Martell’s Podium Pace Goes Unrewarded In Strong Salt Lake City weekend
Vermont SportsCar continued its charge in rounds 3 and 4 of Nitrocross’ Group E category last weekend with a return to where the series started, Utah Motorsports Campus.
In what was a strong event for the team overall, Conner Martell challenged for the podium on both days with bad luck being the only thing standing in the way of him claiming a brace of medals.
Martell began the weekend by setting the pace in practice, and continued that form to advance straight into the first final of the weekend. A sixth place starting position proved to be of little hindrance, with him quickly vaulting up the field to take third place. From there he gapped those behind and applied the pressure on reigning two-time champion Robin Larsson and eventual race winner Andreas Bakkerud.
A podium was locked in, but confusion after the final was reduced from six laps to four meant Martell had not completed the required joker lap prior to the final lap. The certain podium vanished, with a resulting 30 second penalty dropping him down the order. Nevertheless, it was an incredibly encouraging day, and confidence was high heading into the second half of the weekend.
Entering Sunday with an already strong baseline, Martell qualified P2, just 0.019s off the polesitter.
Second in the heats and semifinals, along with the fastest lap in both, set Martell up nicely for the final, where he was once again in contention for the podium. After Jokering early, Martell was all over championship leader Robin Larsson battling for P2 overall, when the duel came to a head in the last corner of the race.
Both entered side-by-side, with Martell being forced wide. Left with nowhere to go, he slammed into the wall at the top of the start-finish straight, ending his race meters from the checkered flag where a top-three result had all been but a certainty. Compounding the day, Martell’s stricken car was hit by Lia Block as the track was enveloped in dust and smoke. Martell was quickly extracted from the car, assessed, and cleared.
Martell did walk away with the ‘Busch Light Race to the Mountains Fastest Lap’ award for setting the quickest time of the event, which provided some consolation.
“I had a big hit in the final there,” Martell said afterwards. “I was going for P2 and just got pushed into the wall. It’s unfortunate, it definitely could have been avoided.”
Martell will be back in action this weekend at the ARA National series finale, the Lake Superior Performance Rally, where he will drive his VSC-prepared Subaru WRX rally car for the third time this season.