You know the racing is going to be good when the grid is full. So, when 14 944 Spec cars lined up for the action at Willow Springs International Raceway, that was foretelling.
With two 944 Spec National Champions on grid — Josh Cleye and Charlie Buzzetti — and loads of experienced drivers, the racing is nearly always compelling in NASA SoCal 944 Spec.
Saturday’s Racing Action
Case in point, in Saturday’s race one Buzzetti and Cleye and Kevin Fry and Charles Sharp were clustered at the front at the beginning. Once Buzzetti and Cleye built a bit of a gap, they had it out. Cleye did manage to get around him once to take the lead, but it didn’t last and Buzzetti took the win.
“It was a great race and we can’t say enough about this guy. He’s awesome to race with,” Buzzetti said about Cleye. “You can trust him. He’s going to be there. He’s never giving up. I thought I had him beat early in the race, and that was not true.”
Cleye’s wider 944 does handle the long sweeping turns at Willow Springs better than the narrower 924, but he wasn’t able to keep the lead he held for those few fleeting moments. Age and treachery won the battle over youth and enthusiasm in race one.
As is so often the case, Cleye’s fast lap was quicker than Buzzetti’s, but Cleye said his 944 doesn’t come on as early as Buzzetti’s 924. A late-race yellow caused to field to check up a bit at the exit of the all-important Turn 5, but everyone got through that.
“That was so fun,” Cleye said. “It’s one of those races where it’s like it doesn’t matter where you finish. It was just so exciting.”
Capitalizing on a mistake ahead of him, Fry was able to take command of and finish in third place after Sharp had the courtesy to go four off at the exit of Turn 3.
“I followed Buzzetti and Josh, and they’re really fast. We all were four together for the first two laps, the whole race. We were just right next to each other,” Fry said. “I was behind Chuck and he went off at the Omega and he lost it, and I was like, “Yes!” So I got ahead of him pretty far. And then the whole rest of the race, I was just watching him in the rear view, catching up slowly.”
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday
Sunday morning’s qualifying race had Cleye on pole, followed by Buzzetti Fry, then Sharp and Ross Barnett. Fry managed to get around Cleye to take the lead. Cleye was on the hunt, but he dropped a wheel between turns 8 and 9 and gave Fry the edge and the win.
“Oh, it was awesome,” Fry said. “Josh was right on me. Man, that was good. I wondered what happened to him.”
Buzzetti finished second, followed by Thomas Atteberry, Zeb Little, Esteban Peinado, John Niedernhofer, Jim Richmond, Royce VanHoove, then Carl Atwood, Jerry DeLira, Josh Cleye. Ezra Schoeplein and Charles Sharp suffered mechanicals and retired early.
With Fry on pole for the Sunday main race, Buzzetti starting from second and Cleye starting from way back, the early goings were going to be eventful.
After a clean start, Buzzetti had taken the lead by lap four with Fry and Cleye battling for second. A few laps before the finish, a Spec3 lost its engine and the contents of the crankcase. That failure was the cause of Fry losing a spot to Cleye. Fry ended up finishing in third place.
“This E-36 oiled the track down. We were having a great battle,” Fry said afterward. “I spun it, went super sideways in 9 and he passed me.”
Cleye nearly fell victim to the same surface condition. He finished second, but was lucky not to lose his spot again to Fry.
“Thankfully I slowed down just enough where I saw him get sideways. But then I barely made it through that,” he said, pointing to a deflated and shredded left front tire. “That was fun for the final lap.”
Buzzetti got the win and never fell victim to the spilled oil because he saw the car ahead billowing smoke out the back.
“I happened to see that he was smoking when I was over going seven to eight,” Buzzetti said. “And I could see that he was on this far edge of the track, so I knew the oil was going to be on the outside. So I just drove the inside of the nine. I was paying attention.”
As the points battles begin to heat up, so will the temperatures as the Southern California sunshine turns to blistering heat. The field heads to Buttonwillow in April where the stakes will be even higher.
