Carolina Motorsports Park Kershaw, South Carolina Michelin Team Challenge Series Sanctioned by ASRA Round 2 The second round of the 2009 Michelin Team Challenge Series came to Carolina Motorsports Park and as expected, the teams searching for the championship, put on a spectacular show for the crowd. With the race distance shortened because of numerous delays in the Championship Cup Series Sprint, it was a 60 lap rumble between the GTU class standouts Chester Auto Repair Racing and the formidable RnR Repsol GTU Team. With both teams taking turns leading the race. It wasn’t until lap 49 that the Chester Racing team from New Jersey was able to secure the top spot for the dash to the checkered flag. In spite of being overshadowed by this GTU battle there was another fight for the GTO class between Euro Racing and Central States Racing for the final podium spot in the Overall Rankings. Central States was able to hold on to a slight advantage until a crash on lap 58 gave the Euro Racing Team a shot and they took full advantage, erasing nearly a 30 second deficit and pulling up into third overall at the checkered flag. Central States was able to continue without losing a lap, finishing in fourth overall. The win catapulted the Chester Auto Team into the Overall Championship lead by 21 points after just two rounds. They are followed by Sadowski Bros Racing, the Daytona winner and Predator Racing from Hillard FL moves into third position, just 1 point out of second in the championship. The GTU class showed its strength taking the top two positions Overall, it was the Chester Auto Parts Team of Alex Shaw and Eric Helmbach from Hackettstown NJ, taking both Overall and GTU class honors. The second place team of Rachel Sasse, Rick Beggs and Krishna Pribaldi on the RnR Cycle Repsol GTU Kawasaki rebounded from Daytona disappointment with their solid second place finish and moved up to second n the GTU Championship standings, just 13 points behind Chester Racing. The God Squad Team of Craig Woratyla and Joe Cotterino put their Honda into the last podium position with a solid performance at CMP. The Hillard FL team of Russell Wade and Fernando Ferreyra raced their Suzuki 650 to the win in the GTL class for Predator Racing. At the end, they had a full lap lead over the fight for second, which was eventually taken by the Design Integrity Team of Joel Spaulding and Jay Smith on a Buell. Third in GTL went to RnR Cycle Repsol GTL with Rick Beggs and Jason Gibbens ridding a Buell. The win gives Predator Racing a 10 point lead over Grease Monkey Racing who finished in fifth at Carolina. The GTO field might have been small but they had a huge impact on the Overall finish as all three teams put their Suzuki 1000’s into the top five Overall. The GTO win went to the Euro Racing team of Martin Lazor and Chris Maher, who put themselves into position for the win by staying in contact with the early leader Central States Racing,. When the Central States Team of Matt Flowers and Paul Gilchrist made a mistake on lap 58 and crashed, Euro Racing sped by and held on to win by 32 seconds. Not far behind was the third place Wisconsin Racing Team of Calvin Martinez and Steve Levow, who muscled their machine to the finish only one lap down. The win moved Euro Racing into third for the GTO Championship, 9 points behind Wisconsin Racing and 14 point behind the class leader, Central States Racing. The A&J Recognition Solo class was another exciting finish as Ray Hofman from Wapun WI was able to hold off last years winner Ivan Milan by 37 seconds to claim the win. As outstanding as it is that these top two riders finished all 60 laps without a rider change, it is even more amazing the Hoffman was only 18 seconds behind the Overall winner Chester Auto Repair. Third in the Solo class went to Alexander Smith aboard his Honda 600, 2 laps down to Hofman. The win gives Hofman an 18 point lead n the A&J Championship over Andrew Freehold, who finished fourth at Carolina. The next race for the Michelin Team Challenge Series sanctioned by ASRA is May 1 at Elkhart Lake’s Road America. For more information, including complete results and points standings, check out the ASRA website at www.ASRARACING.com