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Bertil Roos Race Series: Final Race of 2009 (Race 8)
 
Blakeslee, PA
October 5, 2009
 
The final Race of the 2009 Bertil Roos Race Series took place at Pocono Raceway’s South Track on a warm and sunny October 3rd.


The action in Group 1’s first race was tight as title contender Alan Antaki squared up again series veteran Tim Nichols, Joe Homa, Stuart Rettie and young Paul Alspach. At Turn 1 however, an incident between Stuart Rettie and Andy Ourant saw Stuart spinning out of third, he would later recover to finish 5th. The battle between Tim and Alan went on nose to tail till an error in the Turn 1 saw Alan spin and drop back to 4th leaving the door open for the battling Paul Alspach and Joe Homa  to go through into 2nd and 3rd respectively.


In Race 2 for Group 1 the battle between Alan and Tim picked up again as Alan stormed through to 2nd in the early running. Making a First lap dash as well, was Stuart Rettie moving from 5th to 3rd, a position he would hold to the end of the race. With Paul Alspach to finish 4th, Joe Homa 5th, series veteran and having a clean race Earl Ihrie 6th, Phil Lambert 7th and first time series driver Andy Ourant in 8th place. The lead of the race, however, went on nose to tail with Tim leading till lap 16 when Alan Antaki went through into the lead. He would hold this position to claim his first Bertil Roos Race Series win, increasing his chance at the series championship, and Tim Nichols finishing 2nd.

In Group 2 the first and second place drivers in the championship, brothers Frank and Mark Vultaggio, would see themselves having to race each other for the race and the championship. Mark took the early jump and grabbed pole while Dave Long and Bruce Hamilton would line up 2nd and 3rd before Frank in 4th. In Race 1, Mark took a deciding lead and would never look back while behind him Bruce Hamilton would leap frog Dave to take 2nd. The battle of the race however, was between Dave and Frank as the two battled for the full 12 laps, while closing on 2nd place Bruce, with Frank coming off the better of the two and just missing 2nd place by inches at the checkered.


When Race 2 started it was Mark again jumping to a dominating lead. A first lap error saw 2nd place Bruce Hamilton dropping to last, he would recover from this to overtake series first timer Rob Hirsch, and the two would finish 7th and 8th respectively.  The race for second was a close one as lap after lap Dave and Frank would battle until lap 14 when Dave would take the position and hold it till the end with Frank settling for 3rd. It was a quiet day for Toulouse Lafond who had a great weekend and finished 4th, Norman Lizzul would come from 7th in the first race to finish 5th and the ailing Steve Darrah would finish 6th.


With all the races finished and points tallied up there was a 20 point difference from 1st to 3rd. In the end, however,  it was Mark Vultaggio taking the championship win, with brother Frank in a close second and Alan Antaki in 3rd. A very close 4th place was decided between Stuart Rettie and Tim Nichols with Stuart edging out Tim by 2 points. Behind them it was Dave long in 6th, Joe Homa 7th, Earl Ihrie 8th, Steve Darrah 9th, and Norman Lizzul in 10th. Special Notes would like to be give to Pocono Mini Series winner Paul Alspach, Rookie of The Year winner Normal Lizzul who won it over Toulouse Lafond by 3 points, and Hard Charger, for most net positions gained, Earl Ihrie.