|
March 11 & 12
Thunder Hill Raceway Park
Willows, Calif.
Western States Challenge
Race #1, Nor-Cal Race #1
The start of a new racing year is always exciting,
and welcomed. This year is even more so, with so many new racers joining
the series this year. When it became clear the weather wasn’t going to
help us ( it snowed on Friday !) it was unclear how many racers were
going to show up. Although a lot of racers didn’t come, almost all of
the new participates did!
 |
 |
|
Some pictures
of the freshly fallen snow courtesy of Dave Borden. |
| |
Saturday morning rolled around cold and windy, but
dry. Of the cars that did show up the newcomer’s out numbered the
regulars. Whether a newcomer, or old regular all were excited to get
going. Donny Edwards picked up where he left off last year, setting the
pace all be it for a new team. Donny is now driving for the Lawson
Brothers Racing Team. His car is the old number eleven now repainted
pearl white, and with his #1 in red. Dan Lawson displayed the new #11,
Bob Lawson while in attendance did not have his ride ready yet, but will
by race #2. Regular’s Rick Anderson, Mike Joyce, Dave Standridge got
back to business fast, and were soon back up to speed. Newcomer’s Karen
Salvaggio, TC McNett, John Joyce, Barry and Robert Walker, Mike Beeler,
and Rich Norgrove, all were feeling out the track and their new rides,
and having a ball! Donny set fast time, Karen Salvaggio, Rick Anderson,
Dan Lawson, Robert Walker, TC McNett, Mike Beeler, Mike Joyce, Rich
Norgrove, and John Joyce rounding out the field. Dave Standridge hadn’t
shown up yet and would start at the back of the field.
The eleven Challenge Cars came down for the rolling start
storming into the first turn tightly bunched. Karen Salvaggio got the
jump on Donny at the green, along with Rick Anderson. Dave Standridge
came from dead last to fourth right behind Donny! About the only person
not getting a good start was Dan Lawson falling back to sixth!
Donny may not have got a good start, but it was short
lived, as Donny worked his way to the front and took off! The battle for
second, third, fourth was very tight wheel to wheel; nose to tail it was
quite a site. Dave Standridge had to drop out with a blown head gasket.
Leaving Robert Walker, Karen Salvaggio, and Rick Anderson battling hard,
and before they knew it they were leading! Donny had to pull into the
hot pit as the number one car had a brake problem, but the pit crew
headed by Don Vaught got him back onto the track quickly and Donny set
out and passed the field again taking the win. Rounding out the field
was Robert Walker having a great first race, Rick Anderson with his best
finish to date, Dan Lawson, TC McNett, John Joyce, Mike Joyce, Dave
Standridge, Mike Beeler, Rich Norgrove, and Karen Salvaggio rounding out
the field.
Karen driving the recently purchased Tim Sharp car
experienced a broken gearbox, but was riding around in fourth gear until
getting hit by a Honda cutting a tire putting her on the sideline. Dan
Lawson and the crew where scratching their heads trying to figure out
why the car was so slow down the straights. (Ended up an electrical
problem that got fixed).
As is always the case, if you have been around the
series for any length of time, fellow drivers came to the aid of Karen,
and gave her their spare tranny. They stayed up late, and got it done
ready to go in the morning.
Everyone got up Sunday morning surprised to see it
still very cold, but still dry although the sky was extremely cloudy and
dark. Bob Lawson going nuts watching the racing, jump into the new black
number 11 in the first practice session to get his fix of adrenalin for
the weekend. Right after the practice session was over it started to
rain! Not real hard but hard enough for everyone to scramble to get
there rain tires on. The Lawson’s brought two different sizes of tires
and had them half mounted before noticing that two were for seventeen
inch rims, and two were for 16”, the only other tires they had were
street tires, so on they went! At that Dan only got in two laps in the
whole session.
Donny set fast time with a 2:29:108, with cars
spinning all over the place as the lighter rain really made the track
really slick! The rain stopped right after qualifying! But would the
track be dry in two hours! The time between the run sessions was short
due to the enduro that was being run later in the day. Donny’s #1 while
on the cool down lap lost third gear!! And they had given their spare to
Karen the day before! Up steps Mike Beeler, offering his tranny right
out of his car, as he didn’t have rain tires. While one crew took the
tranny out of the #1 car the other crewmembers took the tranny out of
Mike’s car. In the mean time the track dried out enough to put the Kumho
V-710’s (the new official tire of the Factory Five Challenge Series)
although the sky’s were still ominous, some betting on more rain leaving
the rain tires on.
As the field got to grid, up came the white #1 ready
to go. The crew had done a stellar job very quickly. Donny didn’t get
caught on this start and immediately took the lead, but couldn’t shake
the field! Dave Standridge was right on his tail. Finally the Lawson #11
was right with Dan getting a really good start from sixth in the field
to third exiting turn one pressing on the front two. The front four were
closely bunched for the first four laps with Dan Lawson diving down
under Dave Standridge going into turn six, with Donny not far ahead.
From this point on Donny and Dan were very close for the entire race
with Donny not being able to make a mistake or give up the lead. What
was a pleasant surprise was John Joyce who actually turned the fastest
lap of the race, coming from last to press Dan very hard for a few laps
until spinning and falling back, John will be a force in the future and
welcomed competition. Dan although pressing hard couldn’t quite do it
finishing .268 seconds behind Donny! Team Lawson taking one-tow. The
action all around the track drew comments from everyone watching, on
what a great race the car and drivers put on! Several people asking how
to get a car and into the series! The field rounding out the race was
David Standridge, John Joyce, Robert Walker, TC McNett, Mike Joyce, Rich
Norgrove, Karen Salvaggio, and Rick Anderson.
Although it would have been nice to have everyone at
the first race, it is understandable that some didn’t come; if you
listened to the weathermen it was going to be a miserable weekend. The
second race of the Western States Challenge, and the first of the So-Cal
region will be in April 8th at Buttonwillow. This could be
the biggest field at a regular season event with a total of twenty cars
hopefully. But whether twenty or five you can be sure it will be the
most exciting racing at the track, come out and play and see the best
series in NASA.
Until them keep your wheels done and we will see you
then.
- Dan Lawson
|
