After a two-month hiatus, NASA Southeast returned to Bloomingdale, Ga., and Roebling Road Raceway just outside Savannah, Ga., for the fourth and final time in the 2021 season for the Savannah Sizzler. With an amended lineup due to the proximity to the NASA Championships at Daytona International Speedway the weekend before, the weekend consisted of NASA TREC Endurance Racing and Time Trial competition only.
Greeted with unseasonably cool temperatures throughout the weekend, conditions were ripe for solid lap times in all Time Trial classes on the flat, sweeping turns and long straightaway that encompasses the 2.02-mile circuit of Roebling Road Raceway. The amended competition schedule also brought some new and old names to the entry lists, and a few wheel-to-wheel racers joined in the Time Trial fun to take advantage of the rare opportunity shoot for a few hot laps instead of the normal managed chaos that can be mixed-class racing.
On Saturday, the closest competition was in the TT6 class, where, as has been the case throughout 2021, the six-car lineup consisted entirely of first- and second-generation Mazda Miatas. TTU had the largest number of entries with eight cars in total, with TT5 turning out five cars to compete for the fastest lap.
With the largest field of cars to start the weekend, TTU saw 2020 TT1 champion Tracy Gaudu in the No. 141 C6 Corvette jump out to what ended up being an insurmountable lead in the first session on Saturday, putting down a fast lap of 1:16.257 to take P1. Only 0.475 seconds separated P2 and P3, with both drivers behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Camaro SS, where P2 went to No. 139 Greg Slayton with a 1:21.327 best time and P3 going to the No. 14 of Gregory Hedstrum, who turned a best time of 1:21.802. Sunday competition saw the No. 11 Chevrolet Camaro SS of Eric Seigenthaler jump into the P2 spot with a fast time of 1:19.158. Gaudu retained her P1 position on Sunday with Greg Slayton rounding out the podium in the P3 spot.
TT4 had two entries for the weekend consisting of the No. 109 Honda S2000 of Kevin Hennings and the No. 85 Spec Iron Ford Mustang of Lee Brown, with Hennings turning the faster lap during the third TT session of 1:18.543, with Brown putting in his best time of 1:31.850 during the second session. Later in the day on Saturday, Brown unfortunately suffered a head gasket failure in the engine of his Ford Mustang and was unable to record a lap time during Sunday’s competition while Hennings was able to best his time from Saturday by 0.049 seconds in Sunday’s second session, turning a 1:18.494 lap time.
In the always competitive TT5 class, the weekend started with five competitors consisting of three Honda S2000s and two E36 BMWs, where all the fastest times were recorded in the first two sessions of Saturday. With only 0.30 seconds separating their times, the P1 spot went to Ryan Delvaux in the No. 717 S2000 with a fast time of 1:20.102, and the P2 spot going to the No. 769 S2000 of Boston Maler with a fast lap of 1:20.402. Rounding out the podium was Jacob Cushing in the No. 025 S2000 with a fast lap of 1:22.340. Sunday’s competition saw a loss of two competitors, with only three drivers recording qualified lap times. P1 went to Boston Maler, who improved on his Saturday best with a time of 1:20.071, with P2 going to Jacob Cushing, who turned a fast lap of 1:22.790. The No. 07 BMW of Scott Houston rounded out the podium in P3 with a fast lap of 1:26.800.
With the second highest number of entries at six cars, the TT6 class, dubbed the “Miata Class” for 2021 due to the frequent all-Miata lineup, had the closest overall competition on Saturday with a scant 0.37 seconds separating the fastest times of the second through sixth place cars. P1 went to the No. 500 NA 1.8 Miata of Ed De Oliveira with a lap time of 1:23.421, while P2 went to NASA Southeast Spec Miata regular Brendan Shattles in the No. 43 with a 1:26.814 lap, and P3 was earned by Cliff Robertson in the No. 103 with a fast lap of 1:26.843 to round out the podium. Sunday’s competition in TT6 saw the loss of two competitors for various mechanical or qualification reasons, where De Oliveira retained the P1 spot, with No. 9 Nishant Patel moving into the P2 spot with a 1:26.105 fast lap and No. 18 Roy Parsons taking P3 with a lap time of 1:28.853.
