CalSpeedAug2018

H aving scored his first career IronMan Series win earlier this year, Sean Fite wasted no time capitalizing on a favorable starting position, looking to rebound from what might have been a round prior. Taking the lead on the very first completed lap, Fite held onto the top spot for the opening eleven laps with Chris Huerta and Diego Morales in tow, before the latter made their move to drop him back to third. With Morales now at the helm, the trio wasn’t able to stay as tightly grouped and the advantage grew by the leader, while second and third worked hard to stay in touch. Huerta and Fite would diligently stay 2-3 to reel in Morales -more like limit the damage- until Fite finally took over as the lead chaser on lap 23. After the switch, the chasing duo would begin to cut their fastest laps, and along with some help from traffic, were able to reel in the leader and start putting on some pressure in less than five laps. Unfortunately for Huerta, it was then a Morales-Fite pair up that saw him lose touch with the top two, with the front duo pulling away until their pit stops. For his part though, Morales would once again be able to split away from Fite, maintaining the lead -and a healthy advantage- until finally coming down pit road on lap 47. With Morales coming in, it left Fite all alone out front; a place he would never leave for the rest of the race. Electing to leave his pit stops to right near the end of the race, Sean would not only hold onto the top spot, but he would leapfrog his rival to set two seconds out front as he exited pit road. With only about five minutes to play, Morales could only chip away at the lead as the laps wound down, settling for second in the end, and just a half second back. Behind the lead duo, the battle for the final podium spot took place via pit strategy and traffic as much as it did actual on track passing. In the end, it was the steady and methodical progress by Alexander Bermudez that would complete the podium, having come up from the 27th starting position. Working up into the top five before pit stops started, he made the pass on track for second behind Fite before ducking into the pits himself, and when the dust settled on the final stops, he was third. From there the pressure was off as the battle raged behind him, and he was able to cruise to a third place in his first sport class run of the year in the IronMan Series. Round 8 Aug 18 2 HR