Cars that did not start

The GTO-GTU race : Toyota at last

The second race was a new Chevrolet-Mercury-Toyota contest between the three makes, but the race was just another story. The field was your classical 2-2-2 cars for each entrant. Pete Halsmer put his Merkur XR4Ti on the pole, while Wally Dallenbach put his Protofab Chevrolet Corvette in second place, leading teammate Greg Pickett. Dennis Aase was fourth, leading Willy T Ribbs, Scott Pruett and Roger Mandeville on his tri-rotor Mazda RX7. At the start, Pete Halsmer took the lead, but Wally Dallenbach was on his tail, waiting for the right moment to pass him. He did not have to wait for too long as he swept by in turn seven on lap two. Greg Pickett rapidly got past too while Willy T Ribbs soon was behind the two Chevrolet Corvettes. He could keep up the pace but spun off later, losing two places. Greg Pickett, running on one of his favorite track, built up a fourteen second lead over Wally Dallenbach in the next twenty laps. Then Greg Pickett spun, and Wally Dallenbach took the lead, but the two Chevrolet Corvettes, who were still in the lead, would have to pit for refueling. Then the race turned into some kind of nightmare when it was time to go to the pits. Greg Pickett missed his pits first, so he had to make an extra lap before refueling, then he went back to his pits, revving hard and burning out his new tyres. In the process, he managed to start with the driver's window net down, and he was black-flagged. Wally Dallenbach made a short pit stop, but he relinquished the lead to Willy T Ribbs, who was running cool, in order to have a pit-stop free race. Running smoothly, he could do it until the end of the race. The two Mercury Merkur could have been a threat, but Pete Halsmer's car suffered from overheating, while Scott Pruett thought he could also make it to the end without a pit stop, but it seemed that his fuel light was just flickering, and the team called him to pit, then he pitted again with a front tyre cut. Pete Halsmer had to retire later, due to an overheating. Dennis Aase finished fourth, while Dorsey Schroeder was fifth on his Dodge Daytona, easily winning the GTU class, just ahead of Roger Mandeville. Tom Kendall grabbed the pole on his Chevrolet Beretta, edging Dorsey Schroeder on his Dodge Daytona, while Max Jones was third on his Chevrolet Beretta, followed by Amos Johnson, who was driving the Team Highball Mazda RX7. At the start, Tom Kendall and Dorsey Schroeder were nose to tail, with Max Jones right behind, but he then made a mistake, and spun. Then a backmarker spun too, but it brought the pace-car. At the restart, Tom Kendall still led, just ahead of Dorsey Schroeder, Amos Johnson and Bart Kendall, who drove the Huffaker Pontiac Fiero. Tom Kendall managed to stay in front until lap eleven, when Dorsey Schroeder dived inside turn eleven. Then it was over. Amos Johnson and Bart Kendall were battling for third place. While Dorsey Schroeder could build up a four second lead over Tom Kendall, Max Jones stormed back to third place, and passed the fighting pair. Tom Kendall then would experience trouble with his car. The Chevrolet Beretta coughed, and he suddenly could not keep up the pace. An unexpected pit stop dropped him to eighth place at the end. Max Jones was now in second place, but far behind Dorsey Schroeder. He was even lapped three laps from the end. Bart Kendall managed to finish third and Amos Johnson was only fourth, on the best Mazda. Dorsey Schroeder utterly dominated the GTU race at Sears Point, and was an outstanding fifth overall in the GTO-GTU race. Amos Johnson, with his fourth place finish, was now the GTU Series point leader, just ahead of Tom Kendall.