2004 Season Races #8 and #9
Buttonwillow Raceway Park 5/1/2004

Fourteen Sports 2000 drivers arrived at Buttonwillow Raceway Park for the 8th and 9th races of the 2004 4 Flight S2 Cup Season, including an often missed but seldom seen Clark family driver (Leslie in this case). David Ferguson was fast in Friday's practice and looked to be the man/car combination to beat.

In Saturday's qualifying session Ferguson quickly laid down a 1:50 flat and was on an even faster lap when he over-committed himself over the top of Lost Hills. He ended up in the dirt sideways and when the car dug in it damaged the sidepod and radiator, blowing off the nose and tail. The in-car camera footage is fairly spectacular but the incident would sideline Ferguson for the rest of the weekend.

Jeff Littrell capitalized on the situation by running a 1:49.7 and then coming in to preserve his tires. This time would hold for pole. Joe Moran was having minor engine troubles, allowing newcomer Scott Brink to nab 3rd (really 2nd since Ferg was out) spot on the grid. Brink was followed by Bob Lovenson and rusty Wayne Smith, who hasn't been driving much lately. Smith was followed by Jason Choulochas. A good show for the Scuderia Correll Engineering, with 4 of the top 6 cars (Littrell, Brink, Smith, and Choulochas) running out of his shop.

Bruce Allison was suffering from what he thought was terminal oil pressure problems but turned out to be just a sending unit issue. Later in the weekend George Dellinger would also succumb to oiling issues.

Scott Brink got a good start in the race and he and Littrell went into turn 1 side-by side. This gave Brink the inside line for turn 2 and Littrell had to settle for 2nd spot. They ran nose-to-tail for 3 laps, with Moran close behind until Brink's nose came loose in the Riverside sweeper. At that point Littrell checked out, never to be challenged again. In the meantime, Moran had his mirrors full of Lovenson but "Mr Second Place" Joe Moran was able to hold on until the end. There were other good battles in the field, with Rob Conrad and Gary Holcomb running together for a while.

Car No	Driver		Make	Qual Time	Qual Pos	Finish
1	Jeff	Littrell	Lola	1:49.769	1	1
71	Joe	Moran	Carbir	1:52.823	7	2
11	Bob	Lovenson	Swift	1:51.210	4	3
87	Bruce	Allison	Lola	1:58.080	12	4
40	Rob	Conrad	Lola	1:55.176	9	5
84	Gary	Holcomb	Swift	1:54.621	8	6
8	Wayne	Smith	Swift	1:52.070	5	7
29	Jason	Choulochas	Swift	1:52.606	6	8
4	Scott	Brink	Swift	1:50.818	3	9
55	George	Dellinger	Swift	1:57.159	11	10
56	Fred	Michael	Reynard	1:59.584	13	11
41	Leslie	Clark	Swift	2:02.888	14	12
20	Tom	Nelson	Swift	1:56.738	10	DNF
57	David	Ferguson	Van Diemen	1:50.051	2	DNS

Littrell took pole again on Sunday with another 1:49.7. Moran had his engine woes repaired and took 2nd spot with a 1:51.1, followed by Brink again. Bruce Allison qualified 5th, behind Bob Lovenson. Choulochas had a very long pedal from the get go in qualifying and struggled to get 1:55.

Littrell had a good start and entered turn 1 in the lead. Moran tried to stick his Carbir on the outside and a light touch resulted, with no harm to either car. Littrell would first learn of a dramatic understeer problem in his Lola when he exited cotton corners on the first lap. He put two wheels into the dirt, allowing Moran and Brink to slide past but he kept going well enough to keep 3rd position. Brink led Moran and Littrell for a number of laps until Littrell was able to pass Moran into the Star Mazda hairpin. Littrell was fighting his understeer (rear bar full stiff, front bar full soft) but was closing in on Brink when he went wide again on the exit of the cotton corners. This time he spun into the infield, allowing Moran to put the chase back to Brink.

Littrell returned to 3rd place and was running 1.5-2 seconds per lap faster than Brink and Moran but he was more than 9 seconds back. Brink was suffering brake problems, allowing Moran to close the gap. Brink's problematic brakes eventually got the better of him, sliding into the Sunset turn. Moran stuffed himself inside and the two touched hard. The Carbir took the licking and kept on ticking but Brink's Swift had a broken wheel and bent suspension so he was out. Littrell continued to close the gap but ran out of laps. He finished just one second behind Moran, with Lovenson in third again.

Choulochas had 2nd gear break when exiting the Star Mazda hairpin on Lap 2, ending his race. Rob Conrad latched onto the tail of the #87 Lola of Allison, who held onto Lovenson as the lead pack rocketed off into the heat haze. Smith and Holcomb (Swifts #8 and #84) kept Conrad's mirrors filled for a handful of laps. Conrad managed to keep relatively close tabs on Allison for the first 13 laps or so (while Lovenson pulled away from them...), until Allison reverted to his Dirt Farmer ways and threw the #87 Lola off the track at Sunset. Big Dust. Given the attrition at the front of the field, that pass moved Conrad into P4, too far behind Lovenson to challenge for the last podium spot. Allison still managed a respectable 5th.

One significant issue on track was the abundance of pig slow DSRs. Shouldn't the stewards have yanked those guys off the racing surface just as a safety precaution? At least one off-track excursion was a direct result of a DSR changing lines mid corner, and Conrad damn near vaporized another when the DSR pulled hard left going down the pit straight (evidently he thought that getting off the racing line was preferable to being predictable...). Makes one appreciate the all-S2 Phoenix race. Now we just need to get the S2 car count up a bit to 20 or so and we can start asking for our own run group. We can dream, right?

Car No	Driver		Make	Qual Time	Qual Pos	Finish
71	Joe	Moran	Carbir	1:51.174	2	1
1	Jeff	Littrell	Lola	1:49.756	1	2
11	Bob	Lovenson	Swift	1:51.569	4	4
40	Rob	Conrad	Lola	1:54.139	6	4
87	Bruce	Allison	Lola	1:52.419	5	5
84	Gary	Holcomb	Swift	1:54.233	7	6
20	Tom	Nelson	Swift	1:58.892	13	7
56	Fred	Michael	Reynard	1:58.546	12	8
41	Leslie	Clark	Swift	1:57.832	11	9
4	Scott	Brink	Swift	1:51.305	3	10
8	Wayne	Smith	Swift	1:54.898	8	11
29	Jason	Choulochas	Swift	1:55.021	9	DNF
55	George	Dellinger	Swift	1:57.419	10	DNS

With his consistent string of 2nd place finishes, and his 1st on Sunday, Moran has a healthy lead in the 2004 Championship. Ferguson and Littrell are battling it out beneath him, hoping for strong finishes throughout the rest of the year so that they'll be able to drop their bad or missed races and put together the best string of 10. See the Standings page for all the details.

The 4 Flight S2 Circus heads into its Northern swing for the next couple races, with Portland in June and Laguna Seca in July/August. Both events are always popular and have large S2 car counts. See you there.

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