Ave sweeps at BIR

Minnesota born driver Tony Ave (photo above) wins both the SCCA Trans-Am races from Brainerd International Raceway (MN) on Labor day weekend and clinches the 2011 series championship. 

Ave lead all forty laps of the Saturday race, Dan Ramoutarsingh finished second and Derhaag driver Simon Gregg got third.  Amy Ruman (photo below) survived an opening lap wreck and two flat tires to come back and finish fourth on Saturday, she lead some laps on Sunday in the rain and finished on the podium in third.

Cliff Ebben (photo below) was involved in that lap 1 crash with Amy Ruman on Saturday, his car was not able to continue in the race, he finished in 13th place.  He came back on Sunday and finshed in second place racing Denny Lamers car on a rain soaked track.

Bob Stretch (photo below) was the top finisher both days in the new TA-2 series, which raced on the track at the same time as the Trans-Am cars.

The Playboy Mazda MX-5 cup races where exciting.  Michael Cooper (photo above with Dean) won both days, he and Jason Saini were nose to tail the entire 45 minute race on Saturday.  Kevin Kopp (photo below) was in a bad wreck as he hit the wall hard in the corner just before the bridge, he was able to walk away from this crash. 

Click on this link for more photo's of this event http://www.flickr.com/photos/speedtalkon1360

Get more detailed results on www.trans-amracing.com

We will broadcast interviews with Tony Ave, Amy Ruman and Mike Cooper Saturday 10-11am on Speedtalk on 1360 radio, listen live at www.krwc1360.com