2005 Season Races 4 and 5
Thunderhill 3/20/2005

The 4 Flight S2 Cup moved to Northern California for the 3rd weekend of the 2005 Season, visiting the cows at Thunderhill Raceway in Willows California. Inclement weather forecasts and a long tow kept many drivers away for this weekend but Jeff Anderson showed his commitment to the series by making his first trip there. Locals Jeff Read and Tim Moore made their 2005 debuts and John Bachofner and Mark Schue made the haul from Oregon to test their mettle against the 4 Flight competition. Add in the series regulars and a reasonable (and competitive) field of 11 Sports 2000 drivers were assembled for the weekend, ready to brave whatever Mother Nature could dish out.

And dish out she did. Friday practice was dry but Saturday's qualifying went from wet to wetter. Despite a wet track and all drivers out on rain tires, almost all the best times came at the start of the session because about four laps into it the rain started coming down hard. Some drivers (Littrell and Moore) experienced moisture-related electrical gremlins, while others were grip or visibility challenged. Despite never getting a good lap in due to fogging of his visor and glasses, Mark Schue registered a lap good enough for 3rd on the grid, behind David Ferguson and Joe Moran. Schue was quoted as saying "It was interesting driving through turn 8 with one hand holding my visor open. When I'd down shift my visor would close, zero vision, turn in blind...and open it again. Good times....seriously."

Saturday qualifying was wet but by race time it was dry. Everyone gridded on slicks and the S2 class got a split start behind the formula cars and C Sports Racers. At the start Schue had been on the throttle at the right time, but 4th place qualifier, Mike Pettibone, just motored by. Pettibone had his nose so far up Moran's tail in turn 1 that he couldn't see the edge of the track. Pettibone dropped two wheels into the dirt but didn't lift. He came back onto the track right in front of Schue, allowing Littrell and Bachofner to promptly pass on each side.

Moran was keeping Ferguson honest but Littrell was all over Moran, not wanting to let Ferguson get away. Littrell hounded Moran until the first of three full course yellow flags were displayed. The resulting pace car bunched everyone back up, and allowed Littrell to get a run on Moran and pass him into turn 1.

Elsewhere, as the pack settled into turn 2 after Pettibone's off-and-on, Jeff Read got caught behind Chris Keating and Tim Moore went around the outside of him in turn 3. Schue screwed up in turn 5 and the field went by. He started working his way back up, but made some mistakes that resulted in nose, side pod and significant ego damage. It was difficult to get into any kind of rhythm with all the full course cautions caused by the Atlantics. The main thing was to stay out of trouble during restarts. And plenty of restarts there were.

Ferguson tried every restart tactic he could think of as he tried to shake Littrell but the two always remained within a few car lengths, Ferguson faster in some areas, Littrell faster in others. Fast laps for the two were within one tenth of a second of each other. One of the areas Ferguson was making ground on Littrell was out of the slow chicane in the backfield. On the next to last lap, Ferguson tried a little too hard to capitalize on this advantage and went over the curb, four wheels into the dirt. Littrell quickly passed, just as Ferguson was coming back on track on the other side of the chicane. From there Littrell was able to open up a small gap and take it home for the win. A great, patient drive from 6th on the grid.

Somewhere in between the cautions, Bachofner was punted off hard by a zealous CSR who had no business diving under the poor Swift as he turned into the very fast turn 10. Interestingly, there was no post-race investigation. The rest of the race was fairly uneventful for Jeff Read until the last lap when Jason Choulochas and Tim Moore caught him in turn 10. He was just trying to not throw the car off the track after having almost done so in turns 11 and 12. Moore got a run on Read as he was catching control of his Lola near the exit of 12. Moore couldn't jink fast enough to avoid Read, getting up and under him and knocking off his diffuser. During this battle Choulochas got a run on the outside down the long back straight but Read still had the inside going into 14. Too bad for Choulochas but Read wasn't going to leave much room. It was close but, with his diffuser in the air like a parachute, Read beat Choulochas and Moore to the line. Good fun!

Car No	Driver		Make	Qual Time	Qual Pos	Finish
1	Jeff	Littrell	Lola	2:30.118	6	1
75	David	Ferguson	Van Diemen	2:24.263	2	2
77	Joe	Moran	Carbir	2:21.164	1	3
94	Mike	Pettibone	Swift	2:27.473	4	4
18	Jeff	Read	Lola	2:34.582	9	5
91	Jason	Choulochas	Swift	2:42.813	10	6
19	Tim	Moore	Swift	2:56.878	11	7
37	John	Bachofner	Swift	2:28.840	5	8
24	Jeff	Anderson	Swift	2:34.077	8	9
23	Mark	Schue	Swift	2:26.680	3	10
8	Chris	Keating	Swift	2:30.431	7	11

Although no one could have predicted it, Sunday would end up being the opposite of Saturday -- dry qualifying and a wet race. But if the drivers had known that ahead of time things would've been a lot different.

Skies were clear Sunday morning and all the drivers showed up at grid with slicks and dry setups. Qualifying was tight across the board, with Littrell and Ferguson running times identical to the 100th of a second! Littrell's 1:52.414 just pipped Ferguson's 1:52.418. Tim Moore showed that his fast practice times were no fluke when he ran 3rd quick and Jason Choulochas found a ton of time in his Swift to grab 4th spot ahead of Moran.

But the real story was yet to come -- weather. It rained fairly hard during lunch but then cleared up about 40-50 minutes before the race. The sky seemed fairly clear but it was changing quickly. Moran must have used some of his aviation connections to get a real forecast because he showed up on grid with a full-wet setup -- a plan that almost worked for him at California Speedway. Ferguson and Littrell were on slicks. Moore was on intermediates. Schue was on slicks but left the grid at the 2 minute board to go grab intermediates, just as the rain started up again. Lucky for him, it started raining fairly hard and the racers were given three pace laps so he was able to join the back of the pack easily.

The entire race was a wet affair, with fast laps only in the 2:18 range, and most even slower than that. Ferguson got by Littrell at the start and Moran didn't waste much time motoring by on his rain tires. He quickly caught and passed Ferguson but a full course caution allowed Ferg to get past on the restart. Moran then tried a little too hard and spun. But his wet setup was so superior, it wasn't long before had worked back through the pack into 2nd again. While everyone else was tip-toeing around he was working on the leader when he went far off into the wet grass. By the time he backed out of the mess he was out of contention.

Ferguson held on for a well-deserved win and title of "King of the Wet". "King of the Dry", Littrell took 2nd, resulting in a points push with Ferguson. Pettibone and Schue had last lap contact and the investigation at impound (not requested by either driver) kept the podium hanging in the balance. In the end, the officials let Pettibone's 3rd position hold. Mark "I love the rain" Schue took a hard-earned 4th spot. Moran failed to capitalize on his correct setup choice and finished in 8th.

Car No	Driver		Make	Qual Time	Qual Pos	Finish
75	David	Ferguson	Van Diemen	1:52.418	2	1
1	Jeff	Littrell	Lola	1:52.414	1	2
94	Mike	Pettibone	Swift	1:55.114	6	3
23	Mark	Schue	Swift	1:57.359	10	4
8	Chris	Keating	Swift	1:56.354	8	5
18	Jeff	Read	Lola	1:56.858	9	6
91	Jason	Choulochas	Swift	1:53.633	4	7
77	Joe	Moran	Carbir	1:54.723	5	8
37	John	Bachofner	Swift	1:56.022	7	9
24	Jeff	Anderson	Swift	1:59.252	11	10
19	Tim	Moore	Swift	1:53.340	3	11

Ferguson and Littrell each had a win, and a second, meaning that their position in the overall standings remains constant, with Littrell having a 9 point advantage. See the Standings Page for the current points situation. The next race is at Buttonwillow in April and a big awards celebration is planned so don't miss it. For more photos from this event, check out the Photo Gallery