The first 3 races of the season saw Austin Newmark take 3 straight wins.  It took Rich Geisler the 2009 Regional Champion all the way to the 4th race of the season to take his first win of at Firebird Main in February.  March and April saw the 944 spec crew back at PIR and then at Firebird Main for 4 more races bring the season to the halfway point.  Can Geisler gain momentum on that Febuary win or will 2010 be struggle for 2009 Champion? Or can Paluch beat them all with consistancy?

Saturday March 6th saw a Geisler/Newmark rematch at PIR and this time it was Geisler who took the win by a less than second over Newmark after total of 30 minutes of hard close racing.  A distant 3rd among the 10 deep 944 spec class was Joe Paluch.  Steve Marlow and Jim Richard rounded out the top 5.  It was clear Geisler was gaining his rhythm back.

Normalcy was at and end for Sunday as the weather changed from nice sunny mid 80’s to cold and rainy. The day’s first practice saw the rain start falling just minutes before practice.  The rain caused a slick track and tested every driver’s car control skills.   The rain continued and qualifying was run in some the worst condition seen at PIR in over 10 years.  Rain fell hard and standing water was common at every apex.  The driving the track became more about driving around the puddles vs driving the fast line.  However the worst spot was deep river crossing the track at turn 4. It was impossible to avoid the puddle or to avoid hydroplaning.  So every lap was spent splashing through the 40 foot long puddle and hoping you landed on the track on the other side at all 75 mph.  Despite these horrible conditions Paluch managed to not only qualify on class pole, but 2nd overall in the mixed big bore and small bore race group.

Sunday’s race was run in significantly better conditions with the rain ending, but a wet track still meant slippery conditions.  Paluch make great jump from his 2nd overall position cleaned held on to the spot chasing Rick Johnson PTB Mini . He quickly turned his focus from the Mini to that of Austin Newmark white 944, who despite qualifying number positions down to Paluch in the overall field had quickly made those spots on lap 1.  For the next 31 minutes Paluch pushed hard in every turn constantly searching for grip on slick yet drying track and constantly watch for charging a Newmark.  By race end Paluch however had been able hold off Newmark for the class win and amazingly had also held off all the other racers other than Viper on rain tires to finish 3rd overall.  Despite this Newmark set the fastest lap of the race on his second to last lap.   Rocky Mountain region regular Sean Thul drove to an amazing 3rd place in his second ever race at PIR. Due to prior commitments Rich Geisler was unable to attend Sunday’s race.

The next two races of the season were annual Modified Tuner shootout Firebird Night race.  This marks one of the only non enduro races rut at night in NASA and the only true spectator event for NASA-Az.    Despite not being top billing the 944 class again provide a great show.

Rich Geisler led the 944 class to the green in the sunset race with Darren Griffith side by side. As the green fell the mix group created 3 and 4 wide along the concrete lined Firebird main straight.  This proved to be Geisler’s undoing as he got bottled up in the braking zone for turn 1 and was forced to take to the escape road.  This allowed Griffith to take the class lead with Paluch hot on his heels in a pack of PTC Hondas and one PTB corvette.  Geisler’s turn 1 incident put him back and estimated 10+ seconds from Griffith and it appear he was going to have work to even get on the podium. 

However Rich proved how strong a driver he was. Over the next 10 laps he clawed back an average of 1 second per lap over Paluch and Griffth who were stuck battling with the two Honda’s and the corvette.  By the time those battles settled down and Griffith was able to run clean laps Geisler had closed the gap.  On lap 10 Geisler caught Giffith, passed him and then on the next lap promptly lower his prior track record to 1:12.031 as the sun was setting. Griffith tried to counter and was able to match Geisler’s pace, but had to settle for second place finish less than 1 second back in nearly dark conditions.   Paluch finished a lonely yet solid  3rd. 

The event’s second race was a true night race and was a 55 minute sprint finishing well into Sunday.  The grid was set by the prior race finish as could be expected the Geisler, Griffith battle continued.   The lead changed hands many times, but when race finally ended it was Geisler coming home 2 for 2 and a winner of his last 4 races.  Griffith finished 2nd 3 seconds back and Paluch finished 3rd.  Geisler and Griffith were the only drivers to run sub 1:13 laps, which was pretty amazing considering the limited night time visibility in a couple key turns.  Other brave night time racers were Kent Buckley in 4th, Jim Richard in 5th, Jeff Wojnar in 6th and Dave Hauck in 7th. Amazingly Kent Buckley ran faster a night than in the day by a few tenths and Jim Richard gained nearly 1.5 seconds in the dark.  Clearly for some not seeing the walls is the key to speed.

Season standings at the mid-point show Paluch leading the points with 8 of 8 races completed and 670 points.  However Rich Geisler is still in the driver’s seat for the 2009 title with 4 wins out of 6 races and 2 second place finishes.  With the 2010 championship coming down to the best 12 of 17 the season is still far from being decided.