Round four of the season got underway with our second visit to Mid-Ohio this year. 944 Spec was able to field three cars for this event. Brad Raum’s car developed a transmission issue just before being picked up. The racers included Rick Briggs, Steve Brewster and Shannon McCue. 944 Spec ran in the Lightning group this weekend. The group included the Camaro – Mustang Challenge, Spec Miata, Honda Challenge, Performance Touring and BMW Spec E-30. The field was nicely sized, with close to 50 cars.
Saturday brought fairly constant rain that started in the wee hours of the morning. It was a challenge keeping the cars out of the bigger puddles heading to grid. Practice and qualifying times were on the slow side. Given the conditions, nobody wanted to their car damaged prior to the race. Shannon McCue started on the pole with Steve Brewster applying constant pressure throughout the race. McCue only managed to stay in front of Steve by making more corrections than spell check going through a college term-paper. The full-tread Toyos were tortured to the point of hydroplaning more than once, causing some serious code brown moments where the nose of the car got pointed at the armco in Thunder Valley. Saturday’s race finished as it started with McCue in first, followed by Brewster and Briggs.
Sunday lived up to its name, with clear skies and ideal racing conditions. The entire 944 Spec field improved lap times since April’s trip to Mid-Ohio with Briggs posting a personal best lap time. As the green flag flew, the 944s quickly got mixed up with the Spec E30 and PTE cars just ahead of them in the cue. Briggs edged out Brewster to move into second place as the cars crested the hill in Madness. Constant traffic reshuffled the field, allowing Brewster to get ahead and retake second from Briggs. In the closing moments of the race, it became Miata Madness as the 944 crew started moving through the tail end of the 25-strong Spec Miata field leading to another close finish with McCue in front closely followed by Brewster and Briggs.
Great Lakes 944 Spec wishes to thank to our national sponsors, TOYO tires, Apex Performance and Hawk brake pads.
For complete results and lap records, please see www.nasagreatlakes.com.