ON-LINE RACER

MARL Season 3 MAGAZINE

Dover Delaware, scene of the
first race in the 3rd season of
the Mid Atlantic Racing League.
A lot has happened during the
‘off season’ including a change
in management of the league.
Following an abrupt change in
professional obligations for
league president Randy
Lawrence, the future of the
league looked in doubt; however
Race Sim Radicals stepped up
to the plate to take the helm for
Lawrence at the urging of Kevin
Myers and Scott Burlovich who
will be managing the week-by-
week affairs of the league. In a
press conference, Kevin Myers
responded to a question from
the press regarding ownership
of the league by saying “This is Kevin Myers takes Dover in MARL season opener
Randy’s league; we just want to
run it for him.” And so begins
the third season of the highly
successful MARL Late Model
Championship series. Six
teams made their way to Dover
including one MARL rookie Todd
Martelle, a Radicals team mate
to Kevin Myers. With the draft
in effect during practice, it was
slightly difficult to assess true
speed but one thing was certain;
Kevin Myers was fast, taking top
speed on the charts during happy hour
followed by Martelle. In qualifying it
was Mike Swanson taking the pole
position with a fresh new WestJet
paint scheme, and Myers on the
outside of row #1 also with new
Radicals colors. Martelle qualified
3rd, followed by MARL regulars Ricky
VanWhy, Scott Burlovich and Trae
Forsythe. Early in the race, the
WestJet Chevy pulled to a healthy
lead, while the #3 car slipped back a
spot and a hard charging Ricky
VanWhy moved up to 2nd. On lap 22
Todd Martelle and Ricky VanWhy
came together, resulting in a
spectacular crash and a caution flag.
With everyone else pitting, Trae
Forsythe’s FMI team chose to stay out
and try the point for the restart.
Forsythe made mention on the radio
that he feared the #1 and #3 might be
fixing to ‘eat his lunch’ and on the
restart that’s what happened. By lap
30 the Orange Crush machine had
dropped to 4th, with Swanson once
again in the lead and Myers in hot
pursuit. On lap 32 VanWhy, who had
been hounding Burlovich but was a lap
in arrears got loose in turn 3-4 and
tapped the wall losing touch with
Burlovich. This allowed Martelle, who
was racing the #2 car for position to
catch and pass VanWhy with Forsythe
trailing the field but running in 4th.
Martelle and VanWhy then started
closing in on Burlovich, and passed
the Butterfly Communications Chevy
on lap 38, although not for position.
One lap later however, Martelle went
wide in turn 2 and 3, spinning out and
once again collecting VanWhy and
this time involving Burlovich.
Forsythe narrowly avoided contact as
he negotiated his way past the
carnage. During the resulting caution,
the entire field except leader
Swanson elected to take tires and
then assembled to take the green.
Swanson brought the field around
slow for the lap 45 restart, but on the
way through the gears Swanson
missed 3rd, revving the engine wildly
as Myers roared past. Trae Forsythe
piloted his Crush machine past too, as
Mike finally found comfort in 4th gear
and started to accelerate. Frustrated
with losing the lead to such a mistake
and knowing how important track
position would be, the WestJet driver
appeared ready to charge back to the
bumper of the #3 car, making his way
past Forsythe on the following lap.
Catching Myers and passing him
would be two different animals, as
Swanson closed in with some 30 laps
remaining but had difficulty making
any headway once there. On lap 58
Swanson took advantage of Myers’
loose race car and pulled to the
inside, but was not able to maintain
the position and was forced to ride
behind Myers, waiting for another
opportunity. In a post race interview
Swanson said “I went in pretty
gingerly; there’s no way I wanted to
wreck Kevin. It’s tough down there
with a loose car.” The dogfight
between the top two drivers
continued lap after lap, giving the
crowd good reason to deprive the
concession stands of further revenue.
On lap 78 Scott Burlovich lost control
off turn two, spinning around and
making contact with the inside wall,
bringing out the caution. While this
wasn’t what the WestJet team wanted
to see, it set up what would be a
thrilling finish to the season opener.
The field assembled to take the final
green flag; Burlovich and Forsythe
pulled in tight on the leaders while
Myers prepared to make a clean start
and put some distance on his
pursuers. Kevin masterfully timed his
restart and pulled away, leaving
Swanson within grasp of Forsythe and
Burlovich. Scott pulled the #5 car to
the inside of Swanson, and on the
backstretch Forsythe pulled below
Burlovich making it three wide as the
crowd cheered. Ricky VanWhy came
on the radio; “That’s not gonna
work!”...and he was right. Forsythe
made contact with the left rear
quarter of Burlovich’s car, spinning
the Crush Chevy out while Scott
managed to keep his machine pointing
in the right direction. With a final
caution flag waving, the race
effectively ended with Kevin Myers
victorious over Mike Swanson. Scott
Burlovich finished 3rd, followed by
Trae Forsythe, Ricky VanWhy, and
MARL newcomer Todd Martelle. After
a reverse victory lap perhaps
honouring the late Alan Kulwicki,
Myers jubilantly celebrated in victory
lane, remarking that luck played a
part in the win, but he’d take it in light
of what had happened last season at
USA Speedway. One thing’s for sure,
KJM (as he’s known to the other
drivers) had plenty of fuel left over.
Race Stats: Finishing Order:
Pole winner: Mike Swanson 25.272
Laps led: Kevin Myers 41
Mike Swanson 40 1-Kevin Myers
Trae Forsythe 4 2-Mike Swanson
Cautions: 4 3-Scott Burlovich
Caution laps: 14 4-Trae Forsythe
Lead changes: 3 5-Ricky VanWhy
6-Todd Martelle

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Cobalt Racing News, 2011