 NorCal 944SPEC started its 2007 season at Thunderhill raceway with two new drivers. Congratulations to Jerry Whitteridge and Mike Lee on their first race weekend.
Contrary to popular belief it’s not always sunny in California. February at Infineon brought very heavy rains and our group decided to delay our season. What a difference a month makes as we’re rewarded with beautiful spring weather, sunny but not too hot. It’s been last October since our NorCal 944SPEC race and it’s good to see old friends again and meeting new ones at the track. Saturday got off to a dubious start. Bill Pennock was inspecting and going over his car in the morning. In the process of tightening things up, he accidentally broke a part off a shifter mechanism. Bill had to drive back to Sacramento to get the replacement from his parts car and missed the practice and qualifying sessions. We did what we could to help out by putting all the wheels back onto the car, checking tire pressures, oil level and making sure he had enough fuel while he was gone. Our race starts at 1:20PM and Bill just got back around 1:00PM. We were already suited and getting ready to go to pre-grid. We didn’t think Bill was going to finish his car in time for the race. We normally grid up behind the spec Miatas and in front of the GTIs but for Saturday’s race, we were the first group out and the first green flag. We had the faster H1 and Mazda GT cars in separate groups behind us. I guess the race director has a perverse sense of humor to provide a pack of moving chicanes with bright orange rookie markers as obstacles (Just kidding, “we love ya”race director Will).
Greg Brandeau took the pole and used the position brilliantly to get the lead knowing we’ll be split soon with the faster class cars. Greg ran a great race managing and using traffic to his advantage and came away with a 1st place win. We didn’t know it at the time but Bill was able to repair his car and got into the race as the last car out. Bill made a valiant effort but he was 56 positions down. Bill still managed to place 4th because Mike and Jerry had problems. Jerry’s exhaust pipe came loose and he had to go in. Jerry was able to find friends in the PRC with a wielder and they helped to wield his exhaust pipe back for Sunday’s race.
Saturday’s finishing positions: 1st- Greg Brandeau 2nd- Steve Huey 3rd- Ken Huey 4th- Bill Pennock 5th- Jerry Whitteridge 6th- Mike Lee |
