|
Prather Begins Championship Defense with Four GT-Lite Wins
WAKARUSA, Kan.
(July 23, 2012) – Not one to rest on its laurels, Prather Racing got
right back to work in defending Kent Prather's 2011 SCCA National
Championship in GT-Lite, going four-for-four in SCCA SafeRacer National
Racing competition.
 The season began in
mid-April, with Kent taking the record-setting No. 26 Prather Racing/Mazdaspeed/Moss
Motors/Goodyear Mazda Miata to Hallett Motor Racing Circuit for a double
National, highlighted by the BFGoodrich Tires Super Tour race on Sunday.
Kent took both pole
positions and both wins at Hallett, breaking the GT-Lite track record on
Sunday with a best lap time of 1:24.684 (76.520 mph).
After the Hallett
event, it was off to Heartland Park Topeka for Military Appreciation
weekend, where Prather Racing would field a number of cars, including the
Miata in GT-3 (sans SIR air restrictor), the famous MGA in the Vintage
event, along with Bob Bramlage's Ginetta G4 and Rick Fisk's Elva Courier.
Kent enjoyed the extra
power that the Miata produced in GT-3, finishing second both days to Mike
Cyphert's radical Toyota Celica. In the Vintage race, it was Prather cars
1-2-3 on the grid with less than a second separating Kent (MGA), Jesse
Prather (Elva) and Bob (Ginetta). The great race that father and son had
in 2011 wouldn't repeat itself as an early off by Kent left the fight to
Jesse and Bob. They finished 1-2, with Bob setting the new Vintage lap
record at 1:54.093 (78.883 mph). Kent worked his way back up to fourth
overall. In Sunday's Vintage race, Jesse again topped the field in the
Fiske Elva, with Kent bringing the MGA home third, behind a Boss Mustang.
It was back to GT-Lite
at the end of July for the annual trek to High Plains Raceway for the
BFGoodrich Tires Super Tour weekend double National. As was the case in
2011, Kent brought home a pair of hard-fought wins over Jon Goodale's
rotary Mazda MX-5.
The final event of the
"regular" season was the HAWK, With Brian Redman July 14-15 at Road
America. The Prather Racing MGA, Bramlage's Ginetta and Rick Fiske's Elva
(with Tim Webb at the wheel) all made the trip. A great time was had by
all. Kent was the class of the HGT5 class, but a vibration kept him out of
the feature race. Bob was right at the top of the HGT4 charts but a
transmission issue ended his weekend. Tim Webb was running up front in VCP
when he had an "off" with the Elva and was tagged by another car after
coming back on course.
The next race is the
big one--the 49th SCCA National Championship Runoffs at Road America Sept.
18-23. Kent will be looking to defend his GT-Lite Championship. Watch the
action live at
www.speedcasttv.com/scca. The GT-L race is Saturday, Sept. 22 at 2:35
p.m. (Central).
|
