2019 Round of Carbondale

The 2019 Round of Carbondale was the third race of the 2019 TM Master Cup season, held at Carbondale Raceway.

The major pre-race storyline of the weekend was a verbal altercation between Saul Fischel and Liv Eklund during the driver's meeting. In spite of his alleged controversial remarks towards Eklund, Fischel won the race from the pole after leading much of the way, scoring a Perfect 70.

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Greg Woodard Has Fiery Encounter with Clay Gibson After the Race
Greg Woodard, one of the more reserved drivers on and off track, went after Clay Gibson after the race. People in the area could see Woodard approaching Gibson while yelling obscenities, calling him a God D*** Numbskull, among other less appropriate names.

Rumor has it that Gibson had a Whataburger Cheeseburger stuffed down his throat by Woodard and his face may appear to be that of tenderized meat. However, this could not be confirmed as Woodard left shortly after and he was never seen alone with Gibson by anyone else.

Woodard and the rest of his team then went and grabbed something to drown their sorrows in. Those who were in the know predicted that if Gibson hadn't pulled in front of Woodard, Woodard had an outside shot at a win, but most likely a podium based on his pace. This was the same setup that led to his win the year before.

Jonser unhurt, but disappointed after spectacular wreck in Carbondale
Craig Jonser found himself in a familiar position, in the back of his hauler with a wrecked car following a spectacular crash shortly after halfway that sent him flipping in Turn 2.

"I'll say in my entire racing career, that's the first time I've ever flipped over! Not something I'd want to do again." He said smirking. "DeGarmo gave us a great car today, and I hate to disappoint him, but I think I'm more disappointed myself. Seems like whenever we have a good run, things like this happen."

Jonser was poised to get the struggling Owen DeGarmo team their first points of the season before the crash. When asked about the string of upcoming road races, he appeared optimistic.

"I did some testing [at Road Atlanta] in the offseason, I like the track a lot. Not a lot of passing opportunities though, so I'm hoping to secure a good starting position for that one. Karjala's always been my Archilles Heel, it'd be nice to finally make the show."

Taylor Livid With Hampton, Happy for Teammate
Lenard International's Cameron Taylor was reportedly furious with Karl Hampton IV, after the latter driver swerved into traffic after a crash, collecting Taylor and Team EFR's Ian Cooper.

"That was the worst driving I've ever witnessed in racing. I've raced in TMMC, sportscars, the RROL, TM Lights, even a few starts in open wheel and ARLA, and that absolutely was the stupidest thing I've ever seen someone do. Hands down."

Taylor reportedly went on to say "I understand (Hampton) can buy whatever ride he needs but that doesn't mean he can drive into anybody he wants. That was seriously dangerous, and it wasn't the first time either, he gave me a hard time earlier and did the same to Saul. I don't have a problem with people who are just starting out and are a bit slow, I definetly was the first time I ran here. But that kind of driving is going to hurt someone."

On a more positive note, Taylor told reporters he was thrilled with his team's success in the race, which was won by his teammate Saul Fischel. "Saul drove an amazing race today. He earned that win and I'm so excited for him and the whole team."

Dilks, Team Unhappy Post Race
Jon Dilks stepped out of the car at Carbondale and want to the rear of the car to check the damage he suffered in avoiding an accident. He then turned to the reporter, and screamed. "GOD DAMMIT! We had a car! We had a car that could finish Top 20." He said, as he grabbed a drink of water, and leaned on the car.

"DAMMIT! We got lucky in that race SO many times. The Race winner gives no one time to select a line, a damn rookie slower than molasses who shouldn't be on that track, wrecks not only one, but TWO cars! And then...AND THEN...We Avoid another crash after dipping onto pit road, and restarted 12th or something, like, WHAT?! That is unheard of! And then we just couldn't get the right handle but we were close, we were CLOSE! Dammit. I hate that wreck with 20 to go. That *bleep* pissed me off after that. Car was damn near undrivable. We had a top 20 going and we get collected. DAMMIT. Oh well...I guess we'll into a fiddle contest in Georgia."

He shook his head and just walked off, disappointing in what happened in the race.

Lucas Grabert Finishes 22nd, Two Positions Shy of First Points Paying Finish
After having disappointing finishes of 36th and 42nd respectively, Lucas Grabert entered the weekend with high hopes of cracking into the top 30 in the race. Grabert qualified 42nd in the race, the lowest he's been all season. On race day, Lucas Grabert avoided all the chaos that ensued on track, and thus, promoting him to a 22nd place finish, his best of his short career.

"Man, what an insane day it was." Grabert stated after the race. "After having a solid qualifying effort at Los Angeles, I felt like we were going to have a massive rebound from san Antonio. We subsequently started to encounter problems, and it was hard for us to make it up. I was pretty depressed after the race. We knew Carbondale was going to be a tough task for us due to the extreme nature of the track. We were able to stay out of trouble the whole race and got ourselves a 22nd place finish. We desperately needed a good finish to uplift ourselves, and we did just that. I'm proud of myself and everybody on this team for all of the effort we put into this race. With this finish, I hope that we can get more sponsors to jump on board with us."