2005 Season Races 8 and 9
Portland 6/11/2005

The 4 Flight S2 Cup made Portland the 5th stop of the 2005 Season and Puddletown lived up to its reputation for predictably wet yet unpredictable weather. Four drivers from California made the tow to meet up with seven local Sports 2000 drivers, combining to make a decent field. Regulars Joe Moran, Bob Lovenson, and Gary Holcomb were missed but they're preparing for the even longer tow to Wisconson for the SCCA June Sprints.

If you recall from the last race, Mike Pettibone's Swift took a hard hit from an uncontrolled formula car and it took a heroic effort on Mike's part to make it to Portland with the car back in one piece. Once the makeshift repairs were complete, he planned to run it in primer but when he read the GCR's ban on primer he had to think quick. Enter a sheet of notebook paper, a hole punch, a floor mat, some wire mesh, black spray paint, and a whole lot of creativity and you end up with "Episode III - Revenge of the Swift". He didn't even have a paintbrush handy so he used paper matches for the detail work. Nice work Mike.

The weather was beautiful for testing on Thursday, a sure sign that it would be different on race day. No one knew quite what to expect for laptimes, given the new chicane configuration, but it was generally thought to be about one second faster than the old, tighter Festival Curves. In National qualifying on Friday afternoon David Ferguson went out and immediately ran a 1:17.4 that no one could match. Jeff Littrell stayed out trying but only got down to a 1:17.9. The rest of the field was quite a ways back, with Frank Arnold in third spot with a 1:19.3, although brake problems limited him to only a single good lap. Christian Nelson was the only other S2 in the 1:19s -- and he was in an old Tiga! The other Regional-class SS2 Tiga drivers were overheard grumbling that they wished Christian would get a modern S2 because he's ruining SS2.

Qualifying for the Regional race was held Saturday morning and it started out a little slick. The session was stopped halfway through and everyone had about two laps at the end to put down a flyer. And fly Ferguson did, lowering his time to an incredible 1:16.9. Littrell was running old tires, figuring there was more to gain from saving the good ones for the race so he was in the mid-high 1:18s. Frank Arnold got his brake problem sorted out and was in the low 1:18s but was disqualified for passing under a yellow. He protested this decision and won so he was restored to a position between Ferguson and Littrell for the race.

The rain came during lunch, immediately before the start of the Regional race. The skies looked blue in the distance but a light sprinkle persisted through the Festival Trophy Race gridding proceedings. Drivers were told that they had until the 5 minute board to change tires, if desired. Everyone was on slicks and the locals seemed happy with that decision. Littrell's crew from P1 Racing decided at about the 8 minute mark to buck the prevailing wisdom and they quickly mounted up the rain tires in front of all the spectators. It was a gutsy decision but it turned out to probably be the right one.

It took a long time to get the race started -- one parade lap, followed by three formation laps. Ferguson was agressively testing the tires and conditions and spun on the parade lap entering the back straight. It had stopped raining but the track was quite wet. When the green flag finally flew, Littrell was the only car able to put the power down and he rocketed past about six cars to take the overall lead into turn 1. Halfway through the lap he had a lead of at least three turns but a full course yellow forced him to slow down and let everyone else catch up.

Ferguson had already made up a number of spots but Littrell made a good start and opened up a large lead agin. For half a lap. Then another full course caution came out, this one for Frank Arnold, who spun when his clutch pedal hit the full-rear biased balance bar on his brakes. By now Ferg was immediately behind Littrell.

Before the race, the Rose Cup Festival organizers (nice guys all) explained that there would be a podium ceremony for the top three finishers overall and the top three in 4 Flight S2 Cup. Pettibone quipped that they would be one in the same but a few DSR drivers (including Ellen Ferguson) took issue with that. At this point in the race the top three were in fact all S2s (Littrell, Ferguson, and Bachofner).

Littrell had a good restart but missed a downshift into the Festival curves and did a few 360s down the front straight before coming to a stop on track. He rejoined in 6th and began clawing his way back up again. Both Ferguson and Bachofner were very fast on slicks and a drying track. Littrell chased them down and as they raced in a pack of three a meatball flag was shown at start finish. No one was sure who it was directed at because the pack was tight. Everyone's car seemed OK so they all kept racing. Littrell eventually got past Bachofner into the Festival Curves and began hunting Ferguson. The track was drying but it was still slick.

On the last lap Littrell caught Ferg through turns 4 and 5 and dove down the inside of the left hander. They went in side-by-side and Ferguson left Littrell room, but only just, and they slapped sidepods through the turn. Coming out of the turn Littrell's engine stumbled for just a second when he went back to the gas, allowing Ferguson to pull out ahead. Littrell followed him home in second place.

On the cool down lap they displayed the meatball and Littrell's car number on the back straight. Littrell drove to the podium area but the officials were none too happy with him for what they perceived as a blatant disregard of a command flag. It turns out that the cloud cover and humidity made the cars louder and Littrell's Lola was supposedly over the limit. As a result, the Chief Steward disqualified him and then sent the matter to the SOM for further action. Littrell protested the steward's decision and, after much discussion, his protest was upheld, given the reasonable doubt about who the flag was directed at. However, there was still belief that his car was too loud so the stewards decided to give him a 4th place finish instead of 2nd. Go figure. In the meantime, Ferguson and Bachofner celebrated on a two-man podium.

Car No	Driver		Make	Qual Time	Qual Pos	Finish
75	David	Ferguson	Van Diemen	1:16.930	1	1
37	John	Bachofner	Swift	1:18.968	3	2
23	Mark	Schue	Swift	1:19.467	4	3
1	Jeff	Littrell	Lola	1:18.652	2	4
4	Mike	Pettibone	Swift	1:22.659	8	5
83	Larry	Bergman	Tiga	1:23.662	9	6
20	Tom	Nelson	Swift	1:20.640	5	7
3	Jim	Truess	Swift	1:20.730	6	8
28	John	Kraft	Tiga	1:24.753	10	9
10	Christian	Nelson	Tiga	1:22.341	7	10
19	Frank	Arnold	Swift		11	DNF

On Mark Schue's suggestion, Littrell made a quick trip to Baxter's Autoparts and bought a small chrome angle-cut tailpipe tip for the National race. It was quickly attached to the end of his muffler, pointing away from the sound station. Again, it began to rain immediately before the next race. And again it looked clear in the distance. This time, however, the rain was not as heavy and the track was better because the previous race group had just come off. Ferguson was the lone man to decide on wets for the National but it was the wrong choice. The track was fairly dry from the start of the race (except for a river through turn 1). Ferguson got through turn 1 without incident but Littrell got punted into the run-off area by John Bachofner and a DSR who came in hot on the inside. The Stohr was almost tipped over but ended up on top of Bachofner. Littrell had to wait until the entire field was past before being allowed to reenter the racing surface.

Once the D was taken off Bachofner's nose, racing got back under way. Bachofner even continued, albeit without a nose. Ferguson was helpless on his rain tires and a dry track. It wasn't too many laps before the entire field had passed him and he retired. Frank Arnold took the lead and was never challenged. For Littrell, it was good, hard racing with some very slight contact with Pettibone and Schue along the way. To add insult to injury, Bachofner held Littrell up for a couple laps, despite being three laps down. Those two laps would have come in handy at the end because Littrell caught up to second place Tom Nelson on the last lap and made a desparate move in the last turn that he couldn't make stick. Arnold won, followed by Nelson and Littrell.

Car No	Driver		Make	Qual Time	Qual Pos	Finish
19	Frank	Arnold	Swift	1:19.363	3	1
20	Tom	Nelson	Swift	1:20.247	5	2
1	Jeff	Littrell	Lola	1:17.922	2	3
23	Mark	Schue	Swift	1:22.068	8	4
3	Jim	Truess	Swift	1:20.532	6	5
4	Mike	Pettibone	Swift	1:21.510	7	6
37	John	Bachofner	Swift		10	7
75	David	Ferguson	Van Diemen	1:17.399	1	8
10	Christian	Nelson	Tiga	1:19.706	4	9

In the final analysis this weekend had little bearing on the Championship standings. Despite being fastest in qualifying, Ferguson was only able to garner 14 points, while Littrell took 13, even with his two-place demotion for sound. Pettibone fell back a few more points behind Ferguson, a victim of not knowing the track and getting precious little track time but he's gunning for the big boys, as evidenced by the SCUDs on his Swift. The only significant gain was made by Frank Arnold, who was able to vault into 6th position, just ahead of Joe Moran. For more photos from this event, check out the Photo Gallery