WRPM Race Update

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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/