NASA Southeast returned to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for its June event. Famous for its annual Petit LeMans, Road Atlanta offers twisty turns and elevation changes not found at many Southeast tracks. As one can imagine, Atlanta is hot in June and shade was a valued commodity. In Saturday morning’s qualifying session, Dean Dybdahl secured the pole with a time of 1:45.088. Capers Zentmeyer was second fastest with a time of 1:45.547. This set the groundwork for great racing between these two all weekend.
Twenty-three Spec Miatas took to the track for Saturday’s race. The big battle of the day was between Dybdahl and Zentmeyer, working every lap to best the other. They controlled the front two positions, while Yan Dia watched from a more distant third position. Behind them, Jeremy Barnes was making his way back up through the field after dropping a few positions at the start. Falling back to seventh, Barnes was now on the heels of Javier Laurnaga in fourth place.
On lap five, a full-course caution came out, bunching up the field. As with any caution, the key is getting a good restart — and the leaders did just that. Dybdahl had the lead, but Zentmeyers grabbed it away in Turn 1 with two laps to go. On the last lap, Dybdahl made the winning move approaching Turn 10a, passing Zentmeyer on the inside. Not to go unnoticed, the hard charger mention goes to Charles Lankford for having to start last due to missing qualifying for mechanical issues. Lankford fought his way up through the pack, advancing nine spots and finishing P14. The top five finishers were Dybdahl with the win, Zentmeyer in P2, Dia in P3, Barnes in P4, and Lauraga in P5.
Race two again had Dybdahl starting on the pole with Zentmeyer on the outside. As the race progressed, it looked like a similar scenario as Saturday with these two fighting lap after lap. This time, out-of-class traffic got the best of Zentmeyer on lap 10 where he tagged another car in Turn 4. While both cars were able to continue the race, Zentmeyer lost a ton of time, giving Dybdahl the cushion to sail into another victory.
Behind them, Barnes, Keith Williamson, Dia, and Laurnaga were scheming with out-of-class traffic and caution flags as they mixed it up in positions three through six. As with many Road Atlanta battles, it came down to the last three turns to decide the finishing order. Barnes navigated well and created a small buffer to secure third place. Williamson was in fourth leading Dia and Laurnaga as they approached Turn 10a.
But in navigating a yellow flag and an out-of-class car, Dia was able to slingshot past him through Turn 12 with Laurnaga in tow. It was three wide at the line with Laurnaga edging out Williamson by .001 seconds! Another close battle further back was had between Scott Brown in P11 and Brad Tompkins in P12, finishing just .18 seconds apart! The final results showed Dybdahl in P1, Zentmeyer in P2, Barnes in P3, Dia in P4, Laurnaga in P5, and Williamson in P6.
With a damaged car, Zentmeyer didn’t start race three. This gave a “lucky bump” to fourth place starter Williamson who would now be starting on the outside pole alongside Dybdahl. Williamson took full advantage taking the early lead by Turn 3. But Dybdhal soon moved to the front as Dia drafted with him on the long back straightaway. This is all Dybdahl needed to start gapping the field, leaving a great race behind him for positions two through five.
The group of Laurnaga, Dia, Williamson, and Barnes made it their place to put on a show. Lap after lap, this pack pushed each other hard, swapping positions and never letting the other get away. On lap 10, Dia lost control and smacked the tire wall outside of Turn 7, ending his race. It was now the trio of Williamson, Barnes, and Larnaga battling for second place. On the last lap, Williamson didn’t fare so well in Turn 10a, going off track and moving back to P7. Barnes also had a little slide in Turn 10b, allowing Laurnaga to squirt by up the hill and take second place. Dybdahl never looked back, winning by over 16 seconds and sweeping another weekend. The remaining top five consisted of Laurnaga in P2, Barnes in P3, Peter Rigg in P4, and Luis Romero in P5.
