03.23.2003

Champions For The TPTCC 2002/2003 Winter Series Crowned!!

03.22.2003

Nurburgring was the final stop of the 2002/2003 TPTCC Winter Series, with the last two races taking place on March 21st. Several heated battles took place within the field at the Nurburgring events, which was typical of the close competition that took place throughout the TPTCC season.

The results of the various titles that took place within the Series competition this season are as follows:

TPTCC Drivers Championship

After establishing their dominance early on, the series championship was hotly contested between brothers and teammates Rusty & Van Greer. All of the other competitors knew going into the season that they would be the ones to beat, but that is a tall order with the on-track skill they bring to every race, along with their well-prepared Opel Calibras.

Rusty had a solid grip on the points lead going into the Nurburgring events. Van won both events and collected maximum bonus points for both races while Rusty posted fifth and second place finishes, respectively, both both races. Once the dust settled and the points were tallied, it was Rusty who came out on top in the TPTCC Drivers Championship, taking the overall title by 31 points over Van.

Congratulations to Rusty Greer for winning the TPTCC Drivers Championship for the 2002/2003 Winter Series and receiving the Series trophy that was graciously donated by J.D. Ellis of ellisauto.com.

It should be noted that Van Greer set some high marks with the bonus points he collected - he tied Rusty with 14 wins, but he also had 18 pole position starts, led the most laps in 13 races, and set the fastest race lap in 19 of the 24 races run.

Third place in the drivers title went to Tyler Trivett, another racer out of the RTB Racing camp in another Opel, fourth place went to Kevin Jurasinski in a factory-backed Mercedes Benz out of the Jet City Motorsports stable, and fifth place went to Clarence Fiander in his Miller Genuine Draft Opel Calibra.

TPTCC Team Championship

With the season of domination experienced by Rusty & Van Greer, their Team RTB1 won the TPTCC Team Championship in convincing fashion in their Opel Calibras. Their next closest competition trailed the duo by 500+ points! Second place in the team standings went to Can-Am Motorsports 2, made up of drivers Ced Collins & Clarence Fiander, also in Opels.

Rounding out the top 5 was Team RTB2 in third place, and a tip of the hat to Tyler Trivett - after losing teammate Chuck Andersen five events into the schedule, he was able to run well enough to keep Team RTB2 in top-5 contention for the remainder of the season. The fourth place team was John Palmer and Dave Slee's Can-Am Motorsports Team, running BMW M3's, and Team QMR held on to the fifth spot in the Team Championship, also in BMW's.

TPTCC Independent's Cup

After a mid-season battle for the Independent's Cup title between the factory-backed Mercedes Benz of Kevin Jurasinski and Don Smartt's Corona Beer sponsored Opel Calibra, Jurasinski was able to take advantage of some late season problems experienced by Smartt to finish on top.

James Bowders, who did not compete in the first two events on the schedule, put in an impressive drive in his works M-G to finish third in the Independent's Cup. Lance Schueneman held onto fourth place in his Team Weinerschnitzel Opel Calibra, and David Grant's Team Caledonia Opel took him to a fifth place finish at the end of the season.

TPTCC Manufacturer's Championship

With many teams and independent competitors campaigning in Opel Calibras this season, Opel was able to lock up the Manufacturer's Championship by a substantial margin. The BMW contingent came in second, and Mercedes Benz was able to secure third place in the Manufacturer's Championship despite having only two cars for the first four events, leaving one car competing for the rest of the season. Dodge made a good showing for fifth place with three cars entered for the series.

Final Thoughts

TPTCC League Administrators Kevin Jurasinski and John Palmer would like to thanks all of the series competitors and offer a huge note of thanks to Ced Collins for allowing us to utilize his server for the great online competiton and practice sessions.

We would also like to recognize James Altemus for his involvement with TPTCC, his creation of this great web page, and offering up his help and guidance when called upon.

Thanks again to J.D. Ellis at ellisauto.com for his contribution of the AUTOArt Design Disc Brake Clock which made a fantastic trophy for the winner of the TPTCC Drivers Championship.

Last, but not least, our thanks to Jan Kohl for creating and perpetuating the TPTCC Series over the years and allowing us to keep it going forward.

A six race summer series is being developed and is planned to start in mid-May. Information for that series will be provided both here and on the Yahoo Groups forum.

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