April 9 – 10, 2010
In 1985, SCCA Enterprises started the Spec Renault series. A few years later the engine changed and the series became known as Spec Racer Ford or SRF for short. In April, Road Atlanta hosted The 25th Anniversary Spec Racer Ford Celebration. SCCA Enterprises and the United States Endurance Racing Association put on a great event.
The weekend included 4 groups and each group ran a race on Saturday and Sunday. SCCA Pro Racing sanctioned the SCCA Pro Spec Racer Ford and SCCA Pro Formula Enterprises races, and the United States Endurance Racing Association sponsored the USERA Spec Racer Challenge and the Sports Renault, Enterprises Sports Racers, Shelby Can-Am and VIP Driver’s races.
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Click here for 25th Anniversary Spec Racer Ford Celebration Image Gallery
Group 1 – SCCA Pro Spec Racer Ford
Brian Schofield of Lakeland, Fl and Tray Ayers of Woodstock, GA dominated the SCCA Pro Spec Racer Ford races, finishing 1st and 2nd in each race on Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday Schofield and Ayers battled to the checker, coming out of Turn 12 side by side with Schofield winning by .145 seconds.
Jean-Luc Liverato of Alpharetta, GA finished 3rd on Saturday and Richard Spicer of Laurel, MD finished 3rd on Sunday.
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| #61 Brian Schofield, #7 Tray Ayers | Brian Schofield |
Group 2 – SCCA Pro Formula Enterprises
The SCCA Pro Formula Enterprises races were won by Nick Evans of Powell, OH on Saturday and Scott Rettich of Oxford, OH on Sunday. Also notable was 15 year old Sean Rayhall taking pole for both races and finishing fourth on Saturday, but only 13th on Sunday.
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| Nick Evans |
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| Scott Rettich |
Group 3 – USERA Spec Racer Challenge
Jason Barfield of Granville, OH won both of the USERA Spec Racer Challenge races. On Saturday, Keith Scharf of Kansas City, Mo finished 2nd and Brian Grigsby of Austin, TX finished 3rd. Scharf started racing in Sports Renault in 1986. On Sunday, Herb Sweeney of Summerville, MA finished 2nd and Keith Scharf had another podium finish in 3rd place.
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| #23 Jason Barfield |
Group 3 had some exciting action on the track during one of the practice sessions. This incident happened when Richard Wiehl missed a shift coming out of Turn 10b. Robert Dubler had nowhere to go but up and over. Both cars were able to be repaired and make both of their races.
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Group 4 – Sports Renault, Enterprises Sports Racers, Shelby Can-Am, and VIP Driver’s Race
Also celebrated this weekend was the 20th Anniversary of the Shelby Can-Am series. For more information about Shelby Can-Am cars go to www.shelbycanam.com. Dalton Zehr won both Group 4 races. On hand to help celebrate was Elliott Forbes-Robinson. EFR only ran in the Saturday race and dropped out with a broken CV joint.
Group 4 also included VIP’s that were past SRF Champions (Pro or Club, active or inactive), drivers who ran SRF’s in the very very early years and still had active licenses but not their own cars, and general motorsports VIP’s like Nick Craw, 4 past or current SCCA National Champions and or Pro drivers like Jack Baldwin.
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| Dalton Zehr |
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| EFR |
Block Party
On Saturday night all the participants were invited to a block party in the paddock.
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What a great anniversary party!
Motorsports Photography by Clark McInnis 
Again,
Thanks to Clark for recording this historic event for the SCCA Spec Racer and the SCCA/Shelby CAN AM and also big round of applause to Eric Skirmants of SCCA and Ken Grammer of USERA for combining their considerable talents and resources to make this event a huge success.
Since we now have thousands of SRF cars in the US and competing on every imaginable track throughout the country, I will limit my comments to the much lesser known Shelby CAN AM.
Ironically, the first major showing of the Shelby CAN AM cars as a competitive series was held at Road Atlanta in April of 1990 as part of the SCCA Runoffs. A field of 22 cars took the green flag and by the time the checkered flag was thrown Bob Lobenberg was in the lead and dominated the race from his front row starting position.
The Pro Series ran support races for NASCAR, INDYCAR, TRANS-AM and others from 1991 to 1996 when sponsorship dried up and left the cars with no place to run. Adding to the demise of the car as a competitive class was the fact that only 74 production car were built (and one surviving Prototype) with no real concentration of cars in any one location in the country. SCCA was forced to eliminate the class in 1997. The cars can run in C Sport Racer if unmodified from original and A Sport Racer with modifications.
The car driven by Dalton Zehr at this reunion was chassis 028, which is a legal C Sport Racer and holds many records in the Western and Pacific Northwest Region. Additionally, this chassis was also driven professionally by the current Grand AM and Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice. Dalton also holds the SCA track record at Daytona’s 24 Hour Track that was set in SCA chassis 059.
The car driven by the two-time winner of the Daytona 24 Hour race, Elliott Forbes-Robinson, is chassis 038. This chassis was modified in 2001 to accept a 500 HP LS derivative Chevrolet engine which is precisely the power planned for the PRO SCA Series but never came to fruition.
Two other cars competed at the Reunion, Dr. Jack Dunn in the orange #3 (chassis 063) formerly owned by Chris Horn, a well known current NASCAR Mid-West Tour truck competitor. Dr. Dunn is a regular on the Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) circuit and holds the honor of being a multi-year SCCA Champion in Regions 83 and 11. And last but not least is the yellow and red #4 (chassis 060) of Doug Cohee. Doug is a former SARRC Champion and also a Region 83 Champion in addition to also being a regular on the HSR circuit. In Sunday’s race Doug’s car was driven by Jack Willes and is also very well known as a former Trans Am driver and Spec Racer Owner/Driver. Jack and his father John were instrumental in the initial success of the Shelby CAN AM program as SVR’s for the cars.
Sunday’s race would have been a great race of the older, seasoned racer of Jack Willes against the younger shoe of Dalton Zehr but unfortunately, after Jack used his considerable experience to get the jump on Dalton during the start, he was forced to pit due to a mechanical issue.
Many thanks to the current Spec Racer drivers, mechanics and celebrities that also were involved in the Shelby program. A group photo was taken of R. David Jones, EFR, Steve Fenske, Ben Van der Linden, Dick Quevreaux, Jack Willes, Dave Skinner, Mike Davies and others that helped make this event a successful 20 Year Shelby CAN AM Reunion.
Many thanks to all,
Sincerely.
Bob mentioned to me that when he “listed EFR as the driver of #38, they asked him to submit a bio and his quals”. They “worked it out with a brief Google entry”. Now that’s funny.
I would like to Thank Clark McInnis for all of the great photos he took at our 25th Anniversary celebration! He did a wonderful job and captured the drivers more on a personal level…so thank you Clark!!!