hit the front on lap 9 of 14 when he got by TLR’s Reno Savoya to extend his points lead as the only multiple winner so far at the 24th running of the event. Behind Cavalieri 10th place starter Cole Tollard came through to finish 2nd ahead of early leader and front row starter Michal Orlwoski while Savoya dropped back to 7th. The big talking point of the round would however be the opening race and a clash between Lee Martin and Dustin Evans. With no call made on the incident, in which Evans came off worse, Martin would register the first European win of the event ahead of Spencer Rivkin and a very unhappy Evans. In the other encounter Joona Haatanen took an easy win from JP Richards while the same heat saw Ryan Maifield retire with a broken front centre shaft coupler.
Commenting on his latest win, Cavalieri said, ‘I had a really good start and was sneaking around. Then I was battling with Savoya (for the lead) but he really brake checked me’. Getting into the rear of the Frenchman at the end of the straight but rolling himself after going by he said, ‘It was good he was able to get back into the lead but I had to work my way back up. It was kind deja vu of the first race’. Dropping to 3rd behind team boss Brent Thielke, he would retake the position when Thielke got a jump wrong and then went to the front when Savoya landed in the face of the jump leading onto the straight. Set to start the final race of the day from 9th on the grid, he said, ‘I don’t think where you start makes too much difference to the race because everyone is making mistakes’.
‘An entertaining race’, was Martin’s view of his third round encounter. The Yokomo driver continued, ‘the car was probably the best it was so far and I tried to not make any mistake. One lap would be really good and the next one you’d get out shape and be afraid of it for the next lap’. Asked about his incident with Evans he said, ‘he got inside me one corner and I closed the door on the other and hit him’. He continued, ‘I could of backed but I am trying to do my best at the same time. With Spencer there I didn’t. I don’t normally get into stuff like that but its one of them things that I’ve had happen to me many times before’.
Giving his opinion on the incident Evans was clearly irrate with Martin’s driving saying, ‘just watch the video’. He continued, ‘I was making the pass and got smoked the next corner. I used to have a lot of respect for Lee but not anymore. If that’s hard racing then I’m going to have to start driving hard’.
Having had ‘bad starts’ in his opening two races, Haatanen said ‘that went very good’. Lining up 8th on the grid, the Finnish teenager said ‘I was waiting at the start for others to crash and that worked good for me. My car is easy to drive and fast also’. In the same race as Haatanen, the only European to ever win the Reedy Race title, Joern Neumann, would break in the warm-up with the 1-minute time out allowed not enough time for him to fix his Schumacher and make the start.
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