10-26-2003 - Fran Am 1600 race - Arizona Motorsports Park AZ

Practice went great on Friday with Colin running laps over 1 second quicker than his pole time from the race here last month.

In the morning warm up we tried a few more things for qualifying.

Ron (shown in the blue jacket) was here from the Quantum Autosports Fran Am 2000 team to lend a hand.  Ron is the tire and fuel specialist on the Quantum team and it was great to have his help.

We were excited about qualifying because the series organizers were able to get new tires for all the teams after the problems we had in Buttonwillow last week.

Well right before our qualifying a sedan car oiled the entire track for 2 laps leaving a streak of oil completely around the track.

The track was bad, very bad and the cars were slipping and sliding.  Colin managed to get a lap that was slower than his time in the morning session but it was still good for 2nd, missing pole to his championship rival John Knudsen by .2 seconds.

We decided to not change the car at all for the race thinking the track would be back to normal.

After a wave off of the start, the 2nd attempt was good.  Colin got the jump and was able to lead out of the first turn.  At lap 2 he had a second lead and stretched it to 3 seconds by lap 5.  He held that gap for the next 8 laps saving the tires in case John Knudsen made a late charge.

John never made the charge and Colin ended up winning by 6 seconds and setting fast lap of the race.

Colin needs only to finish the Sunday race by completing 1/2 the race distance to take the championship. 

From the Fran Am web site:

SUNDAY

Boy we look serious here.....................

Championship day - Going into the day Colin needed to pull out 2 points on John Knudsen to take the championship.

Qualifying would have done it - Pole - Champion.

Well that did not work.  We have struggled to get qualifying figured out at AMP and that continued.  Colin was 2nd to Knudsen by .3 seconds.

Now to win the championship Colin just needed to complete 1/2 the race distance and the championship was his.

Just take it easy, no risk and be calm, conservative, and stay out of trouble

Green flag and it is a dead heat between Knudsen and Colin with John on the inside for turn 1.  Colin does not back off and the 2 drivers go side by side around turn 1,2,3 with their wheels interlocked at times.

They survive that and are side by side down the next straight, but now Colin has the inside and it is a braking duel.  Colin goes deep, John as deep and Colin has a slight twitch from the rear as the rear tires lock slightly.  Knudsen is hung on the outside and Colin takes the lead after 4 turns of side by side racing.

After 3 laps in the lead there was a full track yellow for a stalled car.  Colin got the jump on the restart and lead for 1/2 lap when he slipped wide on the exit of turn 12 and Knudsen got the better run and went by Colin.  The 2 drivers held positions with C.R. Crews a close 3rd for 2 more laps until another full track yellow.

At this stage the race was 1/2 over and Colin was the 2003 Fran Am 1600 Pro Champion.  Now it was for the race win.

On the restart the gap was close.  We were looking for a long run.  We had worked to make the car good in long runs, but with all the yellows there were only 4 laps of green racing left.  With 2 to go Colin and John had a 6 second lead and it was a 2 car fight.

One to go and Colin was under the gearbox of John.  Each driver slipping on the super hot, and sandy AMP surface.  Colin had no opening and John had made no mistake.  With 3 turns to go Colin made a big lunge and was along side but John had the gap closed and Colin had to back off or crash.  John took the win and Colin was right behind.

Colin wanted to win as bad as always, but to have John Knudsen win, after 17 2nd place results was great.  John has helped Colin this year and also loaned us parts when we broke them so we could race.

Here Colin and John celebrate the season championship at the year end banquet.

These 2 fought so hard this year and pushed each other every race.  They raced clean and put on some exciting races.

At the banquet Colin was presented the trophy for the Rookie of the year, winning over Brad Coleman.

He was than given the championship trophy by series director Steve Henry.

Colin thanked Steve and his staff, Patty and Fred for putting on a great series.  He made special mention to Jerry Kunzman, president of NASA for allowing 14 year old drivers to compete in the NASA sanctioned Fran Am series.

Colin was thankful to George Latus for allowing him to use his car many times early this year.

Ross Bentley and the Speed Secrets Driver Development Camps got a big mention from Colin for helping him make the step from karting to cars, and for working with Colin all year on improving his driving.

Colin then thanked Tony Coello for teaching him to never stop making the car better, to use every second to practice.  He said that this year when ever he thought things were going well and we were fast he could almost hear Tony say "not fast enough, go out and keep working"

In closing Colin told the crowd that he wanted a career in racing and knew he had a lot to learn, and that many people have helped him this year to learn more about car racing and that was as big a prize as the trophy he was holding.

John Knudsen took 1st place in the series 2 race shootout by out scoring Colin this weekend.  The prize for winning the shoot out is a Fran Am 2000 car.  By virtue of a fast race lap in Sunday's race of .07 seconds faster than Colin's time, John took the prize - well done John!

The team will now head home and start making plans for 2004.  There are very few options for 2004 due to the fact that Colin just turned 15, but a few interesting possibilities may have just opened up. 

Check back as we will keep all up to date.