MeisterJaeger Breaks Through at Stardust
A three-cornered contest governed the 35 laps at Stardust, meisterJaeger finally taking his Shelby Cobra 289 Hardtop to a first Championship victory. Behind him, SDH-M ~ HappyKojot recovered second place from Nat Stevenson on the last lap, the pair separated by 0.051 s.
Three Cobras at the front
The second race of the Championship brought a close and changing contest at Stardust, where the leading argument was conducted chiefly by the three Shelby Cobra 289 Hardtops of meisterJaeger, SDH-M ~ HappyKojot and Nat Stevenson. For 22 laps, from lap 10 through lap 31, the trio ran within five seconds of one another, and none was permitted the luxury of treating the race as settled.
It was meisterJaeger who emerged at the head of the field when the contest had at last taken its final shape. He completed all 35 laps to win ahead of HappyKojot, with Stevenson third. Adam Celárek's TVR Griffith Series 200 was fourth, its earlier prominence ensuring that the winner's path was neither simple nor immediate.
Celárek's turn at the head
The lead had already changed hands twice before the race reached its middle portion. HappyKojot led until lap eight, when meisterJaeger moved ahead. Two laps later Celárek seized the advantage, and for much of the next ten laps the Czech driver's TVR and meisterJaeger's Cobra were rarely more than two seconds apart.
Celárek held the lead from lap 10, but meisterJaeger reclaimed it on lap 20. There were no more changes at the front thereafter, though the race retained its tension behind him. The eventual winner also set fastest lap, a 1:42.842, only 0.042 s quicker than Celárek's best. It was a small but fitting indication of the pace required to settle a race in which the leadership had been so keenly disputed.
The battle for second
While meisterJaeger consolidated his position, HappyKojot and Stevenson sustained their own long contest. They were within two seconds of one another across a sequence stretching from lap eight to the end, their respective Cobras repeatedly trading the upper hand.
Stevenson was ahead at the end of lap 34 after HappyKojot had held the place a lap earlier. Yet the Polish driver recovered the advantage by the conclusion of lap 35. The official margin between them was only 0.051 s, HappyKojot taking second and Stevenson third after an affair that had given neither man much room for repose.
The result made the podium an all-Cobra one, but it was not a procession of identical machines. Celárek's TVR had led decisively enough to shape the race, while Kasperi Sirén brought the Bizzarrini GT 5300 Corsa home fifth and FMG's Ferrari 250 GTO took sixth.
A first success
For meisterJaeger, the significance lay beyond the immediate result. This was his first Championship win, earned not by an early escape but by remaining in contention through the changing leadership and making the decisive return to the front before the final third.
Stardust therefore supplied a useful early measure of the field. HappyKojot and Stevenson had remained formidable until the last exchanges, Celárek had shown the speed to lead, and meisterJaeger had converted the strongest position when it mattered. In a Championship that had quickly produced several credible protagonists, that was a result of proper weight.
The record will show a Cobra sweep of the first three places, but the character of the race was broader than that shorthand suggests. Stardust had asked for pace, patience and an ability to recover the initiative, and meisterJaeger alone carried all three qualities to a first victory.