Temperatures plummeted at Roebling Road Raceway in Bloomingdale, Ga., ahead of the start of the 2025 NASA Southeast Time Trial season January 11-12, 2025, but the abnormally cold temperatures ended up bringing nothing but a triumphant smile to the face of one particular driver, Hans Bliss. Why was Hans Bliss all smiles on this specific race weekend? Because the only thing that fell faster than the temperatures that weekend was the all-time track record at Roebling Road as Hans Bliss went into the official record books as the fastest man to turn an official lap in a competitive event hosted by a racing sanctioning body.
On Sunday, January 12, 2025, Hans Bliss, driving the No. 1 TTU 2004 Stohr WF1, turned the fastest lap ever recorded at Roebling Road Raceway, which was built in 1959, and has been in operation for 66 years, with a lap time of 0:59.368. Much like George Herman “Babe” Ruth calling his shot in the fifth inning of the 1932 World Series at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Ill., before homering over the center field fence, Hans told his fellow drivers during the drivers meeting in the lunch hour on Sunday that he was going to be going for the all-time track record during the next Time Trial session just after noon, but not for the reasons one might think. Ever the gentleman and courteous competitor, Hans was letting his fellow drivers know of his intent so that others might do their best to help him get the three clean laps that he needed to have the best chance of accomplishing his goal. In the truly selfless way that NASA Southeast Time Trial drivers are known to handle themselves, some drivers even gave up their track time for that session to clear the track for Hans, and to cheer on their friend and fellow competitor as he entered the record books. Congratulations to Hans Bliss from the TT leaders and friends on your great accomplishment!
The rest of the TTU class for the weekend was the usual mix of true TTU cars and those drivers who chose not to engage in the process of classifying their cars for TT1-TT6. Podium positions for Saturday and Sunday did not change, with Hans Bliss taking the P1 position both days, followed by father and son competitors, Kade Lewis (son) in the No. 78 Revolution A1R, and Christopher Lewis in the No. 53 Chevrolet Camaro, taking the P2 and P3 places respectively during both days of competition.
Continuing the theme throughout the field of classes with mirrored results from both days of TT competition, the podium spots in TT1, TT2, TT3, TT4, TT5, and TT6 also went unchanged from Saturday’s results to Sunday’s results.
TT1 competition finished with the No. 192 BMW M3 of Rob Turczany in P1 and the No. 1X of Fred Evans in P2 during both days of competition. Meanwhile in TT2, P1 through P3 went respectively to the No. 531 Chevrolet Corvette of Team Mustang Sampling Racing, co-driven by Mark Nunnally and Tal Isbell, the No. 16 Ford Mustang GT350 of 2024 TT Rookie of the Year, Troy Coates, and the No. 57 Porsche GT3 of Frank Pinion.
TT3 competition saw P1 go to the No. 11 Toyota Supra of TT rookie, Brady Sutton, in his first full weekend of TT competition, and P2 went to the No. 507 Chevrolet Corvette of Wes Harper.
In TT4, Saturday and Sunday competition ended with the No. 55X Honda S2000 of Ray Drake in P1, the No. 843 Honda Civic sedan of Jason Scarbrough in P2, and the No. 116 forced induction Mazda Miata of Colton Oldham nabbing the final podium spot in P3. TT5 competition saw P1 go to the No. 02X Honda S2000 of DJ Martinez, P2 go to the No. 84 Honda S2000 of 2025 rookie, Steve Dotson, and P3 go to the No. 49 Scion FR-S piloted by AJ McKinney.
Rounding out the field was the always-competitive TT6 class, showing all Mazda Miatas entered for the weekend, with P1 going to the No. 9 Miata of Nishant Patel, P2 going to the No. 23 of Will Benson, and the No. 60 of Eladio Flores rounding out the podium in P3. During Sunday’s competition, the No. 9 of Patel squeaked out a new track record for TT6, adding to the haul of track records that fell over the weekend.
In Time Trial Target where consistency in lap times wins the day, is where official results for both days of competition finally saw some variety in the finishing positions. During Saturday’s TTT competition, the No. 5 Mazda Miata of Cristian Romero took home the coveted TTT T-shirt with a very slim total time delta of just 0.181 combined between his four fastest laps. Top TTT honors during Sunday’s competition went to the No. 37X Ford Mustang of Jonathan Baker, with a combined delta of just 0.530 seconds between his four fastest laps.
Congratulations are also in order for rookie drivers Brady Sutton and Steve Dotson, who both safely and consistently navigated through their provisional TT license weekends to earn their full NASA Time Trial licenses. Nice work, gentlemen!
Roebling Road was the first event on the calendar, so NASA Southeast Time Trial racers are just getting started!
