Report written by VMTECH (Kevin Borchers)
Photos by Head on Photos
Full gallery here
Race Report Thunderhill October 13-14 2007
This weekend signaled the end of the 2007 Norcal Spec E30 season. Team Valley Motorwerks headed into the weekend knowing it was going to be a close battle for the season championship. We needed a strong finish on both days to secure the Norcal Spec E30 championship. Oh yeah, and did I mention that NASA decided to run Thunderhill backwards?
Saturday Group A: Donny Edwards was in the #1 car as usual for Saturday, taking on Steve Krshul in the #804 Spec E30. This was the first time the drivers had been back in the cars after returning from the Nationals at Mid-Ohio. Neither of the drivers had driven this configuration before this weekend. As best as anybody can remember, this was the first time in nine years that NASA has run Thunderhill backwards, and the first time since the bypass at turn five has been added. Donny Edwards attended a special event for the instructors on the Friday before the race, and managed to get a few laps in prior to Saturday, giving him a slight advantage over Steve Krshul. The #1 and #804 machines went out for warm up and set some pretty good times considering it was basically a brand new course to them. Steve managed to set a fast lap of 2:17:5, and Donny set a fast lap of 2:13:8. Both cars were running well and we knew we had the potential to run a lot faster. The drivers took the cars out to the qualifying session and ran considerably faster than the mornings warm up session. Donny came in with a blisteringly fast 2:09:3 and Steve with an impressive 2:11:8! This track configuration seemed to work well for the E-30’s and Donny managed to out-qualify the entire Spec Miata field and believe it or not, the entire Factory Five field as well! This is very good news for Spec E-30 and showed everyone just how fast one of these cars is capable of going.
The NorCal Spec E-30 racers got together before the race and decided upon doing a standing start as opposed to the normal flying start. Donny gridded first for the race with Steve right behind in second. There was some confusion during the start and Donny ended up getting a good jump on Steve out of the gate. They finished how they started with Donny setting a fast race lap of 2:09:7, beating his fast race lap in the normal direction by almost 2 seconds! Steve finished the race setting a fast lap of 2:11:2 in second place.
Sunday Group A: Donny handed over the #1 Valley Motorwerks Spec E-30 to me, Kevin Borchers, for Sundays driving duties. Joining us for the last race of the year was rookie Spec E-30 driver Ron Harness. Ron had tested for his license the day before and was anxious to get out on the track and mix it up for his first race. This was also my first time running the track in the opposite direction so I had a lot to learn. I took the #1 car out for the morning warm up behind Steve in his #804 machine. Steve and I are very competitive and usually get right to business and don’t hold much back. We played our usual cat and mouse chase game and passed each other back and forth a few times like we usually do. I posted a fast time of 2:14:0, followed by Steve with a 2:14:1, and then Ron with a 2:41:9. We entered the qualifying session knowing we were far off the pace and had a lot of time to make up. Qualifying was relatively uneventful and we decided to keep some distance in between us in order to focus on setting fast lap times instead of playing cat and mouse. Steve came in with the fast lap of qualifying at a 2:11:8, followed by my 2:12:4, and then Ron with a much better 2:17:2. This was it. This race would seal the championship for either Steve, or the Valley Motorwerks Team, depending on the outcome. I knew we needed a win and didn’t want to disappoint everybody who has helped me out this year. We pulled around to the front straight after the warm up lap and got into are starting positions on the grid, and waited for the green flag to drop for our standing start. Steve had the inside position going into turn 15 and I had the outside. Ron was starting from third directly behind Steve. Don dropped the green and off we went. I was able to pull of a great start and almost had a car length on Steve before we got to the starter. Steve and I were side by side rubbing coming into turn 15 so I had to yield to his inside position for the turn. Steve came into 15 and 14 a little too hot and was sideways back and forth coming out of 14. I initiated the pass to the left and as I was pulling a fender on Steve in the back straight, we made contact causing me to spin off the track and almost hit the wall. I gathered her up, brought her back on track and was on a mission to track down the #804 car. Within 3 laps I had the car back in my sights. We came down the back straight and once again pulled on the #804 car coming into 12. Again contact was made causing both of our cars to spin multiple times into the infield. We both stalled, but were able to re-fire our machines and get back on track. Both of cars were injured at this point. I was able to get my car on track before Steve and was passing him going up the hill into turn 9. As I was passing Steve, contact was made on the right rear of my car causing me to spin out for the third, and thankfully final time. The car stalled again, but I was able to get her refired a second time and get back out on track. At this point I was certain I had lost the race and was unsure if I could even continue with the damage that was done to the car. Donny who was spotting for me during the race, noticed that after the third incident Steve’s right rear tire had gone down. I passed Steve for the final time and was able to limp the #1 machine home for the win! Steve was unable to finish the race due to the flat tire, allowing Ron harness to pick up the Second place trophy for his inaugural race. I set fast lap of the race with a 2:10:9, followed Steve’s 2:11:6, and Ron with a 2:18:1. We won both days and managed to bring the Norcal regional Spec E-30 championship home! Hands down this was the most exciting race of the season. Overall an amazing year! We are all looking forward to more competitors next year!
Many thanks to Walter Ford of Valley Motorwerks for giving me the opportunity to race this year, Donny Edwards for his support and amazing friendship, Steve Krshul for his friendship and competition, and Scott Neville for showing me the ropes at my first NASA race.
Donny in the air:
Air Kevin:
