WRPM Race Update

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WRPMotorsports driver Willie Phee Doubles Up with Two Wins at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in Braselton Georgia. Round’s 14 and 15 of the 2022 SARRC Championship series was held at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta and WRPMotorsports driver Willie Phee would finish first in both races. Qualifying for both races would be Saturday morning and Phee would qualify second in class and third overall. “Qualifying was a bit of a mess as we only got two laps before the session was red flagged and once the incident was cleared, we only had two more laps to get a qualifying time. I was happy to be in the top three with such a short session,” said Phee. In the Saturday afternoon race Phee would move into second overall and first in class going into turn one. Phee would have a race long battle with Bruce Anderson in his Miata with the pair in a class by themselves. Phee’s Acura TSX had the power down the straights but Andersons lighter and nimbler Miata was stronger in the twisty bits. The two would swap positions for nearly the entire race with Anderson getting the edge from turn one to turn seven. Phee would then blast by down the back straight and hold onto the lead to the finish line. At the finish it would be Phee with the win holding off Anderson by .481 of a second. The Sunday race would be a 15-lap affair with Phee starting second in class and third overall. Phee would get a jump at the start and move into second overall by turn one but Anderson in the Miata would get a drive and move into the lead by turn three. Anderson started to check out as Phee dropped back to third but by lap five Phee had reeled in Anderson and took over the lead. Phee would steadily pull away and would finish second overall and first in class with a 6.8 second gap over the second-place car of Anderson. “It was great battling with Bruce this weekend but sure he was hating life every time we exited turn seven. My TSX just had a better exit and I would manage to get by halfway down the back straight and hold onto the lead to the finish line,” said Phee. “To win this race after the horrible weekend in Virginia just goes to show how great the OPM crew are at prepping the car. I have to thank Ryan, Tristan, Andres and all of the OPM crew. Tthey were able to give me a car capable of winning the event. I also have to thank Sam Nelson of Nelson Engines for providing me with a great engine package”. The next race is scheduled for August 6-7, 2022 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The WRPMotorsports team is sponsored by GLoc Brakes, Sparco USA, Total Lubricants, MCS Suspension and OPM Autosports. Photos courtesy of pbowe Photography and Clark McInnis Photography http://motorsports.clarkmcinnisphotography.com/motorsports/SCCA/index.html

WRPMotorsports driver Willie Phee doubles up with two wins and a new track record at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. Round’s 18 and 19 of the 2022 SARRC Championship series was held at Barber Motorsports Park and WRPMotorsports driver Willie Phee would finish on the top step of podium in both races. There would be two qualifying sessions, one held each morning. Phee would qualify third in class and ninth overall in the Saturday session. The race organizers made a late change to the race order and instead of Group four Phee’s class was mover to Group one. “I was sitting in the paddock when I was told that the run group had changed so I scrambled to get ready and missed the first couple of laps of qualifying” said Phee. Phee would move from third to first by the turn five horseshoe and maintain the lead in class until the end of the shortened race on lap five. “I managed to get a great start and got down the inside of the first place Miata in the horseshoe. I was racing with an out of class Miata for the entire five laps plus I had the second place in class Miata to worry about” said Phee. The race was called early when the ITR BMW of Mary Ronnie was tagged in turn 15 and she ended up in the wall with debris scattered through the turn and down the front straight. In Sunday qualifying Phee would make it to the grid on time and finish first in class and seventh overall with a time that was 1.5 seconds faster than his Saturday qualifying time. “I guess it helps to get to the grid on time to take advantage of the full qualifying session, “said Phee. “The crew kept me informed on the radio of where the pole sitter was on times and I managed to just beat him by .039 seconds on the last lap of qualifying”. In race two Phee would drop back to second in class for the first six laps but Phee would remain close to the Miata of Ron Munnerlyn and would move into the lead of the class on lap seven with a inside move going into the museum turn seven. Phee would steadily pull away to the tune of an average of .56 seconds per lap and would end up 3.08 seconds ahead of the second place Miata at the finish. “Ron had a good jump at the start and we were racing with several out of class cars for the first five or six laps but I managed to stay close and got a great drive out of turn five and made the pass going into turn seven. Once I got by I just tried to put in qualifying laps to stay ahead” said Phee. Phee would run his record setting lap (1.43.988) on lap six of the 15 lap race and would lower the record he previously set in 2020 by .192 seconds. “I was surprised when I saw the times at end of the race I never thought I would lower the track record in the heat of the day and to run 2.026 seconds faster than qualifying was truly special” The in-car video can be seen here: https://youtu.be/c5oo3UpYcpA The next race is scheduled for October 22-23, 2022 at Roebling Road Racewayt in Bloomindale, Georgia. The WRPMotorsports team is sponsored by GLoc Brakes, Sparco USA, Total Lubricants, MCS Suspension and OPM Autosports. Photos courtesy of Clark McInnis https://cmcinnis.wordpress.com/

WRPMotorsports Driver Willie Phee Clinches the 2022 SARRC Championship with two podium finishes at the season ending SARRC Invitational Challenge at Roebling Road Raceway in Bloomingdale, Georgia. The final round of the SARRC Championship series was held at Roebling Road Raceway and WRPMotorsports driver Willie Phee would finish on the podium in both races and clinch the SARRC Championship by one point. The only qualifying session for both races would be held Saturday morning and Phee would qualify fourth in class. “The track was recently repaved and I thought I would have a quick time but I could only manage fourth in the session one spot behind my main rival for the championship” said Phee. In the Saturday race Phee would start outside row two but would move into third by turn one and have a race long battle with David Spillman in his Datsun 240sx. Phee would gap Spillman over the course of the 11-lap race but when Phee would get in lapped traffic Spillman would close the gap. On the last lap Phee would get held up in the final turn allowing Spillman to close in. Phee would hold on to third with a .372 gap over Spillman at the finish. “I got a good start and got into third by turn one and managed to hold off Spillman for the entire race, although it was close at the finish due to the lapped traffic in the final turn. I was hoping to stay with the two lead cars but they just checked out” said Phee. “I needed to finish in front of the Miata of Ron Munnerlyn or hope that he would finish second in order to keep the championship lead. Luckily that’s what happened in race one”. Race two would be a double points race and Phee would need to finish in front of Munnerlyn unless Munnerlyn finished second then Phee would have to finish in third to clinch the championship. At the start Phee would get a great jump and move into second place by turn one. Munnerlyn managed to slot into third and Phee would hold him off for the first three laps. Munnerlyn would get by Phee in turn five on lap four of the 24 lap race. “I figured that if I could stay ahead of Munnerlyn for a few laps the first place car would get away and Munnerlyn wouldn’t be able to catch him by the finish”. This strategy would work out for Phee as he would run a lonely race in third place for the remaining 20 laps and finish third, one spot behind Munnerlyn. “I didn’t know it at the time but third place was enough to clinch the championship by one point” said Phee. The next race is scheduled for November 4-5, 2022 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia. The WRPMotorsports team is sponsored by GLoc Brakes, Sparco USA, Total Lubricants, MCS Suspension and OPM Autosports. Photos courtesy of Clark McInnis https://cmcinnis.wordpress.com/

For the third year in a row WRPMotorsports Driver Willie Phee Wins the American Road Race of Champions at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia. The 2023 SARRC Championship series would begin at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with the first two rounds of the series. Willie Phee would begin the defense of his 2022 SARRC Championship title with a second on Friday and a win in the Championship race on Saturday. Qualifying would be Friday morning and Phee made the decision to go out in the back of the pack in the 20-minute session. Phee would put his Acura TSX on pole for his class and second overall in the race group. “When I first went out I thought I made a mistake as traffic was heavier than I anticipated. I got a decent lap on lap four but caught more traffic on lap five so I backed off to get a gap and ran my quick time on lap six” said Phee. Phee would be on the overall pole until Christian Braunlich put in his best lap on lap eight in his T4 Mazda RX8 and snatched the overall pole by just 0.59 seconds. “I was disappointed not to be on the overall pole but happy to be ahead of the rest of the ITS field” said Phee. In the Friday afternoon race Phee would start outside row one and move into the overall lead going into turn 10A. The next ITS car would be David Spillman in his Datsun 240Z in third place. Spillman would move into second on lap two and was 1.5 seconds behind Phee. The gap would slowly come down and by lap four Spillman was only a half a second behind Phee. A full course caution would come out at the end of lap five and the field would bunch up behind Phee for the next four laps. The restart would be on the last lap and Phee would get a decent jump on the field but Spillman hung back and got a run down the front straight and would pass Phee going into turn one. Spill man would hold onto the lead and would finish just .045 ahead of Phee at the finish. “I really screwed up the restart, I was too busy focusing on the flag stand and not paying attention to where Spillman was. I didn’t realize he had hung back on the start and got a massive run down the front straight. I wasn’t too concerned as I thought if I could stay with him till we got to the back straight I could get by going into turn 10A” said Phee. Phee would get alongside Spillman in turn 10A but just wasn’t far enough alongside to complete the pass and would end up second by just under a half second. In the Saturday Championship race Phee would again start outside row two but would get a great start and move into the lead in turn one and build a two second gap by the end of lap one. A full course caution on lap two would negate Phee’s lead. “Once the caution came out I was thinking back to Friday’s restart and how I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. It was a short caution and I was keeping the pace very slow and watching my mirrors to see where the second place car was. When we got to turn 11 I gassed it and got a jump on the pack’ said Phee. David Spillman in the second place ITS 240SX would drop back to fourth overall as Phee would pull away. Spillman would eventually move back into second by lap eight but Phee was keeping a manageable distance in the lead. Phee would lead every lap and win his third consecutive ARRC Championship. The next race is scheduled for March 9-12, 2023 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia. The WRPMotorsports team is sponsored by GLoc Brakes, Sparco USA, Total Lubricants, MCS Suspension and OPM Autosports. Top photo courtesy of Pepper Bowe Pbowe Photography Remaining photos courtesy of Clark McInnis https://cmcinnis.wordpress.com/