Saturday morning saw the cars warm up and qualify for a traditional race day with a half-hour qualifying and race each. But the fine NASA officials had some ideas in store for the grid, deciding to use the Saturday race results as qualifying for a 1 hour mini-enduro on Sunday. Drivers would be required to stop once during the race, exit the car, then return to continue to the end.
BTM Motorwerks' two cars went out further back in the field in Saturday qualifying to get good position, but given the full Spec Miata and USTCC field in the same session, neither Brad in the Norcal points leading #91, or Andy in the newly repainted #19 car were able to get good laps in with the busy 70 car field, starting 10th and 12th respectively. It's a tribute to the healthy field that a car and drivers that dominated the first two rounds have merely to suffer some bad positioning, and they'd immediately be mid-pack.
Also driving the #19 car for BTM Motorwerks in GTS Challenge 1 would be Ross Martindale, a new addition to the racing team and working through his 4 rookie races, but an old hand with BTM Motorwerks, having spent time in the garage building not only the mighty 91 and the new 19 Spec e30s, but also Andy's 328ti USTCC Podium machine as well.
The Saturday Spec e30 race blasted off from its usual standing start, with some carnage in turn 2 resulting in a few cars off the track. Luckily Brad and Andy avoided the majority of the trouble and started moving forward. Brad in the mighty 91 car moved forward quickly, getting into an epic battle first with former series champ Donnie E, then with Lauren T, moving from his 10th place start up to a worthy 3rd place podium. Still breaking in the 19 car and looking for some performance, Chittum avoided mid-pack mayhem early on, then laid down consistent laps to move up to 8th by the end of the short race.
Sunday's race began mid-morning, and the racers found themselves with another twist to deal with - NASA officials inverted the entire starting grid, all 26 car's starting positions would be inverted, putting series organizer Scott N, victim of the Saturday turn two schimozzle on pole, and Tommy O, the Saturday winnner at the back.
Once again, the cars took off, and given the inverted grid, the field compression was pretty impressive heading into turns 2 through 5 the twistiest part of Thunderhill Raceway. Brad in the 91 car got an excellent start, and was already running in the top 10 by the end of the 1st lap, followed closely by Andy. The usual suspects Donnie E and Lauren T had again also made good starts. But as the field headed through T14, suddenly Lauren and both of the BTM cars headed for the pits to do their pit stops early! Each driver exited then returned to their car as required by the rules, and all blasted back into the track leaving a small group of about 5 cars in clear air away from the bulk of the other 70 cars.
At this point, an epic battle began with Brad getting into the lead of this group, followed closely by Andy and Lauren. Lauren seemed to have the speed advantage, but each time he tried and failed to pass Brad, Andy would catch up as well and just about turn the whole thing upside down. For nearly 8 laps this went on, until a number of things happened. First, Tommy O caught the back of the group, having stopped, and got into the mix, managing to get inside Andy in the 80+ mph entry in T1. Second, going into T9, 4 black stripes suddenly appeared under the 91 car, and it along with Brad sailed off into the dirt outside T9. Slightly later it appeared that Tommy O and Lauren T touched bumpers causing Lauren's exhaust to drop down and drag on the pavement. Tommy O steamed on, but Lauren got the meatball and had to return to the pits and lost a lap during repairs.
Andy found himself out in the middle of no-mans land occasionally passing backmarker Miatas, and holding off Robert L for some time, but before long, Brad had recovered, and the 91 car easily cruised ahead again. Before long, another incident between two cars on the other end of the track brought out the safety car, but only just as Brad and Andy motored by, putting the rest of the field behind them a lap down.
But drama wasn't over once the still 60+ car field had been gathered by the safety car. On the restart, Brad and Andy found themselves in the midst of a number of fast mid-pack Miatas, and a few other Se30s that, given the pit stops was pretty difficult to tell who was leading who. Both cars charged on at the restart, passing numerous other cars, when suddenly, the 91 car headed off track again, this time outside Turn 4. Andy again motored on alone, with Brad far in the distance behind slowly catching up.
Andy got the call on the radio the time was nearly up, but at the same time exiting T15, the 19 car began to starve for gas. With an angry gaggle of spec Miatas and Brad in the 91 car rapidly approaching, Andy managed to keep the speed up and the gas usage down just enough so the 19 and 91 cars ended up in a drag race down the final straight to the checkered flag, the 19 just about a quarter-second behind after 23 laps 60 minutes, and a whole lot of racing.
Brad again ended up 3rd overall behind Tommy O and Donny E, while Andy made it to the end in 4th. Stay tuned for links to video, and more details from the weekend!
BTM Motorwerks will return both cars to NASA's Thunderhill event May 14th and 15th for rounds 7 and 8 of the Spec e30 Series.
Excellent write up Andy!
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