NASA Central drivers regrouped April 26-28 for the second races of 2013 at Mid-America Motorplex in Pacific Junction, Iowa. The event included the region’s first ever endurance race Friday, lots of new drivers getting their first taste of competition in Time Trials and racing.
The Service Automotive Endurance Series kicked off Friday evening with a two-hour enduro. The field was small, but everyone had a great time. Highlights were the E0 class Team Service Automotive Miata of Doug Low and Brett Westcott burning through a set of Hoosier slicks by the 1.5-hour mark.
Jim Thomas in the Team UBR E3 Miata had an epic tank slapper off at Turn 12 that photographer John Hiatt caught in sequence. Jim’s past off-road racing experience sure came in handy. Winning overall and first in E3 was Team Cohn, consisting of ace shoe Ben Anderson and NASA Central’s Chief of Driver Development Bryan Cohn.
Time Trials had seven new drivers step into competition. Two, Bill Tucker and Bill Pemberton, are racers coming back into the fold, trying something new while Derek Van Den Top, Michael Beckers, Jim Lipari, Allen Myers and Mark Milligan all took to Time Trials quickly and easily. Competition abounded in Time Trials with five cars in TTU and four in TTE on Sunday, plus close racing in TT1 and TT2.
Two drivers completed competition school, Ron Smith and John Pennington, both of whom raced Sunday along with many of our Gateway comp school grads, who were snowed out of their first races back in March. Congrats go out to Smith and Pennington plus Tom Lutker, Darren Hoffman, Spencer Smith and Gary Pennington for getting their racing careers started.
The Storm race had our largest Spec Miata field ever, with nine cars taking the green. Ben Anderson nabbed pole and checked out, leaving Warren and Dillon Dexter to duke it out over second, with Natalie Fenaroli, Zane Dexter and Joel Karns dicing it up for fourth through sixth. They eventually finished in that order. Sunday saw a repeat with the exception of Karns, who decided to start last overall, made up six spots by the exit of Turn 1 and carried the momentum to a strong fourth place. His inside pass heading into Turn 1 at the start was epic!
Seven lap records were broken, with Steve Myers setting the fastest NASA lap ever at MAM with a 1:34.763.
Check out the results from all classes at the Mid-America event here: (http://www.drivenasacentral.com/results.php)
