NASA SoCal NP01-EVO racer Francis Hu had finally had enough of racing against nothing but the clock and out-of-class cars, so he worked the phones hard and persuaded three guys into show up at Buttonwillow in April.
To convince the fourth driver, all Hu had to do was let Kalem Fletcher drive his NASA Prototype at Willow Springs. Not only did Fletcher run better times than Hu that day, but he also decided to buy one.
“He let me drive his car in Willow Springs on a cold day and I was just like, ‘Yeah, I’ve got to get one of these.’ They’re a lot of fun,” Fletcher said.
It was the largest showing of NASA Prototypes since the 2026 NASA Championships were held at Buttonwillow Raceway.
Saturday presented a few hurdles for Fletcher. His car was suffering from overheating problems that kept him out of competition the first day of the event. That left Saturday’s racing up to Hu, Jake Fazeli, Chad Plavan and Mark Abouzeid.
Hu took full advantage of pole position and set out to an early lead with Plavan on his tail, Fazeli in third and Abouzeid in fourth. Fletcher was back in the garage replacing the radiator on his car. Hu was leading the race when he experienced some braking issues, which allowed Plavan to get by.
“The pads knocked back. So, basically, I had to double-pump the brakes to slow down. So, I screwed up my timing a little bit,” Hu said afterward. “I lost a little time and he caught up to me and passed me. So, I’ve got to figure out what’s going on with the knock-back. You push the pedal. It’s like there’s no brakes.”
The fastest laps of the race between Hu and Plavan were separated by .003 seconds, but not long after Plavan had taken the lead a rod end on his left rear upper control arm broke, which rendered the car un-raceable, so Plavan parked it at driver’s right on the back side of Phil Hill so the race remained under green-flag conditions.
“It’s one of those things,” Plavan said. “This car is now 10 years old and, it’s still the best car I’ve ever bought. But some of the components, I’ve replaced all the hardware, the bolts and stuff, but one of those things I didn’t replace were the rod ends. So that’s the plan now because it just snapped right on the lock nut.
“Well, (Francis) used his voodoo on me because I did get by him. And the next lap, that’s when it broke,” Plavan continued. “And he told me the day before, you need to change these because they break, and it did. So it’s his voodoo. It’s all his fault.”
That moved Hu back into first and put Fazeli into second. Abouzeid was in third, but he also suffered a mechanical and came in early.
“I was steady up with them for a good amount of time. And then I tried to use a little bit more of the track and I started to lose them, trying to get fancy, trying to keep up with these guys. And then I kind of settled down into my own,” Fazeli said. “I was like, you know what? These two are battling so hard. I might get a chance. Somebody’s going to spin out and I’m going to pass. I was hoping nobody would break down, but yeah, a little bit of attrition there.”
Sunday
For Sunday morning’s qualifying race, Hu was on pole, followed by Fazeli, Plavan and Abouzeid and Fletcher, who had repaired the cooling system on his car to take the last spot on grid. Hu had bled his brakes after Saturday’s race one and his car was working much better.
When the race got underway, Fletcher had gotten around Abouzeid and the front four were nose-to-tail until they hit Super Touring traffic. Hu couldn’t get around the ST2 car he was badgering, despite pressure from behind from Plavan.
At that point, the order was Hu, Plavan and Fazeli, then Fletcher and Abouzeid, which held until checkers. However, Plavan came in underweight on the scales and he was DQ’d. That put Hu in first, Fazeli in second and Fletcher in third and Abouzeid in fourth. Plavan would have to start from last on grid for Sunday’s main race.
“I came in a little bit underweight, so I’m going to have to load it up with fuel, see what happens there,” Plavan said. “I lost some weight. Maybe I didn’t take that into consideration, but that’s the lightest I’ve ever been. So I’m going to pump out the fuel, see how many gallons I have, and then add a bunch of fuel to help with the weight.”
For Sunday’s main race, Hu had pole as he had all weekend, but now Fletcher’s car was cooling properly and he was starting from third behind Fazeli. Several laps into the 40-minute race, the train of NP01s had come up on out-of-class traffic and Hu was in the familiar situation of not being able to get around an ST2 car. With a broken splitter, Hu was having a hard time, so much so that Fletcher was able to get by and go on to take the win.
“He was probably half a second, second a lap, faster, so he pulled away. So yeah, he earned it,” Hu said afterward. “I was struggling. The front end was starting to push really bad because I probably overdrove and ripped the front splitter off.”
What is remarkable is that at the time, Fletcher was dicing through ST cars when he got pushed off in the Sweeper. He had to stop and then find reverse before he could get back on track and back to racing. Even so, he was able to catch and pass Hu for his first NP01 win.
“I think some traffic helped me out,” Fletcher said after the race. “I think Francis got stuck behind some traffic. But yeah, just super happy to have five of us here and competing and finishing. That’s wonderful.”
Unfortunately for Plavan, he broke another rod end five laps into the race and was sidelined off the front straight. Fazeli also only completed five laps. Those two expirations paved the way for Mark Abouzeid to take third after a long absence from racing.
“It was fun racing with these youngsters. I hadn’t been in the car in three years, so trying to shake the cobwebs off,” Abouzeid said. “I sold the business and just hadn’t got back in it. It was fun. We had a great time and I’m looking forward to the next one at Sonoma.”
