2002 Season Race #3
Thunderhill Raceway Park 5/25/2002

Thunderhill Raceway Park was the site for the 3rd 4 Flight S2 Cup race of the 2002 season. The turnout was a little low due to alternative races at Sears Point and the newly reopened track in Seatle. Still, nine S2 drivers made the long tow to Willows, California to attack the challenging track in the rolling hills.

The weather was perfect -- sunny in the eighties with a breeze in the afternoon. Qualifying Saturday was a difficult affair, with lots of slow Formula Mazdas and other traffic but it was made even worse when the session was red flagged for about 10 minutes. No one got off a great lap but Chris Tryon took the pole with a 1:53.214, followed closely by Jeff Littrell who managed a 1:53.578 before ending up high-sided on the curb on the downhill of turn 5 -- about the scariest place on the track to be stuck. Joe Moran rounded out the top three with a 1:54.726.

The Star Mazdas petitioned for a split start and got it so they would start half a lap back from the rest of us. Sunday's race got off cleanly with the racers entering turn one in the same order they were gridded. Tryon opened up a lead of a few car lengths and Moran hung a few cars back of Littrell for the first few laps. Then traffic became a big factor. Littrell got held up by a Mazda for a couple laps until he finally passed him at the top of the turn 5 hill. Unfortunately, the Mazda had enough power to repass him again. Even worse, the same Mazda spun a few turns later and Littrell couldn't avoid clipping his rear tire. This left a big hole in the Swift's nose and cut the right front tire. Littrell would retire a couple laps later with the tire flat.

This allowed Tryon to motor on unchallenged to the win, followed by Moran and Doug Ota. Chris Keating experience a cracked rear upright and could not finish. Gary Holcomb's cam broke but a loan from another competitor got him going again for the next race.

Race 2

Qualifying later that day was somewhat cleaner, with less Mazdas and no red flag. Times dropped correspondingly but the order up front remained the same. Tryon ran a 1:52.025 and Littrell clipped off a 1:52.492. With a new rear upright, Keating was figuring out his new Swift in a hurry and pipped Moran for third with a 1:53.118.

Both of the top two qualifiers had problems in the first lap of Monday's race. Tryon's motor was down on power from the start, allowing Littrell to take the lead but he promptly threw it away with a spin on the turn 5 mountain. This allowed Moran to take the lead, which he held onto for the entire race. Tryon retired after the first lap but Keating's luck was even worse -- he had gearbox failure in the warm-up lap. Littrell eventually got going again and managed to fight his way up to third place, behind Ota, setting fast lap of the race along the way with a 1:52.531 . Something happened to Paul Schroeder's car but we're not sure what it was.