Clean Sweep – Team 949 Racing Takes Triple Crown at Sonoma by Winning Three Classes

Round five of the National Auto Sport Association’s Western Endurance Racing Championship presented by Enduro-Racer.com got underway at Sonoma Raceway at 8:15 a.m. as the exhaust of 25 racecars pierced the wine country landscape. Sonoma Raceway has a multitude of track layouts these days between the NASCAR “chute,” the Indy Car short Turn 11 and the World Touring Car Championships chicane at Turn 9. But the NASA WERC series ran the course old-school style, using the Esses as they were designed to be run, with the fast and treacherous Turn 10 and the classic long Turn 11.

With six classes (ESR, ES, E0, E1, E2 and E3) in the WERC series, traffic was tight as the field roared into right hander of Turn 2 on the first lap when the green flag dropped at the start. You certainly can’t win a three-hour enduro in the first set of corners, but it doesn’t mean race drivers won’t try. The compact field survived the first crowded curves around the twisty and technical road course, which allowed the long race to proceed under green flag conditions.

As teams burned up gas and driver fatigue set in, cars began to pit for fuel and driver swaps. NASA officials kept a close eye on teams to ensure gas wasn’t spilled on pit lane and that team members were wearing the proper safety gear. Teams who spilled gas were rewarded with a five minute stop-and-go penalty — which is really more like a stop and wait, then go.

As the race progressed, ambient temperatures began to rise, which caused tires to get greasy and drivers to get sweaty and yearn for the checkered flag to fall. At 11:15 a.m. the black and white winner’s flag did fall, over the roof of the black No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 ES class car of Team TruSpeed Motorsports. Two laps behind in second place was the ES class No. 66 Super Truck of Team Lynam Racing. Rounding out the overall podium and winning the E0 class was the No. 44 BMW M3 of Team Achilles Motorsport.

The big story out of round five was Team 949’s utter domination of the event. Team 949 Racing, in three separate Mazda Miatas in three different classes, each with different modifications, won the E1, E2 and E3 classes. Team 949 Racing called it “the triple crown” of the WERC series. Their orange No. 49 “Super Miata” fresh from winning the PTC and TTC National Championships at Mid-Ohio picked up the E1 class win. Team 949 Racing also won the E2 class in its red No. 99 Mazda Miata, finishing four laps ahead of its closest competitor. And to finish off the hat trick, the No. 05 black Mazda Miata of 949 Racing won the hotly contested E3 class, which had a 10-car field.

WERC Round 5 – Results