Team Enterprise Automation/Malcolm-Racing’s roller coaster ride continued on Sunday, September 19th at the 2010 NASA National Championships at Miller Motorsports Park, in Tooele, UT. Based on the two qualifying races, the team qualified 8th in class, Performance Touring (PTD).
As the green flag flew to kick off the start of the race, driver Derrick Malcolm moved into sixth place as the field entered turn 1. Four turns later the team moved into fifth place while making a pass going into ‘black rock hairpin’ (turn 5). Malcolm moved into fourth place later in the opening lap with a pass going through ‘club house corner’ (turn 21). After a smooth ‘wind up’ (turn 22) and ‘release’ (turn 23), Malcolm moved into third place just before crossing the start/ finish line to complete lap #1. So in one lap, Malcolm piloted the Team Enterprise Automation/Malcolm-Racing Nissan Sentra SE-R from eighth to third place.
After a few more laps, the team was within reach of second place. Malcolm got a few looks at trying to make a pass on second but couldn’t make anything stick. Lapped traffic soon became another factor in the battle for second. On the second to last lap, coming out of the ‘attitudes’ (turns 16-18) Malcolm noticed a slight drop off in power. There didn’t appear to be any overheating and oil pressure drop off. But after going through ‘Tooele turn’ (turn 19), the engine let go. As the car coasted to stop well off outside of ‘wind up’ the white flag was flying on the front straight. The team was less than two and a half minutes away from a podium finish.
Further details can be found at Malcolm-Racing.
