Late Season Races Prepare Booble Race Team for National Championship Run
Several late seasons races, ranging from Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI; to Gateway Int’l in St. Louis, MO; to Heartland Park Topeka, KS tested the strength of the Booble Racing Nissan 200SX and driver Peter Zekert against some of the best GTLite teams in the Midwest.
Zekert and the Booble Race Team are gearing up for the end of season National Championship “Runoffs” Oct. 8-14 at Heartland Park Topeka. Last year Zekert qualified on the front row, beside eventual winner Jim Dentici, but blew up on lap 7 of the 18 lap sprint race. This year Zekert and Team Booble hope to bring an even stronger effort to the season ending Championship, but so do several other top contenders.
In late July, Zekert and the Booble Nissan 200SX made a visit to Road America, home track for last year’s Champion Jim Dentici. Dentici showed his good stuff, qualifying first with a new track record. Unable to stay close to Dentici, the other GTLite cars had to fight for second place. Mike Alexander, Bob Clark and Zekert all battled for runner up position in the race, with both Zekert and Clark dropping out on the last lap. Dentici won, Alexander second. Team Booble 20th.
Next races were at Gateway int’l Raceway in St. Louis, MO, hometrack for Zekert. On Saturday Zekert won the race starting near the back of the field. “I was working on the backup car, driven by Phil Harris of Memphis, TN. I came in during qualifying to see what the problem was (with the backup car), and I screwed up my own qualifying. Luckily I know Gateway and it was a small field. It was over 100 degrees, so not many teams came out to play.”
For Sunday’s National Championship points race, stronger cars showed up to Gateway. But, due to problems in the backup car, Zekert missed qualifying entirely. Starting last in the 23 car field, Zekert and Team Booble made their way to 6th overall and into the lead in the GTLite division. “It was a little tougher today going through the field. I had to make sure that cars battling amongst themselves knew I was coming. I do NOT want to wreck my car this late in the season.”
The regular season ended Aug. 19 for Team Booble Racing at Topeka Kansas’ Heartland Park. “This was an important race for us since the Chamionships will be held here a month and a half later.” At the June race at Heartland Park, Zekert qualified on the pole but had to leave to meet a work contract in Ohio. “Usually I make every race at Heartland Park, preparing for the Runoffs. This year I couldn’t do every race, so I was behind the eight ball.” In the morning qualifying session for this event, Zekert put the Booble Racing Nissan 4th on the grid and 2nd in GTLite. In the afternoon, Zekert was 3rd fastest, but the track had become slower in the hot sun. Team Booble would start 4th in the Sunday race.
After qualifying session 2, the Booble Racing crew discovered problems in the clutch, necessitating a transmission change. The team went out in Sunday morning warmup. Something was still wrong, as Zekert had trouble getting the car in gear. More work was needed.
Before the race the team adjusted the clutch mechanism and check for air in the clutch hydraulics. Starting 4th, Zekert last one place in the first lap. “I just couldn’t get it into gear in the slow corners. I lost a place and then had to fight my way back around the 5th and 6th place car, eventually getting back to 4th.” With 6 laps to go and a car broken on the main straightaway, the officials called for a full course yellow. Zekert stepped on the clutch pedal and radioed in “I think the clutch is completely gone. I’ll ride around (on the yellow flag laps) and see what I can do.” On the next lap Zekert pulled into the pits and retired, credited with a 25th place finish.
“Don’t feel bad for us,” Zekert said. “We learned a lot. We learned that the gear we chose in the race is not the best one in traffic and we’ll go back to the one we used last year. We learned that our tire choice was the right choice. For us, this was a test session for the championships.”
