SARRC Invitational Challenge Report – 2014
By Tom Lyttle, SARRC pointskeeper
The 2014 SIC saw seven races to settle this year’s SARRC championships. The first visit of the seasonending event at the Daytona International Speedway saw the expected warm temperatures and some
threatening clouds, but except for a short shower during the Sunday morning ECR/TES enduro, the
weather was near perfect. The on-track action was pretty hot, too, with numerous close battles for class
wins for both the race and series. And, as I expected, some of the finishes were settled by the famous
Daytona drafting passes at the checkered flag.
The fields were larger than they have been in years, with around 225 drivers entered for the SIC, plus
another 90 or so for the enduro. There were a surprising number of late scratches, so an even 200 cars
took starts in the SIC races. Spec Miata led as usual with 35 entries, while SRF and SRF3 combined had
another 25. ITS and ITA were next with 10 entries each, although the ITS field would have been much
larger if not for a batch of the North Carolina front-runners having to pull out at the last minute for a variety
of reasons.
I’ll try to highlight the battles and results for each race group and class. And I’ll see how my predictions
worked out for the race and series. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to watch all of the races in their entirety
because I was running in couple myself. You don’t always get to see the best parts when you’re on the
track – but sometimes you have a really good view!
Race 1 – FA, FB, FC, FE, FM, FS, P1, P2
My pick of Donald Boughan for the FA win and title was looking good when he qualified on the overall
pole well ahead of John Zuccarelli and Luiz Nogueira. The positions behind Boughan were mostly held
by the speedy FB cars, with Alastair McEwan leading the pack only 0.7 seconds back. Following were P1
leader and sole entrant Michael Moulton, FM leader Carson Weeder, FC leader Marc Stern and FE
leader Paul Schneider over a tightly bunched FE pack. John McTaggart led Sherry Dowling for the P2
pole, but Dowling hit problems and didn’t make the start. Hiro Nishioka had the sole FS car, with Jacek
Mucha having already wrapped up the SARRC title.
Unfortunately, Boughan’s chances disappeared when he broke on the pace lap, forcing a waveoff. When
the race started, McEwan jumped into an immediate lead and slowly pulled away to win overall and in FB.
Behind him, the FB trio of Tim Pierce, William Falatick and Joel Haas swapped places from lap to lap,
with Pierce finally taking control of second at half-distance. Falatick and Haas continued to swap
positions until Haas took third for good with a couple laps left. Close behind, Paul Schneider held the
next spot and the FE lead ahead of the remaining FBs of Peter Frost and Richard Franklin, and setting an
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FE record in the process. Frost fell back a few spots early on, but rebounded to pass Franklin for 6 and
fifth in FB. Moulton was next, cruising in to take the P1 win. Well, maybe cruising isn’t the right term,
since he also set a P1 track record.
Weeder had his FM up near the FB crowd early on, but then slowly faded into the field, finishing a place
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ahead of the only other FM of Court Dowis in 19 place. That was all he needed for the SARRC title and
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maybe he didn’t want to push his luck. Likewise, FC leader Marc Stern started in 10 and drifted back to
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15 , but he still handily beat his only rival, Chris Dunlap. Luiz Nogueira started at the back of the pack,
but charged up through the field to beat Zuccarelli for the FA win and ninth overall, although he also got
ahead of Moulton before the P1 driver reclaimed the eighth spot late. Among the pack of FE cars, Tilden
Kinlaw held second most of the way, but had to fight off Chris Locurto at the end. Joe Reppert was next
ahead of Wally Osinga, Mark Schneider, who lost a bunch of places on lap seven and couldn’t regain
many of them, and Dennis Ferrara. McTaggart was running in the FE pack until he encountered
problems on lap 8 and retired, but he still took the P2 win uncontested. Nishioka also took an
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uncontested win in FS, finishing 17 .
SARRC Positions
FA – Zuccarelli needed only a finish to take the title after Boughan dropped out. Nogueira’s win jumped
him up to second over the unfortunate Boughan.
FB – Pierce and Falatick were tied going into the SIC, so Pierce’s second was enough to secure the
championship. And Haas’ third was enough to edge Falatick for second in SARRC by a single point, 187186. My predictions would have been perfect if I accounted for McEwan. I said he had a shot at the SIC
win, but then didn’t pick him. He was too far behind to challenge for a SARRC trophy, but his win did lift
him up to fifth behind Franklin.
FC – Marc Stern had the title locked up when none of his rivals made the race. His win extended his
margin to 204-132-108 over Jim Johnson and Kenneth Weld.
FE – Paul Schneider won as I predicted and claimed the FE crown. Mark Schneider and Wally Osinga
didn’t have the finishes I predicted, or I’m sure that they wanted, but they still had enough of a lead to
hold on to second and third.
FM – Carson Weeder needed only a points finish to lock up another FM title. Dowis took second in
SARRC when David Obenauer didn’t show for the race.
FS – Jacek Mucha already had the SARRC win locked up. Nishioka’s win got him close, but not close
enough. No other drivers qualified.
P1 – Michael Moulton needed only a finish to pass no-show Venancio Nodarse for the SARRC title. J
Salmon took the third spot.
P2 – Sherry Dowling had the SARRC lead going into the SIC. However, his DNS allowed John
McTaggart to take an uncontested win and the championship, with Craig Farr taking the final spot.
Race 2 – CF, FF, FV, F500
The small formula car looked to go according to my predictions, with John Benson sitting on the overall
and FF pole, over a second ahead of defending champion John Schimenti, with Stuart Jackson, Sam
Lockwood, Jason Generotti, Lawrence Hendrickson and Jim Morgan clustered within just over a second.
Among the Club Ford frontrunners, only Richard Klotz made the race, and he was outqualified by Court
Dowis. F500 leaders Christopher Hite and Charles Thompson were the only attendees in class.
Thompson qualified on the pole by several seconds, but a close race seemed more likely. In FV, John
Fuchs had a surprising 2 seconds gap on the field, the rest of which was covered by two seconds total.
At the green, Benson jumped into an immediate lead, pulling out a gap over Schimenti, who also pulled a
small gap over the battling pack behind. Benson steadily pulled away to win by nearly 12 seconds.
However, Schimenti’s advantage was reeled back in a couple laps and Generotti took over second on lap
4. He managed to hold it from there out, eventually taking the runner-up spot by four seconds. The rest
of the pack continued to go at it until just past halfway, when first Hendrickson, then Jackson pulled into
the pits on consecutive laps. Morgan also fell back, leaving Schimenti and Lockwood to settle it for third.
Lockwood tried to draft past on several occasions and got alongside coming to the checker, but fell just
short as Schimenti took the final podium spot. The CF race was settled early, when Dowis couldn’t get
out of his FM from the previous race in time to make the grid, and had to start from the rear. To make
things worse, his pace was well of what he qualified at, so he never had a chance to challenge Klotz.
Klotz cruised to the win, nearly 2 minutes behind in sixth overall. The F500 race was also settled early,
when Hite spun on the second lap and fell to the back of the field. Thomson came in just behind Klotz for
the class win. Hite recovered to take eighth, but nearly a lap down to Thompson.
The FV race was a serious drafting battle, with pass after pass being made on the run to the start-finish
line. However, John Fuchs was somehow able to make a break and stay out in front by a small margin,
finishing 8 seconds up at the end. Behind was a 4-car tag-team of points leader Duke Waldrop, Allen
Adderly, Bill Dennis and Harry Schneider. Schneider lost his tow past half distance and fell back a ways,
but the others kept at it until the end. Waldrop led coming to the flag, but Adderly pulled out at the right
time and nipped the new champion at the line, with Dennis close behind in fourth. Schneider, Shannon
Jones, Fred Clark and Mike Schiffer rounded out the field.
SARRC Positions
CF – Klotz climbed up from third to take the SARRC title over Steve Brooks and Joseph Riley when the
latter two didn’t make the race.
F500 – Charles Thompson’s win was just enough to give him the title over Hite. Matt Strand was already
assured of third.
FF – With the top five within 10 points heading into the SIC, the points race was sure to nearly match the
race finish, although Generotti and Lockwood were not among the leaders going in. Benson’s win broke
the tie he had been in with Schimenti, whose third still gave him second in SARRC. Morgan’s fifth was
enough to tie him with Jackson and take third in points on the tie-breaker of better SIC finish. Jackson fell
to fourth and Hendrickson remained fifth after their retirements, while Lockwood claimed the final trophy
spot with his fourth in the race.
FV – I was surprised to see that the SIC race finishes didn’t result in a single position change in the final
SARRC standings. Duke Waldrop maintained his sizeable lead over Bill Dennis, while John Fuchs strong
win left him just a point short of second. Schneider, Jones, Clark and Schiffer finished in order both on
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the track (in 5 through 8 and in the final SARRC points (4 through 7 ). Adderly had only two finishes
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coming in, so his race second was good for only 11 in the final standings.
Race 3 – SRF, SRF3, STL, STU, T4
Race 3 had a split start, with seven of the new SRF3s heading up a big field of 18 SRFs. In the second
half were seven STLs, four STUs and a pair of T4s. SRF National Champion Brian Schofield took the
SRF3 pole over Lee Hill and Tray Ayres. Among the SRF drivers, Defending SIC and SARRC champ
Frank Severino was on the pole, while the top three in points, Todd Vanacore, Casey McKibben and Clay
Russell qualified only ninth, fifth, and seventh, respectively. However, even Vanacore was barely a
second off the pole and with drafting such a big factor, that’s not much.
The STL qualifying saw Raymond Philibert and Peter Keane team up for a draft and nip points leader
Mike Van Steenburg for the pole. T4 points leader Stan Winokur took class pole over Ed Barr, while I
managed to just outrun points leader Mickey Thompson, who rented a BSI Miata to improve his chances
for the race, Joe Henslee and Dana Deshong.
As it turned out, this race probably had the most drama of the weekend. In all five classes, either the SIC
win or the SARRC championship (or both) were decided in the last two laps. The race saw the top six
SRF3s running close together, with Schofield, Hill and Ayres all taking the lead at one point. Jean-Luc
Liverato also made it up to as high as second, while Tom Weir and Tilden Kinlaw were close behind.
After a midrace double yellow bunched up the field, drafting resumed. Schofield led most of the way, but
Hill drafted by on the last lap to take first over Schofield and Ayres. A quarter second covered the three.
Liverato slipped back late to finish five seconds back, while Weir beat Kinlaw by a tenth.
Severino led the SRF pack at the line after the first lap, when he was passed by David Donovan. The
mid-race yellow made things even more interesting, since it allowed the top three STLs to make up the
split start difference. Since the top SRFs and STLs all ran in the 2:17s, but were fast in different places,
chaos was a possibility. The points races in the two classes were up for grabs, too. McKibben needed to
beat Vanacore by a place or two for the title (Russell had dropped out after early contact damaged his
car). Keane needed to win and have Van Steenburg finish no better than third to grab the STL crown.
After the restart, Vanacore was a place up on McKibben, so things were looking good. They swapped
places on lap 9, but Vanacore still held a one point lead. But McKibben continued to march forward,
taking second in class, and the points lead, with one lap to go. McKibben ended up just two tenths
behind SIC winning Severino. Vancore couldn’t make up any ground on the last lap, finishing fourth and
three points behind McKibben. I know it had to be painful to have such an outstanding year – eight wins
in such a competitive class -- and then fall just short of the championship at the end. Chad Galloway took
third in the race, while Derek Schofield and John Annis took fifth and sixth. And to remind you once again
of how competitive SRF is, Annis led a six car train that finished all within a second at the checker.
The STL battle continued down to the wire as well. Keane got a good jump in the crazy restart traffic and
managed to put a few SRFs between him and his STL pursuers. He even managed to get ahead of
Severino for a lap. However, Van Steenburg was still holding on to second in class with two laps to go.
But one bad lap saw him drop six places and fall to third behind Philibert. Mike couldn’t make it back on
the final round, so Keane ended up taking the championship by a single point. John Lettieri made a late
race charge, moving up nine places in the last four laps to finish only three seconds behind Van
Steenburg for fourth.
Ed Barr started several places behind T4 leader Winokur, but managed to reel him in and take the class
lead by lap four. But Winokur kept him in sight and got back by a few laps later. Barr apparently made a
slight error and lost a few seconds late, and Winokur held on for a six second victory.
In STU, Dana Deshong’s last place qualifying wasn’t representative, as the Prelude proved to have plenty
of straight line speed. He blew by me on the first trip around the banking and disappeared. I pulled out a
few seconds on Mickey Thompson, who I needed to beat for the championship, so things were looking
promising. However, the mid-race caution messed up my plans. We ended up with all the fast SRFs and
STLs in a giant pack behind us. At first, I thought I was okay. I got back by Deshong going into Turn 1
and put several SRFs (and about three seconds) between me and Mickey. However, by the end of the
lap and getting passed by still more SRFs, Mickey was right on my bumper and Dana had disappeared
on the banking again. I had an advantage in the infield and braking into Turn 1, while Mickey had a slight
top speed advantage. On laps 10 and 11, he drafted by me heading into the tri-oval, but I got back by on
braking. On the last lap, I thought I had two choices – try really hard to pull out a gap through the chicane
and hope I’d make the flag before he caught me, or let him through and hope I could draft by him instead.
I wasn’t sure the latter would work, so I went for plan A. I got a little gap, but knew it wasn’t enough. As I
feared, Mickey drafted by again. I tried to drop back in and draft back, but was only just starting to gain
when the checker came out and ended my hopes. Half a mile from the championship, but it wasn’t to be.
SARRC Positions
SRF – Casey McKibben’s second place was just what he needed to get by Todd Vanacore for the title
219-214. Clay Russell’s non-finish dropped him from third to fourth behind race winner Severino. The
Weir family took the final two trophy positions, with Justin passing Tom for fifth when Tom converted to
SRF3 thus didn’t score any additional points. At least he did get a solid fifth in the SRF3 race.
SRF3 – Tray Ayres won the unofficial SRF3 title. Brian Schofield used his second place in the race to
edge ahead of Tilden Kinlaw by a single point.
STL – Peter Keane’s win and Mike Van Steenburg’s third gave him just enough points to pass the former
leader by a single point, 202-201. John Lettieri’s fourth solidified his third place SARRC finish, while
Connor Flynn’s sixth in the SIC kept him ahead of Michael Tablas for fourth. Raymond Philibert’s strong
second in the race was enough to pull him ahead of fifth place finisher Mickey Snow to take the sixth and
final SARRC trophy.
STU – Mickey Thompson’s last lap pass let him hold on to his STU title, with me a very dejected second.
Joe Henslee’s fourth in the race gave him enough points to hold off race winner Deshong for the final
SARRC spot, 128-125.
T4 – Stan Winokur already had the T4 title locked up, and his win just added to his margin. Ed Barr
would have taken second in points if he had been able to hold on to the win over Winokur. However,
when he fell to second in the race, he fell two points short of overhauling second place SARRC finisher
Chris Graham.
Race 4 – AS, ASR, GT1/2/3/A, SPO, T1, T2, ITO
In the big-bore race, most of the classes had only a small handful of entrants. But most of them were
drivers who could win their championship with a SIC win. In GT1, points leaders Raymond Webb and
Juan Vento were the only entrants, but Vento could take his second straight title with a win in the race.
And he was starting on the pole. SPO points leader Lee Arnold was next, a few spots up on Jeff Hinkle,
followed by GT2 points leader Randy Kinsland and Bobby Kennedy. In GTA, second place Andrew Rains
qualified just ahead of Vern Smith and points leader Randy Sampson. Points leaders Dainton Brooks
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(2 ) and Bob Eubanks (1 ) qualified on top in AS over third place Andrew Wilkin. However, Eubanks
ended up missing the race with car problems. In T1, Ted Hight qualified well up on Mickey Snow. And
Paul Troup was first in ITO, just ahead of John Lloyd. Finally, Bill McGavic (GT2), Jack Dunn (ASR) and
Squeak Kennedy (T2) were the sole representatives in their classes.
The race got off to a slow start, with Jeff Hinkle stopping on course after the first lap and the race being
stopped to retrieve him. When action resumed, Vento took off in the lead and was never headed. Arnold
held second for the first six laps over Bobby Kennedy. Meanwhile, Kinsland, who for some reason had
started at the back of the pack, was charging up through the field. By lap 7, he and Kennedy both got by
Arnold and stayed there until lap 9, when the race ended early for another on course incident. Rains took
fifth overall and led the GTA field all the way, which was made even easier when Vern Smith and Chad
Jorgenson both quit with a couple laps to go. Webb was next and second in GT1, ahead of second SPO
finisher Harry Hinkle and third place in GT2 Richard Smith. Squeak Kennedy, McGavic and Dunn came
next, all taking their classes uncontested. In AS, Brooks took yet another SARRC title when he finished a
place up on Wilkin and several ahead of third place Tom Vlasak. Hight won T1 uncontested when Snow
didn’t complete the first lap. Finally, Troup managed to stay a place ahead of Lloyd for the ITO win,
which was settled when Lloyd broke two laps from the end.
Juan Vento appeared to have clinched his second consecutive GT1 championship with his win.
However, he was found to have non-compliant body work in impound and was demoted to second behind
Raymond Webb. That allowed Webb to keep his points lead and claim the crown instead.
SARRC Positions
AS – Brooks claimed yet another AS title with his win, after breaking in the SIC for the last couple years.
Bob Eubanks suffered the disappointment this year, not only failing to defend his 2012 and 2103 SIC
wins, but falling from first to fourth in the final points and out of the trophy positions. Andrew Wilkins took
advantage of Eubanks problems and beat Vlasak to claim the second spot in SARRC points 184-183,
with Vlasak third.
ASR – Jacek Mucha had already claimed the ASR title. Dunn’s uncontested SIC win merely made the
margin close. No other drivers qualified.
GT1 – Vento’s tech issues denied him a second GT1 title, with Webb taking the championship instead.
Richard Bridgette took the third spot.
GT2 – Randy Kinsland claimed a second consecutive GT2 title with his win. Richard Smith and John
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Maddox were second and third going into the SIC and retained their positions by taking 3 and 4 in the
race. Bobby Kennedy’s strong second in the race was enough to move him up to fourth in points,
passing Ricky Sanders, who broke early in the event.
GT3 – Bill McGavic had already clinched the title and added to his points margin with his win. Ray
Stpehenson and Ron Wilcox tied for second with 100 points even.
GTA – Andrew Rains was third in points coming into the SIC. But when leader Randy Walker decided not
to run, Rains could claim the title if he beat Randy Sampson. He managed to do just that, leading for the
entire race. Vern Smith used his third in the race to climb up to third in the final table. Claiming the last
three spots were Walker, Hall Robertson and Dean Bramer.
SPO – Lee Arnold had a two point lead going into the SIC over Jeff Hinkle, but the early race problems
killed the Dodge driver’s challenge. Harry Hinkle took advantage to move up to second in the final list.
The last three spots went to Wayne Cabaniss, Eric Servick and Cameron Maugeri. Maugeri made the
SIC, and would have taken fourth with a finish, but unfortunately mechanical problems kept him from
gaining ground.
T1 – Ted Hight and Mickey Snow were tied going into the SIC. When Snow retired early, it gave the
SARRC championship to Hight. Carlos Garcia took third.
T2 – Squeak Kennedy had already locked up the title, but entered anyway and added to his points
margin. No one else qualified.
T3 – There were no qualifiers in the class.
ITO – Paul Troup needed only a finish to guarantee the ITO crown, which he did. John Lloyd broke late
in the race, but still took second to move up to second in the final points over Mike Schlickenmeyer.
Race 5 – ITA/R/S/7/7R
ITR cars filled the first two rows of the grid, with Mike Flynn ahead of points leader Jeffrey Cripe, Paul
Azan and Mike Guenther. ITS cars were next with Greg Ira’s Z-car ahead of Menas Akarjalian’s RX7
next. Rickey Thompson, second in ITR points coming in, was next, followed by ITS runners Charles
Perry and Zsolt Ferenczy. Next, I was surprised to find the ITA leading duo of Michael Sperber and Gary
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Frierson in 10 and 11 .ahead of most of the ITS field. ITS leader Charlie Lowrance was back in 13 and
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sixth in class. Other ITA title contenders Pete Burris-Meyer and Robin Langlotz were 16 and 17
overall. Further back, Gary Wilson took the IT7 pole, just 0.2 seconds up on defending champion Steve
Rose, who had never even seen Daytona before this weekend. Championship hopefuls Lon Carey and I
were a couple seconds further back.
At the start, Flynn took the lead immediately and was never headed the rest of the way. But Cripe kept it
close to take second. A ways back, Thompson moved up four places to take third by the second lap over
Guenther, while Azan slipped back to an eighth place finish. Just behind the ITR group, Ira and
Akarjalian were going at it for the ITS win. Akarjalian took the lead on lap two, but Ira was stalking him for
the rest of the race and Perry was not far behind. Behind Azan, Ferenczy led the ITA duo until mid race,
when Sperber managed to slip by and put a small margin over Frierson. Further back in ITA, BurrisMeyer slipped back at the start, but was able to retake third from Langlotz by lap 4. In IT7, Wilson and
Rose were going hard at it with Rose occasionally taking the lead, but Wilson powering back by to take
the lead at the line on each lap. Carey was holding third after I spun on lap 2 and couldn’t make up the
ground. On the last lap, Thompson and Guenther went blasting by me as I came off Turn 4 of the oval.
As they approached the checker, Guenther pulled out and make a classic drafting pass to reclaim the
third spot he hadn’t held since lap two. Akarjalian and Ira were close behind, but Ira wasn’t quite close
enough to pull off his own last lap pass, ending 0.3 seconds back. Perry was another ten seconds back.
Sperber held his ITA lead for the entire race, finishing just three seconds up on Frierson, with Ferenczy
still between them and fourth in ITS. About 15 seconds adrift was the ITS trio of Cory Collum, Lowrance
and Bruce Andersen. Burris-Meyer held off Langlotz for third in ITA. The IT7 race was decided on lap 10
when Rose spun going into Turn 1 and gave Wilson the margin he needed. Rose recovered to finish a
few seconds up on Carey. At least Rose could console himself with a new IT7 lap record.
SARRC Positions
ITA – With a one point margin between Frierson and Sperber, whoever finished higher in the race would
take the SARRC title. Sperber did what he needed, finishing an impressive ninth overall. But Frierson
made him work hard for it, even though he couldn’t repeat his ITA title, Burris-Meyer held on to his third
in points by besting Langlotz. Jake Warner used a sixth in the race to move up to sixth in the final tally
over John Morrison.
ITR – Thompson pretty much needed a win to get by Cripe for the ITR championship. With Flynn running
away with the race, that wasn’t going to happen, so Cripe’s second in the race was easily enough to take
the crown. Thompson still took second, since Guenther’s last lap pass only slightly closed his 26 point
deficit going in.
ITS – Charlie Lowrance’s hopes of the ITS title got a major boost when the speedy ITS contingent from
North Carolina (Ron Earp, Jeff Giordano, Jeff Young and Steve Eckerich) who were closest to him in
points, all scratched late. His sixth in the race might not have been enough had they all been there.
However, with them missing Lowrance had enough margin to take the title comfortably. Akarjalian’s win
(at least I predicted that one correctly!) was enough to move him up to second in points, while Perry’s
third also gave him third in the final count. Despite the no-shows, Earp, Giordano and Young had enough
of a lead to claim the last three trophy spots.
IT7 - As usual, the top three or four IT7s were so close that the SIC finish would likely be the SARRC
order as well. And so it was, with Wilson, Rose, Carey and me being 1-2-3-4 in both race and
championship. As an indication of how close the class is, last year Rose and Wilson tied on points, with
Rose taking the race and thus the tie-breaker and championship. This year the same thing happened in
reverse order. Both tied with 203 points, but Wilson took the race, tie-breaker and championship.
IT7R – Blair Stitt was the only qualifier and took the title with just 76 points.
Race 6 – B-Spec, EP, FP, GTL, HP, SPU, ITB/C
This class has a wide variety in speed, from speedy EP and SPU cars down to HP, ITC and B spec. With
the wide variation in speeds, even within classes, it looked like there would only be a few tight battles.
However, a few looked promising, with Kip Van Steenburg and defending champion Dave Karably
qualifying within a half second in EP. Jim Kellogg was third overall and first in SPU, well up on Tad
Segars and Sid Collins. HP points leader Will Perry was just a few tenths up on Sam Moore in a pair of
very fast Hondas. The only other tight qualifying was between Miki Moerwald and Bill McCoin in ITC.
Among the big advantages were Deuce Keane over points leader Michael Kamalian and David Kinsey in
ITB, and FP Miata driver Don Ahrens over points leaders Mark Gray and Richard Anderson, while GTL
leader John Hewell was uncontested but still turned in a time near the HP Honda duo in his formerly HP
Midget.
In the race, things spread out even more than I expected. Van Steenburg pulled away from the start,
while Karably had to battle with Kellogg for much of the race. Karably lead early, then Kellogg took the
lead for four laps, Karably finally got away to take second overall and in EP. Third place EP driver
cruised unimpeded to fourth overall after fellow RX7 driver Darren Rackley fell out early. The only other
cars on the lead lap were the SPU duo of Sid Collins and Tad Segars, who had one of the few tight class
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battles. Collins took second by only a couple seconds. 4 EP place David Smith was the first of the lapdown drivers. Ahrens put his year-long reliabilty problems behind him and won FP by 90+ seconds over
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Gray, with Anderson another 15 back. Next behind Ahrens came 5 EP Jim Irvin, followed less than a
tenth later by HP winner Perry. Sam Moore led Perry for the first half of the race, but then slowed and
stopped on lap 7. In ITB, Deuce Keane was leading Kamalian by a safe margin until three laps from the
end, when a broken hub put an end to his race and gave the top two class positions to Kamalian and
Kinsey, with Ken Haughwout not too far behind. ITC saw the only close finish for the race win, with Miki
Moerwald building a fair lead early, but McCoin reeling her in late to finish only a second behind. Finally,
John Kish cruised home to take the uncontested B-Spec win.
SARRC Positions
B-Spec – Kish already had the class title wrapped up over David Alejandro, who was the only other
qualifier.
EP - Van Steenburg concluded his undefeated season with the SIC win and SARRC championship.
Karably’s second in the race was enough to move him just ahead of Pierce. Irvin’s fifth was enough to
retain the fourth SARRC place over Smith. No-show Paul Goral took the final SARRC spot. My
predictions were spot-on for this one, as I predicted the five finishers and the top six in SARRC points
perfectly.
FP - Gray and Anderson were assured of the top two positions, with only the order undecided. Gray
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settled it with his 2 place, beating Anderson by 20 points at the end. Gregg Crandall took the final spot.
GTL – Hewell had long ago locked up the GTL title, with Wayne Butler being the only other qualifier and
finishing 126 points back.
HP – Will Perry’s win solidified his large points lead over David Stephens and Patrick Harris. Moore
recorded a points finish despite his problems, which was enough to move him up to fourth in points when
Evelyn Vlasak failed to score. Mike Havlick took the sixth and final spot.
SPU – Jim Kellogg won yet again, claiming his tenth SPU crown in his powerful Pinto-powered BMW
mini-cup car – a strange but very fast combination. Tad Segars needed to beat Kellogg to claim the title,
but was instead beaten by Sid Collins as well. However, his earlier wins allowed him to keep his second
in the final standings over Collins.
ITB – Deuce Keane was second in points going into the SIC. Since he was leading Kamalian for the SIC
win, that would have been just enough to claim the SARRC title by three points. However, his late race
problems instead dropped him to third behind Kinsey as well. Michael Horn ended up fourth, while
Haughwout’s third place SIC finish moved him up from ninth to fifth over Paul McCormick.
ITC – Miki Moerwald needed only to beat Bob Pharr to assure herself of the ITC title. When Pharr broke
early in the race, she was home free. But she still claimed the SIC win and a sizeable points margin.
McCoin’s second was enough to move him up from fourth to third, just behind Pharr.
Race 7 – Spec Miata
The Spec Miata race was perfectly set to decide the championship, with the three top contenders all
qualifying in the top six. And with the top 18 qualifiers covered by 2 seconds, I expected we’d see the
usual Miata drafting packs. Chris Topping was second, Selin M. Rollan fourth, and Cory Collum sixth,
sharing their rows with pole sitter Dillon Machavern, Todd Buras and Alex Bolanos, respectively.
After a couple laps, the top nine had broken away slightly, with Cliff Brown, Jeremy Klein and Tom Fowler
joining the top six qualifiers. Machavern held the lead (at least at the line) for the first two laps before
Buras took his first lead on lap 3. Topping lead the next time around. However, his joy was short-lived as
he then spun and fell to the back of the field. Buras regained the top spot on lap, but then he pulled off in
the infield with a mechanical issue. By mid-race, the top group had been whittled down to five, with
Fowler leading Machavern, Rollan, Collum and Bolanos. A few seconds back were the nose-to-tail pair of
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Nick Malatesta, all the way up from 23 , and Brown. Just behind them was a group of six to nine that
were constantly grouping up, then splitting apart, then regrouping. Selin Rollan the elder was usually
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leading, with Preston Pardus, Alan Cross (from 22 ), Russ McBride (from 28 !), Skip Brock and Wesley
Saunders, Mark Gibbons and a couple more swapping places behind.
After leading for three laps, Fowler became the last to fall off the leading train, dropping to fifth and ending
four seconds back. After Rollan lead for a lap, Machavern lead starting the final lap. Coming to the flag,
Rollan pulled out, dove under the yellow line in the tri-oval and was blasting past – but he came up a few
inches short, just 0.008 seconds officially. Collum and Bolanos were right behind. After Fowler, next was
the bump-drafting pair, with Brown having gotten in front of Malatesta with three laps left. The battling
group behind had split into groups of four and two, with the first four nearly overhauling Brown and
Maltesta. Rollan senior led Cross, Pardus and Brock over the line, covered by a second, with Gibbons
and McBride under a blanket and four seconds back.
A very exciting race, which is what you’d expect from SMs anytime and especially at Daytona.
SARRC positions
Selin Rollan came within inches of scoring a perfect SARRC score of 230 points. However, he still
proved a worthy winner of his first SARRC championship. Cory Collum did nearly all he needed to do,
running in the lead pack and heading Rollan by two places on lap 10. But his excellent run wasn’t quite
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enough to overcome Rollan’s advantage. Topping made it half way back through the field to 17 after his
spin, so he only dropped from second to third in the final table. Keith Andrews dropped out early, but he
was fortunate to retain his fourth position. Mark Gibbons’ twelfth was enough to move him all the way up
from tenth to fifth in the final table. Nash Lawson held on to the final trophy position, despite being one of
the few points leaders to pass on the SIC. The rest of the top ten in the final standings were Preston
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Pardus (up from 13 , thanks to his 10 place finish), defending champion (but a no-show) Dan Tiley,
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Selin L. Rollan (up from 15 with his excellent eighth in the SIC) and Jose Ulfe, who fell from seventh to
tenth when he had to pull in early with an evil-sounding Miata.
To sum it all up, an excellent weekend of racing. A bunch of happy winners and some dejected losers. I
hope things will be this good when the SIC returns to Roebling Road next year. For me it was a bad
weekend on the track. I did a little better in the prediction game (but that wasn’t too hard to do,
considering how my racing went). Maybe I need to concentrate on the racing and leave the predictions
game to someone else. Anyone else want to give it a try? Give me a call!