Evan Slater and EVR Motorsports turned some heads last weekend by earning three wins in the Pro 1500 class at the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Chip Romer was able to end Jon Field’s winning streak in Platinum, while Blake McGovern took home some hardware in Pro 1340, disposing of Chris McMurry. With only six races remaining, championship battles will continue on the Streets of Toronto in July.
Platinum
For the first time all weekend long, it wasn’t a driver with the last name of Field at the top of the results sheets as Romer found his time to shine in race three. Starting on the outside of the row, Romer was able to move his way to the point and take his first Platinum class win of the season. Gregg Gorski, who finished on the podium in race two on Saturday, improved his result Sunday, climbing to P2 as he was able to sneak by Schriber late in the race. Schriber made it three podium results in three races this weekend, finishing third. Race one and two winner Jon Field finished just two seconds shy of the podium in the fourth position, as he recovered from a disastrous first half of the race. Wayne Williams added another top-five finish to his resume in fifth. Clint Field had a strange mishap that took him out of contention as a pocketknife was found lodged in his radiator during the race, forcing him to retire.
Pro 1500
It was the Slater and EVR Motorsports show in Pro 1500. The young driver managed to earn three wins in three races and the first three wins for his new EVR Motorsports program. However as in race one and two, the win didn’t come easy. The Graham Rahal Performance duo of Nick d’Orlando and Jordan Missig kept him honest, with d’Orlando finishing just 0.1s behind Slater, and Missig just two seconds behind that.
Missig led early and while others elected to pit early, Missig stayed on track, which turned out to be the wrong strategy. d’Orlando showed great pace and chased down Slater, but the EVR Motorsports drivers made his Pro 1500 machine as wide as possible to keep the GRP driver behind him. Eventually d’Orlando found his way past, but Slater repaid the favor in the last corner on the last lap to take the win. Matt Romer, another driver who capitalized in the pit stop cycle, continued to show his pace as did Spencer Schmidt who rounded out the top-five on the results sheet. Jack Yang was the Gold class winner.
Pro 1340
With Chris McMurry taking a pair of wins on Saturday, he could only muster a P3 result on Sunday’s podium, which opened the door for some of his rivals. After McMurry led early, Blake McGovern was able to break through with the race three win as he took the lead on the pit stop exchange. Graham Rahal Performance driver Suellio Almeida charged his way forward after an epic battle with McMurry. With McMurry defending hard, the duo almost came together on several occasions with Almeida finally making the move stick as he found his way back to the podium, scoring the second step just ahead of McMurry in third. Pro 1500 driver turned Pro 1340 competitor this weekend due to car damage at Road America, Mike Anzaldi earned a top-five finish in fourth, with Evan Wolf closing his weekend in the fifth position.
“This was some of the best racing I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Radical Motorsports’ Tom Drewer. “The battle between Slater and d’Orlando was spectacular. I keep saying, but the level of competition in the Radical Cup series is hard to beat right now, in all three classes. I hope the IndyCar team owners are taking note because we have some fantastic talent in this series.”
Next up for Radical Cup North America will be a trip north of the border as they take on the Streets of Toronto alongside the NTT IndyCar Series in mid-July.
Be sure to follow the Radical Cup North America social media pages for news, information, photos, and results from the event weekend.
Radical Cup North America events are open to local and regional Radical racers of all ages with eligible cars to participate. More information, including links to register for events and obtain licensing, can be found at www.radicalmotorsport.com. Stay tuned to the Radical Cup social media pages for the latest series news and updates.radi