Friday qualifying at the 2024 NASA Championships is an interesting proposition. Race drivers have two qualifying sessions to lay down their fastest lap time in an attempt to start from as far forward on grid as possible for the first qualifying race on Saturday.
The morning session is usually the best opportunity to set a fast time. Afternoon sessions give drivers the opportunity to put all their added seat time to good use, but temperatures in the high 80s this afternoon in the Tooele Valley can diminish engine power and decrease the amount of grip on the racing surface. Drivers who lay down a scorcher of a lap in the morning usually set themselves up to be in the best grid position possible.
Today’s qualifying times determine a driver’s grid position for the qualifying race on Saturday.
Friday qualifying sessions are when the event really begins to ramp up and the adrenaline levels begin to spike. We caught up with each of the drivers who earned pole position for after their session on track to learn more about how they got it done.
944 Spec
NASA SoCal racer Josh Cleye has been proving his mettle in his home region racing against two multi-time national champions in 944 Spec, Charlie Buzzetti and Marcelo Vine, and he took it a step further by earning pole position for Saturday’s qualifying race on his first time at Utah Motorsports Campus. He scored a fast lap at 2:18:303.
“Well, I love the track. The track is awesome. First time out here, the car has been really good and I’ve just learned that I have to be confident on the throttle to get good speed,” Cleye said. “Very thankful to be here. I didn’t think that would happen going into this. So, I’m really excited.”
Cleye went out for the second qualifying session and thought he might be able to find more speed, but it was his time from the morning session that held and secured him pole position for Saturday’s qualifying race, where will face off against many of his competitors from the Southern California Region.
“I think it’s going to be such a close race. It’s going to be really tight,” Cleye said. “All five of us are really close, so I think it’ll be a lot of fun. I can’t wait. I’m going to be dead, though. I’ve never done a race this long.”
American Iron Extreme
Derric Carter was probably the coolest driver on the track today. Carter accidentally left the air conditioning blasting during Thursday morning’s qualifying session, but still managed to be the fastest qualifier with a best lap of 2:02.235. He followed up the next qualifying session, just off the pace of his best lap.
“This morning, I ran a 2:03 in warmup, so like anything else, I wanted to go out there and beat it to get a little better every time I get out on the track,” Carter said.
The AIX class looks like it will have four teams racing, so pole position isn’t crucial for Carter or any of the other drivers.
“We’re a pretty small group, so it doesn’t matter if you start first or fifth,” Carter said. “Some of the guys have had car troubles and we’re trying to help each other because we all want to be out on the field.”
Camaro-Mustang Challenge
NASA Rocky Mountain racer Matthew Kasuda wasn’t aware he’d scored pole position for Saturday’s qualifying race till he was hopping out of his car in impound. His fastest lap at 2:17.793 is 1.03 seconds faster than second place.
He spent a lot of time on a sim racing rig in preparation for the NASA Championships, but 1 second is not much of a gap and a lot can happen, so Kasuda went out again in the second qualifying session to try to find a bit more time.
“It’s the first time here for a lot of us. I think one of the other guys in the third gen (F body), he’s been here once before, but this is my first time,” Kasuda said. “So I downloaded the LVRY track on a set of Corsa installed that and turned hundreds of laps at home. So when I came out here, the track felt pretty familiar already.
“I think the little extras are just based on the car setup and just taking the corners pretty deep and just trying to maintain speed through the course and not getting the car sideways and scrubbing a whole bunch of speed,” he added. “I think just steady is the key to getting around this track. There’s more time to find. Those were not perfect laps by any means, so I think we’ll find some more time out on the track.”
GT
With four cars registered in Grand Touring, Brian Faessler was the lone class driver to participate in the qualifying session on Friday. His 1:54.465 lap time in the Ford Mustang earned him fastest qualifier.
It’s the first time he’s run the Mustang on the Utah Motorsports Campus and it has been two years since Faessler has run the track outside Salt Lake City.
“I’m mainly just trying to get my bearings right with my car and this track,” said Faessler, who may also run Time Trial in between reviewing data. “Sunday is obviously the biggest day, so I’m trying to warm up to it.”
The Mustang came off the course running hot, so Faessler had the hood up and fan blowing into the engine bay. “We’re investigating it and looking at the data,” he said. “It doesn’t look like there were any problems.”
GTSU
One of the fastest production car classes in NASA, German Touring Series Unlimited cars all ran lap times under 2 minutes on the 3.048-mile-long Outer Loop at UMC. However, it was Dmitri Novikov who ran farther under 2 minutes than anyone at 1:51.472, some 3 seconds quicker than second-place Team Larkins Sprint Team and third-place Al Tiley. That was good enough to earn Novikov pole position for Saturday’s qualifying race.
Legends
Bobby Pugh built every car running in the Legends class this week at the NASA National Championships, so he knows how closely matched the cars should be on the track.
While Pugh was the fastest qualifier with a 2:10.395 lap, just 0.338 separated him from the second-fastest qualifier Bobby Christensen, who ran a top lap of 2:10.733. Pugh’s fastest time was on the lap five, where he managed to shave off 1 second.
“Yesterday at practice, every one of us was the fastest in one session,” said Pugh, who races in the Texas Region. “We have a dyno and tune them all equally, so we’re all on the same page. It’s the best driver that wins.”
Pugh used his two qualifying sessions to warm up the tires and get to know the track. He’ll take the same approach on Saturday before it all matters on Sunday.
NP01 EVO
Sometimes a driver knows he’s on a flyer, but he doesn’t know how well he is doing till he comes into impound. That was the case for NP01 EVO driver Chris Castelli, who logged a 2:02.910, which was fast enough to earn him pole position for Saturday’s qualifying race. But he doesn’t have a lot of room between himself and Team Tony B Racing at 2:03.788.
“I didn’t know I had pole. I knew I was running fast,” Castelli said. “There’s another fast guy that had brand new slicks. I thought he’d probably be squeaking me out. I’m running six sessions on these tires. That’s a fastest lap I’ve ever had in the car, so I’m super happy.”
Castelli’s data was telling him he could run another second quicker with an error-free lap, but he has some new tires to mount for Saturday’s qualifying race. He might need that extra bit of grip to stay ahead of Team Tony B Racing.
Spec E30
It would be hyperbole to say that Matthew Ibrahim pulled off the impossible in Friday afternoon’s qualifying session, so let’s just say that what he accomplished is exceedingly rare.
After Mick Blue set the fast lap in Spec E30 morning session at 2:19.440, he returned to his paddock space to help Ibrahim repair his gear shifter in preparation for the afternoon session. Times from an afternoon qualifying session are almost invariably slower than the cooler morning session, and it is especially important to get a fast lap in quickly before the tires get hotter than optimal.
Not only did Ibrahim top Blue’s time from the morning by .053 seconds, but he also logged it on his last lap in afternoon qualifying. That almost never happens.
“Honestly, that was probably the most chaotic qualifying I’ve ever done. So my shifter broke before we went out on that session, so I was 5 minutes late,” Ibrahim said. “But what’s makes it funnier is that Mick actually helped me get the car ready to go for this session. So yeah, I just basically threw some fresh tires on it, repaired the shifter and went out there. That was it. His last words to me before we got out there was, ‘Don’t run faster than me.’ So, yeah, sorry Mick.”
Spec E46
Wyatt Couch not only has deep racing experience in karts and lots of different kinds of cars, but he also has a lot of race wins in those classes. So, his entry into Spec E46 in the middle of the season in his home region in Northern California was met with the expectation he would continue his streak of successes.
On Friday morning’s qualifying session, Couch exceeded those expectations by setting the fastest lap at 2:11.210, a time that would hold through the afternoon and nab him pole position for Saturday’s qualifying race. This is only his third event in the car in his second time at Utah Motorsports Campus.
“I think the biggest thing to getting acclimated to the car has just been the diverse cars I’ve been driving, the Spec MX-5s, MX-5 Cups, Spec Miata, all those,” Couch said. “Then getting in this, it made the transition easy and I’m just getting used to the weight transfer. It is a lot heavier, almost 3,000-pound car. Getting used to the track, I just credit that to all the tracks I’ve been to recently. Just keeping that skill of learning new tracks and keeping fresh.”
He has had to change his driving methods a bit to get the most out of his new Spec E46, which he and his father built to their usual exacting standards.
“The Spec Miatas are more nimble. You can kind of point them, and this one, you’ve got to use a lot more suspension. You can’t just slam it into the ground and make the gas pedal a light switch,” Couch added. “For this car, you have to use the weight transfer to your advantage, and kind of roll off the corner just get the best run. I think learning momentum from those cars has helped me carry a lot of speed in this car.”
Spec Miata
Anyone who pays even cursory attention to NASA Championships competition in Spec Miata should be familiar with Dan Williams, who is not only a quick driver, but also the Regional Director of the NASA Rocky Mountain Region. Williams won GTS3 at the 2023 NASA Championships and was in the hunt for a podium in Spec Miata in 2023, but he just missed.
Williams went out for Friday morning qualifying and ripped his fast lap on the first hot lap. He stayed out the whole session to get some more seat time, but never could duplicate that fast lap. Williams has been doing some testing at UMC this season to home in on the best car for him to drive.
“We also spent quite a bit of time, obviously, over the years coming here, but even this year, we came and brought several different cars and really did some pretty thorough testing, so it worked out for us,” Williams said. “The 1.6 certainly was the fastest of my cars. We don’t know for sure that it’s the way it is for everybody.”
Spec Z
Chad Aalders has been racing at UMC since 2010, so there are probably few drivers that know the track as well as the Utah Region driver.
He put his track knowledge to use on Friday, rising to the top as the fastest qualifier in Spec Z with a 2:10.415 lap.
“This car is completely dialed,” Aalders said. “I’ve gone through about five Spec Z cars. This is a really good one.”
Aalders is pulling double duty this weekend, also campaigning a Nissan 350Z in Super Touring 4. Aalders is his own pit crew, so it’s a balancing act to stay fresh, especially with temperature expected to reach 90 degrees on Sunday. It’s why he ran just one lap in Spec Z qualifying.
“I try not to overdo it, so I don’t overexert myself,” he said. “Trying to change tires and brakes and manage everything else on two cars and then drive them at the same time it’s quite a bit, but it’s a lot of fun.”
Super Touring 1
Mark Klenin is pulling double duty this weekend racing in Super Touring 1 and Super Touring 3. So far Klenin is finding great success in ST1 with his Lotus Emira GT4, winning both qualifying sessions on Friday.
His best lap was 2:01.467, surprisingly, in the afternoon qualifying session. Klenin bettered his time by nearly a second from the morning session.
“It was freaking awesome,” Klenin after hoping out of the Lotus and jumping into a BMW to race. “The track got a little loose, a little oily at one point, and I turned up the traction control, and I kept adjusting it to acclimate, but it felt good.”
Super Touring 2
There’s little doubt that Timothy Carel is the driver to beat in Super Touring 2. A day after running the equivalent of the track record for Super Touring 2 (2:01.276) on used tires, he returned for qualifying on Friday an even better time—2:00.599.
While waiting to pull his Audi RS3 LMS on the scales, Carel was low key about his times on the Utah Motorsport Campus track. This week was the first time running the track, but Carel logged more than 15 sessions in the sim.
“Even though we are still fast without the tires, it’s always nice to just put on a new set of tires and have fresh rubber,” Carel said. “You always can go faster with a new set of tires, so it gives me a lot more confidence.”
Between the two qualifying sessions, Carel ran 12 laps total with the fast lap coming during the morning qualifying.
Super Touring 3
Before going out on the track on Thursday, Tom Rogers decided to make some drastic changes to his BMW M3. Rogers, who races in the Utah Region, replaced the tires, wheels and brake pads on the car. The result was Rogers was the fastest qualifier in ST3, turning a 2:03.719 lap, just edging David Lecko with a 2:03.723.
Why did Rogers decide to start over before the National Championships?
“I didn’t think I was going to be competitive,” he said. “These guys are fast. There’s so much competition and really good drivers. There’s a lot of great cars, so you just keep moving forward. You keep trying to try to pick away a hundredth here and a hundredth there.”
Rogers got five laps in before he left the track because of a coolant warning light. “I just believe it’s a failed sensor,” Rogers said. “Within .04 of a second it went to 500 degrees, so that’s why we think it was likely a sensor.”
Super Touring 4
NASA NorCal racer Shaun Webster was looking to make it quick day as the temperatures were rising quickly on the Utah Motorsports Campus. Webster was true to his word, posting a 2:06.249 lap.
“I wanted to try and set a screamer early, just in case there was an incident on track,” Webster said. “But with the few cars that there were out there, there was actually more room than we originally anticipated, so I was able to kind of work up the pace.”
The fast lap was on lap five with John Friesen and his BMW M3 just .72 seconds off the pace. Webster had never been to the UMC track and visited in July to get familiar as well as putting time in on the sim.
“All the practice sessions we were driving on really bad tires, and even this morning’s practice,” Webster said. “This was the first session on a good set, and I made it count.”
Super Touring 5
Driver for the Magic Developed ST5 E46 Larry Moore was a bit concerned early in the event that they might not be making enough power to be competitive, but that was alleviated when he set the fast lap at 2:09.507, some 3 seconds quicker than second place.
Moore let that time stand and didn’t go out for the second session, and it did work because no other driver was able to beat his time. He said time spent examining the data is what he uses to find the most time.
“I love breaking down the data, looking at brake traces, seeing where the car is at certain points in the corner where you can carry the brake longer where you’re picking up the gas,” Moore said. “I just love the data analytics of it. It’s a lot of fun. Justin Ross is a great coach at Magic developed and I just rely on him for that kind of training and it’s worked out so far.”
Super Touring 6
Utah Motorsports Campus is Super Touring 6 driver Todd Green’s home track, so he knows how to go fast here, and it showed in morning qualifying with a fast lap of 2:17.624, nearly 2 seconds quicker than second place. Green said the amount of time he has spent lapping here gives him an advantage in knowing where to gain those last few chunks of speed.
“From what I’ve seen when I’ve been around people, the Attitudes, which are the Esses on our track, they’re very tricky to take fast,” Green said. “And we do have regulations on how much curbing we can take. And when you have a lot of experience, you know exactly how to take them. And also I think Turn 3 on the west side of the track is a very high-speed, high-commitment corner. And it takes a little bit of time and experience here to know exactly how fast you can take that. A little bit of local knowledge is, there’s a big berm on that curb and so you can still be sliding and when your tire hits that it’ll catch you and you can carry a little more speed all the way down to Turn 5.”
Green was so confident in his time that he didn’t even go out for the afternoon session. He’ll be starting on pole in ST6 for the Saturday qualifying race.
Super Unlimited
Jonathan Finstrom is looking to make it four NASA National Championship in a row and was off to a good start on Friday. Finstrom was the fastest qualifier running his Staudacher S12 to a best lap of 1:48.039.
Finstrom had never been to Utah Motorsports Campus but since last year’s national championship in Pittsburgh, Finstrom had watched videos daily to memorize the track. The team has been testing gearing, tire pressures and shock settings to improve corner speeds.
“I’m still learning the track, too, and we’re still adjusting the car to the track so that could compensate for the heat and the altitude and stuff like that,” Finstrom said.
He’s hoping to match the National Championships in Pittsburgh where he won Time Trial Unlimited and Super Unlimited.
“My goal is always to win,” Finstrom said. “Going for second place or third isn’t what I’m here for.”
