2009-2010 Gulf Coast Race Series - Race #2

Racers and spectators were blessed with a beautiful weekend of perfect fall weather for Round 2 of the 2009-2010 Gulf Coast Race Series at Circuit Grand Bayou. The November 1st race challenged the racers to a little extra "trick or treating" on the track in case they didn't get enough Halloween festivities. The Mike Poupart Motorsports paddock area was looking a little more normal with three cars for this event. Crew duties were headed up once again by Robbie Poupart with support from Patty Poupart, Heather Melancon, and Shane Poupart.

Johnny Walter returned for his first outing since the charity race last April with the needed repairs complete on his car. The new black hood and light gray bumper were obvious on his #98 GT1 Corvette, but others wondered what other new "tricks" he might be bringing to the track. He would be racing against close friend and teammate, Christian Francois who had a good points lead by finishing 1st in GT1 with his #77 Corvette at the last race and hoping for a repeat "treat". Mike Poupart got the steering arm issue resolved and returned with the #28 Panoz in the GT2 class.

The practice session was mostly uneventful. Johnny ran only 2 laps coming in to change tires. Mike ran only 5 laps and Christian ran 6. Qualifying was a little more interesting. Mike would be starting on the pole with a qualifying time of 1:19.611 with Chris Wilken (BCI Motorsports #01 Corvette) at P2 with a qualifying time of 1:21.061. Johnny qualified in P7 while Christian would start in P13 next to Moe Douroux (BCI Motorsports #02 Corvette) who completed the back row in P14.

Patty Poupart was on track to photograph the feature races for all of the race groups starting with the GT feature race. The vantage spot was alongside of the front straight tooking towards turn 10 where the green flag drops for each race.

Wilken started on the outside of Poupart and, at the green flag launch, his window net dropped, causing enough distraction to let Poupart take the lead and allowing Doug Boozer (#20 Panoz) to enter turn 10 on the inside of Wilken. Wilken went into the pits to fix the window net and came back onto the track after the entire field had gone through turn 14. After chasing down the field for a couple of laps, he lost his motor taking him out of the race on lap 3. This was Wilken's first race of the 2009-2010 series. His car looked similar to Walter's with a new black hood and light blue molded bumper reflecting changes he has been making in the off-season.

Christian fought hard from the back of the pack and moved up a few spots. He was setting up to pass Scott Dunlap (#2 Grand Prix) and Teddy Busick (#36 Porsche) in lap 9 after clearing turn 14 onto the front straight when he broke the axel on his Corvette. He coasted the remaining distance of the front straight taking the runoff and parking by the oak tree for the remainder of the race. He ended up with a 12th place finish over, but 3rd in GT1.

In retrospect, Poupart and Walter seemed to have an easy race. Both cars were strong throughout the race. Walter finished 6th overall with a 1st place GT1 class win. Poupart took the checkered flag on lap 12 taking the overall win for the GT group and finishing 1st in the GT2 class. His fastest lap was a 1:20.196.

Sunday, December 6th is Round 3 of the series. The points after the first two races are close for the class leaders and we can expect some hot racing in the cooler months as the class battles continue. See you at the track!