2001 Feb. 17-18, DSR Race Results

Texas World Speedway, Texas
New DSR race record: 1:43.585 set by Craig Mendenhall in a Cheetah SR1 on 2/18/2001, bettering the previous record of ? set on ?.

Commentary below provided by Craig Mendenhall

Saturday, February 17th's qualifying

The weekend started with 6 D’s, however the first causality was Charlie Smith’s Cheetah (Nissan power) which got tagged by a FC or FM in qualifying Saturday morning.

Saturday, February 17th's race

The remaining 5 D’s took the flag for the Saturday race with Jim Rawson (converted Lola 540 with a Yamaha R1) in the lead. Mendenhall caught him after a lap or two and he spun a couple of laps later. Coming back onto the track Rawson spun his tires in the wet grass and broke something in the clutch or transmission when the tires made contact with the pavement. He was the only DNF for the group that started. Mendenhall had a clutch start slipping half way through the race (with a 45 second lead in D) and had to stop to keep from hurting the engine. He didn’t think his engine's bearings would have liked clutch friction material lubricating them.

Winner Carl Chance runs a converted Van Diemen FF with a Honda CBR900 engine. Mendenhall uses a Suzuki engine in his Cheetah. He thinks most of the SW division will be using a Suzuki engine. Chance’s, Duane Dyckman's, and Paul Shinsky’s new car and Roy Maxwell will be running Suzuki’s this year.

Sunday, February 17th's Qualifying

Paul Shinsky was tagged by a FC or FM and cracked a steering arm attachment on his car (his new one isn’t finished yet, he is running the old Sorcerer). Carl Chance took the piece into town and got someone to open up a shop so he could make a weld repair. Roy Maxwell had a part failure in the steering system and eased his just finished car into the concrete wall, damage to right side front and rear. 

Sunday, February 17th's Race

The race only saw 3 of the 6 D’s start, with one of those only out to make a lap. Paul started the race so he could get credit for a start in case he doesn’t get the new car on the track till the end of the season. Mendenhall qualified up in the middle of the FA, FC, FM pack and elected to start at the end of the grid, rather than be surrounded by all the future Mario’s and AJ’s in the open wheel group, since turn one is usually overly active on the start.

All in all it was a good weekend for our Cheetah/Suzuki. We set a new lap record Saturday, and lowered it Sunday as well.

Full official results in PDF format (850KB)

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