Practice is Underway at Lime Rock Park

Practice for rounds 7 & 8 is underway at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn. Matt Downs, the current points leader, led the morning practice session with a best time of 56.278. In the afternoon session Matt went two seconds faster, but that wasn't fast enough to beat his brother Lucas Downs, who set a fast time of 54.855.

Joel Feinberg, racing for Primetime, was third fastest in the afternoon with a 55.109.

Qualifying for tomorrow's race takes place at 5:00 p.m. this afternoon.

Feinberg and Weisberg win Round Six

Joel Feinberg took advantage of a mid-race restart to take the lead in round six of the IMSA Lites presented by Frisby Performance Tire series and never looked back, leading the remainder of the 45-minute race.

“I was able to get through the gears better than he did,” Feinberg said. “I had enough momentum to stick it out and go deep and then checked out from him.”

The lap following Feinberg’s pass on Drewer Kyle Marcelli also passed him, moving into second place. Marcelli wasn’t able to catch Feinberg, but set a new race lap record trying. Lucas Downs rounded out the top three in Lites One.

The Lites Two outcome was in question until the last lap when John Weisberg was able to hold off Garrett Kletjian to take his third win of the 2009 season.

“He made me work for it. About five laps to go I was praying it would end really soon,” Weisberg said. “I was able to keep him behind me, but it was a lot of work. The Redcom Laboratories West came through for me.”

The next stop on the IMSA Lites presented by Frisby Performance Tire schedule is the American LeMans Northeast Grand Prix July 17-18.

The IMSA Lites presented by Frisby Performance Tire is a championship comprised of 14 rounds at seven famous tracks in North America including Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis. And Road Atlanta, Braselton, Ga.

Tom Drewer takes first Lites One pole

In overcast conditions Tom Drewer, the 2008 Lites Two champion, took his first pole of his Lites One career, setting a new qualifying record. Drewer, who finished fifth in yesterday's race, turned a lap time of 1:15.327.

Lucas Downs will start second followed by Kyle Marcelli.

The qualifying session was shortened after the #7 of Joel Feinberg and the #4 of Antonio Downs went off in turn 4.

Round six of the IMSA Lites presented by Frisby Performance Tire starts at 12:05 p.m.

Matt Downs Wins New Jersey Thriller

In one of the most exciting races of the year, championship leader Matt Downs won his third IMSA Lites presented by Frisby Performance Tire race at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, N.J.

Downs ran a consistent race, never actually leading on track. At the end of the day he was announced the winner after on-track race winner Kyle Marcelli was penalized for blocking.

“I was quicker through the first part of the track. I just got killed coming onto the straightaway every time,” Marcelli explained. “I saw him getting the run and I moved to the middle of the track. He was right on the inside.”

In a race filled with cars going off track, Marcelli ran second to Lucas Downs for a while before spinning, allowing Matt and brother Antonio to slip by him. For a few laps it looked like it would be an all Downs podium, then Marcelli took advantage of small mistakes to move back into second place. That is when Lucas, who led the first 25 laps, went off track.

“I had an eventful race. I got run into before the green,” Lucas said. “I spun after leading and just held on.”

The Lites Two class was just as exciting at the start with Eric Vassian and John Weisberg swapping the lead. Weisberg managed to get past Vassian for good on lap three.

“The L1 cars didn’t accelerate like we talked about in the driver’s meeting. They really bunched up and we all kind of got into each other,” Weisberg said. “On the third lap I was able to draft by Eric going into one and hold the lead.”

Tomorrow’s race at New Jersey Motorsports Park will also be a 45-minute race. The green flag will fall on round six at 12:05 p.m.

The Sun Comes Out in New Jersey

The sun came out for the second official practice of the day that saw the top three cars within a tenth of a second of each other. Joel Feinberg waited until his last lap to post the fastest time of the session, turning a 1:17.407. Matt Downs, the current point leader, was a close second, with a 1:17.435. Lucas Downs was third.

In the Lites Two category West driver Eric Vassian turned a 1:20.758.

The IMSA Lites presented by Frisby Performance Tire starts tomorrow early with an 8 a.m. qualifying session.

Official Practice Underway at NJMP

With dark clouds on the horizon, IMSA Lites presented by Frisby Performance Tire competitors took to the Thunderbolt track for the first official practice session of the weekend.

The top six drivers were within one second of Kyle Marcelli, who set a fast time of 1:16.618 around the 2.17-mile course. Second fastest, less than a tenth of second behind, was round one winner Joel Feinberg. The Downs brothers, Matt, Lucas and Antonio rounded out the top five.

The second practice session takes place at 3:30 this afternoon.

Just to update: there are now videos available on the IMSA Lites website, like this one of the start of the race at Miller.







See the rest at http://www.imsa-lites.com/newlites.cfm?p=/2009/lites/video/videomain3.cfm