For April, NASA Southeast returned to the historic Roebling Road Raceway for the “Spring Brake.” When Tom Wheeler of OPM rolled in along with Blake Clements, Todd Buras and Danny Steyn, we knew there was going to be close racing and fast times.
On Saturday, Tom Fowler in his 1.6 Miata qualified on pole with Clements in P2. Danny Steyn was forced to start the race at the back for scrubbing tires during the qualifying session. When the green flag dropped, Steyn didn’t waste any time slicing his way to the front of the field to start battling with Fowler for the lead. Fowler found some help from Michael Carter in a PTE Miata down the straight on several occasions. But on the final lap, Steyn got the better run out of Turn 9 and edged out Fowler by .059 seconds. Close racing indeed. Steyn also set a new Spec Miata record of 1:23.667 in the process! Jason Connole and Steve Docalavich had a good battle for fourth place but Docalavich was unable to make the pass and had to settle for fifth place, his best finish in Spec Miata.
For Sunday’s race, Fowler led the field to the start with Clements in P2. At the start, Fowler, Clements, Buras and Steyn battled fiercely until lap two when Clements spun in Turn 1. The remaining three continued to fight it out until Buras had a moment and took out Fowler. Steyn, now un-threatened, ran off by himself for the remainder of the race, setting another SM track record of
1:23.206 in the process. Clements finished second, Connole third and Dylan Stancil in fourth.
Steve Docalavich again found himself battling for fifth, this time with Keith Williamson. Docalavich kept returning to Williamson’s bumper as they moved through traffic and made the pass for fifth place when Williamson ran into a “train” of E30s going into Turn 1. Unfortunately, Turn 1 was taking a toll on the field. Two laps after moving up to fifth, Docalavich spun in Turn 1 and gave Williamson a position that he held until the checkered flag. Rounding out the field were Jason Moritz, Bill Miller and Lindsey Rifenburg.
