Before temperatures at Buttonwillow Raceway Park could hit triple digits at the June event, Ken Pearson captured the pole position by a .01 seconds over Steffen Thompson, which put them on the front row by more than a full second over the rest of field!
All 13 cars got a clean start for the first of the weekend’s races. The field seemed to maintain their positions for the first half of the race while Pearson and Thompson would gap the field. Unfortunately, disaster struck for Pearson in final corner of the race. Pearson caught up to a slower vehicle, which forced him to take a slower, inside line through the final turn. Thompson, who carried more speed through the corner, was able to pass Pearson just a few yards before the finish line, stealing the win.
For Sunday’s qualifying race, the top six finishers from Saturday were inverted. Erick Strong developed an electrical issue, which gave Mitch Pepper his first ever pole. Pearson scampered to the front with Sean Trapp close behind. They would hold those positions all race long, with Thompson managing to save a third-place finish. With this finish, JoJo McKenzie and Andrew Clark completed their probationary license period. Bravo!
Soon after the qualifying race, the guys were back on track for the main. Pearson again jumped out front, leading the pack into Turn 1. Pearson dominated the weekend in taking the win Sunday. In doing so, he also set the new track record for the track configuration used that weekend. Thompson took second, which elevated him to the lead of the SoCal Spec E30 points. Hauser rounded out the top three. Notable performances were turned in by Andrew Clark and Giorgio Gentile. Clark gained four positions en route to his best finish to date, fourth place. Gentile also gained four positions, with a personal best finish of seventh place in only his fifth Spec E30 race. The up-and-coming talent in this race class is truly undeniable.
SoCal Spec E30 racers would like to acknowledge and thank Seth Scally of Midnight Oil Motors. As he has been for the last two seasons, Seth was there to rescue both his clients and their competitors, alike. Luckily, he also was able to troubleshoot Erick Strong’s “no start” problems getting him back out on track for the final race, too! Again, a huge thanks to Seth for making sure all the SoCal Spec E30 drivers are able to stay on track as much as possible.
