brings them into the infield section and 'left right left' sequence brings them to a 150* right hander dubbed 'devil's elbow.' The exit of that corner brings the drivers back on the super speedway (still clockwise) through the tunnel turn, down the back straight and into the brake zone for another right hander that brings drivers into another infield section. A bumpy right hander with a crest in the middle, a left hander and another right onto the front straight of the super speedway completes a lap.
The practice session went smoothly for all the Honda Challenge drivers. Mike Fries was back to keep the H1 class alive with his S2000. Erik Olsen. John Baker, Stephanie Holifield, and Brian Casella would fill out the H2 field for the day.
Qualifying time came and the order was Olsen, Casella, Baker, Holifield. Baker had an off course excursion and bent up his new splitter and had a caliper bolt back out. A quick trip to Phil's Tire Service got his wheel re-balanced. He was able to find a new caliper bolt and no other damage was done. He removed what was left of his mangled splitter and took off his rear wing to even out the aero balance and he would be ready for the race.
The start of the race would be interesting as the front straight is about 7 cars wide and T1 funnels into about 3 car wide. The green flag drops and everyone gets a clean start. A tube chassis SU pick-up spun in T1 and cars scattered all over to miss it. No one was collected but Baker lost some distance on Casella. Olsen chased Fries in his H1 car for a few laps and got by him for a lap. But once fries got settled in he got back by Olsen and put some distance on him. Casella had a solid second place position but Baker was trying to run him down. Bakers started to have some handling problems and wasn't able to catch Casella. Holifield battled with traffic trying to catch back up to the pack but couldn't quite get close enough. The finishing order would be Olsen, Casella, Baker, Holifield and a late entry mystery driver in the 5th place position.
 
 
Sunday, July 19th would bring great weather and another layout of the Pocono facility. Single infield long course would be today's layout. Its shorter than the double infield, but much faster as you use the speedway front straight, t1, back straight and tunnel turn before you jump on the binders and head into the infield via 'devils elbow.'
Practice went smoothly for everyone and qualifying showed big improvements in times. Everyone was shooting for the 1:39 H2 track record, but the name of that game is drafting. 1:41 would be the h2 pole sitter Erik Olsen's time. Casella was in the 2 spot followed by john baker & Holifield.  Mike Fries would be our only H1 car for the day. The race started and everyone was clean into T1. but coming into the tunnel turn there was some contact between a 944, Baker's crx and a GTS bmw. The bmw would get the worst of it with a banged up rear bumper and a nose into the outside wall. Baker was able to continue with a banged up crx and the 944 later came in. The specifics and final ruling on the incident are still in the works. The rest of the race was incident free, but with Casella having clutch problems, Bakers alignment now off and his vtec not working Olsen was able to check out and take the win one more time. Casella finished 2nd, Baker finished 3rd and Holifield was closing in fast on Baker in 4th but couldn't quite get close enough. Another mystery driver finished in the 5th spot but only completed ½  the laps before coming in with handling issues in his Integra type-r.
All in all a fun weekend for everyone.