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Northern California Region Spec Race Series Event Reports 2003
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Click for race reports: |
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| Race #4, Infinion Raceway, June 28-29 | Race #1, Thunder Hill, Feb 22-23 |
| Race #3, Infinion Raceway, May 3-4 | 2003 Start up: non-points race |
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Fernley Raceway Park, Fernley, NV Points Race #5, July 18-20
With much anticipation the Factory Five group towed out into the desert for the first race ever at this new facility. The track wasn’t completely done as only about half was paved to race on. It was about one and one half miles long, and very fast. The weather for the weekend was predicted to be very hot, and it was all of that; well over one hundred degrees! The track temperature was over 140 degrees! Nevertheless seven cars showed up making us the largest run group other than the Porsche club. Bob and Dan Lawson showed up Friday for a test day, along with Bob Evans and his two cars, Mike Easton, and Gary Summerset. Practice went well for most of the day, the Lawson’s red car ran flawlessly with Bob behind the wheel, and Dan ran well but was still having trouble working out the bugs in the new car. Saturday rolled around with Tim Noble showing up, along with Ed Gavin giving us a total of seven cars. The first session was fine and everyone was getting used to the track. The white #11 of Dan Lawson started acting up popping out of gear, and leaking some oil, and had to be pulled in. After some investigation the problem was too serious and the car was done for the weekend. The qualifying round was fast and furious with everyone staying out of trouble, and Bob Lawson setting a track record of 51.45 for the mile and a half. Donny Edwards driving the #1 Panoz prepared car qualified second, with Tim Noble, Ed Gavin, Mike Easton, and Bob Evans. Gary Summerset’s car developed a transmission problem and they trailered home to try to fix it for the next race. By race time at 2:30 the temperature outside was over 100 degrees with no wind. NASA started the group in front with Bob Lawson setting the pace. As the green flag flew Bob and Donny Edwards took off. All eyes were on these two as they had a wheel to wheel battle going for over tens laps, with Bob pulling away on a clear track, and Donny using his experience to pressure Bob in traffic, as they both started lapping cars within two laps on this little bullring! Coming down the front straight two slower cars were split between Bob and Donny with Bob going inside and Donny going outside into the esses. Donny’s momentum carried him past Bob, and again they set off weaving in and out of traffic nose to tail. Finally with two laps to go Bob Lawson being pointed by an rx 7, went between him and Ed Gavin in a very fast sweeping turn, the RX 7 driver caught the edge of the track on the outside and jumped back into bob’s right door side causing both to spin. Bob half on and half off the track got the car started and finished second, although he had flat spotted three tires down to the cord! Back in the pack Tim Noble, and Ed Gavin were having a similar battle throughout the whole race with Tim taking third, and Ed taking fourth. Mike Easton running a steady race finished fifth, and Bob Evans took up the last spot. All the drivers did a very good job, under extreme heat; most of the cars were running in the 225-degree range by the end of the race. Sunday morning everyone was working on there cars, Bob and Dan Lawson fixed the exhaust pipe that the RX 7 had bent in, and had to rob the tires of the white number 11 since it was out, and no extra tires were there. Donny Edwards crew repaired a broken stud, change the brake fluid, repair a bent panard rod, taking the part from Bob Evans other car, which lost the transmit ion. Tim Noble was trying to keep his car running cooler, and Mike Easton was working on set up. Come time to qualify, we were down to five cars. Again Bob Lawson took fast time, with Ed Gavin coming in second, Tim Noble third, and Mike Easton fourth. Donny Edwards couldn’t make the qualifying as they were still repairing the car. Come race time Donny had to start at the rear of the five car field. As they came down for the start Bob Lawson mashed the throttle and took off, Donny in a bold move past three cars within seconds, knowing if Bob got to far away he could never catch him! The move paid off as again they both got off on a torrid pace nose to tail, door to door, wheel to wheel running through the esses with abandon. Again within laps they started lapping slower cars weaving in and out of traffic, Bob having learned his lesson the day before tried to time his passes so that Donny was trapped behind cars he had just passed. But Donny aggressively was passing other cars on the outside of turns desperately trying to not let Bob get to a clear track situation where he was very fast and could pull away! Going into turn one passing two slower cars Donny dove down under Bob but couldn’t hold it there and ran into the red 21 in the left rear, getting Bob sideways. Bob laid on the gas to save the car and did, but drifted out just enough for Donny to get by. Bob picked up the chase running right on Donny’s rear end, until again they ran into slower traffic on the front straight due to a four car spin. Donny in trying to keep Bob behind passed a car under the yellow flag to try to get distance between him and Bob. They finished in that order, but Donny was disqualified for the pass giving Bob the win. Another torrid battle was going on for third and fourth as the other two were battling for the lead, Tim Noble and Ed Gavin were also running wheel to wheel, nose to tail for a good portion of the race. Going into the esses together Tim’s car popped out of gear losing some control and ran into the back of Ed’s car, Ed gathered it up and continued but Tim was off track trying to keep his car straight. Finally after getting back on the track Tim’s car got worse causing him to pull in. Mike Easton lost an oil line late in the race and couldn’t finish. Ed Gavin’s motor quit in the searing heat causing him to pull off the track. Thankfully the checkered flag flew as everyone was running out of steam. Although the weekend took its toll everyone still had a good time, and will be back in August for the next event. Congratulations to Bob Lawson and Donny Edwards for their wins on Sunday and Saturday respectively. They were both the talk of the track, and put on an exciting show. After the race Donny apologized to Bob for running into the car and all is fine, neither car was damaged seriously, just cosmetics. This facility within the next year is going to be great, and we all look forward to large fields of cars on a truly wonderful track. Many people took brochures, and videos of the Factory Five cars on display, with drivers in other classes vowing to get into this series next year! Come out to the next race and join the group, we will see you then. Dan Lawson |
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Infinion Raceway, Sonoma, CA Points Race #4, June 28th, and 29th
Everyone was very excited about this race weekend. Bob Evans was bringing out his new car delivered by Panoz, and it looks great! Although we didn’t have a driver for it. Dave Borden was trying to break free from building his new autocross engine, but couldn’t get done in time. The Lawson brothers got done enough to bring out their new car! It came out very nice, finishing at 4pm Friday, loading up and leaving for the track ready for a shake down weekend. There were a total of seven cars, Bob Evans, Tim Noble, Ed Gavin, Bob and Dan Lawson, and Mike Easton. Friday was over 102 degrees!!! We were all hoping for something less on race day. Come Saturday we got what we wanted with the temperature down about ten degrees, thankfully. Bob Lawson set fast time at a 1:57:23 in the morning, and Dan Lawson turning in a nice “out of the box” 2:00:45.The qualifying round was similar times with over 69 cars in the run group, making the track very congested! All of the cars came though without incident. The qualifying order was Bob Lawson, Dan Lawson, Tim Noble, Ed Gavin, (these two within hundredths of each other), Bob Evans, and Mike Easton rounded out the field. Saturday’s race started out with Dan and Bob dragging down the straightaway into turn one, with Bob taking the lead, and never looking back. Dan started catching up late in the race as Bob got into traffic, getting as close as three car lengths going into turn four, but got cut off by another car and while taking evasive action spun out. Dan got started up and back on the track right away to preserve second place finish, with Bob about ten seconds ahead for first. Tim Noble, and Ed Gavin had a real close battle for third and fourth with Tim maintaining a short lead until late in the race his clutch went out leaving him in third gear! Ed taking advantage of his plight cruised around finishing a strong third, and Tim limping home in fourth giving it all he could. Rounding out the field was Bob Evans, and Mike Easton having their own private battle coming in fifth and sixth respectively. The Panoz car didn’t run, as a driver wasn’t available. Part of Dan’s shake down revealed three quarters of an inch toe in!!!!!!!!! Which attributed to the mishandling of the car, and late in the race the transmission was starting to vibrate, shifting became difficult. After the race, Dan and Bob started looking for problems. That evening the toe out was corrected on the white number eleven, and clutch adjustments made in an effort to get the shifting smoother. Tim Noble unfortunately was out for the rest of the weekend having destroyed his clutch! All in all a great day of racing, with Bob Lawson in the red #21 running flawlessly, both car and driver. Sunday morning came and we were greeted with another 10 degrees drop making the high 80 to 85 degrees, which was great! Going out in the morning session, Dan Lawson began to notice a pretty violent shake in the transmission, and pulled in after about seven laps. Upon inspection transmission was losing fluid pretty fast, checking that out showed a cracked transmission case, sidelining Dan for the rest of the day. Although disappointed, for the first time out all went pretty well. With Dan and Bob looking forward to the next event. So Tim and Dan were spectators the rest of the day. Qualifying we only had four cars left. Again Bob Lawson set a blistering pace, with the car and driver running smoothly, turning in a 1:55:32. Ed Gavin qualified second, with Bob Evans pulling off with a spring problem, leaving Mike Easton qualifying third quick. Bob Evan’s daughter Shannon was taking driving classes to get a license to run one of Bob’s cars next season. Her instructor was Donny, a very experienced, and accomplished racer in his own right. Donny was hanging around between classes and took the Panoz car out to see what if felt like and agreed to run it in our race, (although not for points) adding another car to the depleted field, starting in the back of the pack. Donny has several championships over his career, and while testing the car has gotten excited about running. As of this writing he and Bob Evans have come to a tentative agreement for the rest of the year! Which will be great for the series as Donny is very recognized within NASA, and SCCA. Being that the Panoz prepared car didn’t have a shakedown either, no one knew what to expect. At the drop of the green Bob Lawson exploded off the line taking an early lead. Donny showing his experience immediately, moved quickly into second, with Ed Gavin running third, Bob Evans fourth, and Mike Easton fifth. Bob’s #20 car broke the suspension in the rear end on the first lap, and pulled off. Bob Lawson, unintimidated by Donny, ran a flawless race in the sorted out red number twenty-one. Donny tried hard to catch Bob but could not close the three to four second distance between them experiencing some problems with the untried car, eventually holding on for second place. Ed Gavin finished a strong third, with Mike Easton finishing fourth. Donny signing on with Bob Evans is very exciting, first because he is a well thought of driver within NASA, very highly respected, and secondly, he promises to be excellent competition for Bob Lawson, who is again to be congratulated for another sweep of the weekend. Both Dan Lawson, and Tim Noble vowed to fix their cars for the upcoming Reno race in July on the 18th and 19th. John Joyce Jr. is getting track time down in southern Calif. Working towards his competition license soon. Bob Evans is getting ready to take delivery of another two cars!!! He is still looking for drivers. Soon the Northern California group will have the potential for fields of up to 10 to 14 cars at every race, with more and more interest being shown every weekend. The current point standings although unofficial are: 1 Bob Lawson 2 Mike Easton 3 Bob Evans 4 Ed Gavin 5 Tim Noble 6 Gary Summerset 7 Steve Sparklin 8 Dan Lawson Keep your wheels down, and we will see you in Reno! Dan Lawson
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Infinion Raceway, Sonoma, CA Points Race #3, May 3-4 This was a crazy weekend, the original race was suppose to be in Las Vegas, and that got cancelled, then we scheduled Willow Springs but only had two cars going, so at the last minute we change to a one day event at the Sonoma Facility, and had a much better turn out. Unfortunately Bob and Dan’s new car missed this event by about one week of being done! Bob Evan’s new Panoz prepared racer is complete, but missed the race by three days!!!!!!!!! Our only regular how couldn’t make it was Gary Summerset as he had prior commitments. Tim Noble, who is also our Nasa liaison, finally completed his car and made the race!! We were all really happy for him, and the series. The track was working on turns five and six, so the course was the same as Nascar runs, without those turns. This makes for a much faster track. The first practice session went fine with Bob Lawson setting the pace, all the men were getting around fairly well with no incidence. And then here came Tim Noble in early! We really wanted Tim to have a clean first day but it wasn’t to be. The car was overheating, after some investigation it was found that the brand new water pump spun the impeller off the shaft. Just about the same time who should call and say he’s on his way out to watch, but last years champ Dave Borden! Naturally he made a stop and got a new pump and brought it to the track. It was great to see Dave again we miss not having him racing with us this year. The track was pretty slick for a good portion of the day, and many had problems with it. It was overcast most of the day and the track was cool, plus some cars were dropping fluids. During the qualifying round Ed Gavin ran over a pylon that another car had kicked out onto the track, it caught his oil cooler hose and ripped it out! Putting some oil down in turn ten which is very fast. One Honda Challenge car spun out going through the mess, and Bob Lawson who was in the process of turning the fast time of the day for our class was fortunate seeing the flag telling you there is debris on the track and slowed just enough to only get the car sideways but held on without incident. Bob Evans wasn’t so fortunate, hitting some of the oil in another spot on the track and did a 360. The car wasn’t damaged he got restarted and finished the session setting third quick time with Mike Easton coming in second quick. Bob Lawson turned in a blistering 1:34:41! Tim Noble didn’t get to run, as he was making repairs, and Ed Gavin didn’t get a time. After thrashing around for a couple of hours Tim’s car got fixed, and Ed by passed the cooler, so the starting gird was full with Bob Lawson on the pole, Mike Easton, Bob Evans, Ed Gavin, and Tim Noble bring up the rear. As the green flew it was such a great site to see all the cars go into the first turn, and the sound was terrific. Bob Lawson took the early lead and drove a flawless race taking the number one spot. Behind Bob, Ed Gavin made a bold move from his fourth starting position moving into second with Bob, Mike, and Tim right on his tail. These four ran together for several laps with Tim slowly working his way forward passing both Mike, and Bob Evans. The battle for second was looking really good when Ed’s car lost power, and started to slow eventually pulling off. This left Tim in second and pulling away from the others. Doing a fine job. Two laps from the end of the race Tim started slowing but he had built up a pretty good lead over third, and held on to the position, despite losing his clutch and being stuck in third! Congratulations to Tim on his maiden run, he was one happy guy. Bob Evans was running third when his front a-arms moved upsetting the set up on the car, and had to slow way down to finish still coming in third with Mike Easton taking the fourth position. It was a fine race and the Cobra’s looked great on the track, putting on a good show. The next race is back here at the same track, but by that time we will likely have another four cars, which should make it even more exciting. John Joyce from down LA way was at Willow Springs getting his license, and should be ready to go for the next race, along with myself and our new car, and Bob Evans new car (driver not know yet). Gary Summerset will hopefully be there; this should give us nine cars and growing!!! Come out and join us and support the series, see you next month. Dan Lawson
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Thunder Hill, Willows, CA Points Race #2 April 5-6, 2003 Arriving late Friday, Bob and I didn't get a chance to practice. The weather was cold and there were pockets of rain and hail, but none fell on the track. Bob Evans, and Mike Easton were already set up and within an hour we were eating dinner, bench racing, and sipping on some very nice California wine. Saturday morning was clear as a bell and about 52 degrees with no wind. We thought we were going to be only three cars, but up jumped Gary Summerset and Ed Gavin. We weren't sure they would make it and were happy to see them. We were still wondering if Steve Sparklin would make it. Looking around the paddock, we spotted him but not his car. He was standing next to an older mustang (cmc class) car. After talking to him, we found out it was his!!!!! Apparently, his clutch had gone out, some kind of miss alignment with the bell housing. So he brought out the old mustang. The morning run was uneventful with everyone getting their tires warm, and cruising around. By qualifying round, the temperature was up to 60 degrees, and everyone was ready to go. Bob Lawson set the fastest time at 2:07, which was good for sixth overall. Bob, Mike, and Gary had a good time with no problems, while Ed's car, being driven by Mike Spenser (an RX 7 driver), had overheating problems and only got one lap in. Ed couldn't drive, as he had to run hdpe and test for his license that day, which he passed by the way. Bob Evans held on for second quickest, with Gary third, and Mike fourth. The race was thirty minutes, with all the classes starting together. Bob was starting in the third row with others starting about two thirds back. We were running with legends, rsr, Honda Challenge, Spec Miatas, and a few others, a total of about 50 cars! The thirty minute race was full of spinning legends all over the place! Fortunately, all of our cars avoided the mayhem, due to superior driving, we'd like to think. Bob Lawson set a very fast pace running up in front with the rsr's and the Honda's that were very fast. Gary Summerset was running fourth and catching up to Bob Evans for a while, but faded back as his car developed a violent shake at around 4500 rpm. Mike Spenser ran a very good race, passing a lot of cars to get to second place in class. This being the first race that Ed's car has finished, we extend a huge congratulations to Ed and Mike! The final order was Bob Lawson, Mike Spenser, Bob Evans, Gary Summerset, and Mike Easton. All the guys are constantly improving their times, as they get more seat time. It is great to see the progress! Bob and I had a new camera system put in the car. It mounts in the trunk with two external cameras mounted looking out the back and over the hood, its pretty darn cool! If I can, I will send a couple of minutes of the race to be posted, so check back. Sunday morning was again very cool and clear, but a little breeze had started. Bob, feeling sorry for me since our other car isn't done yet, let me take the red sled out in the morning! It felt very good to be back on the track, and we had the car handling very well. It was a blast! We lost Ed Gavin, as his front upper a-arms came loose and screwed up his set up. We also lost Gary Summerset, as we figured out his tranny was giving up and the vibration had cracked his headers! We would have lost Bob Evans too, but he stuck it out with a tranny that would let him downshift into second! He had to hold it in while driving! The second day went pretty much as the day before with Bob Lawson setting the fastest time, and Bob Evans, and Mike Easton following. As race time came around, we were again with a lot of cars on the track, at least fifty! So it was quite crowded. Again, with a lot of accidents and spins, our guys avoided all the trouble. The finishing order was Bob Lawson, Bob Evans, and Mike Easton. After the race, all cars were impounded and NASA called for a drivers meeting. You could tell they were very upset. As many as 25 cars had passed other cars under yellow flag conditions (from all the legends spinning out) and they let all the drivers have it! They weren't sure what they were going to do, but they did say some of the drivers would be set down. As of this writing, I'm not sure of the finishing order in our class, because it hasn't been posted. Bob Lawson had passed Mike Easton under yellow, so I know they DQ'd our car, but I'm not sure about Bob Evans. I believe Bob Evans got the win, and Mike Easton hung in there for second. All in all it was a great weekend, Mr. Lawson learned a valuable lesson, and everyone went home with their cars all in one piece. Very soon we should have roughly ten cars or so at almost every race, and it should be great fun! |
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Story by Dan Lawson |
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| Photos coming soon! | |
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Thunder Hill, Willows, CA Points Race #1 February 22-23, 2003
Finally the 2003 season is officially started. It was a great weekend for racing as the weather both days was in the mid sixty's. We had six cars ready to grid, and everyone was excited to get going. It was the largest turnout we have had for a regular race ever. Those in attendance were Bob Lawson, Bob Evans, Mike Easton, Gary Summerset, and Steve Sparklin. Although Ed Gavin couldn't attend because of a death in the family, his car had it's first official race. We wish Ed well and look forward to seeing him at the next race.
The first day, Bob set the fastest time, with Steve Sparklin getting second. Steve is running faster every time. Gary Summerset, looking real good and getting the bugs out of his car, came in at number three. All the drivers continue to improve their times as they attain more seat time. It is great watching all of them improve steadily.
What a site to see all six cars coming down for the start! Steve Sparklin and Bob Lawson set the pace coming down for the green. Steve missed a shift which bunched them up in the back, causing a slight problem as Ed Gavin's car ran into Bob Evans', causing a little damage to the left rear taillight. Bob Lawson took the lead going into turn one with Sparklin right on his tail. As they got going, Bob put some cars between him and Sparklin and opened up a nice lead. All of the cars got through the race with no more altercations. Sparklin, Summerset, and Ed Gavin's car (sorry I don't remember the driver's name) had quite a battle for about half the race, with Ed's car moving to second before oil pressure started to drop, and the temperature got up to 230, finally dropping out. Bob Evans and Mike Easton both started to work on getting their lap time down successfully, as the competition is getting better all the time. The order of finish was Bob Lawson, Steve Sparklin, Gary Summerset, Bob Evans, and Mike Easton at the finish.
Bob took his cool down lap and as he pulled into the pit space, the engine quit and wouldn't start again! After some investigation, we found the problem to be the fuel pump. Bob and Mike worked on getting the fuel tank out, while Dan ran to town to find another fuel pump. After getting back, Dan and Mike installed the new pump. We fired up the car and it was fine.
Sunday was much the same, another beautiful day and the track was faster. Bob Lawson set the quick time of 2:05:08 around the tree mile course. Again, everyone improved their times from the day before. Mike Easton improved almost seven seconds! The race started with five cars, as Ed Gavin's car couldn't make the grid. Bob set a fast pace during the race, with a fastest lap of 2:04:81, coming close to the record set last year by Dave Borden, which if memory serves me well was somewhere in the high 2:03's.
We sure miss Dave's competition and hope someday he will be back running with us. Bob Evans stuck around and ran the 3 hour enduro, which NASA let us run for free, and gives you an opportunity to work on set up and get more seat time.
All in all, everyone had a great time and all the cars came out of the weekend ready to go again in April. Bob has set the standard for everyone to work towards, and from what could be seen, everyone is working hard and improving steadily. This being our first race, the improvement of all the drivers gives us some exciting racing to look forward to this season.
Tim Noble was sick and couldn't make the race, but his car will definitely be at the next race, along with another car from the LA area that was purchased from the east coast, by a father and son team. I'm sorry I don't know their names yet, but we are contacting them and hope to see them out soon. Also, Dan and Bob are building another car that should be ready by the third race, as both Bob and Dan are itching to not share a ride on the race weekends, and it gives us another car!!!
So by the third race or so, we should have about ten cars! The series is starting to catch on with a lot of people asking the right questions and become interested. With Bob Evans working on getting another car or two, things are looking up and we should have 12 cars within a few months, working our way towards our own race group which would be very cool.
Story by Dan Lawson |
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February in California can be very wet, but on this weekend it was absolutely beautiful. It was a little cold in the morning with some frost on the track in turn six, which made the first practice session a little slick. As soon as the sun hit that spot, it dried up fine. Since this was a non-points race, some of the people that lived further away choose not to come. The die hards that were there had a lot of fun anyway, and it was one of the greatest weekends for racing, clear as a bell, and 68 degrees. NASA threw a little curve at us, making us run the Nascar turn, which is an extension of turn seven. Instead of making one big sweep to the right, you turn into seven with a short straight leading to a hard right in second gear, and then a left back on to the short straight into the esses. It roughly adds another four seconds or so depending on whom you talk to. Anyway, in the qualifying round, Bob Lawson turned in a sixth overall time out of about twenty cars or so. Bob Evans continues to improve and is getting better every time out. The race went well with Bob turning in consistent laps in the 1:59 range, winning our class. Ed Gavin ran, but doesn't have his license yet, so he ran with hdpe group three, and was going to run with group four on Sunday with an instructor to get his provisional license. He stayed up all night Friday finishing the car, and it ran well, although I don't know what times he turned. It was good to see a new face and another car. We look forward to racing with him. Sunday, Mike Easton showed up after we called him at home and told him to quit working on his new street monster, and get his butt up to the track. Sunday was even better than Saturday! What a great California day! Again, the track was slick in the morning, so caution was used. The qualifying session was really nice with Dan Lawson setting the pace for the class, and Bob Evans, and Mike Easton following respectively. Dan garnered fourth overall quickest time with a 1:58:35. Bob Evans cut his time down again by a couple of seconds. The cars started at the back of the grid both days, running with spec Miatas, RSR, and Baby Grands. Although crowded, everyone came through without any scratches, and with the order at the end Dan, then Mike, and Bob. The first points race will be in two weeks at Thunder Hill and we should have eight cars coming. We will send a video when we get a chance. See you all soon and good luck in the coming year! Story by Dan Lawson |
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