2003 Season Race #3
Willow Springs 2/24/2003

Willow Springs, "The fastest Road in the West", is always interesting. It's a different sort of track, one that emphasizes speed. Eight 4 Flight S2 Cup competitors came out with their cars (four others were there with their cars back home in pieces). But it's the one competitor who didn't quite make it that is most interesting.

John Fergus, S2 National Champion 3 out of the last 4 years and S2 Runoffs expert was signed-up and ready to run. Apparently, when three of our drivers went to the Run-Offs last year (David Ferguson, Joe Moran, and Chris Tryon) and all three finished in the top ten, some people back East took notice. Joe Moran teamed up with Fergus to share data about their Carbirs and Joe arranged for John to come out West and run one of his cars while Ohio was still knee deep in snow. The car was there and waiting, and so was Fergus's race engineer, Randy Hartman, but airline SNAFUs kept John stuck in Florida and he was never able to make it out here. That's a shame because it would have been fun to see what he could do through the 9-turn drag strip that is Willow Springs.

Instead, last year's 4 Flight Champion, Chris Tryon, make an unexpected appearance to show everyone that he and his Lola still have what it takes to win. Chris was fast in Saturday's practice session, stringing together a set of 1:23.5s. Littrell was second quick with 1:24.6. Moran was unable to run Saturday but rumor had it that he has been running low 1:23s in Friday testing. For qualifying Littrell decided to try trimming his Swift all the way out in hopes of catching up to Tryon but he found that there's a limit to how much wicker you can take off a Swift before it becomes hard to keep the rear tires under it. Tryon ran a 1:24.709 in a 55 car field full of FMs, FCs, and FAs. John Page took second spot in this provisional qualifying session with a 1:26.955. Littrell only stayed out for four laps and managed a 1:27.001 for third spot.

Saturday Qualifying

Sunday qualifying was a 15 minute session at 8:00 AM. The weather was crisp but fair. Moran was back and took pole with a 1:23.326. Tryon had second spot with a 1:23.928. He was followed by Bob Lovenson, who nipped his teammate with 1:24.684 to Page's 1:25.243. Littrell's car had a strange overheating problem so he wasn't able to put a lap together. Fortunately, Carl Correll was able to get it figured out before the race.

Sunday Qualifying

The grid for the race was a busy one. The Formula Mazdas got a split start behind the other cars. This meant that all the S2s would head into turn one with the FAs, FCs, and D and C Sports Racers. A lot of cars. The start was clean but Page misjudged the braking area into turn one, lighting up all four tires in a cloud of smoke. It looked as if he was going to shoot straight off the track but he somehow managed to gather it up. Lovenson, Littrell, and the others had to check up but everyone got through safely. In the meantime, Moran was moving out with Tryon glued to his back.

Page led Lovenson, Littrell and Clark into turn two but Lovenson spun in turn four. By the time Littrell and Clark limped around the spinning Bob, Page had opened up a good lead. Littrell and Clark went two-wide into turn five but Littrell came out ahead and put the chase on Page. In the meantime, Tryon was biding his time right behind Moran's new Arkansas "Razorback" rear splitter. After a failed attempt in turn three that resulted in light contact, Littrell eventually had to go inside Page in turn nine. They went through two wide but Littrell came out ahead, only to be held up by a Radical, who he also had to pass through nine. Lovenson was out with a dead battery after his spin but Clark and Gary Holcomb were having a great battle for 5th spot. Holcomb was eventually able to get past Clark but he never shook him off. Up front, Tryon was still glued to Moran's butt.

That's when traffic took its toll. Some wild FC driver decided that Moran's car was just a mirage and ran into him so hard at the top of turn four that his helmet almost hit the Carbir's pinking-sheared razor wire. Moran flew three feet into the air and landed sideways, right into a wall. Tryon took off, never to be seen again. Moran gathered it up quickly and this allowed Littrell to get a glimpse of second spot. The gap shrunk for a few laps but Moran was able to open it back up again, thus settling the race.

Race Results

After the nice Cal Club trophy presentation, 4 Flight provided the custom-branded Champagne and hats to the podium finishers. Hartman went away with an idea of what racing in the desert in February is all about and hopefully we'll see some of those snowed-in Easterners out here soon.

Support for the series is very high. Besides the on-track competitors, Bruce Allison, Jeff Anderson, David Ferguson, and Fred Michael were all in attendance and promised that their cars will be ready for the next 4 Flight event, two months away. They'll no doubt be joined by George Dellinger, who was attending the Super School at the Streets of Willow track in his new mean, green machine. Hopefully, we'll see Karl Luft and a few others as well.