Win at Five Flags Speedway Enough to Give Rob Warren Florida Speedweeks Championship
February 8, 2019 – Pensacola, FL…He’s won nearly every major Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series, (SUPRS), event, but the one accomplishment Rob Warren hadn’t achieved was a Florida Speedweeks Championship. He can now put his first Speedweeks trophy on the shelf with his many others, and look back with a smile, at a week that saw him in victory lane three times, including Friday at Five Flags Speedway.
Relatively Easy Win
Leading all but three laps of the 50 lap feature, Warren was never seriously challenged and enjoyed a relatively easy win. He finished nearly four seconds ahead of second place driver Brad Keysor. Kyle Clark had the fight of his life holding back 2-Time and defending Speedweeks Champ Keith Powell for third at Five Flags Speedway.
With just one caution slowing the pace on lap three for a spinning Nelson Rodrigues, after which Warren took the lead from Brad Keysor on the restart, the winning driver steadily built an insurmountable lead.
Third Place Race
With Warren out front and Keysor comfortably in second, Kyle Clark found himself trying to keep Keith Powell and Bob Gangwer at bay for third place. Lap after lap, Powell, knowing that he needed at least one more spot to claim his third straight Florida Speedweeks Championship, hounded Clark all the way around the track.
As Powell looked everywhere to find Clark’s weakness, Gangwer was working multiple lanes to find a way around Powell for the entire second half of the race, but never did. Clark never cracked under pressure, holding Powell back and dashing his hopes for Speedweeks Championship number three.
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Warren, Powell End Speedweeks Tied
Rob Warren trailed Keith Powell by 15 points coming into the final race of the week at Five Flags. By finishing ahead of Powell by three places, Warren tied Powell with 340 points total and series officials had to go to the tie-breaker of “best finish” to determine the overall champion, a first in Florida Speedweeks history.
Warren’s come from behind championship run was nothing short of impressive. Even though he won three times, when he wasn’t winning he was wrecking or failing to finish as well as normal. To contrast, Powell was the model of consistency, hovering around the top five for all five races. In the end though, it didn’t matter how low Warren finished, he won at least one race over the five night swing, something Powell failed to do.
Warren also had the best finishing average of the swing, led 77 laps during the week and came from the furthest back in the starting line-up of any of the three winning drivers.
Speedweeks by the Numbers
- 1: First Time Speedweeks Winner-Dave Ohh
- 5: Different drivers were fast qualifiers
- 5: Cautions total for Speedweeks
- 6: Different drivers to lead a lap during Speedweeks
- 6: Total Hours of Live Speedweeks Video
- 11: Different drivers to compete during 2019 Florida Speedweeks
- 14: Laps under Yellow Flag
- 58: Total Minutes to Complete Speedweeks Features
- 200: Total of Speedweeks Feature Laps Run
Western Swing
The supermodified sim racers now begin to prepare for the The SUPRS Winter Western Swing. Including both NASCAR Heat and rFactor races, this swing has Consisting of seven races that stretch through five states and lasts until March 19.
Double Header at PIR
The SUPRS Winter Western Swing begins this coming Tuesday with the SUPRS Copper World Classic XV presented by Kern Motorsports February 12 at Phoenix International Raceway.
Modeled after the original Copper World Classic that featured supermodified racing at PIR, the SUPRS version features wing and non-wing supermodified sim racing using the rFactor platform. Each division will run a 25 lap feature, and as the sun goes down in the desert, points from both feature finishes will be tallied to decide the overall 2019 SUPRS Copper World Classic Champion.
Fan FunFans can see all the SUPRS Winter Western Swing with SUPRS LIVE! It’s easy to keep up with your favorite SUPRS racer instantly with live streaming video, stats, and track telemetry by visiting www.SUPRS.net/site/live.
Get Social with SUPRS
Fans can learn more about the original supermodified sim sanction, the Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series, by visiting www.SUPRS.net. Join SUPRS active and vibrant Social Media channels by “Liking” SUPRS on Facebook, Following @SUPRSOnline on Twitter, and viewing SUPRS videos on YouTube. See us live and join our chat on Twitch.
SUPRS RACE RESULTS:
- SUPRS Florida Speedweeks Night 5
- Race 29 of 46
- Friday, February 8, 2019
- SUPRS rFactor W v7.3 mod
- Five Flags Speedway
- 50 laps
Time Trials (showing car number, driver name, hometown, sponsors, lap 1, lap 2-best lap underlined)
- 3-Brad Keysor; Liverpool, NY; Southern Hills Storm Football, Justice League: 14.350, 14.174 NTR
- 35-Rob Warren; Pulaski, NY; 1st to Finish Race Servers, Designs of Elegance: 14.471, 14.182
- 41-Keith Powell; Carrollton, OH; Icings on Top, CPR Motorsports: 14.218, 14.198
- 25-Bob Gangwer; Goshen, IN; B&G Racing Photos, RW Woodworking 14.454, 14.312
- 7-Nelson Rodrigues; Stoneham, MA; Star Speedway: 14.400, 14.388
- 55-Steve Callahan; Cuyahoga Falls, OH; Exide Battery, CPR Motorsports: 14.406, 15.820
- 38-Kyle Clark; Mexico, NY; Coors’ Light, Disturbed Motorsports: 14.439, 14.538
- 42-Carl Becker; Lansing, MI; Wholesale Diamond Exchange, Michigan Hill Gang: 15.122, 15.068
Feature 50 Laps (showing car number, driver name, sponsors, bonus, starting position, fastest lap, distance behind winner)
- 35-Rob Warren: * | ** | P6 | 14.243
- 3-Brad Keysor: * | P2 | 14.210 | +3.829
- 38-Kyle Clark: P3 | 14.310 | +7.250
- 41-Keith Powell: ! | P7 | 14.243 | +7.408
- 25-Bob Gangwer: P5| 14.261 | +7.703
- 55-Steve Callahan: P4 | 14.377 | +10.881
- 7-Nelson Rodrigues: P8 | 14.262 | +12.392
- 42-Carl Becker: P1 | 14.988 | +3 Laps
Time of Race: 13:49.055
- * Denotes Lap Led
- ** Denotes Most Laps Led
- ! Denotes Fastest Lap of Race
