May 18 – 19, 2013
For the last 3 years, Atlanta Region SCCA’s May event at Road Atlanta has been run as a “Rational”; Regional and National classes run concurrently. Although this year the Regional races were not SARRC points events. This may have attributed to the low number of entries. This year’s event also included rounds 5 & 6 of the US Formula 1000 Championship – East.
The weather didn’t exactly cooperate and definitely attributed to the number of DNS’s (Did Not Start) in Sunday’s races. The only dry race of the weekend was the Group 5 race Saturday afternoon.
Group 1.a – B-Spec, SRF, T4, IT7, ITA, ITR, ITS, ITX, SM5, LeChump
The first race Sunday morning was a split start with Tray Ayres leading only three SRF cars to the start. Mauricio Montana led the rest of the field in the 2nd
group of the split start. By lap 6 Montana was in the lead overall ahead of Ayres and Robeson Clay Russell. This is the way they circulated the track until the checker. Russell (#31) was able to hang with Ayres (#7) to keep the SRF battle somewhat interesting. He caught Ayres once, but spun at Turn 5. He caught up with him again, but ran out of laps.
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Group 1.b – EP, FP, GTL, HP, STL, STU, T3, ITB, ITC, SPU
The two Lotuses (or is that Loti?) of Wayne Presley (#0) and John Pickle (#9) were at the front of the grid since 2nd fastest qualifier Jim Kellogg did not start. Pickle got the jump on Presley and led the first nine laps. On lap 10 Pickle dropped to 4th place and Presley cruised to the overall win.
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Group 2.a – CSR, DSR, FA, FB, FE, FM, ASR, FS
The first race after lunch on Sunday was checkered at the end of lap 6 due to the weather. After the race some of the drivers commented on how bad the visibility was. Lawrence Loshak had pole position and led those six laps to take the win. Glenn Cooper was 2nd until Alex Mayer took the position on lap 6. The top 3 overall made up the podium for round 6 of the US Formula 1000 Championship – East.
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Group 2.b – F5, FC, FF, FV, S2, CF, F6, FST
This was the smallest field of the weekend with five cars qualifying and only four cars starting the race. Pole sitter Clint McMahan only completed one lap before pulling off at the inside of Turn 1 giving the lead to Steve Brooks. Jason Fitzpatrick took the lead on lap 6 and went on to win overall.
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Group 3 – SM, SM2
I believe this is the smallest Spec Miata field I’ve ever seen. There were only eight cars in the field. Cliff Brown had pole position, but Jonathan Czarny got a 
great start from 7th on the grid and was leading at the end of the first lap. At the end of lap 2 the order was Czarny, Brown, and Case Crowell. That was the order for the next eleven laps. But Crowell (#92) kept the pressure on Brown (#01) and on lap 14 Brown went off allowing Crowell through into 2nd place. The finishing order was Czarny, Crowell, and Brown.
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Group 4 – AS, GT1, GT2, GT3, T1, T2, GTA, ITO, SPO
Not much to say about this race. The pole sitter Bob Monette Did Not Start and the remaining drivers were class winners by virtue of being the only cars in class. But you have to be out there to win. Chad Bacon jumped from the 3rd starting position to lead every lap for the overall win.
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Group 5 – Formula 1000 Championship-East
Round 5 of the US Formula 1000 Championship – East on Saturday afternoon was the only dry race of the weekend. J.R. Osborne was on pole and led the first three laps, but suddenly slowed and moved over on the front straight and let Glenn Cooper and Lawrence Loshak past. Osborne only continued four more laps before dropping out. 
Cooper led four laps and Loshak took the lead on lap 8. Loshak and Cooper had a great battle all the way to the finish, but Loshak never relinquished the lead. The margin of victory was less than 1 second.
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Officials and Workers
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Saturday was also a wet race. Coello led the first 16 laps with Chuck Moran putting on the pressure. On lap 14 they were nose to tail going into Turn 1. Moran took the lead on lap 17 and went on to win overall and in FC. Joe Colasacco was the fastest qualifier in FF and led the first 4 laps of the race. Donald Baggett was the sixth fastest qualifier in FF, but was leading in FF by the fifth lap. He led for four laps, but reportedly spun at Turn 10A and dropped to third place. David Livingston moved into second. The finishing order in FF was Colasacco, Livingston, and Baggett. Stevan Davis won in FV and Donnie Isley finished second after starting from the back of the field in 18th position.
e last lap; finishing second overall. Richard Fisher (#78) and Mike Kramer (#19) had a good battle in T3. Fisher was the fastest qualifier in T3 and Kramer started three positions back. At the end of lap 2 Kramer was in the lead and led for 10 laps. Fisher was able to get by Kramer just before the second double yellow due to Bruce Andersen spinning into the gravel at Turn 1. On the restart Kramer retook the lead going into Turn 1. But on the next lap Fisher made a pass for the fourth lead change in T3 to take the win. Defending National Champion Michael Scornavacchi won in SSB. Cliff Brown led every lap in STL before spinning off on the last lap, giving the win to Jim Drago.
from underneath the bridge at Turn 11 side by side. Fisher, with the inside line, took the lead to begin the checkered flag lap. Kramer went off course at Turn 3. It was reported that there was possible contact between Kramer and Fisher. There was definitely contact a few laps earlier at Turn 7. Fisher goes on to win T3 and Kramer finishes fifth. Jim Drago wins again in STL.
Mucha. Lewis Cooper Jr. led in FA until lap 15 when he spun at Turn 7. This gave the lead and the win in FA to John Burke, and second place was William Goldkind. Cooper finished third. Steve Jenks, winner in FM in Saturday’s race, led most of Sunday’s race before pitting from the lead to give the win to Carson Weeder.
held the lead around 1 second, but in the closing laps Sandlin and Brown were able to close the gap. On lap 16 they were nose to tail with Charbonneau in a three car draft. On lap 17 Brown took second from Sandlin. On the last lap Brown was called as the leader through Turn 9. It was reported that Brown spun on his own trying to get around a slower car. Charbonneau also went off course. This allowed Sandlin through to take the win with Carbonell finishing second. Voytek Burdzy finished third. Brown and Charbonneau finished fifth and sixth respectively.
grid for their pace lap one of the cars stalled on the front straight. By the time the car was cleared the first group had made it around the track on their first pace lap so the second group wasn’t released until the first split group passed to begin their second pace lap. Sam Moore (defending SEDIV Champion in EP) took the lead from Steven Hickham on the first lap and never looked back. He led every lap to win overall and EP, with Hickham finishing second. Ken Kannard finished third to win in FP. In SRF Brian Schofield 
(#61) and Tray Ayres (#7) battled and exchanged the lead several times with Schofield coming out on top. Greg Gauper (defending National Champion in HP) had pole in HP, but Jay Griffin took the lead on the first lap. Gauper got the lead back on lap 10 and led until the end, setting the track record (1:44.422) for HP. Griffin managed to hang onto second place despite two spins.
not lead flag to flag. Ken Kannard led a few laps at the beginning of the race. Kannard won again in FP and Gauper again in HP. SRF was the best battle. The top three exchanged the lead several times. At the beginning of the checkered flag lap it was Ayres, Cliff White, and Schofield. Schofield had the inside line on Ayers coming through Turn 12 on the last lap to win over Ayers and White. White was penalized to last place for being “underweight”.
tail for several laps. Around halfway they caught traffic coming out from under the bridge and through Turn 12. Laughlin was able to get through the traffic, but Pilla was held up and lost a lot of ground, ending the STL battle for the lead. Laughlin wins STL with Pilla finishing second. Laughlin set a track record for STL with a 1:43.710.
able to get a better exit out of Turn 7 and was able to pass Current on the back straight headed into Turn 10. Current was able to take the lead back from McBreen on lap 17. On the last lap the 2 made it three wide going by a lapped car into Turn 6, with McBreen moving back into the lead. Current stayed with McBreen down the back straight and they came out from under the bridge side by side and through Turn 12. Current edged out McBreen by .01 seconds for the win.
laps and was even able to get by Gregg once on the front straight and lead for a few turns. Gregg’s margin of victory over Monette was only .841 seconds. Monette’s 2nd place finish at the ARRC capped off a season where he won the Southeast Division SARRC championship by winning all nine of the races he entered and received the Regional Driver of the Year award for the Atlanta Region.
Sam Lockwood. McBride jumped ahead of Lockwood on the first lap. Lockwood pressured McBride, even passing him on the back straight only to be re-passed before the lap ended. At the halfway point, Lockwood pulled off at Turn 7 with an overheating engine. According to Lockwood, it was caused by the Fall leaves clogging up the radiator inlets. McBride won FFX and finished 4th overall.
place on the grid, to 3rd place on lap 14, only to spin in his own oil going into Turn 6 on lap 15. The closest racing was the race for 3rd place in ITS and overall in the closing laps. Dave Volante was leading Tom Donnelly and James Slechta at the end of lap 19. Donnelly got a better exit out of Turn 7 and drove by Volante down the back straight. They came out from under the bridge nose to tail with Volante on the inside line through Turn 12 and the finishing order was Volante, Donnelly, and Slechta
In ITB, Tristan Herbert and Kevin Ruck ran nose to tail the first five laps, exchanging the lead a couple of times. Eventually Ruck pulled off with a flat tire, reportedly caused by brake failure going into Turn 10a. Herbert took the ITB win.
The largest field of the weekend was the Spec Miata group with 54 cars starting. On the first lap Danny Steyn, the pole sitter, was tapped into a spin at Turn 10 causing a multi-car incident. Steyn dropped back to 14th overall. Blake Clements led the first 7 laps until he dropped out with what was reported to be a gearbox problem. Steyn made a great charge back through the field and was in the lead by lap 11. He held the lead to the end to win SM and overall.
Group 6. Price led until lap 9 when a lapped car allowed Moser to get close enough to draft Price down the back straight. Moser was able to get by and had the lead at the start/finish line, but Price took the lead back at Turn 1. A few laps later Price went into Turn 1 a little hot and went off course, allowing Moser by into the lead. Moser led until lap 19 when he went off at Turn 1 and got stuck in the gravel trap, giving the lead and the win to Price. Kevin Ruck and Joe’s brother Robert Moser ran in 3rd and 4th the whole race until Joe Moser went off, promoting them to 2nd and 3rd.
kept the pressure on throughout the rest of the race. On the last lap there was about a four car length gap between Mayer and Dernehl going into Turn 9, but when they came out from under the bridge they were nose to tail. They crossed the finish line side by side with Mayer edging out Dernehl for the overall win and the STO class win. Dernehl took the GT2 class win, capping off a season in which he was also the Atlanta Region National Driver of the Year.
because of a 40 minute time limit. Frank Futrelle, who started 7th, passed Spicer for the lead a couple of laps after the restart. Spicer regained the lead on lap 17 and went on to win over Futrelle and Ayers by .172 seconds. Points leader Scott Rettich finished fourth. Second in points, Brian Schofield led the opening laps, but pulled off course at Turn 1 with transmission problems. As a result, Spicer moved into 2nd in the points ahead of Schofield.
on lap 15. The car stalled and left him sitting in the middle of the track for the rest of the race, with cars going by on the inside and outside of him, with at least one near miss. There was never enough of a gap for the corner workers to get to his car to move him. Not sure why they didn’t go "full course" caution to move him with 5 laps to go. Rettich went on to win by 3.015 seconds over Mark Eaton, but Eaton was disqualified for being underweight. Gallagher inherited 2nd place. Matt Schneider finished 4th, but was also disqualified for being underweight. Paul Schneider finished 5th on the track, but moved up to 3rd after the demotions of Eaton and Matt Schneider. Rettich’s 9th win clinched the championship with 1 race to go, and that perfect season was in sight.
pole position, but lost the lead on lap 2 when Andrew Von Charbonneau and Matt Reppert got by him. Von Charbonneau started in 6th position. It remained Von Charbonneau, Reppert, and Steyn for 9 laps until Von Charbonneau pulled off the track exiting Turn 8 on lap 11. It was reported that he had a broken throttle cable. Reppert inherited the lead with Steyn behind him and they continued in that order until the end. Steyn set a new track record with a time of 1:47.385.
Dernehl and Kellogg swapped positions on Sunday, with Kellog taking the overall win and Dernehl finishing 2nd overall. Fletcher Williams led the first 2 laps but dropped out on the 3rd lap with a wheel bearing failure.
on pole. Jeff LaBounty (#0) started from the 5th position. By the end of the 1st lap LaBounty was in 2nd place ahead of Buras, with Brown leading. These drivers were the top 3 for the rest of the race. Buras moved ahead of LaBounty on lap 4 and then ahead of Brown into the lead on lap 5. For 7 laps it was Buras, Brown, then LaBounty. On lap 13 LaBounty got by Brown for 2nd and that’s the way they finished overall and for the SM class.
on the grid and again he grabbed the lead at the drop of the green and led to the end. Hoffman dropped to 3rd behind Randy Wagner. Hoffman was able to get by Wagner on lap 9. Wagner had to follow a smoking Hoffman for the final 6 laps. It’s amazing Hoffman was able to finish, but maybe the smoke screen helped to keep Wagner behind him.
resumed to complete only 8 laps total. I assume it was black flagged due to an incident involving #20 Jerry Freeman. If anyone knows the details of the incident please comment at the end of this post. Barfield waived his SARRC points, officially giving the DSR win to Craig Farr.
Mayer and Smith were on the front row again for Sunday’s race and had a great battle throughout the race, swapping the lead several times and passing each other on the front straight. Mayer came out on top for the STO and overall win. He also set the STO track record with a 1:35.768.
Chuck Hines (#50), Zsolt Ferenczy (#9), and David Kim (#27) battled for the ITS win with Hines leading Ferenczy and Kim on laps 12 and 13. Kim got by Ferenczy on lap 14. On the last lap and last turn Kim and Ferenczy passed Hines for 1st and 2nd in ITS.
Karl Fischer (#07) led SM2 most of the race while battling Mike Cottrell (#99) for 3rd overall. Cottrell setup Fischer for an awesome pass, getting inside Fischer at the apex of Turn 7 and powered away down the back straight. Unfortunately the battle ended a couple of laps later when Fischer pulled off at Turn 8, giving the SM2 lead and win to Jacob Sellers.
shortened the Group 4 race. This picture, taken just before Turn 3, shows how much water was on the track. The race was started with standing water reported to be at Turns 4, 10a, and 12.
on lap 11 of the 26 lap race. Reppert finished 2nd in ITS and overall, and Pombo finished 1st in SM and 3rd overall, but was penalized for a missing sponsor decal and was moved to 3rd in class. This gave the SM win to Craig Foster.
Steve Brooks and Steve Robertson battled for the CF win in both races, with Steve Brooks taking the win on the last lap in both races.
Alex Bolanos (driving Cliff Blanchard’s car #7) took the lead on lap 7 leading 7 laps. Bolanos fought to hold off Gaines, but Gaines took the lead on the penultimate lap, going on to win overall.
Randy Carter inherited the lead from Ron Stanley and led the next 6 laps ahead of Allen Mitchell in his #61 Nissan 240Z. Mitchell took the lead on lap 14, but Carter got it back on the last lap for the overall and EP win, with Mitchell taking 2nd in EP and overall.
practice session and there was concern whether he would make the race. Not sure if his early retirement in the race was related to the problem he had in practice.
laps. On lap 16 Green and Ayres got by Von Charbonneau with Green leading the next 2 laps. Ayres and Von Charbonneau make a last lap pass on Green and battle to the finish coming out from under the bridge side by side with Ayres taking the win by only .004 seconds.
Motorsports Photography by Clark McInnis 
