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 Tommy Archer's Camaro emerged as the final challenger chasing Gar Robinson to a 1-2 Trans-Am II finish at BIR. Photo credit: John Gilbert

The podium after BIR's Trans-Am II race was identical to last year, from left: Tommy Archer second, Gar Robinson first, and Dillon Machavern third. Photo credit: John Gilbert

Tommy Archer's Camaro provided a video highlight when it spun in Turn 12, dropping him from second to fifth. Photo credit: John Gilbert

BRAINERD, MN. – Tommy Archer wanted to win the Trans-Am race at Brainerd International Raceway more than he wanted to be the star of the show, but Duluth’s top road-racer nearly achieved both simultaneously last Sunday at BIR.

Archer had to fight his way back into contention after spinning out early in last Sunday’s Trans-Am II race, then he had to guess right and squeeze his ECC/Kolar Chevrolet Camaro through a tangle of crashing contenders right in front of him in a wild six-car chase that was reduced to a premature finish.

Archer wound up duplicating his second-place finish behind Gar Robinson’s Camaro in the 40-lap race around the 2.5-mile road course inside the old BIR track. Except it wasn’t 40 laps, because race officials, after running several laps under a no-passing caution yellow, decided to end the race two laps early.

Archer was OK with that. If it were a storybook finish, the officials would have cleared the track and held the cars out for one more caution lap, then thrown the green for what would have had to be a spectacular final lap.

“I was exhausted,” Archer said. “It might have been a great finish, or I might have finished fifth. So I’m happy it ended the way it did and I’ll take second.”

The race provided Archer the forum to return to the series, which is run amid a snarl of Trans-Am classes that range from TA1, down through TA2, 3, 4, and 5. An oddity is that the more costly and more powerful TA1 cars, mainly Corvettes, are not as competitive as the TA2 Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers that resemble throwback races from the heritage of the 1970s.

Archer, who is fighting off a dose of cancer with some advanced therapy and a strict vegan diet, has lost considerable weight and, he says, strength, but if it hadn’t been for a dropoff in sponsorship money his determination would have kept him in the whole series. Having missed two races, Archer two weeks ago tied up an arrangement with ECC – Engine Component Company, from Elgin, Ill., which sponsors Adam Andretti, one of the series favorites who had just won the Detroit race. The two drivers are friends, and both look forward to sharing ideas and working as a tandem.

After qualifying third behind pole-sitter Tony Buffamante and Lawrence Loshak, with Robinson next to him in the fourth slot, Loshak took the early lead. Archer battled his way up to third but avoided disaster on Lap 14 when he got to Turn 12, a 90-degree right-hander, when, ironically, he didn’t spin far enough around.

   “When I hit the brakes, the pedal went down and the rear end hopped on me,” said Archer. “When I knew I was going to go around, I was hoping to go a full 360 and keep it straight, but it only went 270 degrees.”

Getting straight was one thing, and getting back up to the leaders was something else. A big boost came when a slower car stalled out between Turns 4-5, and needed a tow. That caused a yellow that closed up the field, and the gap from Robinson, Loshak and Dillon Machavern back to Andretti, Archer and Justin Haley suddenly vanished, before the field again got the green flag on Lap 26.

Haley, from Winnimac, Ind., is a spectacular prospect. Only 17 years old, he had won a NASCAR event on Saturday night and was flown to Brainerd, where he had to start last in the 15-car TA2 field without a qualifying time. He drove a Braun Foundation Mustang swiftly through the field and was the fastest car on the track.

As the cars came past the pits on Lap 32, the top six were in an amazingly close battle. Archer pulled inside Machavern at Turn 12 and the two went door-to-door hurtling toward Turn 13, just behind Haley, who was just behind Robinson leading Loshak. It seemed impossible that they could squeeze around Turn 13 in that tight a formation – and it was.

As they came around 13, there was some contact and all sorts of chaos. “Two teammates hit each other,” said Archer. “I saw them spinning, and my brain said they’d spin to the left so I should go right. Somebody watching said I went off onto the grass, but I got by them.”

The incident knocked Haley out of the race, as well as Jordan Bernloehr, but Archer wound up in second place behind Robinson, who is from San Antonio, Texas. The bigger problem was trying to get enough safety crews out to haul the two disabled cars out of potential harm’s way. The field ran several laps under the yellow flag and behind the pace car.

Then it was flagged as a finish. In the renewed BIR, there is not what you might call a lot of communication. Or something like a scoreboard or a digital running order. The public address announcers do a good job, but can’t be heard at most vantage points around the infield. And the limited grandstands aren’t where most of the fans seemed to gather. So there was a lot of confusion when Robinson and Archer climbed onto the podium for the trophy presentation.

“It was so much fun,” Archer said, “but if they gave the green for one final lap, you might catch up and pass somebody to win, or you might get caught and passed and finish fifth.”

Next up for the Archer-Andretti tandem running under ECC is the Mid-Ohio Trans-Am II race in August.

After a late caution, the top six TA2 contenders were bunched, with Gar Robinson leading, followed by Lawrence Loshak, Justin Haley, Dillon Machavern (24), Tommy Archer, and Adam Andretti (44). Photo credit: John Gilbert

Jordan Bernloehr of Lakeville (07) had nowhere to go but into the spun car of Justin Haley in the climactic Turn 13 crash at BIR. Photo credit: John Gilbert