NASA’s Turn 7 Girl, Flatten the Curve race weekend started with 22 Spec Miatas registered and a smoking-hot weather forecast. On Saturday Broderick Bauguess won pole position with a 1:45.178, with Aiden Crouse P2, Camden Gruber P3, Keith Williamson P4 and Raiden Nicol P5.
As the green flag dropped, Bauguess got away cleanly and the front of the field made it through Turn 3 with Bauguess P1 followed by Crouse, Gruber, Williamson, Nicol and Elvington. Crouse locked on to Bauguess’ bumper as the two tried to gap the field, but Gruber was pushing hard to close and get in their draft. On lap two, Crouse got around Bauguess at Turn 10a to take the lead while Gruber had closed to make it a tight three-way race. Nicol picked off Williamson on the same lap coming out of Turn 7 to move up to P4. The race settled into a three-way battle for first as the lead trio edged away from Nicol and Williamson as they battled for 4th.
Bauguess made his move on lap six and regained the lead, and on lap eight Williamson got a run on Nicol to make the pass for fourth going into Turn 10a. Gruber then got around Crouse at Turn 10a on lap nine to move up to P2 and Bauguess held on for the win.
Cam Gruber won pole position on Sunday with a 1:45.086 followed by Bauguess, Crouse, Nicol, Williamson and Jay Stroud. On the start, the inside lane got a good run with Gruber leading the way up the hill followed by Crouse, Bauguess, Williamson, Nicol and Ernie Cole. Gruber came out of Turn 7 with about a car length lead, but Bauguess quickly got to Crouse’s bumper and the pair caught Gruber before they started down the hill at Turn 8. Gruber went mid track to defend, but Crouse got beside him in the Turn 10a brake zone, and with Bauguess in tow, the pair edged out Gruber as they came thru Turn 10b.
Two laps later Bauguess made the inside pass on Crouse at Turn 1 to take the lead. Later that lap, Nicol got a run on Williamson coming through Turn 10b to make the pass going under the bridge leaving the order Bauguess, Crouse, Gruber, Nicol and Williamson. On lap five, the race was red- flagged for a car off at Turn 1 and soon after, a pace car was sent out to restart the race for a two-lap, green-white-checker finish. The restart went well and the front five Spec Miatas made it through the Esses without any position changes.
However, on Turn 5, Gruber dropped two positions after he carried too much speed into the turn, going four-off in the gravel, but hung onto it and kept it off the wall. Then, as Bauguess, Crouse and Nicol headed down the hill to Turn 10a, a lone ST5 car got in the mix, holding up Crouse, and then at Turn 1 passed Crouse, totally preventing a two- or three-way Spec Miata fight for the win. The race ended with Broderick Bauguess winning, Aiden Crouse P2, Raiden Nicol P3, Keith Williamson P4, Cam Gruber P5 and Ernie Cole P6.
