NICK JOANIDES AND BORENSTEIN RACING HAVE BEST PERFORMANCE OF SEASON!
(7-01-06) Coming off their best finish of the season, Borenstein Racing looked to continue their streak of improving their performances every week. After some issues with the car in the previous event, Jackson Race Cars worked extremely hard to improve the car and their efforts once again paid off.
The team tested Friday night and driver Nick Joanides commented after the final run that the car was handling the best it ever had. Feeling confident with the setup in the car, they chose to use the Saturday practice session just to scuff in tires. The team showed their strength when it was time to qualify as Nick just missed the fastest time in qualifying with a season best second place run. Unfortunately for the team, their qualifying run turned out to be a penalty as in this series, the starting lineups are randomly inverted from one to eight and in this event an eight invert was pulled, putting Nick seventh on the starting grid.
As
the green flag flew for the main event, the car running directly in
front of Nick missed a shift, forcing him to slow to avoid the other car
and dropping him to the ninth position before the completion of the
first lap. Nick did recover, passing several cars to move into the
fourth position. The top four cars had been battling nose to tail and
pulled away from the fifth place car when a caution flag flew with
thirteen laps remaining. On the restart, Nick was able to get a great
jump and pulled to the outside of the second place car, right on the
bumper of the leader and appeared ready to challenge for the lead.
Unfortunately however, the caution flag quickly flew again before the
lap was completed and in this series, the lineup reverts back to the
last completed green flag lap, putting Nick back in the fourth position
for the restart. The car was better on the longer runs and needed four
to five laps to get the tires up to the preferred temperature to run at
it’s best. With the final restart coming with just five laps
remaining, the late caution prevented Nick from making any more
progress, finishing in the fourth position.
Their fourth place finish equaled their best finish
of the season, but more importantly has shown that the Borenstein Racing
team is already capable
of championship consistency. This team was formed just a few weeks prior
to the season and suffered from typical new car blues, having problems with
their new car that prevented them from solid finishes in two of the
first three races of the season and leaving them 21st in the
point standings. But in the last four events, Nick has earned more
driver points than any other driver in the series and has climbed from
21st to 8th in the standings.
Nick Joanides commented following the race: “I am so impressed with this team and what we’ve accomplished in just seven races. We had a great qualifying run tonight and the car was capable of winning, we just got unlucky to get the worst possible invert and have the car in front of me miss a shift at the start, so track position proved costly, but we had a great four car battle for the lead and it feels great to know that we are knocking on the door of our first win as a team. I’m learning very quickly why Loren (team owner, Loren Borenstein) has been so successful at everything he has done. When he decides to do something, he commits to it and does it right and he’s proven that racing is no different. Most teams take years to compete in the top five, but Loren has made all the right moves in putting together a great team that is already capable of winning and running consistent every week. I’m really looking forward to getting him his first win and rewarding him and this team for all of their great work.”
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