 NASA Rocky Mountain’s season opener was held at Pueblo Motorsports Park on March 17-18, 2007. 944-Spec was out in full force with five cars racing both days.
Mother nature played a huge role in preparation for the event, delivering an unprecedented double blizzard just before and after Christmas. Instead of building up the cars, the Rocky Mountain drivers had to wait out the storms and then dig the cars out 3-4 feet of snow. This left very little time to make them race-ready, so many long days and nights were spent catching up on valuable time lost. All of the cars somehow made it to the event with last minute preparations wrapping up just minutes before tech inspection!
Here is David Dirks PMI record holder during the storms.
Just two days before the event, Chuck Taylor’s #67 needed major engine repairs and a front suspension installed.
In the weeks leading up to the event, Series Director Chuck Taylor proudly announced Dart Auto (www.dartauto.com) as the Title Sponsor outside of Toyo for Rocky Mountain 944-Spec. Their $100 per race sponsorship was welcome news!
The second surprise was another sponsor, Hank and Jen Padilla of Hanksville Hot Rods (www.hanksvillehotrods.com), who came on board as our championship sponsor with a free roll cage valued at $1,300!
We needed five cars at every race of the weekend to earn full sponsorship...and FIVE CARS WE HAD! Saturday's points race was held in the Competition School format with four of the five drivers completing the requirements for obtaining their Provisional Race Licenses. Chuck Taylor's Allstar Motorsports #67 was credited with first place as their team was the only driver already holding a race license. David Dirks took the lead early and broke free from traffic, while Robbin Pfadt and Weston Pawlowski battled it out for second place. Weston was able to sneak past Robbin in traffic, then Chris Venturini, who was in fourth place, slipped past Robbin and eventually past Weston for a well deserved second place finish. Final results for Saturday: Chuck Taylor (1), David Dirks (2), Chris Venturini (3), Weston Pawlowski (4), Robbin Pfadt (5). With all of the driver qualified to compete, Sunday was shaping up to be a great race! After all the excitement was over on Saturday, the Rocky Mountain racers enjoyed a great St. Patrick's Day BBQ put on by Dave and Revkah Balingit and Margaritas courtesy of Dart Auto and their gasoline-powered blender!
Sunday's Heat Race, which set the field for the Main Event, was filled with tight battles. Todd Imwold, driving his red #143 944-Spec snuck past an F-Stock Porsche 911 early on and took a solid lead. In the first lap, Chris Venturini saw an opportunity to pass David Dirks in traffic on the inside, which resulted in a minor "racing incident" which left them both stopped while the rest of the field drove around them. Although they both were able to get back into the race quickly, they were too far back to regain position before the end of the race. Chuck Taylor rounded up the field in the mechanically-challenged #67. Final results for the Heat Race: Todd Imwold (1), Weston Pawlowski (2), David Dirks (3), Chris Venturini (4).
The Race Director elected for a standing start for the Main Event, which was nothing short of a spectacular race. The F-Stock 911 leaped ahead of the 944-Specs at the start, however Todd Imwold managed to sneak by him early on and pulled away from the rest of the pack for an easy win! Congratulations to Todd on a race well done. Second place was a different matter, however.
The entire race was a battle between David Dirks (#76) and Weston Pawlowski (#22.) David set the track record catching up to Weston after getting by the 911, however Weston was not about to give up second place without a fight! After over twenty minutes of David filling Weston's mirror, Weston pushed through a turn hard enough to put four wheels off on the last lap. Trying to regain control and maintain position, Weston stayed on the throttle and shot back onto and across the track! David saw his chance and made his move to the outside, bringing home second place! Chris Venturini, in his 1988 924S, was just outside of the battle for the first half of the race then he had a tire go down and took home fourth place. Chuck Taylor limped his car back to the pits, taking fifth.
David's two second place finishes (at 90 points each) had him leaving Pueblo as the points leader with 180. Team Red Rat and AllStar Motorsports (wins and fifths) earned 160 points for the weekend. Weston and Chris splitting 3rd and fourths each had 150 points |
