The top three competitors in NASA NorCal Spec E46 had been having a pretty good battle. Going into the final weekend of the NorCal racing season, a loss could have significant ramifications because the last three races are double points.
Jared Zakem had first place locked up in Spec E46, and Adam Bomb Racing’s Adam Freire was in second place heading into the weekend. Matt Pruden was third in points. After the final race, Freire had dropped to third in the season points, and Pruden had moved up to second place.
At that point, Freire approached NorCal officials to follow up on a request for correction in scoring from the Champs. He was shown under his name at the Champs and not the team name, AdamBomb Racing. Freire had contact NorCal timing and scoring to correct the points totals, but the change had not been made. At issue was whether this was a true mistake as defined under the CCR team rules, as well as the time limits that apply were in question. Rules are in place for the benefit of and service to everyone. Changing points totals at the last minute based on the word of the competitor would not be in keeping with the rules in the CCR.
“I go up to the tower Saturday after the races, after a busy day, I hadn’t got a chance and they still hadn’t added my points together,” Freire said. “So I was missing about three, 400 points basically that would’ve kept me in second place.”
The season awards banquet was scheduled to begin at the track in less than 30 minutes. There wasn’t enough time to sort out the matter. Either way it would have been Pruden in second and Freire in third, or the other way around, if a correction was justified. Either outcome affected only those two drivers.
That’s when Pruden stepped up and approached NASA NorCal Regional Director Jerry Kunzman and confirmed that it was a mistake. Pruden insisted Freire was the rightful second-place winner, and he was third. These two drivers are not teammates, and they competed against each other hard all season long. This showed true sportsmanship, which was recognized at the awards ceremony.
“Whether it’s for bragging rights or Toyo bucks, I mean, it’s pretty apparent to everyone that Adam is a better driver than I am and he drove a heck of a season and it just would not have been right to try to use this registration anomaly against him for some reason,” Pruden said. “I mean, why would anyone do that? He had consistent performance throughout the whole season. That takes a tremendous amount of effort, especially he’s also a high school student, and boy, I wouldn’t want to be trying to do that as a high school student as well. So yeah, he earned that. And I wasn’t going to try to take that away from him because of how his dad chose to register him or something. That just didn’t seem right.”
Kunzman said a lot of serious competitors don’t bother with the rule book until it’s something serious, which usually ends badly. All drivers and officials are bound by a rulebook, as in any other sporting event. Competitors should be cautioned to pay attention to every detail before it’s too late.
“I see this a lot, and it makes for a very bad situation that could have been avoided had the driver(s) done their homework,” Kunzman said. Taking due care when registering, if you have a team and individual drivers listed with your membership. This could have ended differently were it not for the fine sportsmanship exhibited by Pruden.
“But yeah, Matt, he’s the kindest guy on the whole field and he had no problem with adding that,” Freire said. “He even suggested it before I was aware of it, but he didn’t even know I was aware of it and he told me to, ‘Hey, go fix the issue. I mean, it’s obvious you should be in that spot.’”
