Photos and words by: Patrick Morgan
The fight for first place was one of two intense podium battles for Round 2 of Autobahn Member Radical Racing.
Mike D’Ambrose (#6) found himself back on form with a Round 2 win on Saturday, May 8th during Autobahn Country Club‘s Member Racing event for Radical Cup. The race would take place on Autobahn’s North course, and span 20 laps. 
Jordan Missig (#48) is always a top contender, but ended up starting from the back of the pack due to an inability to appear in the qualifying session. Still, this didn’t stop Missig from gaining several positions in the first handful of laps. As seen below, Missig is in the process of passing Chris Kemp (#153). By lap 6 of 20, Missig was in P2 and on his way to chasing down D’Ambrose who formed an early lead. 
The final 5 laps saw D’Ambrose and Missig within just a few tenths of each other, with D’Ambrose displaying excellent racecraft to keep himself in the lead. A last lap spin from Missig widened that gap significantly, but 2nd place was still retained. However, post race inspection found Missig to be underweight, and all of that hard charging unfortunately ended in a disqualification. 
That disqualification for Missig created the podium you see above, rounded up by Mike Anzaldi (#61, below) and Kemp. Anzaldi gave up third to Missig on lap 6, but kept a close eye on his mirrors. Kemp never strayed more than 1.2 seconds adrift of Anzaldi, with their finishing gap being just 1.042 seconds apart. The two locked in their pace, with Anzaldi having a best lap of 1:00.514, just 0.026 faster than Kemp’s best of 1:00.540. In a true sense of “it’s not over till it’s over,” Kemp wasn’t aware of his podium finish till the awards ceremony. 
Absent from Round 1, D’Ambrose had to make due with minimal practice time. In response to his win, D’Ambrose told us, “I really had to work for that one!”
Team Stradale’s next race will once again be Member Racing at Autobahn Country Club on May 22nd. Soon after, Team Stradale will be at Road America with IndyCar for Round 2 of the Blue Marble Radical Cup shortly after.
