Final 2021 Points Standings

 

Final GTP Points 2021

Final GT Points 2021

2021 ISF 2.4 Hour Race Video

 Here is the 15 minute long race video from the 2021 ISF 2.4 Hour Great American All Star Endurance Classic Race. Enjoy!
Steve "The Wrench" Ratchett

2021 2.4 Hour Race Winners

 Wiedemann, Kristof, Black 

Win ISF 2021 2.4 Hour Great American 

All Star Endurance Classic Race

 

Two words describe the 2021 ISF 2.4 Hour Great American All Star Endurance Race: 

One lap.

Last year after 2.4 hours racing the difference between first and second place was three laps. This year the difference was one lap as John Widemann, Mike Kristof, and Bill Black repeated their win from a year ago.

In addition to Wiedemann, Kristof, and Black (henceforth “WKB”), team two combined the talents of Dean Strom, Steve Rist, and Scott Mente. Strom and Rist (SRM) took wins earlier in the year, and Mente probably had the teams fastest car. Team three was defending and newly crowned GTP Champ Mike Lack, veteran Pete Dorn, and not quite a rookie H. Kamikawa (KBV)  making his 2.4 Hour Race debut. Team four was veteran and 2.4 Hour Race winners Everet Kamikawa, Nick Bartolone and T. Vandenberg making his ISF debut. 

Kamikawa led for the first six minutes as his home track advantage was doubled by the other three teams struggling to stay smooth. With a nine lap lead on the field Kamikawa came into the pits and Vandenberg took over the car for his first ever stint in a GTP car. 

The rookie was smooth and didn’t crash, but was noticeably slower and when his stint ended he was down a lap when he handed the car off to Bartalone. The team would finish the first segment in third place but would never recover their lead as Vandenberg would go on to have two crash filled stints, and Bartalone would have several spins in the green lane despite being smooth in other lanes. Kamikawa had two good stints in the second half (compared to 2020 when he couldn’t stop crashing) but the team would ultimately end up 115 laps off the lead at the end.

 “I hope Nick comes back next year,” Kamikawa stated. “This is the second year in a row he was on a team that finished dead last. Then again this is the second year I have finished dead last too.”

After one Kamikawa led it was the turn of the other as H. Kamikawa overtook his friend Vandenberg and led for several laps before being caught by team SRM. They would build a big lead of 10 laps by the end of the first stint as Rist and Mente were fast and smooth and the leadership of Strom kept them focused. Lack and Dorn took the fight to them and kept them honest despite only having two experienced drivers. They were down 15 laps at the end of the first stint and only down 11 at the end of the second. Both drivers had good pace and avoided trouble, but the unrelenting pace of SRM took its toll as they were 16 laps down at the end of three segments. Starting last, but moving to third when team KBV had their troubles were the defending champions of Wiedemann, Kristof, Black. Starting in the outside red lane, the team used Wiedemann’s car for the first two stints and were in fourth place 30 laps off the lead. Then the magic came in the form of Bill Black. Black started the third stint in his favored yellow lane and turned an incredible 182 laps compared to DRM 160 and LDK 155 to jump into second place eight laps off the lead as the teams entered the fourth leg.

 

Darkness fell across the track at the start of the fourth leg. That threw all the teams off a little bit, except for team KBV who turned the most laps in one of the dark segments. Team WKB ran into handling problems as they went back to Wiedemann’s car and additionally had power issues as the engine seemed to be down on power and they fell back to third place by the end of the segment. Team LDK took advantage of some smooth driving by Dorn to pull back into second place, albeit 20 laps off the lead. 

The second half didn’t start so smooth for team SRM as Strom and Mente had some hiccups that allowed team LDK to gain 14 laps back in the fifth segment and 6 more back in the sixth to end that segment tied for the lead. 

 

Team LDK started segment seven tied for the lead, when they made an interesting move of starting H. Kamikawa who had been sitting since the end of the first stint. The rookie had a big crash off the start that lost him three laps. Lack took over but the damage was done and they finished segment seven 13 laps off the lead. 

Team WKB was 22 laps off the lead at the end of the sixth segment when that once again brought the rotation to Bill Black in the yellow lane. Black did another magical charge and cut the deficit by 16 laps and moved his team into second place just six laps down at the beginning of the last segment.

  

The last stint saw team WKB in the blue lane and team SRM in the red lane. Neither of which was their best lanes of the night. Wiedemann and Mente started for their respective teams. Wiedemann started in his own car and tried pushing the envelope of speed. The car wasn’t up to the challenge and the team fell two further laps behind as they switched to Black’s car. Weirdly, perhaps from fatigue or the pressure of leading for so long, Mente lost the handling and was nowhere near as smooth as he was earlier in the race. He fell off several times, which allowed a slower on pace (but firmly planted to the track) Wiedemann catch him several times. Team SRM substituted Rist into the car. He came off the track less but didn’t seem to have the same speed as earlier either. Wiedemann caught and passed Rist with three minutes to go in the event. Wiedemann would build a three lap lead before Rist made a final charge and cut the gap to one lap as time ran out. Wiedemann, Kristof, and Black were champions again. 

Strom, Rist, Mente were second. 

Lack, Dorn, and H. Kamikawa finished third eight laps off the lead gaining five laps back in the last segment.

The win is team JKB second in a row and a third in a row for Wiedemann as he and Lack teamed up to win the 2011 race, the last one held before the 2020 season event. John Shea won four 2.4 hour events in a row. Mike Fitzlaff, Nick Bartolone, and Mark Walczak were his teammates. The same team hasn’t won two in a row since Shea/Walczak won in 2008 and 2009.

Final lap totals:

Wiedemann, Kristof, Black     1280 laps

Strom, Rist, Mente                    1279 laps

Lack, Dorn, H. Kamikawa         1272 laps

Kamikawa, Bartolone, Vandenberg    1165 laps

Until Next Time...It's Not Bad Being In the Pits!
Steve "The Wrench" Ratchett

2021 Rapids Indyslotcar Grand Prix Video

This is not the official Indyslotcar video of the event, rather a collection of images put together by Rapids International Raceway official track photographers. Enjoy! Steve "The Wrench" Ratchett