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National Runoffs
Mark Carpenter – F Production Class Competition
The final race of the season for Team GGS Racing was the SCCA National
Runoffs in Topeka, KS. The team had been preparing for this event for over a
month, with changes being made to the Acura's engine and body.
The week started with a test day scheduled for Sunday, October 8th. The first
session out was disappointing as driver Mark Carpenter brought the Acura in
early with low oil pressure. The Team GGS crew spent the rest of the day
diagnosing possible reasons for the loss of pressure. A faulty oil pump was
discovered, and was changed out for a new one in hopes of getting back on track
for qualifying the next day.
The first day of qualifying for the 2006 SCCA Runoffs saw more troubles for Team
GGS Racing. After changing out an oil pump the following day, the Acura again
suffered low oil pressure mid-way through the qualifying session.
It appeared that the damage had already been done to the new motor, so the crew
decided to change motors, back to the engine that had been run during the
season. The next day was spent changing engines and swapping all components to
the other motor, all during cold, wet and windy conditions in central Kansas.
The crew's hard work got the Team GGS Acura back on track for the next
qualifying session on Wednesday afternoon. The car finally had a trouble-free
session for the first time during Wednesday’s qualifying session. Despite having
limited track time, the Acura qualified 25th out of 34 starters in F-Production.
With the SPEED Channel camera's rolling, Saturday’s F-Production race went green
shortly after 2:30pm central time. 34 of the best F-Production racers in the
country rolled off of grid, with the Team GGS Racing Acura of Mark Carpenter
starting 25th. The race got off to a quick start, with the Team GGS Acura
gaining positions on the first lap. Throughout the first part of the race, the
Team GGS Acura was steadily moving forward, getting to the 17th position by lap
8. Two laps later, however, the Acura developed a vibration that shortly ended
with a broken axel and the end of the race for Team GGS Racing. By making half
distance, the Acura did not suffer a DNF (Did Not Finish) and officially was
listed in 24th position in the race results.
It was a tough week for Team GGS Racing. The team worked extremely hard all week
to get the car on track and running up front. In the end it was a part failure
that none of them had control over that took them out of the race. Team GGS
Racing should be very proud of their efforts. Special thanks goes out to: Steve
and Karen Carpenter, Brent Hershey, Ron Kint, Carl Fraser, Lynn and Paul Kilker,
Jim and Jamie Carpenter, Todd Willman and everyone at GGS Information Services.
It was a great season despite the disappointing ending. Team GGS Racing would
like to take this time to thank all of our sponsors and supporters who helped
make this season possible: Meccanic Shop North, Davis Acura, Geiger Promotional
Products, Apex Advertising Inc., Graphic Masters, Carl R. Fraser Racing
Enterprises, and Henry and Diane Olstynski. Anyone interested in seeing the race
from Topeka on TV can tune into SPEED Channel on November 28th at
5:00pm ET. Here is a link to the entire 2006 SCCA Runoffs Schedule:
http://www.scca.com/News/News.asp?Ref=710 |