2008 NorCal SpecE30 Season Opener Infineon Raceway Sonoma, CA
written by Scott Neville
February 2008

Season Opener Class of 2008 SpecE30 Racers L to R: Carl Chiu, Kevin Borchers, Donny Edwards, Elliott Taylor, Brenden Selvig, AJ Goldsmith, Ron Harness, Scott Neville, Adam Lazur (HPDE4) and Dave Allen.
For Event Photos Check out Valley Motorwerks' Gallery

This weekend signaled the beginning of the 2008 Norcal Spec E30 season with the first NASA NorCal event at Infineon Raceway in beautiful Sonoma, California. The weather for the weekend was northern California perfect! Sunny, clear and in the high 60's.   

Saturday Group A:  Donny Edwards took pole for Saturday's race in the #1 Brimstone Dynasty SpecE30. He qualified with a 2:01.02. Donny would be sharing driving duties with rookie Elliott Taylor who would be driving the #1 car on Sunday. Rookie AJ Goldsmith clocked an impressive 2:01.59 for his first qualifying effort. Following AJ would be Kevin Borchers driving the #36 Team Valley Motorwerks SpecE30 who cracked off a 2:01.65. Scott Neville, in the #44 Valley Motorwerks-sponsored SpecE30, qualified in forth position with a 2:03.93, Dave Allen did a 2:04.52 in his 318is SpecE30 followed by Ron Harness who turned a 2:09.68. Rookie Brenden Selvig did not qualify due to a mechanical and would be starting in the seventh position. Steve Krshul was slated to drive the 10/10ths Motorsports SpecE30 but a broken tranny prevented them from competing for the weekend.

Saturday's race would see the SpecE30s grouped behind the Honda Challenge, Spec Miatas and Performance Touring cars for a flying green flag start. For a good view of the start check out AJ Goldsmith's in-car video posted on YouTube. Donny grabbed the lead followed by AJ, then Kevin, Dave, Scott, Ron and Brenden. Donny held the lead from flag to flag, Kevin had a good battle with AJ and managed to pass him to take 2nd place and put together with a serious challenge to Donny towards the end of the race. Race finishers and fast lap times were as follows: Donny Edwards 2:01.13, Kevin Borchers 2:00.51, Dave Allen 2:00.58, AJ Goldsmith 2:01.34, Scott Neville 2:02.52, Brenden Selvig 2:02.92 and Ron Harness 2:06.22. Dave Allen was DQd for Saturday's race following Sunday's impound for having non-spec springs. Dave would also be DQ'd for Sunday's finish as well.

L to R: Kevin Borchers, NASA Buddy and Donny Edwards (Not in Picture AJ Goldsmith)

Sunday Group A:  Donny handed over the Brimstone Dynasty SpecE30 to newly minted rookie Elliott Taylor who earned his provisional racing license the day before. Likewise, Kevin Borchers gave the keys to the VM Werks #36 car to rookie Carl Chiu who earned his provisional license by completing a Jim Russell Racing School at Infineon last year. Also racing in Sunday's race would be AJ, Scott, Dave, Ron and Brenden for a total of seven SpecE30s.

Sunday's qualifying session was a bit hectic with Group A, C and E cars all out on track (a total of 76 cars)...consequently with a few local yellow flags it was hard to get in a clean fast lap. Sunday's grid would be: Scott Neville with pole 2:02.11 followed by Dave Allen with a 2:02.21, AJ Goldsmith 2:03.02, Carl Chiu 2:03.72, Brenden Selvig 2:03.81, Ron Harness 2:04.33 and Elliott Taylor 2:12.92. We asked Race Director Will Faules if we could start the race with our own green flag...he even offered us our own pace car driven by none other than his highness Jerry Kunzman! The SpecE30s were the last group within Group A so with our start we would be racing each other without worrying about traffic...at least we thought so...

As the pace car pulled away after Turn 11 the SpecE30s got a flying start green flag. Scott took the early lead into Turn 2 but carried a tad too much speed and ended up getting loose and spinning a 360...luckily all the following E30s were able to avoid him. Click here for a video of the start from Scott's in-car. Click here for a Quicktime video clip of the Turn 2 start from the perspective of the grandstands. Click here for a video of the start from the VMWerks #37 car driven by Carl Chiu. Click here for the rest of the race as seen from Carl's in-car camera.

Scott caught up to Elliott and passed him in Turn 7 but got wonky and spun again after getting passed (unexpectedly) by a H1 Honda in Turn 8A (see the end of the in-car video). Dave Allen ended up leading the race from flag to flag followed by AJ Goldsmith, Carl Chiu and Scott Neville who passed Ron Harness on the last lap after Ron kissed the tire wall as he ran out of brakes and traction. Click here for a video from Scott's in-car chasing Ron in the last two laps of the race. This race did see one major incident with rookie Brenden Selvig. Brenden in his excitement trying to out-brake AJ for an inside pass in Turn 11 ended up t-boning a Honda Challenge car driven by Dave Wright. Click here for a YouTube video of Dave's race from his in-car video. This put Brenden out with the final finishing order: Dave Allen, AJ, Carl, Scott, Ron and Elliott. Fast race lap times were: Dave Allen 201.17, AJ Goldsmith 2:01.07 Carl Chiu 2:01.59, Scott Neville 2:01.77, Ron Harness 2:03.55, Brenden Selvig 2:02.51 and Elliott Taylor 2:11.55 . Impounding the top four finishers showed Dave's car to have non-spec springs and consequently Dave was DQ's for both Sunday's and Saturday's races. This gave rookie AJ Goldsmith the top podium position with Carl Chiu in 2nd place and Scott Neville 3rd place. This was a great season opener turnout for SpecE30! We expect more cars racing in 2008 as the exciting new series takes root in Northern California and hopefully Southern California too.

L to R: Carl Chiu, AJ Goldsmith, NASA Buddy and Scott Neville