The Super Unlimited race this year looked to be a repeat of 2014’s epic battle at Sonoma Raceway between Jon Van Caneghem in a Mazda-powered Elan DP02 and Brian Frisselle in the Davidson Racing BMW-powered Norma M20F that won overall and the ESR class at the 2014 25 Hours of Thunderhill. Both drivers were fast during the qualifying races, with Friselle holding a slight edge over Van Canegham, and that put him on the pole for the start of the race.
Van Caneghem and Frisselle were running fast laps and slicing through lapped traffic, with Frisselle in the lead when the Norma went off track and into the gravel trap outside Turn 11 as a result of brake failure. This gave Van Caneghem some breathing room far out in front of the second-place Davidson Racing Eagle, driven by Brandon Kraus. Despite Kraus’ best efforts to close the gap, Van Caneghem successfully defended his title and brought home the 2015 Championship.
Even more remarkable than the repeat win was that Van Caneghem also ran into brake trouble and spent the final 20 minutes of the race having to pump his brakes into each corner and using the gears to slow down enough to make the faster corners. Since Van Caneghem’s Elan used a Mazda engine prepared by 7’s Only Racing, he also secured an invitation to compete in the Mazda Shootout for a chance to win $75,000 toward a full season in the Mazda MX-5 Cup series. The final spot on the podium belonged to Daytona 24 Hour veteran Tom Haacker in his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.
