Sunday at Mid-Ohio: MRTI, PWC race recaps - MotorSportsTalk

Before Sunday’s Verizon IndyCar Series’ Honda Indy 200, three other races ran at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

For an additional recap of Friday and Saturday track activity, click on the below links:

MAZDA ROAD TO INDY PRESENTED BY COOPER TIRES

Urrutia. Photo: IMS Photography, LLC

The second of two Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires races followed a somewhat similar script as Saturday’s did. Santiago Urrutia dominated for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, with Dean Stoneman and Andre Negrao switching places on the podium as Stoneman ended Sunday in second. Meanwhile the toughest blow of the day occurred for Carlin’s Ed Jones in a nightmare day for the team. The Dubai-based Brit went deep off course at Turn 2, the “Keyhole,” with the team as yet unable to diagnose what caused it. It took the points leader out of the race.
Urrutia’s weekend sweep now sees him 16 points clear of Jones, 309 to 293. Stoneman is at 284 and still in with a good shout with three races remaining; the road will be tougher for Felix Serralles, Kyle Kaiser and Zach Veach, who are separated by only 10 points between them but that puts them 42 to 52 back of Urrutia.
Martin. Photo: IMS Photography, LLC

In the third of three Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda races, we saw another sweep occur – Anthony Martin secured his third win as many days for Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing. Teammate Parker Thompson was second with Garth Rickards scoring his first podium of his career in third. Martin now leads Thompson, 347-326, heading to the season finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in September.
On the whole, each of the three series saw weekend sweeps. Urrutia (Indy Lights), Martin (USF2000) and Nico Jamin (Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires) all swept their races. So in seven races, there were just three winners.
Jamin. Photo: IMS Photography, LLC

Urrutia and Jamin made it a clean sweep of Indy Lights and Pro Mazda for Soul Red Mazdas – these two won Pro Mazda and USF2000 titles last year and the Mazda advancement scholarships that went with them. Meanwhile Jamin and Martin combined to provide the Capes a perfect 5-for-5 run in the Pro Mazda and USF2000 ranks; Jamin’s wins were the first races all season in Pro Mazda not by Team Pelfrey.

PIRELLI WORLD CHALLENGE

Udell, Cooper, Schein. Photo: PWC

Something different happened in Pirelli World Challenge this weekend that hasn’t happened since Barber Motorsports Park, even though the thing that did happen is exactly the same as what happened at Barber Motorsports Park. How does this sentence make sense, you ask? Well, we pontificated going into the weekend that Mid-Ohio has not had a weekend sweep since 2011… every year since has seen one driver win both races. And we also noted that each of the last three World Challenge GT weekends at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Lime Rock Park and Road America had one driver win both races. The last time this didn’t happen was at Barber, when Alvaro Parente (Saturday) and Michael Cooper (Sunday) split the wins… so in Mid-Ohio, at a similar, flowy, road course like Barber, Parente (Saturday) and Cooper (Sunday) split the wins. So it ended a three-weekend run of a driver sweeping the weekend for the 2016 season. And it ended a four-year run of a driver sweeping the weekend at Mid-Ohio. And, it was done by the same two drivers. Who knew?
For Cooper, his GT win came courtesy of a strong start in the No. 8 Cadillac Racing Cadillac ATS-V.R, but after holding off an even stronger start by Road America double winner Ryan Eversley, in the No. 43 RealTime Racing Acura TLX-GT, who went from eighth to second on the opening lap. Johnny O’Connell made it two Cadillacs on the podium and was a particularly happy camper after the ace. One driver who wasn’t was Parente, a potential podium lost when the driver of the No. 9 K-PAX Racing McLaren 650S GT3 got balked and forced off course trying to lap Preston Calvert’s No. 77 Calvert Dynamics Porsche 911 GT3 R. Parente finished an unrepresentative lap down in 14th. Michael Schein and Alec Udell, though, completed – you guessed it – weekend sweeps in GTA and GT Cup, respectively in Porsches.

Pirelli World Challenge runs next at Utah Motorsports Complex Aug. 12-14 while the Mazda Road to Indy has Indy Lights at Watkins Glen Sept. 4 before all three series conclude at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca the following weekend, Sept. 9-11.

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Vicki Golden has earned a career worthy of a thousand stories and 805 Beer tells at least one of them, as “Inverted Perspective” premiered March 30 on the company’s website and YouTube channel.

Golden did more to break the glass ceiling in SuperMotocross than she ever thought possible. She knows this because riders have never felt the need to explain any of her accomplishments with the disclaimer, “for a girl”.

At this point in Golden’s career, she’s been the first woman to finish top 10 in AMA Arenacross Lites, the first woman to qualify in the Fast 40 in Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the first woman to compete in freestyle Moto X competition, earning a bronze medal by doing so.

Her love for moto came from childhood while she watched her dad and brother ride. By seven she was on her bike and making waves throughout Southern California.

Golden, 30, is still madly in love with the sport and has no plans on moving away but her career is already one to talk about. 805 Beer’s film series wanted to do exactly that.

“I’m taken aback by it all,” Golden told NBC Sports about the documentary. “It’s just crazy to see your story, it’s one thing to live your life and battle everything that comes about but it’s another to just sit there and talk about it.”

805 approached Golden about the feature by asking, “Do you even realize that what you do, and your story is special?”

Golden took the question as a blank canvas to map out the highs and lows of her career and life.

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The title “Inverted Perspective” came from a brainstorming session with Dominick Russo and it highlights Golden’s outlook on the sport of SuperMotocross and her life in general.

“My whole life, my whole career was thinking differently and looking at things that shouldn’t be done and aren’t there, while being able to make a place for myself, where no one thought there should be a place,” Golden said. “It’s inspiring someone to think in different ways. It sums up my life.”

*Vicki Golden is not “fast for a girl”; she’s just fast. – 805 Beer*

While Golden is no stranger to the spotlight, this was the first time she’s been fully involved with the storytelling and creation of a feature about herself.

“It’s not like a full new experience,” Golden said. “Obviously, you get your standard questions about your upbringing and accomplishments, but I’ve never really put into perspective things that happened in my past with my dad and putting that to light. Also, certain other things that maybe got overlooked in previous interviews or films. I wanted to touch on these and Dom wanted to create a story. It’s just cool to see it come to light, it’s a nearly impossible thing to tell somebody’s life story in 40 minutes.”

Golden’s father was left paralyzed after an ATV accident, robbing him the opportunity to ride again. This happened a few months before the father-daughter duo was set to compete in the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals when Vicki was 12. While she might have been unable to grasp the severity at the time, it’s something she carries with her. Golden continues to ride in his honor.

Years later, an accident in 2018 nearly sidelined the then 25-year-old Vicki when a freestyle accident almost resulted in the amputation of her lower leg.

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Golden 805 Beer — *Vicki Golden has ridden a variety of disciplines in SuperMotocross, which gives her a unique perspective. – 805 Beer*

“Inverted Perspective” highlights her father’s diligence in helping Vicki continue with her career and the kindness and strength he carried while fighting his own battle.

“My dad was the entire reason that I started riding in the first place,” Golden said. “So, to honor his memory and to honor what we went through and how hard he pushed to keep our dream alive and keep everything going – in that sense then, it was really special to be able to honor him and talk about him.”

The 40-minute feature was filmed entirely in black and white, a stark contrast from the oversaturated world of motocross where the brighter the suit the easier it is for fans to find their rider and follow him in the race. By filming in monochrome Russo and Golden had the chance to focus on the race and track from a different perspective.

“It was cool to be able to film it differently,” Golden said. “It created a challenge in the sense of what was going to be more visually impactful for the film.

“I couldn’t be here without the companies that back me but at the same time, it’s not like the logos or colors disappeared, it’s just different lights shed on different spots. It’s just a cool way to do it and to take color away and still be impactful. When you think of black and white, you think of old school, the OG way of doing things.”

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