NayKid Racing made a remarkable second start last Saturday at the Miller Motorsports Park in this year’s SPEED World Challenge. Cindi Lux, a racer from Aloha, Ore. earned the Rookie of the Race Award with a strong 13th place finish in her No. 2 Mintex Brakes/Red Line Oil Dodge Viper Comp. Coupe.

‘I guess Miller Motorsports Park would be the closest thing to my home track in this series and with all the time I have behind the wheel at this track it was great worrying about car setup vs. getting comfortable with the track. But unfortunately we never got our hands wrapped around the handling of our cars. We had our issues but, overall, the team is starting to rally. Our crew showed why they are a championship caliber team with a huge amount of determination in getting these Vipers perfect. I think we’ll keep getting stronger and stronger,’ Lux said.

She added, ‘Having two cars in the top-15 shows we’re making progress. Winning the Rookie of the Race Award and Scotty grabbing the Hard Charger Award was awesome. We did make progress in our finishing positions in the race but we are not at all satisfied. No way! Unfortunately we are going to miss the next couple of WC races but we do have an extensive test schedule planned so we don’t lose our momentum.’

Scotty B. White of Lake Tapps, Wash. made his last SPEED World Challenge start prior to this year in 2004. White said he had an exciting race taking the Sunoco Hard Charger Award for most positions gained in the race after moving from last on the grid to 15th at the checkered flag - a 12 position gain.

‘We’re obviously really happy to be up on the podium for the Hard Charger Award. It was real fun to get out there on a real road course with these Dodge Vipers. Starting dead last certainly wasn’t the place we wanted to be after being red flagged in qualifying. We got out there and ran and got the car home in one piece. It wasn’t the result we were looking for but with one session to sort the car it was a good run,’ noted White of NayKid Racing.

‘The team was happy and we’re looking forward to our next race in Toronto. We would have liked to get into the top-ten but to gain twelve positions was satisfying. It was fun to run this Dodge hot rod and the Mintex brakes really did well on all 24 corners. We’re enjoying the series and can’t wait to do more,’ White added.

The race presented its own challenges. Due to the illuminating morning sunlight, neither Lux nor White had a clear view of the starting lights. The push or understeer is another story. But racers producing Volant performance created the greatest pressure. But Lux was in a battle of her own. And she has triumphed.