CART: Broken Camshaft prevents Danyal Gitirokh from completing a lap at Atlanta; SCRLASTCAR battle set for Phoenix

Danyal Gitirokh picked up the 2nd last place finish of his SCRL CART Series career in Sunday's Rich's Atlanta Classic at the Atlanta Motor Speedway when his #42 Ikea entry fell out with camshaft issues without completing any of the 33 laps.

The finish, which came in his 13th career start, was his first on the circuit since the Norton Twin 125 #1 at the Michigan International Speedway when he was eliminated in a multi-car accident after 13 of 20 laps; 6 races ago. In the CART Series, it's the 2nd for the #42 and the 1st for camshaft issues. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 8th for the #42 and 38th for camshaft issues.

After trailing for the first time in his CART career, Gitirokh would finish 20th in the second twin Michigan race, before scoring a series best runner up finish to Rohan Marmot at the series's first ever trip to the road course at Watkins Glen. A disappointing 31st at Trenton would be followed by a 26th at Ontario before finishing 18th in the last round at Michigan.

In qualifying, Ray Dent Jr. scored the second pole of his CART career with a time of 31.580 seconds, while Gitirokh would fair decently in qualfying, posting a time of 31.847, only 0.267 seconds off Dent's pole, placing Gitirokh 12th. Posting the slowest time in qualifying was the #11 entry of Marcus Saatchi, who would struggle to find speed, as he posted a time of 32.420 seconds, a full 0.840 seconds behind Dent's pole winning time.

Daniel Bouchard stalls on pit road.

On race day, as the field began to pull off pit road for their lone pace lap, third Michigan last-place finisher the #6 RCA entry of Daniel Bouchard would suffer tire problems, stalling on pit road and forcing the inside line to be held up. Bouchard would be pushed to his stall as the cars drove past. Meanwhile going down the backstretch, Gitirokh reported a problem to his team as the car began to smoke heavily, pulling to the inside of the track and following the pace car down pit road as the field took the green flag as Gitirokh pulled behind the wall, with him and Bouchard both being scored having not completed a lap. Bouchard would get back out on track, four laps down and would go on to finish 21st, while Gitirokh's team looked over the car and found that the camshaft was broken, ending their day and putting Gitirokh into the SCRLASTCAR battle in the finale at Phoenix.

The remaining Bottom Five would be filled up by the Lap 3 Big-One that would break out; 32nd was the #3 entry of Michael Brown, 31st was the #69 of Chakat Duskwatcher, 30th was Indy last-place finisher the #2 Coppertone entry of Mairin Tayami and 29th was the #88 McDonald's entry of Rohan Marmot.

Entering the season finale at Phoenix, only three drivers can mathematically win the SCRLASTCAR Championship; Danyal Gitirokh, Casey Nanako and Carol Dent. There are three different outcomes that will determine the championship; if Danyal finishes last he will outright win the title, if Casey Nanako finishes last and both Gitirokh and Dent finish outside the Bottom Ten, she will win the championship. Dent is the furthest back, as she will need to finish last outright and for the other two to finish outside the Bottom Ten as well to win the championship. If anyone else but those three drivers finishes last, Gitirokh will win the championship no matter where Nanako or Dent finishes.

SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #42 had finished last in the CART Series at Atlanta.
*This marked the first time a driver has finished last due to camshaft issues.

*This is the first time a driver has failed to complete a lap since the Trenton Twin Indy #2 at the Trenton Speedway when Matt McIntyre's #33 Purina entry fell out with engine issues; 7 races ago.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
33) #42-Danyal Gitirokh / 0 laps / camshaft
32) #3-Michael Brown / 3 laps / crash
31) #69-Chakat Duskwatcher / 3 laps / crash
30) #2-Mairin Tayami / 3 laps / crash
29) #88-Rohan Marmot / 3 laps / crash