March 4th, 2022
Season 4
Round 4
The series’ first visit to Lexington, Ohio was flush with storylines. Wojciech Swirydowicz led the points standings coming in, having won rounds two and three at Sebring and Laguna Seca. His closest rival, Jérôme Bajulaz, had won the season opener at Belle Isle. Defending champion Logan McKinzie was off-pace and had just switched to the Elantra.
However our focus is on Slugnificent and the, at the time, sophomore driver Matthew Rzepka. Slugnificent was 3rd in career wins at the time behind Shink and Swirydowicz, but had only managed one top three championship finish in his first three seasons. Though he hadn’t won yet this season, he had qualified inside the top three twice and secured a podium at Belle Isle. Despite these successes, crashes at Sebring and Laguna Seca left him far down the order and needing a good result.
Rzepka was coming off a rookie season where he finished 17th, with two top ten finishes at Nürburgring GP and Daytona as his best results, though he consistently finished close to 10th. When Season 4 started, Rzepka immediately began to turn heads, with two back-to-back career best finishes and another top ten. With his clean, consistent driving, he was hovering very closely to the championship leaders.
| POS | TRACK |
| 5 | Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle |
| 5 | Sebring International Raceway |
| 8 | WeatherTech Raceway at Laguna Seca |
When practice closed for qualifying to begin, it was clear that Rzepka favored Mid-Ohio’s layout. His lap time of 1:29.011 was the fastest in practice by over a tenth, ahead of James D Carr and Slugnificent, who was also finding stellar pace at the circuit. With former champions Shink and McKinzie off the pace and Swirydowicz absent, it looked like the race for the lead was wide open.
The checkered flag waves on qualifying. Francois Shink sits at the top of the board with a 1:28.726, a tenth ahead of Slugnificent, two tenths ahead of Rzepka. When the flag waves, Shink is already in the pits. He has held onto provisional pole for over four minutes at this point, but Rzepka and Slugnificent are still on their last flying laps when the clock hits zero. Eleven seconds later, Slugnificent crosses the line with a 1:28.643 and becomes the new provisional polesitter. At the same time, Rzepka enters the final sector of the track also on pace to improve his time. When he comes across the line, the timing sheets read 1:28.643. They’ve set the exact same time, but Rzepka is scored as the new polesitter.
At a glance, this seems incorrect. The car who set the lap first should be starting on pole, right? The issue wasn’t with the ruling, but with the timing sheets. Further investigation into the data found a hidden fourth decimal place that was being recorded.
| Matthew Rzepka | 1:28.6432 |
| Slugnificent | 1:28.6435 |
Rzepka started on pole, but lost the lead to Slugnificent before the end of lap 1. He would still lead about a third of the race after Slugnificent performed an early pit strategy, but by the end of the race he would be -06.627 behind. For the Slug, it’s exactly what he needs to re-energize his championship bid for Season 4. For Rzepka, it’s a bittersweet result. His best career result, his first pole, and finishing over seven seconds ahead of third place driver James D Carr, but starting from pole and not winning is always going to sting a little.
In the end, Slugnificent would finish 3rd in the championship after winning two more races at Circuit Villeneuve and Road America. Rzepka finished only 28 points behind him in 5th after securing a second podium at Watkins Glen International, a race he came even closer to winning than this one.
Mid-Ohio would become a staple track of the series whilst featuring some of the closest finishes in series history, and hasn’t missed being on the schedule since.
Alpha Touring Challenge 