2002 Points Season Coming To A Close
10/13/02 - As the 2002 Cartek Corvette Challenge season approaches it's 8th race of the season so to does the culmination of the it's points races. The Challenge will be crowning it's second annual points champion when the 2001 Champion, Bob Trieschmann surrenders his Champion title to the one of three possible winners on Saturday, October 26, 2002. Trieschmann has not had the success he enjoyed last year as he comes into the final points race of 2002 with 16 points. This by no means says that Trieschmann is not as good a racer as his 2001 performance but merely that the level of competitors increases with every Corvette Challenge bracket race. Track announcer Nick Goldman will try to keep us all in tune of the excitement as it happens so be sure set your car radio to FM 90.3 to listen to the broadcast all day.

A Trio Of Possible Winners
Much like the NFL playoff and wildcard picture during the last few weeks of the season, the Corvette Challenge brings with it many scenarios. Current points leader Ralph Savarese goes in as the favorite in first place by one point over Edgar Perez and by 3 points on Rob Farley. Savarese is riding high on a huge hot streak with finals appearances in 3 of the last four events and in the Challenge. Second place racer Perez held the 1st place spot for the entire season until the previous race when Savarese catapulted into the spot. Rob Farley, a rookie in the series, has steadily gained on Perez all season and is now 2 points behind him. Any of these three drivers can emerge the Champion after the next race. Should these three drivers end in a tie for points we will look to the tie breaker system to find the Champ. 2nd place driver Perez has the edge in the first tie breaker which is number of Event wins for 2002. Perez, winner of event #1 and #4 has the edge over Savarese and Farley who have each won 1 event. The second tie breaker is the negative number. A negative number is given to each driver based on what position he/she holds that week. The higher in the standings, the lower the negative number. Should all three drivers end up with the same number of points and neither wins the event, then Perez will win by virtue of the number of wins. If points are tied and Farley wins the event, then he and Perez would have the same number of event wins and there for Perez would get the title by virtue of his lower negative number of Perez's -4 to Farley's -9. Perez having led most of season stands to benefit as he wins the tie breakers against each driver. Now should Farley surpass Perez and tie Savarese then Farley will have to win the event to get the tie break against Savarese. Confused, try to understand the rest of the Top 10 field.

Mathematically 38 Drivers Have A Shot At The Top 10

2002 Top 10 after 7 events
1	Ralph Savarese	34	*
2	Edgar Perez	33	**
3	Rob Farley (r)	31	*
4	Aaron Askenback	25	*
5	Bill Wilson (r)	22	*
6	Bill Maloney	21
7	Mike Carr	18	*
8	Jack Schwarzwalder (r)	18
9	John Mackey	18
10	Vic Gandhi	18

That is correct, mathematically, 38 drivers have enough points today (11) to get into the Top 10. Why is the Top 10 important? Aside from personal pride in accomplishment, the Top 10 drivers in this series stand to earn prizes for participating. The 10th spot is held today by Vic Gandhi who is in a 4 way 18 points tie with 8th place Jack Schwarzwalder, 9th place John Mackey and 11th place John Panuzzo. The tie breaker system is used to determine the positions in event of a points tie which leaves Panuzzo, currently just outside looking in. These calculations are based on a starting field of 64+ cars, which each event has had not trouble eclipsing this year. This amount of cars means 7 round win points and a stage point going to the winner of the event totalling 8 points for the event winner. Now yes there would have to be a lot of other drivers losing or even not making 1st round call in order to catapult from 38th spot to 10th, but it can happen. Jack Schwarzwalder in 8th place has had the misfortune of not making first round in the last two events with broken u-joint issues. Bill Wilson in 5th place missed event #1, Mike Carr in 7th place missed event #5. The remaining 2 Top 10 drivers, Aaron Askenback (4th) and Bill Maloney, (Boweryboy Racing) (6th) have not missed any events in 2002 and you can bet neither will miss this one either provided healthy vehicles. Askenback ran one event this year with a broken car nursing it into the second round picking up 2 very important points. For a list of what the Top 10 drivers will earn, please click here. A complete list of driver points standings can be seen at Raceway Park's Corvette Challenge Points home page.

To discuss your thoughts and predictions for this final points race you can particpate in a discussion on the Corvette Challenge Discussion Forum by clicking on this this link.

Top 8 Earn Jackets
The Top eight finishers in the series will earn a jacket from Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ. These jackets will forever commemorate the hard work and effort (translation, good luck) that the drivers put forth this season. Last year only the series Top 5 were awarded jackets. The jacket awarding ceremony was small but captured at this link here. For the 2002, we have planned a proper Awards ceremony for all the drivers.

Join Us For The Awards Banquet
All awards will be presented at the 1st Annual Corvette Challenge Award Banquet which will be held on Saturday January 11, 2003 at the Freehold Gardens Hotel in Freehold NJ. Plans call for a cash bar reception starting at 7 PM with a buffet style dinner to follow. After dinner the festivities will start with the presentation of all the Top 10 awards, sponsorship presentations as well as some special surprises. Cost for the evening will be $35.00 per person (remember cash bar) including tax and gratuities. We also have had a block of rooms set aside at a discounted price that will be available for those that wish to spend the night. John Mackey will be taking a $15 deposit from you at each of our next events if you wish to attend the banquet. Questions and comments regarding the banquet should be directed to John who can be e-mailed at johnmackey@corvettechallenge.info. The banquet is for all of the participants to come out and have dinner and little fun so please do come out and join us.

Still More Racing Left To Be Done
The Challenge season does not however come to a close after the last points event. We still have two more events in November on Saturday's the 2nd and the 9th. All of the same event prizes can be earned at each of these events (except the Cartek dyno tune and Boweryboy Racing Money Back Runner-up award) with an added bonus.......November cool weather and hopefully new personal best ET's. Some come race, watch enjoy and most of all, thank you for being a part of this year.

* - Event win

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Last updated Tue, 07/14/09 09:14 PM