RSRA MARL at DOVER

8/7/2019 RSRA MARL at DOVER

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ON-LINE RACER

MAGAZINEMARL Season 3

Dover Delaware, scene of the

first race in the 3rd season of

the Mid Atlantic Racing League.

A lot has happened during the

‘off season’ including a change

in management of the league.

Following an abrupt change in

professional obligations for

league president Randy

Lawrence, the future of theleague looked in doubt; however

Race Sim Radicals stepped up

to the plate to take the helm for

Lawrence at the urging of Kevin

Myers and Scott Burlovich who

will be managing the week-by-

week affairs of the league. In a

press conference, Kevin Myers

responded to a question from

the press regarding ownershipof the league by saying “This is

Randy’s league; we just want to

run it for him.” And so begins

the third season of the highly

successful MARL Late Model

Championship series. Six

teams made their way to Dover

including one MARL rookie Todd

Martelle, a Radicals team mate

to Kevin Myers. With the draftin effect during practice, it was

slightly difficult to assess true

Kevin Myers takes Dover in MARL season opener



speed but one thing was certain;

Kevin Myers was fast, taking top

speed on the charts during happy hour

followed by Martelle. In qualifying it

was Mike Swanson taking the pole

position with a fresh new WestJet

paint scheme, and Myers on the

outside of row #1 also with new

Radicals colors. Martelle qualified

3rd, followed by MARL regulars RickyVanWhy, Scott Burlovich and Trae

Forsythe. Early in the race, the

WestJet Chevy pulled to a healthy

lead, while the #3 car slipped back a

spot and a hard charging Ricky

VanWhy moved up to 2nd. On lap 22

Todd Martelle and Ricky VanWhy

came together, resulting in a

spectacular crash and a caution flag.

With everyone else pitting, TraeForsythe’s FMI team chose to stay out

and try the point for the restart.

Forsythe made mention on the radio

that he feared the #1 and #3 might be

fixing to ‘eat his lunch’ and on the

restart that’s what happened. By lap

30 the Orange Crush machine had

dropped to 4th, with Swanson once

again in the lead and Myers in hot

pursuit. On lap 32 VanWhy, who hadbeen hounding Burlovich but was a lap

in arrears got loose in turn 3-4 and

tapped the wall losing touch with

Burlovich. This allowed Martelle, who

was racing the #2 car for position to

catch and pass VanWhy with Forsythe

trailing the field but running in 4th.

Martelle and VanWhy then started

closing in on Burlovich, and passed

the Butterfly Communications Chevyon lap 38, although not for position.

One lap later however, Martelle went



wide in turn 2 and 3, spinning out and

once again collecting VanWhy and

this time involving Burlovich.

Forsythe narrowly avoided contact as

he negotiated his way past the

carnage. During the resulting caution,

the entire field except leader

Swanson elected to take tires and

then assembled to take the green.

Swanson brought the field aroundslow for the lap 45 restart, but on the

way through the gears Swanson

missed 3rd, revving the engine wildly

as Myers roared past. Trae Forsythe

piloted his Crush machine past too, as

Mike finally found comfort in 4th gear

and started to accelerate. Frustrated

with losing the lead to such a mistake

and knowing how important track

position would be, the WestJet driver appeared ready to charge back to the

bumper of the #3 car, making his way

past Forsythe on the following lap.

Catching Myers and passing him

would be two different animals, as

Swanson closed in with some 30 laps

remaining but had difficulty making

any headway once there. On lap 58

Swanson took advantage of Myers’

loose race car and pulled to theinside, but was not able to maintain

the position and was forced to ride

behind Myers, waiting for another

opportunity. In a post race interview

Swanson said “I went in pretty

gingerly; there’s no way I wanted to

wreck Kevin. It’s tough down there

with a loose car.” The dogfight

between the top two drivers

continued lap after lap, giving thecrowd good reason to deprive the

concession stands of further revenue.



On lap 78 Scott Burlovich lost control

off turn two, spinning around and

making contact with the inside wall,

bringing out the caution. While this

wasn’t what the WestJet team wanted

to see, it set up what would be a

thrilling finish to the season opener.

The field assembled to take the final

green flag; Burlovich and Forsythe

pulled in tight on the leaders whileMyers prepared to make a clean start

and put some distance on his

pursuers. Kevin masterfully timed his

restart and pulled away, leaving

Swanson within grasp of Forsythe and

Burlovich. Scott pulled the #5 car to

the inside of Swanson, and on the

backstretch Forsythe pulled below

Burlovich making it three wide as the

crowd cheered. Ricky VanWhy cameon the radio; “That’s not gonna

work!”...and he was right. Forsythe

made contact with the left rear

quarter of Burlovich’s car, spinning

the Crush Chevy out while Scott

managed to keep his machine pointing

in the right direction. With a final

caution flag waving, the race

effectively ended with Kevin Myers

victorious over Mike Swanson. ScottBurlovich finished 3rd, followed by

Trae Forsythe, Ricky VanWhy, and

MARL newcomer Todd Martelle. After

a reverse victory lap perhaps

honouring the late Alan Kulwicki,

Myers jubilantly celebrated in victory

lane, remarking that luck played a

part in the win, but he’d take it in light

of what had happened last season at

USA Speedway. One thing’s for sure,KJM (as he’s known to the other

drivers) had plenty of fuel left over.



Race Stats: Pole winner: Mike Swanson 25.272

Laps led: Kevin Myers 41

Mike Swanson 40

Trae Forsythe 4

Cautions: 4

Caution laps: 14

Lead changes: 3

Finishing Order:

1-Kevin Myers

2-Mike Swanson

3-Scott Burlovich

4-Trae Forsythe

5-Ricky VanWhy6-Todd Martelle

On-Line Racer Magazine is a CRN publication

All rights reserved

Cobalt Racing News, 2011

RSRA MARL at DOVER

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