NASA Southeast traveled to Kershaw, S.C., the weekend of February 13 and 14, 2021 to tackle all 14 newly repaved turns of Carolina Motorsports Park for the second race weekend of the year. Time Trial had a total of 24 entries registered for the weekend. While drivers were looking forward to cooler temperatures leading to higher horsepower and lower lap times, the weather forecast was laughing at those ambitions. For the first time in many seasons, drivers faced continuous rainy conditions for the entire weekend, resulting in various different animal species being spotted in the area lining up two by two, and deep accumulations of standing water in all the wrong places around the track surface.
Making the best of the wet conditions, the largest class designation for the weekend fell to the TTU class with nine drivers, where during Saturday’s competition, the P1 and P2 went to a pair of Corvettes driven by No. 211 Warren Turnipseed and No. 01 Kevin Harvey respectively, and with P3 going to Nick Wehe in the No. 48 Mazda Miata. Sunday’s results saw changes in the top two spots, with P1 going to Eric Siegenthaler in the No. 11 Chevrolet Camaro, P2 going to the No. 22 Chevrolet Corvette of Kevin Sprague, and Kevin Harvey in the No. 01 Corvette adding to his weekend success with a podium finish for Sunday in the P3 position.
For the second straight NASA Southeast event, TT6 was comprised entirely of drivers behind the wheel of a Mazda Miata, with a total of five entries in that class, making it the second largest class of the weekend. During Saturday’s competition, the winning lap times remained close despite deplorable track conditions that persisted throughout the weekend. Nishant Patel in the No. 9 Miata finished in the P1 spot, with P2 and P3 going to No. 89 Kyle Ray-Smith and No. 18 Roy Parsons respectively, both also driving a Mazda Miata. Sunday’s results saw Nishant Patel and Kyle Ray-Smith retain their P1 and P2 finishing positions, but with No. 99 Adam Powlas edging out No. 18 Roy Parsons to claim the final podium spot in P3.
In TT2, No. 50 John Umberger in a forced-induction Mazda Miata took the P1 slot in Saturday’s competition over Fred Evans in his C6 Corvette. On Sunday, Evans took the top spot followed by Umberger.
TT3 saw rookie Ken Baker in the No. 82 Audi TT take the P2 on Saturday and P1 on Sunday, with TT5 competitors No. 07 Scott Houston and rookie No. 349 Ashley Wise also matching their results in P1 and P2 for both days of competition.
