The 11:00 News

After nearly two hours of racing, there are five cars on the lead lap, though #99 had not yet pitted. No major issues today, though a few cars have made longish pit stops.

1. #99, 61 laps

2. #26, 61 (-19.684 sec)

EC #23, 61 (-22.622)

3. #49, 61 (-48.770)

4. #70, 61 (-51.424)

5. #58, 59

6. #38, 59

7. #66, 58

EC #37, 54

8. #3, 53

9. #33, 53

10. #81, 51

11. #31, 51

Eighteen cars took the green flag, with five of yesterday's cars unable to start today.

At 10:00am

EC #23 Brake Dusters, BMW 540, 33 laps

1. #26 Shake N Bake, Toyota, 33 (-12.576 sec)

2. #49 Slugworks, Honda, 33 (-38.002 sec)

3. #70 Speed Doctors, BMW, 33 (-1:33.781)

4. #38 Chump Races, BMW, 31

5. #58 Speedlab, BMW, 31

6. #20 Most Interesting, BMW, 30

7. #99 Short Bus, VW, 30

8. #66 Holy Rollers, Acura, 30

9. #3 Three Sheets, 27

10. #81 Party Cat, 27

EC #37 Acme Racing, Honda, 27

11. #31 Chester of the Apocalypse, Mazda, 27

Fastest lap: #38 - 1:54.427

The fastest lap was set while battling several other cars, which all set their personal fastest times on the same lap.

Sunday! SUN-day!

It's a bee-yoo-tee-full day for racing in Central Minnesota. There are quite a few teams that have chosen to camp on the B.I.R. grounds and they have been rewarded with "great sleeping weather".

The race start is nearly an hour away but teams are making last minute adjustments, and a few race engines have been started to get the juices flowing.

The Slugworks Honda (#49) and the Mid-Engine Crisis Toyota MR2 (#4) will be joining us again today after DNFs on Saturday. The Slugworks car suffered an axle/bearing failure and did not have spares on hand, so made a trip home to the Twin Cities (round trip about 6 hours) and made repairs overnight. The #4 car made only a couple of laps on Saturday before succumbing to a rod knock. A dent in the oil pan was restricting flow to the oil pickup screen. The team located a used short block and worked all night to get it ready for the start this morning.

One of the drivers in the #4 Toyota is veteran ice racer Ron Verhagen (pictured here at the left). Ron has been involved in motorsports since the last ice age. He is now 68.

The #31 Mazda MX3 spent a lot of time behind the wall yesterday after a clutch failure. They were able to remove the transmission in about an hour, but it took two and a half hours for parts to show up from the Twin Cities, so they missed much of Saturday's race. They believe they are ready for a full day of racing today.

One of the drivers on the #3 Three Sheets Ford Contour spent time in the local E.R. Saturday after bailing out a half hour into his driving stint. Too many beers the night before and lack of water prior to the high adrenaline driving left him dehydrated. He is back today and looking much better, ready to put the Contour through its paces.

What a finish!

With only a couple of laps to go, the #26 Toyota slowed, apparently out of fuel. #70 BMW re-passed for 2nd place.

And on the final lap, #26 coasted across the finish line and parked just past turn 12 under the bridge.

The final results:

1. #38 Chump Races Chump Faces, BMW, 203 laps

2. #70 Speed Doctors, BMW 325, 201

3. #26 Shake N Bake, Toyota MR2, 201

4. #33 Tubby Butterman, BMW 325, 198

5. #66 Holy Rollers, Acura, 194

6. #58 Speedlab, BMW 325, 193

EC #23 Brake Dusters, BMW 540, 179

7. #3, Three Sheets, ford Contour, 178

8. #22, North Loop Motorsports, BMW 325, 178

9. #81 Team Party Cat, Mazda Miata, 175

10. #99 Team Short Bus, VW Golf, 173.

15 minutes remain

15 minutes left!

1. #38, 194 laps

2. #26, 191

3. #70, 191

4. #33, 187

5. #66, 184

6. #58, 182

EC #23, 179

7. #51, 169

8. #3, 168

9. #22, 168

10. #81, 166

1/2 hour to go

With 30 minutes to go, the #26 Shake N Bake Toyota MR2 is less than 2 seconds behind the #70 Speed Doctors BMW. A-a-a-a-nd #26 makes the pass in turn 4 to take over 2nd place!

But just prior to that, here were the standings:

1. #38, 186 laps

2. #70, 184

3. #26, 184

4. #33, 180

5. #66, 177

EC #23, 176

6. #58, 175

7. #51, 169

8. #22, 161

9. #3, 161

10. #81, 159

Wearing down

As the hours tick off, the drivers seem to be making more mistakes. Nothing serious, just a few offs here and there. No crashing, thank goodness.

With an hour to go:

1. #38 Chump Faces, 172 laps

2. #70 Speed Doctors, 171

3. #26 Shake N Bake, 170

4. #51 British American, 169

5. #58 Speedlab, 166

6. #33 Tubby Butterman, 166

7. #66 Holy Rollers, 164

EC #23 Brake Dusters, 163

8. #81 Party Cat, 150

9. #22 North Loop, 149

10. #3 3 sheets, 148