CalSpeedMagMay2018

T he CalSpeed IronMan Series would complete the first half of the season on the Grande configuration in the month of May, heading in the forward direction this time. With new names seen at the top of the board for much of the year, round #5 would see only the sport class with a fresh face in victory lane, as the Pro division would be dominated by a usual suspect… Charles Eichlin would lead the Ironman group up the hill towards the busstop section for the first time, the field of 35 taking a pair of warm up laps prior to help get some heat into the tires. And while the temperatures were cool, the action on track was hot; with Riley Dugan wasting no time in his bid for the lead, taking over the top spot on lap two. Two-time class winner Alexander Bermudez would follow suite past Eichlin on lap three, but he too would take the fight to the lead, dispatching Dugan on lap four to have three different leaders in four laps. By then the Pro Class had already began to come up on lapped traffic from the early pit stops in the sport class, arguably the most fun part about running the 206 package in this series. With lap times about 7-8 seconds faster than the sport class, the Pro drivers have their hands full for the 60 minutes slicing and dicing their way through the field, with Bermudez leading the charge her in round #5. Dugan would stay in touch however, the duo working their way through the slower karts, while simultaneously gapping Eichlin and the rest of the class behind. It wasn’t until lap 18 that the lead two would split up, this because of a pit stop from second place Dugan as they approached a large group of sport class drivers. Bermudez elected to stay out however, not making his stop until just before the halfway point on lap 28. When he emerged from pit lane the lead was still his, and in addition, a healthy 2 second advantage. From there it was no looking back for Bermudez, growing the lead via attacking the lapped traffic, something he has shown to be quite strong at this year. When the checkers finally fell it was Alexander Bermudez ahead of Riley Dugan by just over 11 seconds, with the latter carrying a similar margin over Eichlin for the final podium spot. Round 5 May 26 PRO RESULTS 1 6 Alexander Bermudez 2 16 Riley Dugan 3 10 Charles Eichlin 4 15 Tony Wika 5 12 Bill Kreig PRO Winn Alexander Be