Instinct Racing

March 21, 2004- Thunder Hill Raceway-Willows, Ca
Colin Cross Wins 2, & A Third Straight Championship...........

Instinct Racing's Colin Cross was able to win both races on his way to a third straight championship. Running out of the Southern Pacific Division, Colin and Marge Lundberg have already completed 4 of their 6 races. Thunderhill was the first race of the Northern Pacific Division. Jim Petrek is running out of the Norpac division.

Day 1- Qualifying saw Colin place his Hoosier Sponsored Caracal on the Pole with a new Qualifying record of 2:05.5. Marge posted a time to put her 4th on the grid and Jim's time of 2:10.4 put him in the 10th starting position.

Green Flag- Colin breaks away with Skip Streets and Marge right on his gear box. Colin with his mirrors full of the bright yellow nose of Streets, leads the way around lap after lap. Marge's race changed just past halfway when a cracked intake manifold caused the motor to lose power, sidelining her for the remaining laps. Colin & Skip now had a large lead over 3rd place Mark Edwards. With 5 laps to go, Skip had a bolt break in his steering, allowing Colin to pull away and win by a 15 second margin. Jim closing on Ian Sweeney wasn't able to close the gap by the end, brought his Protoform home in 4th.

Day 2-Colin, a second slower than the first day qualifying, still had a time quick enough to get his second pole of the weekend. Marge's time put her 5th on the grid with Jim right next to her .03 behind.

Race 2 stared off with 5 cars all going for the lead into turn 1. Ethan Shippert grabbed the lead over Skip Streets, Dennis Andrade, Colin and Marge. The train toured for a couple of laps, all swapping spots. On lap 3 Colin got to the front of the pack and took advantage of the battling cars and broke away. Lapping at speeds similar to his qualifying time, Colin pulled away about a second per lap to the final checkered of the weekend to win by 15 seconds.

Marge still in the train of battling cars, lost her nose and bent her steering when an accordion affect caught her in the middle, again ended her race early. Jim also in the train, wasn't able to capitalize on the situation, came home 9th.

The first weekend of May, Colin and Marge will head down to Button Willow California for the final 2 races in their division. Jim will be sitting the next several races out.

Photo Credits-Brett Hope