2010 Round of Decatur

The 2010 Round of Decatur was the nineteenth and final race of the 2010 TM Master Cup season. It was held at the Decatur Raceway in Decatur, Illinois.

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Pre-race notes
The TM Master Cup Series season finale at the Decatur Raceway has already started controversy. While tire compounds have seemingly made passing more difficult, some drivers have voiced complaints with some of the surprise results from qualifying. Longshot drivers such as Serena Bacherro, Justin Robinson, Elmer Fox, Hawk Slider, and Chris Davenport have all come under fire during practice.

No critic was more vocal than Frenchman Adrian Devereux, who was scathing in his complaints about the rookie drivers, in particular about an incident involving veteran TM Junior Series driver Avery Holtzmann and Bacherro. Both Holtzmann and Bacherro are making their first TM Master Cup Series starts, however, Holtzmann has been largely praised for his efforts behind the wheel of the developing Gessler.

"I want to know who gave Fox, Davenport and the 229 a Master License, because they should not be allowed to race," Devereux said. "Bacherro took out Avery [Holtzmann] for no reason in the first chicane in practice. Fox is kicking up dust everywhere and almost crashed into the 70 car (Hawk Slider) in the pitlane."

Devereux then recounted his issues with Volpi driver Chris Davenport.

"Chris Davenport is at least fast but he can never hold a line, he is all over the track and I feel as if I have to run a corner wide if he is anywhere behind me otherwise he'll just crash into my rear end."

Devereux's sentiments have been quietly echoed by other drivers. Alexis Rainsford was quoted as saying, "I heard the 229 team tried to run with illegal tires or something like that but they wouldn't get allowed onto the track so they got some Bridgestones from someone else.

"Normally if you mess with the tires you get tossed, but the only reason I brought that up is that I'm looking for any excuse to get Bacherro off the grid," Rainsford said jokingly. "Nice person from what I can tell, but she's way out of her depth and needs... ARLA, TM Lights, just more experience. But she's getting thrown to the wolves and her driving suggests she's really spooked out there."

Bacherro and her Bridgestone-shod Fortner performed respectably in qualifying, however, many of the other debutante drivers also performed reasonably well in qualifying. But their practice speeds, in particular over long runs, left much to be desired.

Debutante drivers
The drivers making their Master Cup debuts in this race included:
 * Shane Lake
 * Jared Andersen
 * Chris Davenport
 * Patrick Eichholtz
 * Elmer Fox
 * Serena Bacherro
 * Hamilton West
 * Phillip Borland
 * Justin Robinson
 * Anthony Griffith

The race
Summary coming soon.

The top 10

 * For the results outside the top 10, click here.

Points
Rainsford took home the points championship, her second overall, by 11 points over Devereux. Tony Durbin finished third, two points back of Devereux. Rounding out the top five were Marcos Leonard and Leonid Roderick, who were separated by just one points.

Positions six through ten were Drew Eisenman, Alan Hodges, Chris Johaanes, Tom Delgado, and Jacques Bouvier.

Postrace penalties

 * None