Ritcher Goes Back to Back at Road America; Jates, Ringer Argue Post Race
Tommy Ritcher once again showed his road course prowess, or rather his Road America prowess, today in Elkhart Lake. Ritcher look the lead late and survived a strategy scare to take home his second win of 2018. Ritcher now climbs up to 5th in the standings with 2 races to go, solidifying himself in the championship hunt.
“To come here and perform like we have is super encouraging”, said the always jubilant Ritcher. “I’m super proud of my team, my team is he greatest. There’s nothing better than winning with your family and these guys are my family! Love every one of them. We know we will give it our all these next two races and I’m hoping luck is on our side but we’ve got a huge challenge ahead of us. We will be ready and as fast as we were today I’ll tell ya that much!”
The win is Ritcher’s 5th of his career, and has made a name for himself on superspeedways and road courses. The final two events are both on 1 mile speedways, so the #2 Ford team knows the challenges ahead that they face.
“We’ve got a gameplan and we’ve got the best two cars we’ve got rolling into the midwest next week. We will be prepared, we’re gonna go get this title”.
Alex Jates hasn’t made his way into a racecar since the Val’d-Or accident that required shoulder surgery for the veteran. Jates was at the track for the first time since that wreck this weekend at Road America. Jates was seen on the #1 pitbox and was visibly frustrated when his replacement fill-in driver Derek Lanigan was turned by Jonathon Ringer early in the Kraft 200K. Following the race, Jates said in an interview, “The dude keeps taking everyone out! Yes, I’m pissed! If I’m anyone else in the field, I’m taking that moving chicane right out as soon as I can. That’s ridiculous!”
Jates was seen with driver Derek Lanigan post-wreck before the two both approached the Target team's garage. Ringer, looking over his wrecked JN Motorsports Dodge, was swung around by Jates and the two got into a heated shouting match with Lanigan trying to get in the middle to break it up. No punches or hits were made. Jonathon Ringer spoke shortly afterwards.
“*laughs* That was cute. I get it, bro. You’re mad, but you’re crippled and gonna try and fight me? Let your damn driver do the talking and leave the drivers who raced to settle things. Yeah, I drove like an ass today and ruined our championship hopes, but I’m not going to back down today if you approach me. Let’s talk it out like men and we will move on. Shit happens, bro.”
All parties involved were seen in the AARO hauler shortly after, with penalties assumed to be in the picture soon.
As far as points contenders go, it was a good day overall for Caine Dwyer, Mikael Carter, and obviously Ritcher, but two who also had good runs were Tyler Deefer and Clyde Latinger. Deefer did not finish well in the 19th spot, but ran well overall in pursuit of his third straight win.
“We ran well - just couldn’t get strategy to play out right. It’s alright, we were due for a poor finish. Just have to buckle up here in the end.”
Caine Dwyer: “For someone who hates road courses as much as I do, this sure was a fun one. Had a blast out there today, but to finish where we did is a miracle considering my road course skills. This team is working hard and it’s showing, so I’m happy we’ve got the points lead because I know these guys are the best in the biz and will give me two solid cars to close this thing out.”
Clyde Latinger: “I mean, yeah, it would have been nice to win here and get back in the title hunt more than we did, but obviously still a solid day for us.”
Mikael Carter: “It was a tough day, for sure. To bring it home was honestly the most relieving thing. I think that we just didn’t have a car that could get going in the short runs we had and that kind of messed us all up. Long runs we were pretty good, but I honestly marked this up as a mid-20 finish for us at the beginning of the year anyway. We will be better next week for sure.”
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Subject: Re: 2018 AERS Race 18 - Road America (Kraft 200K) Sat Aug 25, 2018 12:23 pm
Knee, keeps his car clean and stays out of trouble and comes home in an uneventful 15th. Jefferson fails to keep his car on track, wrecks and results in a poor finish. Cody, goes for a roll, chucked his helmet into his car after climbing out, very unhappy with Kash and calls him out.
"You know its pretty stupid when we end up on the highlight reel because you decide to dump me out of the last corner and wreck me, causing me to flip and I just heard you got called to the hauler and you deserve that. We were racing for some place in the low teens, maybe twentieth I don't have a damn clue but it's pretty f***ing stupid to wreck someone when we are both trying to make the best out of ours days. I'm still learning these cars so I was just expecting to finish and I would have been happy with that but yeah that bulls*** was really uncalled for Kash."