NASA Great Lakes held its annual mission to see Jake and Elwood Blues at Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, Ill., without a massive police chase through the streets, but with varying track conditions for all three races.
Saturday warmup took place under sunny and drying track conditions due to an early morning shower. John Allen topped the Spec Miata field with a 1:43.4. Chris Finnigan was only .2 seconds slower and Wyatt Wood third fastest with a 1:44.0. Qualifying took place two hours later with 10 degree warmer temperatures and a dry track. Allen again topped the field, finding another 4 seconds with a 1:39.8, and his primary competitors Finnigan 1:40.0, and Wood 1:40.1, respectively.
Race one Saturday afternoon had everyone gridding with a dry track and mostly cloudy skies. Of note was new member, Eyal Doran, who was racing with NASA Great Lakes Spec Miata for the first time, having just moved to the United States, with prior racing experience in Israel. The qualifying times from the top three served as an indicator of the tight race that was to come.
Allen, Finnigan, and Wood were separated by less than a half second for the first seven of the 14-lap race. Allen held P1 the entire race, Wood captured P2 and maintained it for two laps until Finnigan recaptured P2. Then on the last lap, through the last series of turns, Wood got around Finnigan to take second and the checkers.
Series veteran Randy Summerville, who started from P10 due to a faulty transponder, worked his way to P5 by the end of lap one with some decisive moves taking advantage of gaps when they appeared. Rookies Justin Hare and Esteban Velez had their own tight battle the last five laps with Velez within .5 seconds of Hare trying to induce the fellow rookie into a mistake he never made.
Race two Sunday gridded by fast laps during race one. Allen and Wood filled row one with nearly identical 1:39.9 laps, followed by Finnigan with a 1:40.0. A morning shower left the track in a wet-but-drying state that contributed to some incidental contact at the front of the field in turns 8 and 9 on the back side of the course. The contact shuffled the top five racers considerably before yellow flags came out to retrieve Wood’s front bumper.
Allen dropped to P3, Wood to P5, Finnigan up to P1 and TMC driver Lincoln Olson up three positions to P2. After the restart and over the next three laps, the top five reshuffled with Allen finding P1 again, Finnigan in P2, and Vaughn Mishko P3 after starting P4. Rookies Hare and Velez continued their close racing from race one, with Velez still looking for a way around Hare.
Race three Sunday afternoon saw temperatures 10 degrees warmer, but that’s where the good weather news ended. At Turn 8 on the pace lap, the field encountered sprinkles, and when the field arrived at Turn 8 again, this time under green, the field was greeted with heavy rain. Two laps later the double yellow flags came out, as did the pace car for four laps until the checkers were thrown early to retrieve out-of-class cars off track. During the two very wet laps under green, Allen and Mischko got around Finnigan to take P1 and P2 respectively.
Shout-outs for the weekend go to the entire SM field, including rookies Esteban Velez and Justin Hare for surviving the race three downpour on slicks. Also, to Eyal Doran, who joined us for the first time after moving to the U.S., bringing his racing experience from Israel. We look forward to Eyal joining us at future events. Also, welcome back MX-5 Cup racer Vaughn Mishko, former NASA Great Lakes Teen Mazda Challenge driver, for joining us over the weekend. Good Luck at Road Atlanta for the MX-5 Cup finale! Thanks to John Allen for providing Lincoln Olson a driver’s side front lower control arm. Thanks to Randy Summerville for providing John Allen an alignment cam bolt, and to Bob at Advanced Autosports Autobahn shop for his availability and advice to a couple of racers this weekend.
Finnigan holds a slim 5 point championship lead after Autobahn.
