Rich Wesorick
Enthusiast
Ft. Worth’s Bobby Archer notched another win in the SCCA Southwest Division in his Viper this past weekend at Texas World Speedway (TWS) in College Station, TX. Archer drove his familiar black No. 32 SuperClubs/The Lodge/ViperSpeed Viper to victory in the National race for the T1 class on Sunday, May 26th.
For this SCCA event, the 1.8 mile track configuration was used, but the track was set-up to run clockwise rather the usual counterclockwise. This meant the set-up of the cars had to be changed since the last SCCA event at TWS in March, but Archer was up to the task. He guessed right on his set-up and won the pole for the T1 class in just four practice/qualifying laps with a time of 1:14:02. Matt Whittaker, who is the current Southwest Division points leader in T1, qualified second in T1 in his Corvette Z06 with a time of 1:14:53. These qualifying times placed Archer and Whittaker in the fourth and fifth starting positions, respectively, behind three GT-1 cars. Three other T1 cars, including the Porsche 911 that Fred Baker won the 2000 Valvoline Run-Offs in, were farther back in the field of 26 GT1, GT2, GT3, T1, and AS cars.
As the green flag dropped for Sunday’s race, Archer found himself being held up initially by the GT1 cars that did not accelerate as fast as his Viper. He wanted to push hard early to create some space between himself and Whittaker, but was unable to do so because his car was not turning left as well as he would have liked. The saving grace for Bobby was that the race course was mostly right turns. Whittaker stayed right behind Archer through the first half of the race, looking for an opportunity to make a pass on Bobby. Around 18 laps into the race, the two T1 leaders encountered a pack of slower cars. Archer realized that he was going to either win or lose the T1 race based on how well he negotiated the traffic. As he began working his way around and through the lap traffic, Archer was hit and pushed off track by an AS (A-Sedan) car. Archer was able to gather his car after the contact and rejoin the field ahead of the AS car that bumped him. While Whittaker was able to avoid any contact with the lap traffic, he was held up for several laps by the slower cars and fell well behind Archer in the race. Despite the contact and a less-than-perfect handling car, Archer took the checkered flag with a 4-second lead over Whittaker. The victory was Bobby’s fourth win in five T1 races this year. Even with the win, Archer still trails Whittaker by a few points in the SCCA’s Southwest Division, a deficit Bobby hopes to erase by competing in the SCCA June Sprints at Road America next month (June 22-23).
In other news, Viper pilot Dan Knox, who is new to the Bobby Archer Motorsports stable, drove his T1 Viper to victory in the SCCA Regional T1 race at TWS on Saturday. It was Dan’s second T1 victory in as many races.
For more information on Bobby Archer and ViperSpeed Racing, go to www.viperspeed.com or www.bobbyarchermotorsports.com
For this SCCA event, the 1.8 mile track configuration was used, but the track was set-up to run clockwise rather the usual counterclockwise. This meant the set-up of the cars had to be changed since the last SCCA event at TWS in March, but Archer was up to the task. He guessed right on his set-up and won the pole for the T1 class in just four practice/qualifying laps with a time of 1:14:02. Matt Whittaker, who is the current Southwest Division points leader in T1, qualified second in T1 in his Corvette Z06 with a time of 1:14:53. These qualifying times placed Archer and Whittaker in the fourth and fifth starting positions, respectively, behind three GT-1 cars. Three other T1 cars, including the Porsche 911 that Fred Baker won the 2000 Valvoline Run-Offs in, were farther back in the field of 26 GT1, GT2, GT3, T1, and AS cars.
As the green flag dropped for Sunday’s race, Archer found himself being held up initially by the GT1 cars that did not accelerate as fast as his Viper. He wanted to push hard early to create some space between himself and Whittaker, but was unable to do so because his car was not turning left as well as he would have liked. The saving grace for Bobby was that the race course was mostly right turns. Whittaker stayed right behind Archer through the first half of the race, looking for an opportunity to make a pass on Bobby. Around 18 laps into the race, the two T1 leaders encountered a pack of slower cars. Archer realized that he was going to either win or lose the T1 race based on how well he negotiated the traffic. As he began working his way around and through the lap traffic, Archer was hit and pushed off track by an AS (A-Sedan) car. Archer was able to gather his car after the contact and rejoin the field ahead of the AS car that bumped him. While Whittaker was able to avoid any contact with the lap traffic, he was held up for several laps by the slower cars and fell well behind Archer in the race. Despite the contact and a less-than-perfect handling car, Archer took the checkered flag with a 4-second lead over Whittaker. The victory was Bobby’s fourth win in five T1 races this year. Even with the win, Archer still trails Whittaker by a few points in the SCCA’s Southwest Division, a deficit Bobby hopes to erase by competing in the SCCA June Sprints at Road America next month (June 22-23).
In other news, Viper pilot Dan Knox, who is new to the Bobby Archer Motorsports stable, drove his T1 Viper to victory in the SCCA Regional T1 race at TWS on Saturday. It was Dan’s second T1 victory in as many races.
For more information on Bobby Archer and ViperSpeed Racing, go to www.viperspeed.com or www.bobbyarchermotorsports.com
