2011 TM Lights Round of New Hampshire

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2011 TM Lights Round of New Hampshire
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Date
Location New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, NH
Laps 90
Polesitter Al Kinkaid
First Morgan Hamburg
Second Adel Meir
Third Bernie Fellows
Cautions
Race Results

The 2011 TM Lights Round of New Hampshire was the fifth of six races on the TM Lights series' East Division schedule. It was held at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire.

Summary[edit | edit source]

Al Kincaid led the field to the start of the 90-lap race. He was chased by Joe Fantozzi until the #466 took the lead on lap 4.

One lap later, Taylor Silverman drifted up into Quan Zing and Justin Robinson while going three-wide with them. Marco Mescall and Chris Allen were also collected.

Everybody pitted under yellow, and as the field got lined up afterwards, Cris Cole stomped on his brakes for some reason. Chad Lyndie slammed into the back of Cole and was then hit by Bernard Strauss.

Fantozzi led on the restart. Ricky Gonzalez was able to get by him a few laps later. Damien Snyder, replacing the injured Leslie Riggs for the remaining two races, made his way up to 4th by lap 15.

Kincaid's engine blew up on lap 21, and Buffy Boreanaz had a tire go down one lap later.

A cycle of green-flag pitstops began on lap 26, but the caution flew in the middle of this as Fantozzi and Mario Mendoza got together while leaving the pits. Fantozzi spun up into the wall without being hit by anybody. To add insult to injury, he was hooked by Mendoza's teammate Emmanual Rodrigo and shoved into the turn 4 wall while coming back to the line. Just ahead of this, Paul Gartley and Boreanaz got together and went for a trip into the wall. Then, as James Rand was exiting the pits, Jennifer Goodwin turned all the way down into the 36, sending him head-on into the turn 2 wall and for a few rolls.

After all of the carnage was sorted out, it turned out that Jessica Orvel had almost lapped the field because of the timing of the caution. The only other drivers on the lead lap were Adel Meier, Aaron Cards, and Robinson, and they were scored as being on the tail end of the lead lap when the race restarted. However, Orvel was freight-trained by several cars trying to get back on the lead lap...

...but, not many people got by Orvel due to Dave Larson turning Takumi Nagata coming off of turn 2. Larson then drifted up into the group of Jan Lauritsen, Stefano Sartori, Silverman, and Travis Keating, sending all but Lauritsen into the wall. Joe Branch, Jack Bohart, Xing, and Kelly Dawson received significant damage in the pileup that ensued.

The rest of the race could have been mistaken for a demolition derby. Every single car had damage of some kind. In addition to the mayhem that prevented more than 3 green-flag laps from being run at a time, there were several more incidents that occurred under yellow:

  • Justin Lewis turns into Joe Fantozzi coming back to a caution on lap 39, taking both cars into the wall. Seconds later, Kristen Wagner runs into Kelly Dawson and takes the both of them into the wall.
  • Andrea Kinasa went for a spin on lap 46 after going three-wiide with Sarah Foster and Justin Robinson while coming back to the line. Seconds later, Jessica Orvel runs into the back of Cris Cole and gets slammed into by her teammate Joe Branch. Marco Mescall, Buffy Boreanaz, and Jan Lauritsen decide to join in as well.
  • Paul Gartley slams into Jan Lauritsen on lap 57 as Lauritsen tries to get back going after spinning. Coming back to the yellow, Palmer Stiles gets into the back of Emmanual Rodrigo and takes both cars into the wall. Aaron Cards, Morgan Hamburg, Mark Blackwell, Andrea Kinasa, and Stephanie McGlynn were collected as well.

Coming back to a lap 62 caution, a large pileup ensued when Palmer Stiles, running with a large broup of cars, pushed up into Bernie Fellows. Cris Cole got pushed into and up the wall off of turn 4, coming to a rest on his side. Jennifer Goodwin ignores this wad of cars in front of her, and slams into Joe Branch. She is then turned over by Andrea Kinasa. Morgan Hamburg led the field into the pits during this caution, but Justin Robinson made a right turn into the side of Hamburg coming out of the pits, sending the #90 for a spin.

There were 12 cars on the lead lap on the final restart with 5 laps to go. Morgan Hamburg had worked his way back up into the lead after the incident with Robinson, and he had no serious competition as he cruised to his first victory from 39th on the grid.