Two Podium Finishes for Manuel Gil del Real at Firebird Raceway

Phoenix, AZ, November 12, 2006. Team Ghaster Painting MGR Racing achieved one second place and one third place finish in the American Stockcar Challenge races at Firebird Raceway. Despite being the first race ever for the ASC Series at this track, only five tenths of a second separated the top six drivers’ qualifying times for the first race. Manuel Gil del Real qualified in second place with a 1:04:08 lap time around the 1.5 mile road course.

Saturday’s race had a clean start for the #27 Ghaster Painting Ford. “I moved inside the # 43 (driven by Ken Stinnett) as soon as I could. I knew Belinda was right there behind me too and that’s the position I wanted to defend. Once the three of us made it cleanly through the first corner, the rest of the race was pretty unevenful for me,” said Gil del Real.

It wasn’t so clean for the rest of the ASC field as several cars overshot the braking zone at turn one and made contact resulting in a couple of early retirements. At the end of the race, the top three finishers maintained their starting positions. Ken Stinnett won the race, followed by Manuel Gil del Real in second place and Belinda Endress in third place.

If Saturday was an “easy” day for Team Ghaster Painting MGR Racing, Sunday showed once again, how quickly things can change in racing. During the first practice session, a spin by the #43 car caused several cars behind him to brake early in the middle of turn 6. “I didn’t see the spin. I was behind the 99 and the 55 cars (driven by Belinda Endress and Ed Ochylski) when all of a sudden, they both came to a schreeching halt. It was either hitting the 55 car or going off track into the hay bales.” Said Manuel Gil del Real after the incident.

Unfortunately, those hay bales turned out to be a bit harder than he thought. The impact crushed the front bumper and cracked the radiator in the process. By the time the #27 Ghaster Painting Ford was towed back to the pits, there were only 30 minutes left before the Qualifying session. Rather than rushing the repair job and attempt to qualify with a damaged car, Manuel decided to skip the Qualifying session and give his crew more time to get the car back in race shape. That effectively, put the team starting from the back of the field.

By race time, the #27 car had a new radiator and the front area almost completely repaired. The fun was about to start. “I had no time to test the car after the crash, so I needed to make sure that everything was fine (brakes, handling, cooling, etc.) during the two warm-up laps that we spent behind the pace-car. Everything seemed to be okay.”

At the start of the race, Manuel Gil del Real out-dragged half of the field and moved up to sixth place by the end of the straight and going into turn 1. On lap four, he moved into fifth place when he passed the # 34 driven by Jeff Glowniak. The following lap, he passed the Scott Ivie for fourth place. At the exit of turn 11, he went by the # 55 of Ed Ochylski who was having mechanical problems. In just six laps, Manuel Gil del Real had moved all the way up to third place, and started to chase down Belinda Endress who was now about six seconds ahead in second place.

Belinda Endress was running very strong as well. “I tried to get her within striking distance to at least take advantage of the draft down the straight. I closed the gap to around four seconds but after that, it just seemed like lap after lap we were both running similar lap times.” Said Manuel Gil del Real.

Ken Stinnett went on to win the race and clinch the ASC Championship with one race weekend still remaining in the schedule. Belinda Endress took a well-deserved second place and Manuel Gil del Real had to settle for third place. Coincidentally, this is the same order of the ASC overall standings after 16 of the 18 races that make up the 2006 schedule.

The last two races of the season will take place at Phoenix International Raceway on December 9th and 10th, 2006. For more information about Team Ghaster Painting MGR Racing, please visit www.MGRRacing.net.