The Piggly Wiggly June Sprints is an important race for the Global Aerospace/RMS/Cincy Images FE as we enter the race with our division's point lead......the June Sprints is the first step towards the coveted Triple Crown. To win the Triple Crown, you must win the June Sprints, secure the national points championship in your division, and win the RUNOFFS. Last year we raced the SRF and were doing well until the end when our attempt at victory came up short, resulting in a 12th place finish.

We were greeted with a typical cool Wisconsin summer for Thursdays test day, and the town of Elkhart Lake was brimming with activity as multiple-hundreds of teams and spectators by the thousands arrived for the four day event. As the event began, we weren't at the top of the speed charts, and at the end of the test day we found ourselves outside of the top five in sixth. The team wasn't overly concerned as the driver (me) reported the car was good, but the nut loose behind the wheel was having a few issues adapting to the track conditions! Qualifying started on Friday morning and we were able to secure third in the provisional session, even though the session was cut short for us due to a broken throttle cable. After the car was fixed, I had to have a little self analysis of my driving, because it wasn't where it needed to be if we were going to have a shot at winning the event. Final qualifying was on Saturday morning, and it looked as though everything was falling into place as we held the sessions fastest time until the last two minutes when we fell to third, putting us 4th on the grid after combining Q1 & Q2 in the 30 car field. To make matters a little worse, the transmission was having a problem with the 4-5 up-shift.

With the race taking place later that afternoon, the GA/RMS/CI team went to work tearing apart the sequential gearbox. Finding the problem to be only a failing fork pin, a collective sigh was felt by all knowing that our season wasn't in jeapordy. With less than two hours to go before the start of the race, the GA/RMS/CI FE was reassembled and put on the ground with the team hoping that the driver was equally prepared.

As the green flag flew over the 30 car field, a slightly botched start had us fall to fifth at the green, but by the end of the first lap around the famed 4 mile circuit, we had gathered ourselves together and moved back into 3rd. By lap three the GA/RMS/CI FE was on the move and gaining ground that was lost in the opening laps of the race, and we worked our way up in to second. As the laps wound down, the car and driver started to find the proper balance of aggression and finess, and a few laps later the GA/RMS/CI FE took the lead. As the laps clicked off, the speed of our teams FE was overwhelming as we smashed the previous track record and marched to victory six seconds ahead of second place. The victory was sweet as the entire team came to pit wall to get the traditional "buzzing" by their winning car as I moved within arms reach of them all after crossing the stripe for our fifth win of the season. The first leg of the Triple Crown has been accompished....