2004 Season Race #3
Willow Springs 2/22/2004

It never rains in sunny Southern California... except for the first two race weekends of the 2004 4 Flight S2 Cup. But the drizzle encountered at Fontana was nothing compared to the three day deluge experienced at Willow Springs International Raceway in Rosamond, California. Normally billed as the "Fastest track in the West", it wasn't this weekend. Actually, it might have been better had it rained constantly but it was an on-and-off affair, making for torturous conditions and difficult tire choice.

Friday testing was dry and David Ferguson ripped off a respectable 1:24 on a green track that he had never driven before. The afternoon was wet but then held off just long enough for the track to begin to dry out before it rained again. A few drivers attempted to go out on slicks, only to find that it was hard to go fast.

Saturday was similar. The rain came down intermittently and the track was pretty dry for morning practice but a wet/dry affair and not particularly grippy for afternoon qualifying. Most drivers went out on slicks but Jeff Littrell tried some old intermediates that came with his Lola when he bought it. They didn't work all that well and he was fourth on the timesheets at the end of the day. David Ferguson topped the chart, followed by Joe Moran and Chris Keating.

The weekend would prove to be much different than Fontana in one respect -- there wasn't any body damage. However, a big toll was extracted in the engine department. Scott Brink lost his flywheel, George Dellinger lost his timing and oil pump belts, and Tom Pettibone's engine just seemed to hate the cold weather all weekend. Carl Correll's team made a run up to the shop at Buttonwillow to grab a spare engine for Brink but Dellinger never got going again. Pettibone tried everything he could think of to get the stumble out of his Pinto, with limited success.

Bruce Allison was busy at the Streets of Willow supporting S2 newbie Chris Masterson make it thru the SCCA Super School. He did it w/ flying colors and is anxious to join us as soon as he can earn his National license. Chris has some racing experience and took to the DB2 very well. Watch out for the new guy!

Being a single National weekend there was a second qualifying session on Sunday morning. The weather was no better and the times from Saturday would all stand.

45 minutes before the start of the race the clouds broke and large patches of blue dominated the sky to the South and West, making everyone scratch their heads about tire choice. However, about 25 minutes later the clouds from the East had moved in and began dropping more rain, forcing everyone's hand. It was officially declared a rain race. Frustratingly, the skies were dry while on the grid but the track was wet.

The sports racers got a split start behind the formula cars. Chris Keating got a good start and went deeper and more aggressively into T1 than the other S2 drivers, thus emerging as the early leader. Joe Moran tried to put the power down just a little too aggressively heading up through T3 and had a lazy spin. This put Ferguson on Keating's tail. Keating was strong in the damp conditions and held the lead for a number of laps. Littrell was dogging Ferguson for second spot, with newcomer Brink right on his tail as it began to rain again. Brink showed that he's going to be a force to be reckoned with as he showed his nose to Littrell twice in T4.

The weather continued to change and traffic eventually played a roll as well. Ferguson got past Keating and Littrell looked to the inside of Keating in T1 a couple times but Keating was determined not to let him by. At one point the track almost completely dried out and some fairly quick lap times were established. The track at Willow Springs drains extremely well and there were no puddles to be found so the rain tires were going off in a hurry. A fuel pick-up problem in Keating's car hampered him just enough to let Littrell past. Littrell also got past Ferguson at one point but Ferguson did a better job of keeping his momentum as they came up on slower cars in T9 and took the lead back again. With a few laps to go the rain started coming down again as Ferguson and Littrell came into T2 side by side. Ferguson got held up on the outside by traffic, allowing Littrell to slot back into the lead for the final time.

Littrell took the win, followed by Ferguson and Keating, who finally got his long-deserved first 4 Flight S2 Cup hat.

See the standings here.

Car No	Driver		Make	Qual Time	Qual Pos	Finish
1	Jeff	Littrell	Lola	1:44.627	4	1
57	David	Ferguson	Van Diemen	1:42.263	1	2
8	Chris	Keating	Swift	1:44.046	3	3
24	Jeff	Anderson	Swift			4
71	Joe	Moran	Carbir	1:43.830	2	5
94	Mike	Pettibone	Swift	1:47.608	5	6
56	Fred	Micheal	Reynard	1:53.030	6	7
84	Gary	Holcomb	Swift	1:54.135	7	8
4	Scott	Brink	Swift			9
55	George	Dellinger	Swift			DNS
11	Bob	Lovenson	Swift	1:56.079	8	DNS

For more photos from this event, check out the Photo Gallery