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West Coast Challenge Series, Round 5
For the fifth stop
on the West Coast Challenge Series, we had 11 drivers show up to do
battle on the very technical Infineon (Sears Point) Raceway. Tom
Andrews, Paul McGarvey, Dave and Tasha Standridge, Ron Morris, Karen
Salvaggio, Robert Walter, Rich Norgrove, T.C. McNett, Dave Brown
(driving the Team Racing 4 A Reason 25 hour Enduro car), and Rick
Anderson made up the list of drivers. Unfortunately, Ron lost a motor
during testing on Friday which sidelined him for the weekend. The
Racing 4 A Reason team was there to test and tune with us and do further
shake down on the car. Rich Migliori should receive a Masters Degree for
“Roll Cage Engineering”. Hopefully he will post some comments and
pictures later.
After the Saturday
warm up it was time to get serious and qualify. When the qualifying
times were posted, there was a 1.1 second separation between first and
seventh spot!! Talk about a tight group, you could have thrown a “small
blanket” over the whole field.
For the race, we
had a standing start that followed the CMC group. At the green, all
were off with a clean start and the battle was on. The Challenge cars
stayed in a pretty tight group with close racing and plenty of dicing
back and forth throughout the pack. Near the end of the race, Rick had
an unassisted spin into the tire barrier at turn ten. Tom, while
working to stay clear of any of the “yard sale” that was going on, spun
safely to the inside of the ten/ eleven which is wide open and all
asphalt. Dave went on to victory, with Robert taking second, and Paul
securing third place. T.C., Tom, Karen, Rich, Tasha and Rick rounded out
the finishing order.
The grid for
Sundays qualifying race was based on the finishing order from Saturdays
race, but with a flying start and inverted grid. At the start, Rick
took off for the lead with the rest of the group in hot pursuit. Midway
through the 20 minute race, it seamed like the whole group passed Rick
like a freight train. Meanwhile, Karen had worked up to the front with
Dave carefully picking his way towards the front also. Rich Norgrove
held his third spot while T.C. and Robert battled close behind. At the
checker, it was Karen, Dave, Rich, Robert, T.C. Paul, Rick, Tom, and
Tasha. Note: the separation between Robert and T.C. was .008 seconds!
For the Sunday
main race the field was based on fast lap time in the qualifying race
with a standing start. On pole, with a new track record, was Dave
Standridge (1:55.711), followed by T.C., Paul, Rich, Rick, Karen,
Robert, Tom, and Tasha. The top seven qualifiers were separated by 2.1
seconds. Even though the temperatures were cool and mild, the
competition was hot and intense! Just before the start, Dave had to
retire: fuel pump failure. At the start, T.C. took the lead with Paul
close behind. As usual, the rest of the group was having a great time
swapping positions while trying to catch T.C. Midway through the race,
there was a full course yellow. Unfortunately, Paul’s motor decided to
lay down (spark plug wire failure) which allowed a large gap to form
between T.C. and Paul. At the green, Rick, in second spot, tried to
catch up, but had to contend with a pesky Robert who was not content
with his current position. After about two laps, Robert got by but had
to contend with Rick, Rich and Karen nibbling at his tail for the
remainder of the race. In the end, it was T.C. for the victory,
followed by, Robert, Rick, Rich, Karen, Tasha, Paul, Tom, and Dave.
All in all, a good weekend for all
drivers and teams.
--Rick Anderson
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