Valley Motorwerks rolled out their newly minted SpecE30 car this weekend at Thunderhill with racers Kevin Borchers and Scott Neville sharing driving duties.  Kevin drove on Saturday and Scott on Sunday.  This would be Kevin’s first NASA race as he recently received his NASA Provisional License after completing the SCCA Super School in March of this year.  Scott is a veteran of GTI-Cup racing and has been racing with NASA since 2003.  There would be one other SpecE30 competing this weekend with owner/driver Steve Kurshul at the wheel. Both car would compete in Race Group A along with Spec Miatas, Honda Challenge, Performance Touring, 944Spec and Super Unlimited race cars. The number of cars in Group A this weekend would be around 40. Official timing and scoring for the race can be found here at MyLaps.com.

Saturday: Rain would be in the forecast for Saturday. The car was shod with brand new Hawk Blue pads and the brakes proved very touchy so much so that the left front caliper appeared to be binding. Kevin brought the car in early after a spin in Turn 11 due to the lock up on the front wheel.   Thinking that the problem was a binding caliper we tried to locate a new caliper at the local NAPA parts shops in Willows and Williams.  Unfortunately, NAPA dealers in the Central Valley do not cater to too many BMWs and both stores gave us a good laugh when we inquired about the part.  We resolved ourselves to deal with what we had and hoped that the sticky brake would resolve itself with more track time. Timing and scoring did not have a listing for Kevin at the time of qualifying and due to the late registration of the car so Kevin would be lining up behind Steve's car on the grid. Steve and Kevin gridded behind the half dozen 944Cup cars at the back of the Group A grid. The weather had cleared enough that the shaved Toyos were put on the car for what we hoped would be a dry race. The race started without any incidents and Steve took the lead over Kevin at the green flag drop. Click here for a video clip of the race start. Steve's early lead was about 8 seconds by the second lap or so but Kevin began to narrow Steve's lead during the mid-portion of the race. Steve was running full tread Toyos while the VMWerks car had shaved Toyos. Kevin got to within about 3 seconds behind Steve and was looking to make a challenge until it began to rain. Kevin kept Steve in his windshield but could not mount a challenge under the wet conditions. Kevin finished in second place 5.1 seconds behind Steve. Fast lap times were Kevin: 2:17.6 and Steve 2:18.3. The cars were weighed at Tech after the race and Steve's car met minimum weight while the VMWerks car was found to be underweight which would DQ the car. But this was OK since this was a shakedown race for the new car.

Steve Krshul leads the VMwerks SpecE30 on the final lap on Saturday's race.

Sunday: Sunday dawned clear, cool and windy with no rain in the forecast. This was Scott's day to race the car and took his first spin in the car during morning practice. The track was crowded with Group A and Group C (Legend Cars and Thunder Roadsters) so there was constant traffic throughout the 20-minute session. But the good news was a dry track! Qualifying saw Scott grab a 2:17.5 and Steve a 2:19.0. As on Saturday the SpecE30 would grid behind the 944Cup casr for a flying start. The start was delayed by a RX7 that had stalled on the grid so we went around for two warm-up laps. The green flag saw Scott getting the jump on Steve and by the time they hit Turn 2 the SpecE30s were getting mixed up with some 944Cup cars after one had spun coming out of Turn 1 which slowed up the rest of the pack. A slower 944Cup car was in front of Scott heading into Turn 5 and by Turn 6 Steve had challenged Scott in the traffic with an outside pass attempt. Scott held on to the lead going into Turn 8. Steve's car was down on power and he could not keep pace with the VMWerks car. Click here for a video clip of the race start. Scott lead flag to flag however on the last lap the VMWerks car developed it's own mechanical problem with a sudden big drop in power and nasty knocking sound from the powerplant. Scott nursed it around for the last lap and pulled into the paddock with a distinct rod-knock. Although the VMWerks finished first on Sunday we DQ'd our finish with NASA officials because our car was underweight. This gave Steve the 1st place win for Sunday. Congratulations Steve! Fast race laps for Sunday were Scott 2:16.3 and Steve 2:21.2.

Steve Krshul (L) and Kevin Borchers (R) after Saturday's race