Eleven Spec Miata contenders hit the track at one of the NASA Great Lakes‘ favorite facilities, PittRace the third weekend in July. The slight threat of rain cleared to provide great weather on the 17-turn, 2.8-mile full course. An 8:30am warmup on Saturday morning set the stage for competitors to check any final tweaks made after Friday test sessions.
Two competitors were unfortunately missing from the field. Justin Hare, who’s mounting a solid rookie campaign, was unfortunately sidelined after blowing his engine Friday. Ben Primrose, who has been showing increased speed all season had his transmission fail.
Qualifying kicked off late Saturday morning with a familiar name at the top. John Allen led the way with a 2:08.7, besting Wyatt Wood and Teen Mazda Challenge driver Lincoln Olson by 0.9sec. Chris Rawlings and Chris Finnigan were another 0.2 seconds back to round out the top five in the field.
For the late afternoon race one, temperatures were 10 degrees warmer. The race start immediately saw some shuffling at the top of the order. Allen dropped to P3 during the first lap, and Olson took advantage to grab P1, passing Wood in the process. Olson’s lead was short lived, when Finnigan, who started from P5, grabbed P1 and held that position for three laps until Allen worked his way back to the top position.
The yellow flag appeared for a disabled car on track during lap seven, and the checkers flew two laps later while still under yellow. The tight competition at the top of the field produced five different running orders in the seven laps under green. Finnigan finished second, with Wood in third, Olson in fourth and Chris Rawlings in fifth.
Race two Sunday morning saw the green flag fly under mostly cloudy skies. Allen sat one pole with Finnigan P2 , Wood P3, based on race one’s fast lap times. Just as in race one, Allen shuffled back to P3 during the first lap with Finnigan now P1. Again in the mix, Olson moved up to P2 getting around Allen and Wood. One lap later, the young TMC driver got around Finnigan for P1, which he would hold for two laps until Finnigan re-acquired P1. Allen’s race ended early due to transmission failure and the yellow flag appeared during lap six due to two disabled cars ending the competition. Finnigan finished first, with Olson and Wood rounding out the podium. Rawlings finished fourth with series leader John Poppenhouse in fifth.
For the weekend finale, a brief shower early in the afternoon cooled track temperatures and a few drivers were debating correct starting tire pressures given the conditions were different from race one Saturday afternoon. Olson lead the field to green from P1, with Finnigan and Wood next in line.
On lap one, Rawlings grabbed P3 from Wood at the start and maintained that momentum to get P2 from Olson during lap one after Finnigan took P1 earlier in the lap. Props to Ben Primrose who, after changing a transmission earlier in the weekend, charged to P5 after starting P9. The hat trick of the weekend goes to the yellow flag, thrown during lap six with lap 7 seeing the checkers due to a racer in the tires at Turn 17.
We want to give a shoutout to Pete Sakovich, who joined us on track after being away from the sport, and put down some solid times knocking off the rust, and diagnosing a poorly grounded alternator.
We also want to recognize Chris Rawlings, who joined the Spec Miata field for the first time and podiumed to finish the weekend. Also, Ben Primrose offered his thanks to John Poppenhouse for providing a spare transmission.
