Another great weekend of racing fun. 5 racers started on Saturday and 2 more showed up for Sunday's race making 7 starters. TOYO TIRES bucks for the top guys!
The SoCal 944 Spec group once again has a solid core of attendees. All helpful, friendly, but fierce competitors who are helping to grow the class. Good stuff.
Weather at Buttonwillow in spring is almost always great. Didn't even need to set up the E Z UP for shade. The usual, huge, spring time mud bogs that pose a problem for those who can't stay on the racing surface just weren't there. In fact, it was dry enough to throw a dust cloud for every tire dropped off the edge of the track. And if you spun off? Huge dust cloud!
Tom Atteberry was once again renting the black CRE #007 944. He's still having a good time getting used to the 944 Spec platform and what it can do.
Saturday's start was a nice super-tight pack. Just like racked balls on a pool table! No contact and they ran tight for a number of laps, however, it became clear that Foxx was the dominant car/driver racing combo.
I thought the story of the day was the speed that Rafi Gogus was showing, which, unfortunately, kept getting overshadowed by his difficulty staying on the track! Here a dust cloud, there a dust cloud, everywhere a dust cloud... He had the fastest lap of the race at 2:13.1 in the 6th lap out of 11. On Sunday, Rafi turned a 2:12.2 in the last lap of his race , which means he's still getting faster on that particular configuration.
"Hey, Rafi!" "What color is your 944?"......black, orange,....and dust.
Both Hohler and Todd von Mende were able to finish ahead of Gogus on Sat with Foxx winning. Von Mende, a visiting driver from the POC 944 Spec group had a great time racing with NASA for the first time and he got the big handshake from me- "Welcome to the Show!"
The finishing order was:
Foxx
Hohler
Von Mende
Gogus
Atteberry

Here's a pic of the 944's on Sat.

And a pic of the start on Sunday...

The beer thirsty racers shortly after being blood thirsty fighter pilots. Sat evening pizza and beer was free. And of course, fresh racing videos were provided by the group for viewing at Jim Foxx's Mothership RV. Nobody's ego was safe from the jesting and driving feedback!

Got some shots of the grid on Sunday as well. 2 of the cars were back in the other row.


On Sunday, the group of seven 944 Spec cars had a tough time getting in some clean qual laps, but the lap times came down quite a bit from Sat's racing. Everybody was going faster.
Charlie Buzzetti and Chris Allen were the 2 extras for Sunday. Really nice colorful field of 944 Spec cars.
Buzzetti absolutely schooled the field- driving off over the horizon in no time and getting credit for 1 extra lap compared to the other guys. His fastest race lap was a 2:09.3. Von Mende was next fastest at 2:09.9, but Foxx was able to come out ahead of him for position despite turning in a slightly slower fastest lap of 2:10.2. Those 2 had a good dice! Next home were Rafi and Robert , follwed by Allen and Atteberry.
Sunday was :
Buzzetti
Foxx
Von Mende
Gogus
Hohler
Allen
Atteberry

After Sunday's race NASA officials kept everyone in impound for a surprise safety gear inspection. Hohler, in his 2nd ever race and thinking he wouldn't get called to impound because of his 5th place finish, took a short cut to the paddock and was VERY close to getting DQ'd and losing points! A messenger was hastily dispatched to get him and Robert rejoined the class quickly.
After a minor tongue lashing from the very nice official, I don't think that will happen again. LESSON LEARNED: Don't ever skip impound.
An interesting point to this is that the points he saved might put him over the top for the Championship at the end of the year!
Though I didn't race this time around, this weekend was really rewarding for me in terms of seeing the happy faces and watching the guys pushing hard to get the most out of their 944's. If they went off the track, they didn't give up, but quickly rejoined the fight. I could see their race craft improving, not just their speed. Pretty damn good weekend all in all!