Ten Spec Miata racers joined NASA Great Lakes for our annual Memorial Day weekend competition at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The track is known for unpredictable weather, but the weekend weather was ideal for racing. The course was split between the two configurations, with the Club Course Saturday and the Pro Course Sunday.
Saturday morning warmup saw 2024 season champion John Allen top the time sheet with a 1:44.77 and distance himself by 1 second over Chris Finnigan and another tenth over Teen Mazda Challenge driver Lincoln Olson. Series veterans Wyatt Wood and Randy Summerville were within another four tenths of the top three. Qualifying kicked off another two and a half hours later and Allen continued to set the pace, but only by 0.2 seconds as Wood closed the gap from warmup. Finnigan grabbed P3 another 0.3 seconds off Wood.
Race one in the late afternoon went 12 laps under green. Lap one saw a bit of shuffling in the run order, with Wood dropping to P4, Finnigan jumping to P2 and Olson gaining two spots to P3. Chris Schuster, in his second full season racing, had a great start and jump to fifth after starting P8. A midrace battle unfolded between Finnigan, Olson, and Wood.
Olson closed the gap to Finnigan by lap eight, with Wood following closely. Wood successfully took P3 from Olson lap eight, but only held that position for two laps until Olson got around both competitors to take P2, which he held until checkers. Rookie Justin Hare, who graduated Comp School at NCM in March, swapped positions twice with Ben Primrose, ultimately finishing in their original starting order with Primrose ahead. On the podium for race one were John Allen in first, Lincoln Olson in second and Chris Finnigan in third.
Race two Sunday morning on the Pro Course unfortunately was declared a no race after an incident at China Beach immediately after the green flag required a large cleanup. Thankfully no racers were injured.
Race three Sunday afternoon used the race two staring grid based on race one lap times. Allen, Olson, and Finnigan led the pack to the green, with Allen’s early weekend dominance cut to only 0.1 second when Olson found additional speed.
The green flag dropped on the back stretch and another full-course yellow was thrown on lap one due to a car in the sand at Turn 1. The Mid-Ohio safety crew cleared the car in three laps and with the race restart, Summerville took advantage and grabbed two positions, moving up to P5 after starting the race in P9. The final five laps under green, Allen and Olson were separated by at most 0.5 seconds battling for P1.
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The TMC driver Olson never gave up, finding his way around Allen on lap six, which only lasted two laps until Allen regained the lead. Olson was provided one more opportunity on the last corner of the last lap due to traffic. Olson pounced, and beat Allen to the finish line by 0.28 seconds to take the win. Finnigan, lurking less than 0.5 behind the top two would be waiting for a mistake by the top two, ultimately not moving from his P3 starting position.
Congratulations to Teen Mazda Challenge driver Lincoln Olson for his first full race win in SM competition, and to Wyatt Wood for qualifying 2nd in his return to racing after nearly a year away. Thanks to Randy Summerville for loaning John Allen lower ball joint.
