NASA Southeast returned to Carolina Motorsports Park in February, allowing members to spend Valentine’s Day weekend with their racecars and their love for racing. The weekend started with competition school on Friday, where the Spec Miata field added two new rookies to their ranks. Clay Bowman and David Borski both successfully completed the school and earned their provisional licenses!
On Saturday morning, Chuck Mactutus secured pole position with a time of 1:49.677. Javier Laurnaga was second fastest with a 1:49.878, joining Mactutus on the front row for the start of Saturday’s race.
Race one started with a predictably hectic Turn 1. A few cars went wide and off-track, but all merged back in without incident. Things turned south quickly, however, when Yan Dia lost his brakes into Turn 11, causing his car to spin and crash into Keith Williamson, who had no time to react. This brought out a double-yellow while crews tended to the incident.
When racing resumed, Mactutus maintained his lead with Agustin Garcia Flores hot on the hunt. This continued for several laps until Garcia Flores mis-stepped in Turn 12, losing valuable momentum and falling back from Mactutus. From that point on, Mactutus stayed out front mostly uncontested. Chris Rawlings was the “hard charger” of the race, getting a great jump at the start and moving from P16 all the way up to P3.
More great racing occurred throughout the field, with close finishes between Cameron Brown, Don Elvington, and Bob Mueller for P6. Behind them, Charles Lankford and Wyatt Wood had a local battle on the last lap, going side-by-side from Turn 11 all the way to the finish line. They kept it clean with a drag race to the end, with Lankford edging out Wood by just .008 seconds for P11!
Saturday’s top finishers were Mactutus in first Garcia Flores P2, Rawlings P3, Julian Pollard P4, and Laurnaga P5.
Sunday morning brought rain to the track. Before the race, most drivers felt it wasn’t enough rain for wet tires, but it didn’t look grippy enough for slicks either. Most stayed on dry tires until the rain intensified with about ten minutes left to grid up. Competitors scrambled to swap tires just minutes before the start, which proved to be the right call.
Cars hit a fully wet track with rooster tails aplenty. In the rainy conditions, Mactutus put on a masterclass. He was in the zone and completely locked in. Although the Miata field started on the third flag, Mactutus passed even the fastest E30 by lap five. Nobody could touch him. Garcia Flores and Pollard were also quick, each pushing to catch the leader while also trying to outrun the other. Pollard was just a little faster, eventually passing Garcia Flores for second place. Rawlings had an impressive run on slick tires, finishing P4 after a tight match with Lucas Jensen and Laurnaga.
For Sunday’s race two, the top were Mactutus in first, Pollard P2, Garcia Flores P3, Rawlings P4, and Jensen P5.
It was still raining for the start of race three, where Mactutus started on pole again with Pollard to his outside. Pollard pushed hard at the start, moving to the front by Turn 3. Mactutus didn’t stutter, and regained the lead at Turn 12. From there, Pollard remained in P2 and Garcia Flores in P3. Each was fast, but they finished without further contention.
Just behind them, a spirited battle broke out between Jensen and Rawlings, who swapped positions back and forth throughout the race. Jensen edged him out to grab P4 on the last lap. Bowman looked like anything but a rookie in the final race, finishing just .4 seconds behind season champion Laurnaga for seventh place. Mactutus showed his total dominance in the wet, finishing more than 31 seconds ahead of second-place Pollard to complete the weekend sweep.
For Sunday’s race three, the top five were: Mactutus in first, Pollard P2, Garcia Flores P3, Jensen P4, and Rawlings P5.
