Carolina Motorsports Park is just far enough away from big cities to offer spectacular nighttime views of the stars. If you’ve never been to CMP, NASA Southeast goes every February, May and November, and camping at the track is highly recommended. Friday night turned cool after sunset, the sky was clear and the all fire pits were burning.
Without cloud cover overnight, the track, cars and tires were cold, in the low 40s for morning warmup. Just before lunch, Honda Challenge went out for qualifying and the sun warmed up the track surface, which provided more grip than warmup. H2 had pole set by Team Moar Door, with Shane Lovely at the wheel followed by Michael Kramer, then Andrew Meek and P4 Wil McKenzie separated by .2 seconds. H1 had pole set by Will Hunter, with Brett McWhorter P2, Boston Maler P3 and Rob Oxford in P4, each about a second apart.
Honda Challenge started in wave three without a pace car, so Hunter got to set the pace for the green flag. Halfway down the front straight, the starter waved the green flag and off they went toward Turn 1. The light weight of the H2 class allowed them to stay with the H1 class cars despite their power disadvantage. Turn 1 was two wide and nose to tail. Maler got loose, spun to the right, hooked then spun fast left. Oxford got around on the outside line just in time, but not so lucky was Team Moar Door, who got clipped on the driver side door but was able to keep racing. The contact with Team Moar Door spun Maler back around the other way coming to a stop sideways on track directly in front of Kramer, which ended in hard contact that sent both off track into the gravel pit.
This caused a double-yellow for two laps while they towed in the two cars before the race resumed. Now the field was bunched up and race craft came into play. Hunter was able to work through slower traffic, keeping a gap on rookie McWhorter. After a few laps, Oxford fell back a few seconds unable to make a pass on one of the GTS3 cars. Team Moar Door, Meek and McKenzie had their own battle. Team Moar Door kept racing after the impact even though his door looked like someone tried to open it with a can opener. He could also tell the rear door was bent, but both were latched closed so all was safe.
Meek and McKenzie stayed right there in position in case Team Moar Door made a mistake. The race went by fast after the restart and before they knew it the white flag came out. Hunter was still in the lead, but P2 and P3 are just a few seconds behind. After Turn 3, McWhorter seemed to have car issues as he slowed down way off pace and Oxford went around and could see Hunter just ahead. McKenzie, Meek and Team Moar Door were still nose to tail and only a few seconds separated them. At the checkered flag, the H1 winner was Hunter followed by Oxford in P2 and McWhorter in P3. H2 winner was Team Moar Door followed by Meek in P2 and McKenzie in P3.
Kramer spent the evening making sure his splitter and front bumper were secure and no leaks in the cooling system. Team Moar Door and McKenzie beat out dents, flattened the rips and tears to both left doors. Small metal patches were pop riveted in the tears so the thin metal door would not rip any further. The rear door had to be screwed closed at the top because it was catching so much air it kept bending the door outward. Maler loaded up his car and took it back to the shop to possibly fix and return. Once the wheel and suspension were removed and parts inspected closer he detected a broken knuckle on driver’s front along with a shock housing that was cracked. Most of the replacement parts were available except a spare shock so he was unable to repair and return for Sunday’s races.
Sunday morning Honda Challenge moved to wave two for the start so the Spec Iron cars could do a standing start in wave three and leave tons of rubber on the front straight. Even though Honda Challenge had a pace car this time, there was a little confusion with the Spec E46 cars leading the wave and they took off with the green flag from wave one so everyone else just went with it.
Hunter and McWhorter quickly put a few seconds of a gap on Oxford in H1. In H2, Team Moar Door, Meek and McKenzie ran nose to tail while Kramer tried to make his way to the front. A few laps into the race, Oxford went to pit lane to have the black flag station re-secure the hood that came unlatched. Luckily the secondary latch kept it from flying open. Halfway around the track, Oxford’s hood latch released again so he came in and did not finish the race.
A few laps later Kramer came into the pits and his race ended, too. McWhorter made a pass on Hunter for the lead in H1 while Team Moar Door put a big gap on Meek and McKenzie who were in their own battle for P2 in H2. When the checkered flag came out, McWhorter took the win in H1 followed by Will Hunter in P2 only a few seconds behind. Team Moar Door took the win in H2 followed by Meek in P2 and McKenzie in P3.
In race three, Oxford and Kramer were able to fix their issues and made it to the final race. At the start, Hunter and McWhorter ran away from Oxford in H1. In H2 Meek wicked up the pace and took over the lead from Team Moar Door. Kramer struggled all weekend to finish a race, but this time he was also in the mix with the leaders and McKenzie was right behind him. At the checkered flag, Hunter took the win in H1 followed by McWhorter in P2 and Rob Oxford in P3. In H2 Meek took the win followed by Team Moar Door in P2 and Michael Kramer in P3.
Next stop is Road Atlanta for the 16th Annual Santa’s Toy Run, where the year-end, double-points race and regional championships will be on the line. H2 shows 130 points between P1 and P2. There is also a two-way tie in points for third place, so who will win the last podium spot? H1 shows only 100 points separation between P1 and P2 but P3 is locked in.
HONDA CHALLENGE!!!!