Walter Payton didn`t score a touchdown, but he did pick up the racing equivalent of a first down Saturday when he earned his highest-ever finish in an SCCA Trans-Am race-eighth.
Starting from 13th, Payton fell a few more spots behind at the start, but drove a trouble-free race for his third consecutive top-10 finish. Payton`s teammate, Ron Fellows, was the winner of the 25-lap, 100-mile race in his Ford Mustang.
”You can`t win the race in the first turn,” said Payton, explaining his strategy. ”You can go through that turn too aggressively and knock off some of that fiberglass. The car`s not as warm as it`s going to get and the tires are not hot, so I gave up a few spots.
”Most of the guys who went by me were slower than me in qualifying, so I figured I`d end up catching some of them and passing. I need to run a smart race. That`s what I needed to learn here.”
Payton`s other teammate, Jerry Clinton, who finished 10th, said,
”Walter`s getting better, I`ll tell you that.”
Fellows won the race by passing leader Jack Baldwin in Turn 5 on the 16th lap. Scott Sharp finished third.