2005 Season Race 3
Willow Springs 2/27/2005

Despite record rainfall in Southern California this year, the weather at the "Fastest Track in the West" -- Willow Springs International Raceway, was beautiful all weekend for the second installment of the 2005 4 Flight S2 Cup. A few dark clouds in the distance on Saturday produced no precipitation, only a beautiful rainbow to accent the natural desert terrain in Rosamond.

Twelve 4 Flight racers showed up for this single National race weekend, with many opting for the optional test day on Friday. David Ferguson was there with a new purple tail for his Van Diemen and Jeff Littrell was trying out some new updates that P1 Racing made to his Lola since Fontana. Scuderia Correll (the Slacker Prep Guy) had a reduced stable of Brink, Choulochas, and Ellsworth.

We were also happy to welcome back some of our old favorites. Chris Keating made his long awaited return after heart surgery sidelined him last year. Though not as life threatening, Bob Lovenson is fighting recovery from rotator cuff surgery and attempted to make his triumphant return. Finally, long time Cal Club Swift driver, John Page, made Willow one of his choices for an abbreviated season this year. Welcome back guys!

After getting a late start because of absent emergency personnel, the drivers encountered a crowded qualifying session on Saturday. Unfortunately, a spinning Formula car (why is it always the Formula cars?) blocked the track in turn 3 in the opening laps, ruining what would have been the best laps for those on new rubber. Once he was finally clear everyone worked to find clear track and lay down good times. Ferguson and Littrell were close to each other, managing the gaps. As soon as they got clear road each laid down laps below the 1:22.835 track record, a record that has held for almost 10 years now. Interestingly, both drivers had 1:22.7s, with Ferguson a tick faster than Littrell.

But then Littrell put the hammer down and cranked out a 1:22.094. Obviously, the work from Littrell's crew at P1 Racing was paying off. Bob Lovenson showed everyone that his shoulder couldn't hold him back, taking the third provisional spot with a 1:25.361, just 1/10th of a second ahead of Joe Moran's Carbir. John Page was another quick study with a 1:26.404, good for the 5th provisional spot. Ostlund, Pettibone, and Choulochas were still learning the subtleties of the track. Brink skipped practice and missed qualifying.

Sunday offered a second chance at qualifying, this time earlier in the day with cooler air. Littrell backed up his pole lap with a couple laps in the 1:22.1s. Ferguson struggled and didn't improve but comfortably held onto 2nd spot. Moran found more than a second and moved himself up to third spot, bumping Lovenson back to 4th, even though he improved by 3 tenths. Chris Keating proved that his heart is working just fine now, thank you very much, by taking 5th spot and Scott Brink finally showed up to round off the top six. Pettibone had hoped for better but was fighting gear selection issues and Ostlund was fighting a car that was just plain evil.

The race started at 2:30 Sunday afternoon with a split start for the Sports 2000 class. Littrell accelerated early but Ferguson is always a good starter and wasn't caught out. In fact, he had a slight lead going into turn 1 but was on the outside and conceded the corner to Littrell who took off immediately through the long turn 2, opening up a couple seconds of breathing room. From there Littrell continued to circulate at a good clip, earning a lead of about 6 seconds until traffic allowed Ferguson to get a glimpse again. Ferguson never gave up but once Littrell cleared a particularly annoying FC he was able to open the gap up again and took the checkered without much drama.

Actually, the whole race was pretty clean and drama free, with the exception of John Page's Swift driving straight off at turn 4 in the opening laps. He went off so fast and so straight that his car was up on top of a hill alongside the fence where many competitors never even noticed it. It was safely out of harm's way so it and had no effect on the race (other than for Page). In fact, it was in such an unusual spot that the tow workers couldn't figure out how to get it down and it was left there for the next race too!
(Bruce and Kathy Allison reported the worker communications as follows...)

CORNER: "Car 7 off turn 4 ..drivers left"
RACE CONTROL: "Is tow needed"
CORNER: "No he's clear"
RACE CONTROL .... silence ... (as there is no NORMAL clear/safe spot there) "The car is safe?"
CORNER: "The car is in the parting lot"
RACE CONTROL: .... longer silence...... (note here that the car must leave the track... cross desert.... climb a 5 to 6 FOOT dirt and rock berm.... and go through the track boundary fence to reach the parking area!) "Where?"
CORNER "The parking area"
RACE CONTROL: .......silence....."Does he have 4-wheel drive!?"

Brink finally got the gears and aero of his flat-black Swift working reasonably well, earning his first 4 Flight hat with a third place finish over Moran, who had been dogging Ferguson in the opening laps, but spun when his car bottomed out in turn 2. Keating had a clean drive to round out the top five while Pettibone, Ostlund, Choulochas, and Holcomb had a good duel all race long. Pettibone led the train until Ostlund managed to pin him behind a slower car on the front straight of the last lap, taking 6th spot.

Car No	Driver		Make	Qual Time	Qual Pos	Finish
1	Jeff	Littrell	Lola	1:22.094	1	1
57	David	Ferguson	Van Diemen	1:22.777	2	2
3	Scott	Brink	Swift	1:25.369	6	3
71	Joe	Moran	Carbir	1:24.333	3	4
8	Chris	Keating	Swift	1:25.142	5	5
59	John	Ostlund	Carbir	1:27.054	9	6
94	Mike	Pettibone	Swift	1:26.348	7	7
91	Jason	Choulochas	Swift	1:27.659	10	8
84	Gary	Holcomb	Swift	1:29.178	11	9
22	Sterling	Ellsworth	Swift	1:31.874	12	10
11	Bob	Lovenson	Swift	1:25.073	4	11
7	John	Page	Swift	1:26.404	8	12

Littrell's win makes 2 out of 3 and gives him a healthy lead going into the next race weekend at Thunderhill. Stay tuned to see how the Lola fares against the Purple Van Diemen on its home turf in Northern California.

See the Standings Page for the current points situation. For more photos from this event, check out the Photo Gallery