2003 Season Races #14 and #15
Buttonwillow 10/25-26/2003

The last round of the 4-Flight S-2 Cup Championship was run on a warm and beautiful October weekend at Buttonwillow Raceway Park. Mr. Joe Moran is the 2003 S-2 Cup winner. Congratulations Joe!

Bob Lovenson had run the test day on Friday and found just about the only place at Buttonwillow to hit a wall. He was fortunate that only the tail and tail support were damaged, but he was out for the morning while he and Carl Correll repaired his car. Newcomer Wayne Smith also had mechanical troubles and wouldn’t be running this event. Both of them were better off than George Dellinger, who very nearly severed a finger in a winch while unloading his car. It looks like George will be OK in the long run, but he is definitely not going to be racing for a couple months. We all welcomed Tom Nelson from the Great White North as he made the 900 mile tow to see what color the sky is supposed to be instead of gray. Tom had made the right choice in coming down to race with us, but the wrong choice in gear selections and was handicapped with that mechanical condition the entire weekend.

Saturday dawned cool, but rapidly warmed up to the low-mid 90’s later in the day for the 2003 4Flight Industries Sports 2000 Cup finale weekend. It was an action-packed day with practice, qualification and the race all occurring in the space of five hours. The weekend's course configuration was the seldom-used but challenging 25CCW. Eleven S2s were there to duke it out. Fresh from the Run-Offs were drivers David Ferguson (Van Diemen), Jeff Littrell (Lola) and Joe Moran (Carbir). All were itching to get on the podium, which had eluded them at Mid-Ohio.

The first practice session at 8 AM was slippery and several cars in the group had trouble staying on the track, but most of the S2 field went out to reconnoiter the rarely used CCW track configuration anyway. Qualifying showed that David Ferguson was steadily dialing in his VanDiemen as he had the field covered by 1.5 seconds over Jeff Littrell’s best lap on a crowded track. Ferguson's Van Diemen features a purple paint scheme from the Lamborghini palette, however Littrell went with the more intimidating "Battleship Gray" from the U.S. Navy's paint department. Joe Moran was close behind in the 3 spot followed by Chris Keating,

Bruce Allison in his curvaceous red Lola found some real speed and placed himself a season-best 5th on the grid, immediately behind Chris Keating (Swift). New series racer and shifter-kart ace Mike Pettibone (Swift) reported times that should have put him in the top five, however transponder problems caused his times to go unrecorded and he was forced to start at the back of the grid. Bob Lovenson's qualification wasn't as good as he had hoped and his car featured a borrowed tail section of the ugly green variety after his incident with the wall during practice. Jeff Anderson (Swift) qualified sixth, Rob Conrad (Lola) seventh, Gary Holcomb (Swift) eighth, and Tom Nelson (Swift) was ninth, followed by Lovenson and Pettibone.

Drivers George Dellinger (Swift), Fred Michael (Reynard) and Jason Choulochas (Swift) were in attendance but unable to race. George suffered the previously-mentioned finger injury on his left hand. Fred and Jason had a laundry list of car-related excuses that are too long to contain in this article. However, Fred was rumored to have said that the prospect of a free meal at Saturday Night's trackside BBQ sponsored by 4Flight Industries was just too good to pass up. Witnesses reported that he did in fact help himself to seconds and thirds in the buffet line.

For the race the Chief Steward agreed to a split start for the S2s (not just "all sports racers"), so that was really nice. The start was clean as the green flag dropped for pole-sitter Ferguson. T1 is a 90-degree right-hander and the large crowd of spectators, family, friends and crew members on the observation deck cringed as the field threaded their way through with only a couple of dropped wheels. Mike Pettibone, at the back, went hard up the inside past Lovenson and Nelson but thought the better of it and backed out in time. Littrell, however, managed to slip past Ferguson into first position heading into the Esses.

Surprising even himself, Allison was in 4th position with Keating and Anderson breathing down the CF tail of the red Lola but leaders Littrell and Ferguson began to pull ahead in front of 3rd place Moran with each successive lap. Ferguson ran nose-to-tail with Littrell's Lola for a few laps until they hit traffic and "Ferg" was able to put an amazing 2-wheels in the dirt re-pass on Littrell immediately after a yellow flag in the "offramp" turn, and around two slower "fast" cars. One of those cars, a CSR Radical driven by Mark Dalen, had a great view of the pass:

"That was a fantastic pass Saturday by Dave (Ferguson). I had a bird's eye view in the Radical. I was limping back to the pits with a broken splitter, diffuser and nose. I saw you guys coming and was trying to get out of the way when I caught the very slow FC in Buttonhook (Offramp). Coming out of the corner he was inside then outside then inside, etc, etc. I am trying to figure out where to be to give you guys room as I need to get into the pits. Jeff went inside and Dave to the outside just missing the FC as he dove into the pit entrance. I don't think Dave missed him by much (I am pretty sure he never saw you guys comng) and the passes looked really cool from where I was sitting."

While Littrell and Ferguson were duking it out, Joe Moran waited very close by to take advantage of any carnage and put some more distance between he and Allison. Lovenson, gridded last due to missing his qualifying heat, was rapidly moving up the field and joining the fray at the front. Unfortunately, on lap 4 Lovenson's clutch pedal went to the floor and unable to continue, he parked it on the access road at the exit of the dramatic "Riverside" sweeper and treated himself to an up-close and personal view of the rest of the race.

Jeff Anderson was up to fifth place following Allison. Everyone at the track knew it was coming, and so surprising no one, Allison lost it on lap 5 over Lost Hill, allowing the rest of the pack to pass him before he brought it back onto the track. and handing fourth to Anderson.

In the biggest moment of the race, on lap 7 a Formula Atlantic car checked up early at the entrance to the "Offramp". Littrell didn’t anticipate the turtle-like progress of the "faster" car and before he could slow his Lola down he found himself in close personal contact with a Swift of the open-wheeled variety. The contact with the Atlantic's rear tire sent Littrell slightly off course into the infamous Buttonwillow dust. Littrell's Lola suffered no damage but became high-centered and he was unable to continue and had to be towed out of his predicament.

The action settled down at that point and Ferguson put the cruise-control on and was never challenged for the balance of the 16 lap race. Moran finished second and "Diamond in the Rough" Jeff Anderson took another third place, thus assuring him of finally getting his 4Flight S2 Cup hat.

Saturday night was the 4-Flight Feast and S2 meeting. All race course workers and S2 drivers were invited to a truly delicious meal of BBQ’d steak and chicken served with green salad, rolls and desert. Drinks of all kinds freely flowed and there was absolutely no evidence of anyone not having a great time. Thank you VERY much 4-Flight for generously supplying the meal AND for all the support of the energized S2000 group.

Sunday’s weather was the same again... really perfect for racing. Qualifying order was Ferguson, Littrell, Moran, "Fresh ‘n Fast" Mike Pettibone, Allison, Anderson, with just about everyone improving their qualifying times.

Always a podium contender, Chris Keating had tuning troubles with his DB2 and did not start the race. He watched from the stands which were now packed with S2 drivers, including Jason Chouloucas, Fred Michaels, (SoCal) Tom Nelson, and George Dellinger. Joe Moran had car problems in one of his Carbirs but it seemed that, having the Championship sewed up, he couldn't be troubled to pull the T-car out of the trailer. Instead he packed up, allowing his crew to get home to monitor the wildfires nipping at their neighborhood.

The pace lap of Sunday’s race was highlighted by the entire Flag Team saluting the S2 group with each station waiving all their flags in an "F1" style display in appreciation of the dinner feast sponsored by 4-Flight Industries the evening before. It was really beautiful to see from the cockpit of a car. Very nice of them to show the effort!

The group had a waved off start, and got a slightly faster pace lap the next time around. Littrell and Ferguson dragged side-by-side all the way to T1, but this time Ferg did a bit better and maintained the lead. He was able to slowly pull away, and concentrated on not making any mistakes. The laps were consistently in the high 1:45s, and except for a bit of a moment when an FC had his right-rear suspension fail under braking at the end of the esses (yes, that will spin you right off the track) right in front of Ferg, it was an entirely uneventful run to the checker. Ferg was able to improve his speed into the Riverside turn (thanks to coaching from Les Philips, and watching Littrell pull him there every lap the day before!!).

Mid pack the duo of Gary Holcomb and Rob Conrad went at it for all 17 laps! Holcomb prevailed, but he had mirrors full of the NorCal Lola the entire race. With Moran having a car problem, Anderson picked up his 3rd consecutive podium finish -- certainly a Diamond contender now.

Joe Moran is the 4 Flight S2 Cup 2003 Series Champion and will get his name engraved on the trophy. Bob Lovenson took 2nd in the Champion, followed by Jeff Littrell. Jeff Anderson and David Ferguson tied for 4th spot. Check out the 2003 Final Standings to see how it all ended up.

It has been another great year of Sports 2000 racing. The 4 Flight S2 Cup series has caught on and event organizers are now contacting us to provide full grids and great racing. Look for the 2004 Calendar discussions on the 4 Flight Board. See you in 2004!