Slone grabs win in first Bondurant Championship Race Series event

The Bondurant Championship Race Series kicked off the first race day of its season with exciting competition at Firebird International Raceway's West Track. Fresh from their three practice sessions the day before, the drivers hit the track hard during Saturday's practice session and made clear their intentions to push the limit in every one of the course's nine corners. Although two drivers spun, there were no collisions, and they heeded the advice of instructors to work on one section of the track at a time and concentrate on the more difficult corners to yield the biggest improvements in lap times.

Qualifying took place three hours later, and as temperatures approached 100 degrees, the track proved to be much more slick than in the practice session. Bondurant School instructors were situated at three different vantage points around the course throughout the day, and they noted the increased confidence of the drivers during the qualifying session. "They're really pushing the cars deeper in to the corners, especially through [turns] 5 and 6, testing the limits of the brakes and tires," said Craig Meintzer, Assistant Chief Instructor for the Bondurant School.

The participants each seemed to favor a strategy of working on particular corners throughout the session, and then aggresively pursuing the pole position for a three-lap stretch. In the end, Jamie Slone secured P1 with a lap time of 1:00.295, followed closely by Phil De La O and JD Breen. Matt Maddox decided to forgo the qualifying session to conserve tires for the weekend, and would start from fourth.

As the drivers queued up for the start of the race three hours later, fellow ASA Racing participants enjoyed the sound of the Mazda 13B rotary engines that filled the air surrounding the staging area. The field leapt at the wave of the green flag and negotiated the first turn successfully, but on the following series of turns, Maddox was unable to get his car slowed down in time and ended up in the dirt just off the track. Though the car was undamaged, it couldn't be refired and was pulled back in to the pits.

After four yellow-flag laps, race officials took the collars off and the field leapt forward on the main straightaway. Phil De La O in P2 got a huge jump on the restart, closing rapidly on Slone who admitted later that he "fell asleep at the wheel." The talented teenager De La O showed that he wasn't afraid to mix it up in difficult corners, though Slone was able ultimately to stay ahead of him. In the end, the top three spots were claimed by Slone, De La O, and Breen.

Back in the Bondurant Museum, the finishers proudly climbed the podium as Series Director Alan Rudolph presented them with the first trophies in the Bondurant Championship Race Series. Camera flashes helped light up their smiles as they looked forward to the next day's race.

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