Complete Racing Coverage of the 2024 NASA Championships

Finishing in front of the field to earn a NASA Championship is daunting, in theory and in practice.

In theory, you just need to have everything come together on Sunday in terms of your driving and car setup. A dose of good luck also is handy. In practice, it means putting yourself in a position to win on Sunday, which means making it through qualifying and the qualifying race to the Championship race on Sunday.

Earning a National Championship takes perseverance, luck and waking up before dawn to make sure the racecar is ready. Along the way they had to overcome heat and altitude to finish on the podium and enjoy a champagne shower. By the end of the event, 18 racing drivers were crowned as 2024 NASA National Champions.

In many ways, each NASA Championships event sets the stage for the next one. Whether it’s for a rematch or simply another chance to compete on NASA’s biggest stage, they’ll be back at the 2025 NASA National Championships at Ozarks International Raceway to try again. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s talk about the 2024 NASA Championships.

944 Spec

In the old “Kung Fu” television show, the student’s goal was to surpass or at least match the prowess of the teacher. The 944 Spec race at the 2024 NASA Championships was a bit like that.

Josh Cleye and three-time 944 Spec National Champion Charlie Buzzetti race together in the NASA SoCal Region and Buzzetti must have taught Cleye a thing or two along the way because Cleye snatched the pebble from Buzzetti’s hand, put his head down and never looked back.

When Buzzetti overcooked it slightly going into the first turn early in the race, Cleye pounced and took the lead he would never give back.

“I capitalized on Charlie’s mistake and I was able to, which was what? He went a little deep and to Turn 1, I think lap two,” Cleye said. “So I was able to kind of pull ahead and then he got mixed up battling the rest. So I just put my foot down and tried to get as far ahead as I could.”

Toward the end of the race, Buzzetti was getting closer, but it wasn’t enough to challenge Cleye for the lead.

“Oh yeah, he was there. I was making sure I didn’t make a mistake,” Cleye added. “I didn’t want to blow the transmission or do anything like that, so I’m happy, I was able to keep it ahead.”

Though he closed in on Cleye later in the race, Buzzetti could not get close enough to challenge him for the position, and Buzzetti finished in second place.

“I thought my tires were ready and turns out they weren’t. I turned good laps, the whole race, but Josh is a great driver and he really deserves to win and it’s always a good time in the Nationals,” Buzzetti said. “You never know what’s going to happen. I’ve had my share of wins, and I’m happy to take second place.”

NASA SoCal’s Gian Bowles capitalized on Buzzetti’s mistake and took second place for a bit. Buzzetti eventually got back around Bowles, who finished third.

“Yeah, Charlie had a little excursion there and slowed him down enough to slow Fletch down, too. And I just carried my speed. So I got around both of them, stayed up out there for a little bit, but I made a mistake and Charlie came back by and then I didn’t see him again, so he kind of walked away,” Bowles said. “Josh was out in his own race, so he was way out there. Kid is just amazing.”

American-Iron Extreme

Winning a National Championship is never easy, as American Iron Extreme driver Derric Carter can attest.

“Forty-five minutes is definitely different,” Carter said. “I was dealing with everything from time and cut to slippery tires to brake fade toward the end.”

What helped seal the Championship for Carter was when second-place finisher Cal Lemp spun out lap 14, giving Carter an opening. Lemp’s Ford Mustang Ford Mustang GT500 went into limp mode every time he turned left on the last two laps.

“It was just driver error,” Lemp said. “Hot tires losing their grip coming out of Wind Up and they just didn’t stick and turn and went into the gravel, did a 360 got back on track, and was running Derric down. I was confident I would have passed him for the win even with the spin-out.”

Third-place finisher Dallas Brown’s game plan was to press hard early and then back off to prevent the Ford Mustang GT from overheating.

“I had one eye on the temp gage and one eye on the road,” Brown said. “It was pretty hot and I don’t think the car was ready for the altitude.”

Camaro-Mustang Challenge

In addition to racing in Camaro-Mustang Challenge, Matthew Kasuda plays a little hockey in the offseason, so he was fully aware he had scored a hat trick in CMC at the 2024 NASA Championships. Kasuda set the fastest time in Friday qualifying, won the qualifying race on Saturday and then the CMC Championship race on Sunday.

Kasuda dropped back to second early on, but was able to get by Lucas Wallace who was leading at the time.

“I made some mistakes in the first couple laps and was kind of able to recover after that and get myself settled down and kind of get into a groove,” Kasuda said. “And then just took my opportunity when a driver in front of me made a small mistake and took the lead.”

Wallace and Peter Standiford had a race for the ages on Saturday, but Standiford suffered suspension damage and pulled off track early. Wallace finished second and Standiford finished third in the three-car class.

“I was looking forward to the battle with Peter to this afternoon,” Wallace said. “I put my new tires on a little earlier and was trying to keep them alive for today. But yesterday was good fun and was looking forward to more, and unfortunately I think something broke in his car and the attitudes.”

GT

Despite his success at NASA National Championships in recent years, Brian Faessler has had a mixed record at the Utah Motorsports Complex. When Faessler’s lone competitor Tage Evanson had to drop out after 11 laps, Faessler could vanquish the demons of 2013 when a broken ball joint cost him a championship.

“My first few years of NASA nationals, I had a lot of bad luck, and I think at least the law of averages is finally paying me back,” said Faessler, who won the 2023 National Championship in American Iron Extreme. “Thankfully, this year was pretty uneventful.”

Whether it’s luck or having a perfectly prepped Ford Mustang, Faessler was dominant from the qualifier to the championship race, setting a track lap record with a 1:54.714 lap. After Evanson left the race because of overheating, Faessler ran a few more laps before retiring to the paddock to preserve the car.

Faessler won the 2023 National Championship in American Iron Extreme

For Evanson, it was a tough week as he was chasing overheating problems with his Honda Civic. The Regional Director for Arizona, Evanson removed the thermostat and block guard, everything short of replacing the radiator.

“On lap 1 it was overheating, so I just put it in top gear, point people by and see if I could stay out there,” Evanson said. “It was just going to destroy the car, though.”

GTSU

No other way to put it. Dmitri Novikov had a perfect weekend in GTSU at the 2024 NASA Championships. He nailed the fastest lap in Friday qualifying, won Saturday’s qualifying race and took the win on Sunday to nab the GTSU Championship. He credits his win to three factors.

“I would say A) home track; B) fast car and; C) air conditioning,” Novikov said. “I guess it’s probably, I don’t know, one of the five or six fastest cars here. So that helped as well. But I mean, if I would have done it in an old beat up car, then you could be surprised. Otherwise the car is good so it helps as well. That’s it. So three things, home, track, fast car, AC.”

Al Tiley couldn’t match the lap times of Novikov, and he finished in second place, just ahead of Michael Shumway.

“We had a really interesting race in the beginning. Had to fight out to get into second place and then I got bumped, ended up off on, I believe it was five, and spent a lot of time catching up to that second place car to get back into second. But we got it and real happy. I’ll take it.”

Team Riot’s Michael Shumway was running in second for a bit, but after a battle that included Tiley and John McInness, finished the race in third.

“Al, me and John, all three of us, it was an epic battle,” Shumway said.

“John and I had an epic battle for 70 percent of the race and then started fighting with Al. And that’s the whole reason we’re doing any of this,” he added. “It doesn’t matter if you’re out on your own driving by yourself. That’s not the fun part. This is why we do NASA. This is why we do racing, is to fight each other. And every day it seems like a different guy winning. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t. And I guess today we got somewhat lucky.”

Legends

Bobby Christensen’s reward for winning back-to-back National Championships is that he had to buy dinner that night for his fellow competitors and good friends in the class.

The winner that day buys dinner, so on Friday and Saturday night it was Bobby Pugh’s turn after he won the qualifier and qualifying race. Pugh had led most of the race but thinks a fuel line came off the tank.

“When I turned right, it would kind of stumble and cough, so I was shaking it back and forth,” Pugh said. “It was a good car until then.”

Christensen was confident he was going to win the race, even if Pugh’s car didn’t have a mechanical gremlin.

“I was faster than him the whole race,” Christensen said. “Everything was working well, the setup was good. (Bobby) was pushing some, so I was just playing with him out there.”

No. 91 Bryan Poage finished second, the same position he finished in the 2023 National Championships at Pittsburgh International Race Complex.

“I’ll get him next year,” Poage said. “The third time is the charm.”

NP01 EVO

Chris Castelli’s performance had been good enough all weekend to put him over the top in Friday’s qualifying and Saturday’s qualifying race. Come Sunday, he found himself looking at an unfamiliar sight: the back of Team Tony B Racing’s car.

Credit the temporary second place position to a bad start. Castelli said his car did not seem to have the same oomph as the others that got by him in the early goings, but he kept driving like he had been all weekend, and stayed within sight of Team Tony B Racing until misfortune reared its ugly head. There was contact between Tony B and an out-of-class ST1 car and Tony B spun into the gravel, with suspension damage on the right front of the car.

“Everything ended up going my way. From what it looked like, Tony was out front for a little bit and I think he got bumped into it by a Corvette,” Castelli said. “Tony was in front next to a green Corvette and went into Wind Up and when I came around Wind Up, they were sideways and had somehow hit each other.”

At that point, Castelli put his head down and started clicking off laps as quickly as possible and went on to take the NP01-EVO Championship.

Francis Hu started his weekend in the worst possible way. During the first session in practice on Friday, he spun and collected another car. He had some of the parts he needed to fix his car, but not enough. He debated packing up and heading home, but with some help from the SEBECO support trailer on site at the NASA Championships, he got what he needed to repair his car and he raced to a second-place finish.

“Yeah, I didn’t put my radiator cap on, spilled water on my rear tire, spun on a corner and I got hit by another NP01, wiped out the back end,” Hu said. “Thanks for SEBECO for bringing all the parts. Everybody helped get the car back together and then had enough time for me to learn to track and be competitive, so it was amazing.”

After the heartbreaking collision for Tony B Racing, and the field reshuffled, Steven Seiler finished third.

“From my standpoint, it was a really fun race. The inter-class traffic was a lot of fun, a lot of faster cars moving through us and I was just kind of really keep trying to keep Jud (Gardner), fourth place finisher behind me,” Seiler said. “It was kind of a strategical race. I made some setup changes in my car. I changed my rake last night and my car pushed the whole time, so I anticipated being ahead of Francis. Francis drove great and was initially I was just trying to keep up with him and I realized that my car just didn’t have it in there. It kept pushing too much and then it was just trying to manage my position and manage the inter-class traffic.”

Spec E30

Team Mick Blue Racing driver Mick Blue was quick to admit he bungled the start in the Spec E30 Championship race, but he knew it was going to be a long race so he decided to play the long game.

He picked off a couple of spots on his way to the front and set his sights on NASA SoCal’s Sean Aron, who was leading at the time. Mick Blue Racing eventually got around Aron and took the win and the Championship.

“Yeah, I would say that was definitely one of my hardest races. The heat and kind of the tricky tires. It’s like once they get hot it’s like no grip,” Blue said. “I just tucked in behind Sean. I passed him yesterday, so I knew the time will come that I’m going to pass him today. And I tried to get by him as soon as possible because I knew that Matthew is probably faster today than me and he was going to be coming from behind. And I wanted to create a gap before he can catch me.”

Matthew Ibrahim, whose car has the best headlights of any Spec E30, did post a quicker fast lap, so Blue’s concerns were not unwarranted. But his strategy worked because he was able to hold the lead till the end, with Ibrahim finishing in second.

“I just kind of put my head down and I was kind of just like, I need to focus. I messed up the start. The car really didn’t have the pace and the straight line, but I was like, I just got to put my head down and do it, run laps and try my best. But today Mick earned it,” Ibrahim said. “So yeah, I messed it up and just spent the time making it up. But it was a lot of fun though, to dice it up with these guys. They’re always bringing out the best of me, so it’s a lot of fun to actually have a race.

NASA SoCal’s Sean Aron led early in the race, but eventually finished third.

“Mick had a little bit of pace on me. Not a lot, but it was just enough. I drove defensively for a while, but I think it was just a matter of time before he got around me. He drove great. He was clean, he recognized it was a long race and took his time, and then he started really pulling away,” Aron said. “Now that I look at my car, I see my exhaust is hanging off, so at some point I lost a lot of pace, so I’m lucky to salvage third. I’m pretty happy considering all the issues with the car this weekend.”

Spec E46

Though Wyatt Couch has been out front all weekend in Spec E46, winning Friday qualifying and the qualifying race on Saturday, the lap times were close. Couch was not able to duplicate the 2:11-second lap he nailed in previous sessions and Team Jared Zakem was putting up lap times in the 2:12’s with Couch.

In fact, at the beginning of the race, as Zakem and Couch took the green flag, it was Zakem who got through Turn 1 first and led the first few laps.

But Couch wasn’t going to wait around till the end to make a move. He initiated a pass in Turn 1, which took an additional two corners to make stick. At that point, Couch was freed up to drive his own race and keep Zakem in his mirrors.

“On the start we had bumped mirrors and so my mirror went down and I couldn’t see where he was because in my rear view it was kind of a blind spot behind the seat,” Couch said. “So it was pretty interesting. I was just trying to hit my marks the best I could and he’d get right up to me and then I’d stretch it out a little bit and we just kept yo-yoing. It was a great race.”

Despite the early lead and lap times on par with those of Couch, Zakem held on to finish second.

“I got a good start. We bumped a little bit going into Turn 1 and then into Turn 2, but I was able to stick it around the outside and hold the position for a couple laps, just overshot Turn 1 a little bit. I got a little sideways. That allowed him to get past me. Then it seemed pretty kind of stalemate once he had that little bit of the gap,” Zakem said. “And then it kind of came down to traffic. I hit traffic inopportune times, but all in all, it was good race.”

Logan Toke finished third after a close battle with Phil Buffington.

“Oh, it was super fun. Me and Phil, we were side by side for almost a full lap, and then about five laps of constant position changes. Super fun race,” Toke said. “Getting in the draft. That was the biggest thing. I almost wanted to be behind him on the last lap so I could get him on the straightaway. Otherwise I wouldn’t have any draft to get past him. But the Legacy Motorworks engine kicked ass, and we got past him.”

Spec Miata

Sunday’s Spec Miata Championships race looked a lot like Saturday’s qualifying race — right up until the moment it didn’t.

Logan Stretch had pole position thanks to his win on Saturday and put it to good use to take the early lead. Starting from second, Dan Williams trailed Stretch for a few laps but then used the draft to start a pass in Turn 1 that didn’t stick till Turn 3.

At that point, Stretch hung behind Williams all race long and pushed him so the two could get away from the rest of the field, just like he did on Saturday. The two carried on this way till the white flag — just like Saturday —when Stretch put the pass on Williams in Turn 1, but on the outside this time.

But Williams wasn’t looking for a repeat of Saturday. He stayed with Stretch and got a good drive out of the Turn 6 and was able to get inside Stretch in Turn 7 and by the time the two exited the Attitudes, Williams had retaken the lead, which he would hold till the end.

“I’ll tell you what, it was a lot of side-by-side action in that last lap. But I was definitely going to make sure he wasn’t going to take me on the inside and to Turn 1 this time,” Williams said. “He went around the outside and we were side-by-side all the way to 3. And then I was able to make an outside move, I think it was in five that made him have to stay on the inside of six. And I over under him, coming into the Attitudes and it was super fun. But it was amazing because Logan is so good.”

After running with Williams all day in Saturday’s qualifying race, and then getting around him for the win, No. 98 Stretch finished in second in Sunday’s race.

“Well, based on yesterday’s race, I kind of knew he left me too much space down there and to Turn 1 on the inside, and I knew he wouldn’t do it again, so I was going to have to go a long way around,” Stretch said. “Once he had the edge into the Attitudes, I kind of knew it was going to take a miracle to make it happen. But I gave it everything. He just ran a great race.”

On the last step on the podium, Josh Fine advanced 10 spots from grid to finish in third place.

“That was a long race, but that start was really all where it was at. And the qualifying race didn’t do us any favors earlier yesterday or later yesterday. So it was all about making up ground on the start and just keeping the nose clean,” Fine said. “I got up behind fourth and I don’t remember his name, but he was doing great. Scott was doing a great job defending and I got up right behind him right after I passed Will and I just had to go for the move. I knew if I didn’t go for it then probably wasn’t going to happen later.”

Teen Mazda Challenge

In Teen Mazda Challenge Will D’Elia finished fifth overall, but took the Teen Mazda Challenge win.

“We had a phenomenal start, got a good bump, took it three-wide with the leaders through Turn 1, I just couldn’t hang on around the outside. Got back to fourth I think by the time we all kind of got in single file and then just didn’t quite have the setup right. Didn’t quite figure out some of the slower corners. I kept the car in one piece at the end of the day and we’ll take home fifth. I’m happy with that.”

Max Stallone finished in 10th place overall, which was good enough to put him in second place on the TMC podium.

“It was a battling the whole time, a lot of action. A pack of eight cars and we were all swapping back and forth. It was a really good race,” said Stallone, who came from his home region in Texas. “I just got more experience fighting in a bigger pack.”

Second-place finisher Logan Stretch’s brother Matthew Stretch finished 12th overall and third in TMC.

“It was hard. It didn’t seem like I had the pace compared to everyone else around me. It was just about driving a clean race, being smart and keeping my head down,” Stretch said. “Everyone wanted to fight with each other and it was getting a little rough and I just tried to stay out of that.”

Spec Z

Sometimes it’s better to be the hunter than the hunted.

After laying down a monster lap in Saturday’s qualifying race, Spec Z driver Chad Aalders was disqualified after Nissan 350Z came in underweight, so he had to start from the back of the pack. Despite starting in the rear, Aalders climbed through the pack to win the Spec Z National Championship.

“I was just trying to be as patient as I could, take the opportunities where they came and one after another it kind of came to me,” Aalders said. “The car was running really good.”

Ayrton Littel driving the Team Towne Storage Racing car was the fastest qualifier on Saturday, said he had never driven the car as hard as Sunday, finishing 5.6 seconds behind Aalders.

“Chad drove a great race. We both put everything on the table that we could, and he came out a little bit ahead,” Littel said. “We kept each other honest, so I really can’t complain. It was an ideal race.”

Richard Fitzgerald joined them on the podium, finishing third on his home track.

“(Chad) earned this, he’s worked hard all year,” Fitzgerald said. “I’ve been pretty absent this year, so this feels good for me to be on the podium.”

Super Touring 1

Joe Kellerman has won back-to-back Super Touring 1 National Championships, but this year’s victory might be the sweetest.

“For me, it’s exciting to come back and do it again. With the temperatures, there’s a lot out there to deal with on the track,” Kellerman said. “Man, it was fun, though.”

Kellerman earned the pole after Saturday’s qualifying race and never gave it up on Sunday, even when pressed by Jason Perry, who also races a Chevrolet Corvette. Perry had contact in the rear on lap three and spun out, creating a 10-second gap on Kellerman.

“We were slowly reeling them in. I think we got within 5 or 6 seconds, and we were keeping the same pace,” Perry said. “I think if we got a good, clean race, we it would have been a good finish, but that’s racing.”

Chad Knight of the Rocky Mountain Region, driving a Porsche GT3, placed third in the four-car class.

“I’m fairly new to racing and this is just my second full season, and first time to go to the Championships,” Knight said. “To finish on the podium is amazing. I’m excited about it.”

Super Touring 2

It was a bittersweet National Championship in Super Touring 2 for Greg Laube, who saw his teammate Timothy Carel leave the race after 10 laps because of a shock failure on the left front wheel.

“I feel bad for my teammate Timmy. It was his race to lose,” Laube said. “It feels good, but I didn’t expect this.”

Running an Audi RS3 LMS, Laube and Carel were setting the pace until Carel, who won Saturday’s qualifying race, dropped out. Laube built up a 9.1-second lead over second-place finisher Ben Grambau, but Laube was dealing with his own mechanical problems. The Audi went into limp mode three times and reset it with the ignition, but it cost him 3 to 4 seconds each time.

“It was in the same spot every time, so I knew it was coming,” Laube said. “I would have my hand on the switch, I’d go through that corner, I’d reset it, but it cost me a few seconds every time.”

Grambau said he got swamped at the start and felt it might have cost him the Championship.

“If I could have come out at Turn 1 in P2, I think it could have been a very different race because my fast lap was 3 seconds faster than what I was doing when I was stuck in P3 and P4 for a while, so it cost me some time. As soon as I got in clear air, I set my own pace.”

NASA SoCal racer Vic Pizzino finished third, having rebuilt the front end of his BMW E46 after a crash in August while racing at UMC.

“I’m super happy coming out here with all these talented drivers and be able to take this back to my office and something else to look at,” Pizzino said.

Super Touring 3

 Tom Rogers was the model of consistency at the NASA National Championships, sweeping Friday qualifying and Saturday’s qualifying race, and the Super Touring 3 Championship race.

Rogers spent 15 years climbing the racing ranks and this was the first National Championship for the Bozeman, Mont., resident. It wasn’t easy for Rogers, who was in third place by the first turn on lap one, and had to chase down David Lecko and Matthew Singler. Lecko and Singler finished second and third, respectively.

“I’m proud of myself. It’s a lot of work,” Rogers said. “I’ve tried it before, and I’ve been doing it for 15 years. It’s really nice to be in this position. I’m excited.”

Lecko called Rogers a great and clean competitor and was happy with his showing.

“I spent most of the race out in front and I had a clear windshield, so I was just hitting my marks most of the time,” said Lecko, who competed in his first National Championships. “He did get around me in the Esses, so that’s a tricky spot, but other than that, we both had such a great race.”

Singler had run the championship race on used tires because his new 315 tires didn’t arrive in time.

“My whole strategy was literally just to manage tires and keep up with those guys and hope that they would make a mistake, and I could get around them,” Singler said.

Super Touring 4

NASA NorCal’s John Friesen took the checkered flag in second place, but a post-race adjudication determined Shaun Webster had punted another competitor and he was DQ’d. Friesen, who races often with Webster in the NASA NorCal Region, was moved from second to first and the Championship as a result of the punt.

“I think the competition, at least in the ST4 is really stiff in NorCal, and we’ve got some complicated tracks there Thunderhill, Sonoma, Laguna, and I think it just breeds, a different driver,” Friesen said “If you’re not on pace in NorCal, you just go to the back, and it’s challenging.”

Driver Kevin Moore with Team Magic Developed finished second with Team Codrus Racing in third.

Super Touring 5

To say that Team Moorewood Racing had a good weekend is putting it mildly. Driver Larry Moore had been laying down scorching lap times and won Friday qualifying Saturday’s qualifying race and Sunday’s Championships race even though the competition had begun posting lap times in the same 2:12 bracket at Team Moorewood.

“I just want to thank Maxxis Tires for all their support, Magic Developed for putting a great car together, Apex Wheels, Clearwater Lights and Moorewood Creative,” Moore said. “We just tried to manage the pace, keep the tires cool, and keep myself cool out there because it’s warm.”

Moore took the win followed by Nathan Ulrich in second. Ulrich’s lap times were roughly .400 seconds slower than those of Moore.

NASA Arizona’s Nic Gerardi of Gerardi-Sohus Racing had been picking up his pace every session out, and improved enough throughout the weekend to finish third.

“I had Nathan Ulrich within a car length of me for about the first seven laps, eight laps. It felt like he finally got around, had one opportunity really to put a pass back on him and just couldn’t make it happen,” Gerardi said. “But after that it was just trying to keep in touch. So we had a little gap to P2 and to P4. So we’re kind of running our own race and just trying to minimize mistakes and get to the end.”

Super Touring 6

Competing in Time Trial and racing at a NASA Championships event has its benefits and drawbacks. Benefits include lots of track time, compounding knowledge and experience and one pursuit fortifying the next. The drawbacks are that it’s a lot of work, it can be hard on the car and it requires a lot of tires.

The drawbacks didn’t seem to faze NASA Utah’s Todd Green and he certainly made the most of the experience in his win in Super Touring 6. However his dominant performance on Friday and Saturday didn’t translate automatically to Sunday. He got freight-trained by a couple of cars in the first turn and lost another spot in Turn 3 on the first lap. Green bided his time, capitalized on his strengths and started clawing his way back to the front.

“It’s a 45-minute race. Just take my time,” Green said. “I know I have the speed, I know I have the race craft and so I would just wait for them to make a small little bobble, set it up and then get a good run on them and then take them in braking. I think I got both of them in Turn 5 and then once I was able to get ahead out of 6, it was smooth sailing from there.”

NASA Texas’ Bill Agha was logging lap times in the 2:18s, as were those of Green, but it wasn’t quite enough, and he finished second in ST6.

Driving the only Ford Focus in the 2024 NASA Championships, Chris  Miller also was driving lap times in the 2:18s, and he went on to finish third in ST6.

Super Unlimited

Jonathan Finstrom has won back-to-back NASA National Championships using the same strategy each year. Finstrom cuts the Saturday qualifying race short to preserve the Staudacher S12 for the championship.

While it requires him to start at the back, Finstrom quickly made his way through the five-car class to take the lead. “It was a little difficult with the fast cars in the beginning,” he said. “They were racing pretty hard, and especially with my little car, you’ve got to watch yourself.”

Jimmy Ford had earned the pole in Saturday’s qualifying but dropped out in lap 6, which created openings for the other drivers in the class. Andrew Lang, who finished second, said that catching Finstrom required a perfect race. The tires on the Norma M20 FC fell off faster than they anticipated.

“We’ve got very different cars. I’ve got an endurance car and we’re just trying to get the pace down here,” Lang said. “Even with a perfect day, I’m not sure I could have been in P1 but we were hoping (Jonathan) would have some issue, and we wanted to be right there.”

John LaBrie was third in his Superlite Aero R with the best lap time (2:02.865) coming on lap 16, three laps before the race ended.