2002 Season Race #1 - Willow Springs - 2/24/2002

The first race of the 2002 4/Flight S2 Cup was held at Willow Springs under nearly ideal weather conditions. The mostly SoCal crowd was joined by Chris Tryon who towed from Portland. NorCal Competitors who's cars weren't quite ready but came to spectate and kibitz included Fred Michael and David Ferguson.

For Saturday, the Sports 2000s were in group 1, along with FA, FC, FM and C/D Sports Racers. This 40+ car group made for traffic problems during Saturday qualifying, and the 11 S2's would later be moved to group 5 with FF, FV, and F500s.

Many folks tested on Friday, and by Saturday morning it looked like Bruce Allison and new S2 owner Larry Peyton would be sitting this one out with engine problems. Everybody came to listen to Bruce's car, but it was finally Tom Nelson that diagnosed a bad rocker arm. Spare's were provided by Moran Motorsports, and Bruce would be running for qualifying.

Saturday qualifying was held in a strong wind that cost cars several miles per hour of top speed on the front straight. Joe Moran (Carbir) was on the provisional pole, with Chris Tryon (Lola), Jeff Littrell (Swift), and Doug Ota (Swift) close behind. Bob Lovenson (Swift) had a water hose come loose, and the resultant spin near Turn two broke off both front and rear bodywork. He loaded the car in the trailer, but when Sunday qualifying was delayed, most of the competitors pitched in to affect repairs or loan parts. Bob made it onto the track for the last half of the qualifying session on Sunday, and would later finish the race.

Sunday was warm & clear -- perfect racing conditions. The second qualifying session shuffled the order a bit at the head of the field. Chris Tryon was able to take pole and lower the qualifying record, and Littrell moved up to second. Moran and Ota, and Chris Keating (in his new-to-him Swift DB-2) completed the top 5. With the move to group 5, the S2 Cup would have it's own start, ahead of the FF/FV/F500 grid.

The mid-afternoon race saw the field formed up for a fast start, and the green flew early just as the cars exited turn nine. Joe Moran got a great start and took the lead as they went three wide into turn one. At the exit of turn one, Moran led Tryon, Littrell, with Keating and Ota side-by-side. By turn three, Keating was ahead of Ota. Behind them, John Page was pulling out some distance on Gary Holcomb, and Bob Lovenson, Jeff Anderson, and Bruce Allison were hanging in there.

On Lap 2, Jeff Littrell slipped by Chris Tryon onto second, and the first 5 cars were covered by about 10-car lengths total. On Lap 4, Tryon looks inside of Littrell at T1, but Jeff was having none of it. Further back, the field began to spread out a little, but up front it was it was formation flying coming into turn one on lap five as Litrell was side-by-side with Moran, and Keating and Ota were on either side of Tryon. Moran prevails, however Tryon is shuffled back to 5th temporarily.

The lead pack is hammering around the track like they are tied together by a rope. On Lap 8, it's almost 3-wide again for Ota, Keating and Tryon into turn one. This time Keating comes out ahead of Ota and Tryon. Littrell is staying right on the gearbox of Moran, and at the end of Lap 9 slipstreams by Moran for the lead. Tryon and Keating are pushing hard and close up, with Ota just a few car lengths back. Tryon gets by Keating at turn three. We're a little more than half-way and it looks like anybody could win.

Tryon is on a charge, and gets by Moran as they start Lap 11. The leaders are catching some traffic now. The order on Lap 12: Littrell, Tryon, Moran, Keating, Ota, all within 3 seconds. The next lap, Tryon pulls even on the straight and slips in front of Littrell under braking at turn one. Ota pulls off near turn six with some oil flames and an expired engine. As they come around to start Lap 14, Littrell duplicates the move Tryon made the previous lap and re-assumes the lead. Moran closes up as the two battle in front of him.

Gary Holcomb get's caught in Ota's oil slick and slides off the track at turn 5. The safety truck is dispatched to assist. As the leader (Littrell) catches Jeff Anderson, Joe Moran seizes the opportunity to go by Tryon (hey - was that a yellow flag?) at Turn 6. The next lap, Joe spins at turn 5 (more oil?) and this promotes Tyron to second and Keating to third. Littrell has a couple of seconds of breathing room, but within a lap, Tryon has reduced this to zero. Entering turn one for the final time, Chris Tryon charges into the lead and holds on to win.

This was extremely close competition -- Three makes of cars in the top 4 positions, close racing every lap with no car-to-car contact. A big thumbs up to all those that made it to the races, it was a fantastic show.

David Ferguson