The second to last day of the 2023 Blue Marble Radical Cup North America season saw Jon Field dominate the Platinum class, Robert Soroka take his maiden Pro 1500 win and Nick Persing inch ahead over Danny Dyszelski in the battle for the Pro 1500 and outright championship titles. In Pro 1340, Seth Bacon showed the way in race one with Chris McMurry finding the top step in race two, while the class championship tightened to just seven points between Ken Savage and Jace Bacon.
In the first race of the weekend, an abundance of caution flags flew as a crash on the opening lap took out the Pro 1340 pole sitter Chris McMurry (Crown Concepts). However out front, Jon Field (ONE Motorsports) led flag-to-flag in the 17-lap affair to add another Platinum class win to his resume, and more importantly take one step closer toward earning his first Radical Cup North America title.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=6726]
Behind Field, Wayne Williams (ESSES Racing) turned his fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap as he was able to push on to finish second while Jason Plotke (Crown Concepts) gained one position to stand on the podium in third. Behind the front three, Louis Schriber (RYNO Racing) lost two positions to finish his first wheel-to-wheel action of the weekend in fourth, just ahead of Jeff Ramsey (Cameron Racing).
Race two saw Field go two-for-two on the day as he dominated the Platinum class to take the win by more than 33 seconds and officially be named the 2023 Platinum Class Champion. Wayne Williams advanced from third to stand on the second step of the podium yet again, while Plotke earned another third-place finish ahead of Jim Booth (WISKO Racing) and Jeff Ramsey.
Canadian young-gun, and karter come race car driver, Robert Soroka (RySpec Racing) had a breakthrough win in the Pro 1500 class, and his first behind the wheel of a car.
Meanwhile the championship battle between Danny Dyszelski (WISKO Racing) and Nick Persing (Cameron Racing) heated up after late-race contact between Persing and a Platinum class car saw the Californian drop from second to fourth on the final lap. That allowed local Miguel Grillo (ONE Motorsport) to capitalize and clinch second place, while Dyszekski moved back into the lead of the championship by beating his rival to stand on the podium in third. One Motorsport teammates Gregg Gorski and Aurora Straus completed the top-six.
Soroka scored the fastest lap to start the second race from the class pole, but it was Persing who this time got the upper hand, sustaining immense pressure to beat Dyszelski by a mere 0.477s as the pair traded times. Soroka backed up his morning performance with another podium result to close within an achievable 14 points of Gregg Gorski for third in the Pro 1500 championship, while Jack Yang (Group-A Racing) put in his best performance of the season to finish fourth, and Ron Fletcher (RYNO Racing) finished fifth.
With Dyszelski setting the fastest lap of the race, and thereby taking the pole point for Sunday’s grand finale, Persing leads by a single point ensuring a winner take-all showdown.
The same goes in Pro 1340 after a day of highs and lows for title rivals Ken Savage (G-Tech Motorsports) and Jace Bacon (Crown Concepts) which has left Savage a mere seven points clear of Bacon.
In Race 1 it was Seth Bacon (Crown Concepts) and his son Jace who were running one-two in the Pro 1340 class under a late race caution when Jace mysteriously lost control of his SR3 in a lazy spin. Falling down the running order, Jace went on to finish sixth, making a serious dent in his championship aspirations while Seth went on to take the win from Ken Savage and extend his points lead. Englishman come Californian native Brendan Wright (Cameron Racing) impressed, improving from sixth to third, with Ben Blander (Team Stradale) and Vince Switzer (Crown Concepts) rounding out the top-five.
Rebounding from his race-one crash, McMurry returned to the top step of the podium in Pro 1340 by taking the win by more than a lap over Jace Bacon, who redeemed himself with second place, while championship leader Ken Savage fell out of the running on lap two after a clash with teammate Jason Greenwood, significantly eating into his points buffer. This opened the door for the likes of Ben Blander and Vince Switzer who crossed the line fourth and fifth for the second consecutive race.
The 18th and final race of the 2023 Blue Marble Radical Cup North America championship will take place before the NTT INDYCAR SERIES finale at the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, and can be viewed live on the Radical Motorsports YouTube page HERE.