# 41 Vinnie Allegretta emerging as top Corvette contender as # 98 Ernie Francis Jr keeps on winning

# 98 Ernie Francis Jr won at Road America but Austrian Martin Ragginger, taking over for Claudio Burtin served notice by winning the pole.  More on that below.  # 41 Vinnie Allegretta finished 3rd.   

# 8 Tomy Drissi (re-instated) finished 5th.  In Drissi’s words, “the wet race made it difficult to set up the car, even for our experienced Tony Ave crew.   The problem was getting the power down exiting the corners for Road America’s 3 long straights”.   On this day Drissi settled to keep the leaders in sight, held up by lapped traffic at the end.   Drissi brings Hollywood flavor to the Trans Am.   His latest theater promotion is for Agatha Christie’s film classic Murder on the Orient Express starring Johnny Depp & Michelle Pfeiffer opens on Nov 10, same weekend as Trans Am finale at Daytona.

Amy Ruman’s crew worked overtime to repair damage to the # 23 from Mid-Ohio.  A 6th place finish was the reward.

Back to Martin Ragginger.  He is the first pro European driver doing the Trans Am as far as we recall.  He led from the start and very well could have beat Ernie Francis Jr.  Unfortunately for him his # 50 Go Share TA Camaro (another Corvette re-bodied by Kerry Hitt’s ACP) broke on the 3rd lap forcing him out of the race.  Definitely worth keeping an eye on.

The # 59 Corvette of Simon Gregg was 8th and the # 31 of local Dave Ruehlow was 20th.  The others sat it out, DNS.

Our thanks again go to Chris Clark for great photos.

Race Results compiled by Wayne Ellwood.

Next race Sept 8-10 combined with huge Watkins Glen Vintage Grand Prix.