This was NorCal's second year using the Porsche at the Point event as their featured CASH race with over $3,200 in combined cash,contingencies and prizes.

NorCal welcomed new 944-Spec racer Ivan to his first race and visiting 2009 944-Spec National champion Charles Buzzetti to the Point.  Weather in October couldn't be better with bright sunny skies and  temperatures in the high 70's to low 80's.  The races for the entire weekend feature close hard fought battles.

I like to thank Rick Lofgren, Sid Lee and Ron Dale for their contibutions to this race report:

Saturday race

by Rick Lofgren

I had the pole and selected the outside of turn 1 for the inside line into Infineon's turn 2. The setting sun in turn 1/turn 2 complex helped me lose track a bit of where the course was and where 2nd place qualifier Charley was, and he took the lead. 

I was forced to follow Charley, watching how the national champion does his thing.  Fast, and no mistakes.  I developed a plan of trying to get a faster run through the carousel(turn 6) and try a pass under braking for turn 7.  On lap 9 I got my chance.  I was right on Charley's bumper going into the carousel and was gaining coming out of the corner when the rear end came around, i corrected, and next thing I knew I was 4 wheels off in the dirt at the exit channeling Norm, "don't lift!"  Well, i did lift some, but I managed to only lose 5-6 car lengths.

two laps later Charley finally did make a mistake exiting the carousel, dropping two wheels off at the exit, and i was close enough to take advantage, passing on the inside under braking going into 7.  Then I just had to hold him off for a lap and a half while he made an effort to get his position back.  I made a couple of mistakes that almost let him by, but I managed to hold on for the win.

by Sid Lee

Today we introduced a brand new 944 Spec racer, Ivan Hwang, who bought my yellow #38 Bumble Bee car.

I finally finished converting my beautiful 1988 Porsche 944 into a Spec car but still didn't have the heart to fully strip her down to bare metal.  Decided to keep the carpet, sound deadening material, electric windows, door panels, center console, power steering, headlights, catalytic converter, etc.  This way the car is still registered and can be driven on the streets.  Did take out the radio, speakers and AC unit.  I know the car is probably 100-150 lbs over the 2600 limit with driver but wanted to see how I can do with my new car.  Very surprised to run a 2:02.xxx in qualifying on Saturday.  That is just about as fast as what I did on my 83' 944 with LSD.  I can definitely feel the loss of traction on turn 2, 7 and 11 on my 88' 944 without LSD.  That is something I will have to look into for next year.

 
To my pleasant surprise, Ron and Jerry stepped up their game as they were turning very fast times within a second of me.  I knew I will definitely have to earn a 4th place finish as the top 3 guys racing with us were much faster.  I started at position 4 so I had a slight advantage over Ron but unfortunately Jerry's car broke down in qualifying so he didn't get to race on Saturday with us. 
 
Right as the green flag dropped, I pulled a very slight lead through turn 1 and had a good line for entering 2 but Greg took the inside line and I had to give it up so I tucked right behind him entering 2 with Ron right on my bumper. 

I was trying to follow the lead cars but they just started pulling away from me by turn 6 so I just concentrated on my own race against Ron.  Obviously everyone has their strong areas of the race course and I would pull away from Ron from turn 8 through 10 but he would always reel me in on turn 11, 2, 6 and 7.  

With a new race car, I didn't get a chance to dial her in with corner balancing, alignment nor brake pad bias.  I had a big problem with my right rear locking up way too early so Ron knew he had a few spots on the track that he could take advantage of my problem.  After about 4 or 5 laps, I came into 7 and braked a little deeper than I should have and the tire locked and I couldn't intiate the turn so Ron turned inside of me and passed me around 7.  I quickly got back onto his bumper and stayed within one or two car lenths so he could not pull away from me.  I was hoping that my pressure would cause him to make a mistake but he was rock steady. 

After about 4 laps, I noticed I was coming out of some turns faster so I thought to myself that his tires must be getting greasy so I pushed a littler harder through turn 3 and came inside of him on 4 which he only left me about 1 car width to pass.  I managed to squeeze by and got ahead of him through 5 and came across my #38 car which I decided to make an agressive pass on the inside of 6 and came out with a bigger lead over Ron.  My car felt great so I just kept up the pace and I noticed that I was pulling more and more distance away from Ron.  Once some faster cars started to split us, I knew all I had to do was just drive clean and I will finish ahead of him.  I was happy that I had a good fight for the 4th place finish on Saturday.

Infineon for me is always looked forward to with much trepidation. My disdain  for the track is legendary but I was determined to make the best of it. "Porsches at the Point" is a great event and I am in the middle of a points battle with Sid for second place, so I showed up determined to run strong.

A twenty point cushion is not much so at the green flag on saturday I tried to stay with Sid who is very fast. We quickly lost contact with the National champ and his entourage, Rick and Greg, but we had our hands full with each other. I was faster through the first half of the track and kept the pressure on from just a few feet off his bumper. Sid was working hard, taking a defensive line into the braking zone at turn 7, locking the brakes up almost every lap, then he would gap me through the fast back half of the track. A few laps in I got a good run out of turn 2 which set up a pass going into 7.  Sid knew I had a run on him, took the defensive inside line and stood on the brakes! I saw my chance as he again locked them up and slid wide while I stayed outside waiting for him to go sliding by. I led the next several laps but he was putting the pressure on me and now I was the one making mistakes.

With 1 1/2 laps to go I got sideways coming out of turn 2 which was all a good driver like Sid needed. Going into 4 he got along side me and outbraked me! I tried to keep up the pressure but traffic made it difficult and Sid was out of mistakes. I was happy with a hard earned fifth and had a great time racing with Sid.