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

Trans-Am at BIR

Minnesota native Tony Ave dominated the SCCA Trans-Am series race at Brainerd International Raceway on Sunday (Sep 5), its the first time this series has raced at BIR since 1989. Tony was born in Duluth MN, was raised in Wisconsin and now lives in North Carolina.

Tony Ave lead flag to flag and won by an astonishing 65 seconds with and average speed of 95.39 mph on the 2.5 mile 13 turn road course at BIR, its his fifth win of the season.

Tony Ave was impressed with the race course, he said "I can just about make it through turn one with the throttle wide open, in these cars its pretty thrilling around there we hit about 180mph. I also really like the little kink before the start-finish line" said Ave.

Second place finisher Tomy Drissi is surely an entertainer, he was laughing and joking with the fans during the driver autograph session and seemed to appreciate the support of the local Jaguar fans.

Shakopee MN driver Jim Derhaag finished fifth in his 151st and final start in the SCCA Trans-Am series, he is retiring after a long and storied career racing both on ovals and road racing.

Here is the link to the final offical results http://www.trans-amracing.com/article.php?ID=1831

Jason interviewed winner Tony Ave and Dean interviewed Jim Derhaag, you can hear both of those on "Speedtalk on 1360" Saturday Sep 11th from 10-11am on KRWC radio and http://www.krwc1360.com/