FFR-NASA Championship Race 2003

Bryan Dobyns wins 2003 FFR-NASA Challenge Series Title

FFR President Dave Smith presents the 2003 FFR-NASA Challenge Series Trophy to driver Bryan Dobyns.
The final race of the 2003 FFR-NASA Challenge Series was held at the new 2.5 mile expanded roadcourse at Las Vegas Motorspeedway November 8 & 9, 2003.  The top drivers in the national series arrived to compete in this final event that would determine the over-all National champion.
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22 Teams were in the hunt for the championship.  Evans racing fielded two cars.
The race finals were scheduled for Sunday but a total of 22 teams made the starting grid for the Saturday exhibition race that included VIP drivers like Bob Bondurant, Dick Smith, and Larry Parker (President of Roush Performance). 
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Special Guest Bob Bondurant speaks with FFR's Jim Schenck pre-race.  Jim was happy to let Bob drive his blue and yellow spec car.
Also there for the Saturday race was Dan Panoz from Panoz Auto Development with his GTS series captain Joel Gruit.  The exhibition race was the highlight of the day Saturday and was held in conjunction with the Factory Five Nationals car show and customer rally.
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Dick Smith gets strapped in for racing by FFR's Joe Fournier (Tech Support).    The cars are staged for a rolling start.
Qualifying for the Championship race was held Sunday morning with Bryan Dobyns taking the pole followed second by Spencer Sharp and New England standout Gary Cheney who qualified third. 

Bob Bondurant lead the exhibition race until a power steering pump made him pull into the pits.
In the Championship race all 22 vintage spec racers got off to a close but clean start.  As the race proceeded, a group of three drivers (Dobyns, Cheney and Sharp) pulled away from the pack and never looked back.  The fight for 4th thru 8th place was savage with multiple position changes between Donny Edwards from Evans Racing and Dan Lawson form Team Lawson. 1d3f7784.jpg (20563 bytes)
Roush President Larry Parker drove with the best!
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Dobyns grabbed the lead and never looked back Donny Edwards drove to a solid 5th place
Near the midpoint of the race, New England Driver Cheney pushed too hard into turn one while trying to get past leader Dobyns.  The resulting mistake allowed Third place Sharp to slip into second place. 
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Thumbs up were the verdict from racers and FFR crew alike.  The second Nationals ended on a high note with exciting, clean and fun racing action!
1189.jpg (26337 bytes) The drivers would end the finals with Cheney in third, Sharp in second and Dobyns in first.   No resulting changes were recorded after the top place cars were cleared thru tech and Bryan Dobyns won the second FFR-NASA Challenege series championship.  As a result, Dobyns and the other top four drivers pick up contingency money for track fees and tires for the 2004 season from Series sponsor Factory Five Racing.
Above:  Bryan Dobyns receives his Championship trophy from NASA director Ryan Flaherty.
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Spencer Sharp receives the second place trophy. Gary Cheney with a hard-earned third.
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The crowd favorite, Dan Lawson (left) earns fourth and (right) Donny Edwards takes fifth.

Congrats to all the drivers, teams and crew as well as the great fans.  Thanks for a successful 2003 season!  We’ll see you at the track in 2004.

See More photos of this event!

Check out the rest of the weekends events from the 2003 FFR Nationals:

FFR-NASA Championship Race 2003

FFR Nationals: Car Show, Autocross & Awards Dinner

SEMA 2003 Car Show

Final Results 2003 

FFR-NASA Championship  LAS VEGAS MOTORSPEEDWAY

Pos      No.            Name                                       Diff                               Best Lap

1          77            Bryan Dobyns                                                         2:01.138

2          9            Spencer Sharp                            1.509                     2:01.198

3          161            Gary Cheney                          6.964                      2:01.155

4          11            Dan Lawson                           32.251                      2:03.590

5          1            Donny Edwards                        32.866                      2:02.967

6          20            Bob Evans                              33.931                      2:03.274

7          210            John McIver                         44.952                      2:02.824

8          16            Robert Mau                            52.306                      2:03.623

9          97            Tommy Thompson                1:22.219                     2:02.050

10        2            Mark Dougherty*                   1:41.007                     2:03.820

11        51            Dave Riha*                          1:42.074                      2:04.090

12        99            Steve Sparklin                            1 lap                      2:05.831

13        49            Brian Sanders                      2:02.508                      2:09.894

14        31            Mike Easton                             2 laps                      2:13.613

15        27            Brian Cates                              3 laps                      2:03.494

DNF    66             Dan Elam

DNF    07             Leonard Conn

DQ      62             Ed Gaven

*            Ineligible for points FFR employee