After six qualifying races over four heats, we seeded a 14 car grid for the 2000 WBC finals at the Pittsburgh Grand Prix. The initial lead pack of Lane Hess, Jim Fleckenstein, and Dave Anderson separated from the rest of the field at the second corner at Westinghouse Pond: a long, slow, and thin hairpin following a long wide straight.

Lane drove a solid race and gained seperation through the golf course section of the track and the following Serpentine. Lane ended his 1st lap more than a turn ahead of Scott Cornett and Jimmy. Gerald Lientz and Dave finished lap 1 roughly two turns behind Lane. Trevor Bender completed the 1st lap without spending a single wear but five turns behind the leader. The 2nd lap saw Trevor spend his 1st wear to much cheering.

The Serpentine upheld its reputation as the most important set of corners in the finals in lap 2 as Gerald made a big move through the second half of the Serpentine, passing two cars that got caught in bad lines outside and moving into 3rd place.

Lap 2 ended with Lane maintaining his one-turn advantage over the lead pack of Jim, Gerald, and Scott in that order. Dave remained two turns off of the lead after two laps. Trevor remained five turns behind Lane.

As lap 3 began it appeared to be Lane's race to lose. But with his pursuers not far behind, Lane took a chance in the Westinghouse Pond hairpin that would have given him a substantial margin. Instead, he spun off the track. Gerald and Jim went through the hairpin just as Lane was trying to re-enter the track, delaying him even further. Lane ended up dropping to 5th in that corner. Subsequently, he managed to move into fourth through the golf course section, passing Dave with a successful chance in corner number 6.

As we entered the Serpentine with the checkered flag three corners away, Gerald led Jim with Scott and Lane just behind. Dave lurked just after while Trevor had managed to work his way through the field and into striking distance with his reserves of wear. Lane opened the insanity with a chance in the 1st half of the Serpentine that resulted in him spun off track. This time he re-entered cleanly and stayed in 4th. Jim pulled alongside Gerald in the middle of the Serpentine and tried to outbreak Gerald for initiative going into the second hairpin but locked the brakes and spun off the track. Scott took a chance in the second
hairpin and pulled up alongside Gerald at the end of the Serpentine. Dave also took his chance in the second hairpin and pulled alongside Lane in contention for 3rd. Jim had difficulties re-entering the track and dropped back to 6th. Trevor made his big move in the Serpentine using two wear and a chance in the first hairpin to pass two cars and move into 5th, then he spent two
more wear in the second hairpin to pull alongside Dave and into 4th.

Gerald entered the last corner before the finish ahead of Scott to seal the victory and leave Scott in the bridesmaid position again and forced to settle for runnerup for the second consecutive year. Dave spun off track in the last corner and Lane locked his brakes and spun off the track right before the last corner to give Trevor a clear shot at 3rd and Jim recovered enough from a missed shift to safely navigate the last corner in 4th place.

More details on Speed Circuit racing as practised at WBC at http://www.lucidphoenix.com/sc/wbc/