NASA NorCal Spec Miata finished its season with a solid 31-car field for the weekend. With the WERC Enduro on Saturday, it forced a three-race Sunday for Group A. Justin Casey had a solid lead in points and, much to his credit, did not miss a single regional race, including a trip to NASA Championships at COTA in which he finished fifth. But he could not rest the last weekend because of the double-points format, and he finished with solid P3 finishes in two of three races to secure the NorCal Championship. Congratulations to Justin! Unfortunately, the track was experiencing transponder issues so the results on RaceHero are not accurate.
In race one, Roy Fulmer covered the field easily by almost a second, posting a pole position of 1:55.6. The race started with Roy taking the lead by Turn 3 followed closely by Matt Cresci in a Team RAmotorsports car, and Graham Downey. Casey and Justin Crickenberger followed tightly. As the race progressed, Fulmer maintained a solid lead, with Cresci still close enough. P3 was hotly contested between Casey, Downey and Crickenberger. With about seven minutes to go, the leaders found the back of the E30 pack. With traffic in the mix, Cresci saw his opportunity and was able to get by Fulmer, who was later DQ’d. Cresci never looked back while Crickenberger followed, with Casey in third.
As a result of the DQ, Fulmer was out for race two. Cresci grabbed the lead early with Downey in tow. Graham didn’t let Matt out of his sight, but had nothing to challenge for the lead. Again, Casey ran a solid race finishing P4 with his older brother Jimmy right on his bumper in P5.
For the third race, Casey had a solid grasp of the championship, so this final race was for bragging rights. The first two races ended in high fives for all, and this last race followed suit. From his P2 start, Downey grabbed the lead with Cresci, Crickenberger and the Casey brothers in tow at the end of lap one! Cresci made one successful pass for the lead midrace only to see Downey take it right back. The Casey brothers had front row seats — running P3 and P4 — to the Cresci/Downey show, but could do nothing other than to wait for a mistake! At one point, they thought they had it when all four wheels of Downey’s car appeared to be off the ground in an off-track moment, but Graham managed to gather the car! Downey went on to finish P1 with Cresci, Justin Casey, Jimmy Casey and Crickenberger rounding out the top five.
NorCal Spec Miata series leader Ron Gayman was thrilled how the season ended and the solid participation Spec Miata enjoyed all year! More than 70 drivers competed in NASA NorCal Spec Miata this year, maintaining solid growth over years past! 2019 shows huge promise for some of the biggest Spec Miata fields to date!
