Carolina Motorsports Park was the scene for NASA Southeast’s November event, the Brady Memorial. The weekend began with competition school on Friday, where the Spec Miata family gained a new racer, Cameron Brown. Cameron now gets to race wheel to wheel in Spec Miata with his father, Scott. Congrats to Cameron for getting his provisional license and becoming our newest rookie. On Saturday morning, the track felt loose and fast at the same time. Newer tires were definitely faster than old ones, so many racers elected to put on new slicks for qualifying. Eric Gerchak set the fastest lap and secured the pole position with a time of 1:50.722.
Dean Dybdahl had the second fastest qualifying time, so he started on the front row alongside Gerchak for of Saturday’s race. As the group entered Turn 1, Dybdahl locked up his tires, moving him back a few spots as the field tried to capitalize on his mistake. But he recovered quickly and lost minimal track positions. Gerchak and Dia were now P1 and P2 respectively, with Javier Laurnaga and Dybdahl close in tow.
On lap two, Gerchak missed a shift coming out of T14 and Dia swooped by to take the lead from him. It didn’t take long to reach out-of-class traffic, and Dybdahl was perfectly in place to maneuver back into P1 on lap four. Dybdahl then put some distance between himself and the SM field, leaving Dia, Gerchak, and Laurnaga in a tight battle to settle the next positions. Gerchak and Dia swapped positions a few times, but Dia was able to cross the line ahead in the end. The final results were Dybdahl in P1, Dia in P2, Gerchak in P3, Laurnaga in P4, and Steven Champlin in P5. At the evening awards, Tal Tsfany was also awarded the infamous, “I was 7th” T-shirt.
For race two on Sunday morning, Gerchak again had the first starting spot with Dybdahl to his outside. Gerchak stayed ahead at the start, but Dybdahl got past him and into the lead by Turn 11. Gerchak regained the lead on lap three. On lap six, Dia helped Dybdahl with a little push heading into Turn 8, allowing both of them, plus Laurnaga, to get by Gerchak as he was forced to the outside. Not taking that lightly, Gerchak passed Laurnaga and Dia on the next lap, positioning him track down Dybdahl.
Laurnaga was able to pass Dia on lap eighth after Dia had a little contact with an out-of-class car. On the last turn of the last lap, Gerchak made a hard charge to the inside of Dybdahl, only to lock up his tires, sliding into him. That move gave Gerchak the lead, but he was later repositioned due to the contact. The final results were Dybdahl in P1, Gerchak in P2, Laurnaga in P3, Dia in P4, and Brandon Sloan in P5.
For the third and final race of the weekend, everyone was lined up on the grid as normal when it was found that Dybdahl was leaking fuel! It was fortunate catching this before going on track, but unfortunate at the same time as it prevented him from racing. So with NASA Southeast’s “lucky bump” rule, Laurnaga found himself unexpectedly on the front row with pole sitter Gerchak. After the first few turns, the front three settled in line, with Gerchak out front followed by Laurnaga then Dia. This group drove close and hard the entire race. Dia and Gerchak exchanged the lead several times with Laurnaga right in contention as well. Each gave their best shot, but Gerchak brought it across the line first when it mattered. Behind him was Dia in P2, Laurnaga in P3, Sloan in P4, and Champlin in P5.
It was a super fun and exciting race weekend with a lot of close racing throughout the field. It’s everything you could want on a weekend dedicated to the memory of our racing friend, Darren Brady, who unexpectedly passed away in 2020. Brady was a longtime racer and instructor for NASA Southeast. He not only embodied the spirit of NASA overall, but helped grow the Spec Miata class in our region.
