2003 Season Races #12 and #13
Laguna Seca 8/3/2003

This year's Laguna Seca National/Regional races hosted a field of 13 Sports 2000 racers. Always a popular event, this year the organizers helped limit on-track traffic by creating an all-sports-racer group for the National race. Of course, that only accounts for part of the event's popularity. Add fine weather, the gorgeous Monterey Peninsula, a great track, and the annual Sports 2000 Fajita Party hosted by the Fergusons and you have a better picture of what a wonderful event Laguna is each year.

About the only bad thing you can say about Laguna is that the Sound Nazis were out in full force, with a few Sports 2000 drivers getting warnings. Mufflers were de-reguer.

Hometown favorite David Ferguson put his new purple Van Diemen on pole for Saturday's National, followed by Moran and the other local boy, Rob Conrad. For some reason a couple front runners, namely John Bachofner and Jeff Anderson did not qualify and would have to start from the back of the grid.

Bad car luck continued to plague Fred Michael and his green Reynard. He never made it on track all weekend. Perhaps the competitors should take up a collection to get Fred a Swift or something.

Unfortunately for everyone else, Ferguson got a good start and was never really challenged. Moran ran an equally lonely race in 2nd and Conrad held onto 3rd, just as they qualified. The biggest mover was Bachofner, who worked his way up to 4th spot. He passed Bruce Allison and new National license holder George Dellinger on the first lap, got by Anderson on the 2nd lap, squeezed past Bob Lovenson, Tom Nelson, and Gary Holcomb on lap 3, Jason Choulochas on lap 4, and then spent 4 laps behind Chris Keating before he was able to get by on the 8th lap. He spent the rest of the race following Conrad.

Breaking with tradition, Ferguson decided to run both the National and Regional races this weekend and duly took pole for the Regional race as well. Moran again held second spot but Bachofner was able to qualify and took 3rd position on the grid from Conrad. Jeff Anderson raised his game and qualified 5th behind Conrad, a portend of things to come.

Ferguson had a problem at the start of the race and fell behind Moran, Bachofner, Anderson, and Conrad on the first lap. Moran must have gone to school on Ferg because he was the one with the killer start this time, putting 4 "faster" cars between him and Bachofner. Anderson's start was no slouch either and he was ahead of Conrad on lap 1, a position he never relinquished.

Ferguson got things gathered up and eventually worked back up to pass Conrad, Anderson, and Bachofner but he had to pit on lap 12 to make sure he didn't damage his engine. Lap 12 was also the lap that Bachofner retired. Meanwhile, Conrad had his hands full. On lap 6 Choulochas was able to get by but he had an incident 2 laps later that restored Conrad's 5th place spot. With Choulochas behind him and Ferg and Bachofner out, Conrad put the chase to Anderson but the Swift held off the Lola and Anderson took 2nd spot and well deserved a 4 Flight S2 Cup hat, while COnrad rounded off the podium in 3rd place -- a position he had come to know well lately.

With only two races left in the schedule Joe Moran has a lock on the 4 Flight S2 Cup Championship. Hopefully Jeff Littrell will be back to running so that he, Lovenson, and Holcomb can duke it out for 2nd. Check out the Standings for a full picture.

Also, three 4 Flight S2 Cup regulars are making the trek to Mid-Ohio to contest the SCCA Run-Offs. Please offer your support to David Ferguson, Joe Moran, and Jeff Littrell as these "left coast" drivers take their best to the hometown favorites.