Qualifying at a NASA Championships event is always filled with choices and decisions. Morning sessions are typically faster than sessions later in the afternoon after the track and the atmosphere have warmed up. Most drivers lay down their flyers as early as possible and often sit out the afternoon session hoping their times hold.
That strategy was only going to work for the first two run groups for Friday qualifying. Both groups finished before a light rain fell on Ozarks International Raceway. In fact, the Spec Miatas and Super Touring 5 cars were still out on track as the drizzle began to wet the racing surface.
When qualifying resumed after lunch, the drizzle was still falling, so the third and fourth run groups were faced with a choice. Skip their first session and hope for a dry track later in the day, or try to make something happen with the track conditions they have, and then maybe improve on a dry track later.
Similarly, the first two run groups faced a dilemma. Let their morning session stand and sit out Q2 or go out and see if the light rains changed the track for the better. By one account, track conditions did not improve.
“It definitely got a little slower. Maybe a couple of seconds,” said Svilen Kanev, who went out for Q1 and Q2 and qualified second in Super Touring 4. “Well, weather still looks OK, coolish, but maybe the rain washed rubber off the track or something. But yeah, definitely slower.”
Here’s how the 2025 NASA Championships qualifying process works.
- Grid for Friday warmup will be set by registration date and time.
- Grid for Friday qualifying session one will be set by the fastest lap in Friday morning warmup.
- Grid for Friday qualifying session two will be set by the fastest lap in Friday qualifying session one.
- Starting order for Saturday’s qualifying race will be determined by fastest lap time from Q1 or Q2 during the Friday qualifying sessions.
- Starting order for the final National Championship race will be determined by finishing position from Saturday’s qualifying race.
Here is how Friday qualifying played out:
944 Spec
Of the 944 Spec racers at the 2025 NASA Championships, only Calvin Rowe elected to go out in Q1, and he went out on Hoosier slicks. The way he figured it, track conditions weren’t great, but there was no guarantee they’d be any better later in the day.
“The forecast is saying maybe there’s some rain later on, maybe it’s going to be a bit heavier. So I wasn’t willing to gamble,” Rowe said. “I didn’t see enough running water to justify the wets because the wets are a different size in 944 Spec. The wets are a smaller tire, different size, so that messes up gearing and they’re not R compound. But with the Hoosiers being R compound, and they’re pretty good all the way around the track, even if it’s damp, as long as it’s not running water.”
Turns out Rowe had to go back out in Q2, which was dry. He knew his wet laps from earlier in the day would never hold. He went back out on slicks and earned pole position again with a 2:56.641.
American Iron
What a difference a few hours can make on the track. Isaiah Haines was top qualifier in the morning session, but by the afternoon David Luaces had smashed the best time by 24 seconds to earn pole for the qualifying race on Saturday.
Luaces laid down a best lap of 2:42.787 compared to Haines’ 3:06.829 lap in the first qualifier. It was an impressive time considering a black flag was thrown during the session.
“I got a little bit of luck in this qualifying session, I got a decently clean lap,” Luaces said. “There are cars that are faster than me. I don’t have the aero that they do. This car is a big, heavy pig, but it’s fine to drive and I haven’t put any aero on it yet.”
A deep and competitive field, less than a second separated the top four cars in the Q2 session. Lucaes goal is to keep the car intact for Sunday’s Championship.
“I was just saying to my spotter it’s not even Sunday yet,” Lucaes said about the accidents. “I hope we can get a full race on Sunday, but we’ll see what happens.”
American Iron Extreme
When the dust settled after Friday’s qualifying session, Nick Plocienik ended up as the fastest qualifier in American Iron Extreme. Robert Shaw was the fastest qualifier in American Iron Extreme with a 2:37.287 lap, but was unable to continue after his car sustained damage in a crash. That moved Plocienik into the P1 with a best lap of 2:41.039. It’s still far off his pace of 2:32 that he’s posted at OIR.
“I slowed up a bit and got my tires warm,” he said. “I went around the second lap and just of gave it the beans wherever I could.”
The Chevy Camaro Plocienik is running will be the last time he races it at OIR. The car is getting built for the Pikes Peak race in 2026.
For a Shaw, it was difficult end for the National Championships. “There’s no way to get the car fixed in time,” Shaw said.
GT
Brian Faessler says the Ozarks International Raceway is the hardest track he’s even driven. Judging by his qualifying win in GT on Friday, Faessler is up for the challenge.
Running a Ford Mustang, Faessler was the sole GT driver out on track and had a best lap of 2:25.226. It earned Faessler pole for Saturday’s qualifying race.
“This track is definitely challenging to pick up time,” Faessler said. “I used (qualifying session) to try all kind of different things, different aero levels, just different stuff.”
Coming off back-to-back NASA National Championships, Faessler is facing off against Jeff Kelderman, who opted not to run the first qualifying session. It’s the third time Faessler has run in the Ozarks, using his two previous trips to the Ozarks track to prepare for this weekend’s National Championships.
“I wanted to put a lap time down before the rain,” said Faessler, with the rain falling shortly after coming off the grid.
With P1 secured for Saturday’s qualifying race, Faessler opted to keep his car in the garage for the second qualifying session.
Legends
Rain or shine, Bobby Pugh is remarkably consistent at Ozarks International Raceway. With a light rain shower, Pugh had a best lap of 2:40.723 on the road course, just 1 second off his regular track time at OIR.
Legend cars are nimble on the track, allowing the drivers to chase the Thunder Roadsters during their races.
“It’s not as technical because it’s so long,” Pugh said. “The Thunder Roadsters can go a little than we can because they’re more aerodynamic. So, it’s tough to run with them where we get a short, technical track, we can usually outperform them.”
The four cars in the class passed on morning qualifying session, opting to run in the afternoon when the track was a little drier. While Bryan Poage and Bobby Christensen were more than 6 seconds off the pace, it’s going to be evenly matched come Sunday.
“Whether you start in the first or third spot, it doesn’t matter,” Pugh said. “On a long course it all evens out.”
NASA Prototype
None of the NP01s went out in Q1 due to the rain, but when Q2 rolled around, the track had dried completely, the winds had picked up a bit and temperatures had dropped.
That could have been a recipe for quick times, but a car pulled over with a mechanical disrupted the session.
“We only really had probably a couple of clean laps. I was just trying to feel out the track after all the rain, just to see if it was wet anywhere, how the grip was and stuff like that. And then probably had two or three laps before there was a car that was broken down. So yeah, didn’t have much time,” said pole winner Tyler Atkinson.
Atkinson qualified with a 2:34.246, nearly 5 seconds quicker than second place. Atkinson thinks he can post quicker lap times under the right conditions.
“There’s definitely more in the car. I was much faster in the warmup,” he said. “Had we had more time, the track might’ve been faster now because it’s a little bit cooler, but yeah, we just didn’t get the time.”
Spec E30
NASA Mid-Atlantic Region’s Garrett Manes elected to go out in the wet Q1. That meant that no matter what the weather did in Q2 later in the afternoon he at least would have a lap time on the books.
“I mean, it’s kind of uncertain looking at the forecast as to whether or not this will even begin to dry,” Manes said. “And I thought about it, I was like, this is as light as it gets for rain. It’s a chance that it does begin to dry during our session. So when I saw everybody else in the class rolling, I was like, well, I guess we’re putting rain tires on. So that was kind of a last second decision. We made it out there in time to make a total of one lap, but it was enough. So we’ll take that.”
Manes starts Saturday’s qualifying race followed by Clay Pearce and Matthew Ibrahim.
Spec E46
The rain had become so much of a factor for Q1, Greg Hartman elected to go out on rain tires to qualify for Spec E46, which were the right call because he pulled into impound with pole position. But by the time Q2 started, the track had dried and the air temperatures had dropped.
That was enough for Team Mick Blue Racing’s Michael Omelko to go out and lay down a lap time quick enough to take pole position from Hartman. Omelko’s practice day was cut short when he broke a left half-shaft, but he was able to get one overnighted to the track and installed on the car in time.
Omelko elected not to go out on rain tires in Q1, and the second session was marred by a local yellow and shortened by a crash, Omelko laid down a 2:48.388.
“I went out in the rain, but I went out with slicks just to see what it does. I felt like it wasn’t really enough rain to put the rain tires on, but I should have,” Omelko said. ”Luckily this session was not rained out. Unfortunately. Too many crashes happened and we didn’t really have a whole lap green. Even the best lap from all of us was kind of slowed down because we had yellow flag section to the esses.”
Omelko starts in P1 with Jason Rikke in second and Hartman in third.
Spec Miata
Spec Miata is always noteworthy because of how little time typically separates the top cars, and Friday qualifying reflected that. Pole position and P2 were separated by .085 seconds.
Coming in from the NASA Rocky Mountain Region, Vaughan Weber nabbed pole position by a whisker, but when he pulled into impound, he didn’t know he had scored pole with a 2:47.603.
“I wasn’t getting times on the dash. I’m not sure why, and I knew I was going to be basically neck and neck with P2. We ended up running within a couple hundredths of each other, so it’s going to be a good race,” Weber said. “We’re still kind of getting things sorted with the car. I’ve had electrical issues. I crashed the car here in April, so we’ve been rebuilding it. We had to put in new subframe, new bodywork, so we didn’t really get time to run radio, but everything else is good.”
All of Spec Miata went out for Q2, but no one went faster. In fact, lap times were up by nearly a second, so the rain must have washed some grip out of the track.
Weber starts in P1, followed by Lincoln Larson and Vinnie Meskelis. All three drivers are in NASA’s Teen Mazda Challenge.
Super Touring 1
Dealing with a cooling issue during practice sessions, Friday’s qualifying session was the first time Joe Kellerman could truly push his Chevrolet Corvette Z06. That push was good enough to earn him P1 for the Saturday qualifying race.
Kellerman ran a best lap of 2:29.120, a mark he was hoping to hit once the cooling problem was fixed.
“I hit my goal today, so I’m happy,” Kellerman said. “It’s where I wanted to be, so I can relax a bit and not say I’ve got to go out and kill it next time.”
Kellerman admits the first time he drove OIR, he wasn’t a fan. As he’s had more seat time, the NASA Great Lakes Region driver has grown to love the track.
“Once you start to get it in the right places, know where you’re at, pick up speed, and all of a sudden it’s like, ‘oh my God,’ this is a lot of fun,” Kellerman said. “Once you figure that out, you keep picking up on that. Next thing you know, you’re picking up seconds, and not just tenths.”
Kellerman opted to sit out the second qualifying race in the afternoon, so Tage Evanson and Dustin Drollinger took their shot at top qualifier. The track was slower than the morning session with Evanson turning a best lap of 2:37.150, nearly 8 seconds off the leader.
Super Touring 2
Taking advantage of a cool and dry track, Ben Grambau turned a class-best 2:30.839 lap to earn pole position for Saturday’s qualifying race.
“These track conditions are just awesome right now, it’s overcast and there’s no sun,” Grambau said. “It doesn’t get any better for Champs in September.”
The weather was the difference when it came to qualifying. Fellow ST2 competitor Jonathan Maret hit the track after the rain passed through in the afternoon, only to finish 11 seconds off Grambu’s best lap.
“I’m going to keep taking advantage of the grip as it comes and finding the places just to keep more gasless brake is what it’s all about,” Grambu said.
With four evenly matched cars in the class, Grambu is trying to preserve the equipment for Sunday.
Super Touring 3
David Lecko broke his personal best at OIR, and will be at the front of the pack for the Super Touring 3 qualifying race on Saturday. Lecko had his best lap of 2:31.815, breaking his old personal record by a second.
Lecko set his best lap early in the qualifying race and after hitting traffic halfway through qualifying, he opted to throttle back.
“I decided not to keep beating on the tires,” he said. “I feel like I’ve got even more in me, so I’m looking forward to hopefully being able to do that in the future.”
Lecko had new sticker tires on the Ginetta G56 GTA for the qualifying run and has been doing study sessions between races with his coach.
“We had good weather and new tires all together. My coach has been helping me make sure I maximize each corner and doing data review between sessions,” Lecko said. “It was just the trifecta of all those things coming together.”
Super Touring 4
Scott Smith traveled all the way from his home in Northern California to race at Ozarks International Raceway, a track he fell in love with the first time he drove it two years ago. So, when heard the NASA Championships were coming to OIR, he was eager to take part.
Benefiting from Thursday practice, Smith brushed up his skills from his last time here and when it came time to qualify, he put those skills to good use, scoring pole position in Super Touring 4 by a margin of nearly 4 seconds.
“I’m usually kind of quick at learning tracks,” Smith said. “I’m slow to learn cars, but I’m quick to learn tracks and so I come with the car I know and it works.”
Smith didn’t say whether he would go out for Q2, but he had plans in mind for Saturday and Sunday.
“I’ve got a new set of tires I’m going to try to run for the qualifying race and race and I think that will do it. I think I’ll get some extra time out of that,” Smith said. “I’m running the Hooser Track Attack Pros, which I think will last longer than, say, an R7, and with an R7 maybe you want to run a new set every session. But that wasn’t in my budget, so I think this is the right approach.”
With Smith in P1, Svilen Kanev starts second with Lisa Vaughan in third.
Super Touring 5
NASA Texas driver Ross Carmichael pulled in from Q1 about halfway through the session. When he heard from his crew over the radio that his competitors were within a half second of his time, he went back out on track and chopped another half second off his lap time, which was good enough to earn pole position in Super Touring 5 for the Saturday qualifying race.
“I don’t know what the total delta was between me and second, but I was kind of one of those like, ah, I’m here. I spent the money on the tires. I might as well use them,” Carmichael said. “This track is tricky. I mean, it’s a fun track. It’s fast, but it takes some getting used to, and for lack of a better term, it takes huevos.”
Carmichael came out to Ozarks International Raceway in July, discovered what the track was like and some changes that needed to made to his car. He also got some coaching from pro driver Eric Foss.
Carmichael felt his time would hold through Q2, especially if it rained midday, which it did. He said the rain would “green up” the track and wash off the rubber buildup and increase lap times. To cover his bases, he said he was going to suit up and sit on grid, and if it looked like someone was going to better his Q1 time, then he would go out and try to set a faster lap.
As it turned out, Carmichael didn’t need to go back out and his Q1 time of 2:40.517 held for P1 in the Saturday qualifying race.
Carmichael starts from pole, with Bryce Kliewer in second and Justin Mason in third.
Super Unlimited
NASA Great Lakes racer Jonathan Finstrom elected not to go out in the rain in Q1. For the dry Q2 session, he was following competitors Andrew Lang and Jason Ross on the first lap. Once he got his tires warmed up, he got around them and set about laying down his flyer lap.
“I got hard tires on still, so it was kind of feeling it out and then on the second lap was going for it. Then second to last corner, just the motor stopped. So we’re trying to figure that out at the moment,” Finstrom said. “I was doing 2:11s before, so I think the car has a 2:09 in it when I put the soft tires on. Those are tires from last year still just trying to learn the track and get going. But I don’t need to put the softs on yet because I’m going fast enough already. Not to sound cocky, but that’s the reality.”
His crew got the car running again shortly after the session, but it was a bit noisier than usual, according to Finstrom. With no spare engine in the trailer, the team will be relegated to using what they have in Saturday’s qualifying race.
Finstrom will be on pole, followed by Jason Ross in second and Joe Henski in third.
Thunder Roadster
Less than .8 seconds separated the top five qualifiers in Thunder Roadster with Derrek Morehead earning P1 in Saturday’s qualifying race. The group skipped the first session because of the rain but the 12-deep pack of cars were running in the afternoon qualifier.
Morehead holds the track record among the Thunder Roadster group after running the track the past couple of years. He’s heard critics say the track is hard to pass on, but Morehead said drivers have to earn it.
“There are passing areas, you have to be committed, and trust the other guys,” he said. “I know it’s a polarizing track for some, but I think it’s a driver’s track.”
Morehead laid down his best lap of 2:38.073 with John Spain just behind at 2:38.475. Gary Tinker (2:38.766), Stu Jones (2:38.805) and Jordan Dosch (2:38.97) were within striking distance.
