June 2008 Infineon Raceway Report, Sonoma, CA
written by Scott Neville and Adam Lazur
June 2008

Sunday's Race Start Turn 1 Photo by Kregg Miller

The weather for this late June weekend was going to be Sonoma perfect...hot but not too hot...sunny, clear with temps in the 80's with a delicious sea breeze all weekend. Walter Ford with Valley Motorwerks brought his large trailer up on Friday afternoon and grabbed a good paddock spot behind the main grandstands for the rest of the SpecE30 racers. We had an eight car car field this weekend; Donny Edwards/Elliott Taylor, Adam Lazur, Scott Neville, Kevin Borchers/Carl Chiu, Scott Clough, Ron Harness, Tommy Lo/Paul Ko driving the Valley Motorwerks rental SpecE30 and new SpecE30 racers Doug Johnson and Dan DiTrapani driving their newly minted #71 race car built by Valley Motorwerks. Both Doug and Dan co-drive a Spec Racer Ford in SCCA. Welcome to NASA SpecE30!


Dan DiTrapani and the newly minted #71 SpecE30
Photo by Scott Neville

The SpecE30 field would be racing in Group A along with the USTCC cars, Performance Touring Cars, Super Unlimited and the Honda Challenge cars. The total field of Group A cars was about 45 cars. As usual the SpecE30 cars would be doing a standing start behind the first green flag for the Hondas. Performance Touring and Super Unlimited cars would follow with a flying green flag start. This weekend we would be running the Long Turn 7A configuration a.k.a: "The Jug Handle."

Battle for 4th place in Sunday's sprint race. Scott Clough leads Elliott Taylor and Adam Lazur heading into Turn 6 "The Carousel"
Photo by Kregg Miller

Kevin Borchers leads Tommy Lo and Scott Neville in Turn 1 at the start of Sunday's race.
Photo by Kregg Miller

Saturday Qualifying: Donny Edwards, driving the #1 Brimstone Dynasty E30, once again took the pole position on Saturday with a cooking 2:01.088. Kevin Borchers took second position in the #36 Valley Motorwerks SpecE30 with a time of 2:04.168. The rest of the field qualified as follows: Paul Ko 2:04.954, Scott Neville 2:05.108, Scott Clough 2:06.211, Adam Lazur 2:06.211, Ron Harness 2:08.050. Dan DiTrapani only got on the track for one lap as his car was having transmission problems and qualified last.

Saturday Race

Kevin took the lead into Turn 1 with Donny hot on his tail, followed by Scott N., Adam, Paul, Scott C., Ron, and Dan. Donny was sniffing Kevin's tailpipe for the entire first lap and on lap two made the pass on Kevin between Turns 6 and 7. Donny would hold on to 1st place for the rest of the race. Kevin and Scott N. held their positions and were not challenged. In the back of the pack Adam, snuck past Scott in T4 on the first lap. Paul and Scott C. battled while Adam tried to sneak away. The race was cut short by at Lap 4 by a big "Exxon Valdez" oil spill in Turn 3A (see a clip of Scott Neville's encounter with the slick). The local corner workers wisely threw a black then a red flag to prevent a bad accident from happening. The flags were shown shortly after Adam gave up a position to Gary at the entry to Turn 3, then Adam promptly slid sideways in the oil over 3A. Scott C. locked up his brakes to avoid Adam, and both cars spun to a stop at the outside of the turn. Luckily no cars were wrecked. Click here for Scott C's video of the race from his GoCamera mounted on the roof of his car.

At the checkered flag the finishing positions were: Donny, Kevin, Scott N, Adam, Paul, Scott C, Ron and Dan. Dan's new SpecE30 was having transmission problems and would not stay in 3rd gear. Consequently, the car would be retired for Sunday's race. Click here for some awesome High Definition Video from Adam Lazur's car. Adam was also having problems with his 3rd gear as you can hear in the video.

Fast race lap times were as follows: Donny 2:00.969 (new lap record) , Kevin Borchers 2:02.768, , Scott Neville 2:04.533, Adam Lazur 2:05.991, Paul Ko 2:05.873. Scott Clough 2:06.541, Ron Harness 2:09.290 and Dan DiTrapani 2:19.082.

L to R: Kevin Borchers, Donny Edwards, GoGo Gear Helper Kid, and Scott Neville
Photo by NASA NORCAL

Sunday Qualifying: Seven cars were qualifying on Sunday as Doug and Dan's #71 SpecE30 had transmission problems and would not race this day. Carl Chiu driving the #36 Valley Motorwerks E30 took the pole position on Sunday with a fast lap time of 2:02.570. Tommy Lo took second position in the #37 Valley Motorwerks SpecE30 with a time of 2:03.149. Third fastest was Scott Neville with a 2:03.425. The rest of the field qualified as follows: Elliott Taylor 2:05.267, Adam Lazur 2:07.123, Scott Clough 2:08.894 and Ron Harness 2:08.999.


Elliott Taylor in the Brimstone Dynasty #1 Spec E30 leads Phillip Holifield's Miata during Sunday's Group A Race
Photo by Kregg Miller

Sunday Race

It was another standing start behind the Hondas for Sunday's sprint race. With the drop of the green flag Kevin took the lead with Tommy on his tailpipe closely followed by Scott N. then Scott C, Adam and Ron. Tommy managed a pass on Kevin in Turn 7 on lap 1 and held on to first place for the remainder of the race with Kevin following closely the entire race. Scott N. held onto 3rd and was pretty much all by his lonesome the entire race. The real battles were occurring behind Scott N. with Scott C., Elliott and Adam mixing things up. The mixing began with a bang in the first lap. Adam dove to the inside of Ron and Elliott in the braking zone of Turn 4. Adam dove too deep as Elliott turned in, making contact that sent Elliott off to the outside. A lap later, both Ron and an RX-7 went off track to avoid making contact just after they split around Adam at the start/finish. Later in the race, Scott C. and Adam mixed it up for a few laps and shared a few taps as Adam's transmission refused to go into 3rd gear at the most inopportune times. This culminated in Adam coasting past the apex of Turn 2 with Scott C. on his bumper. Scott picked up 4th place as Adam struggled to get the car in gear. In the final lap, Elliott charged from behind, passed Adam, and pressured Scott C. He applied too much pressure at the entry of Turn 7, locked up his brakes and went wide, but held 5th position to the finish.

Fast race lap times (in order of official finishing position) were as follows: Tommy 2:02.903, Kevin 2:02.415, , Scott N. 2:03.784, Scott C. 2:07.751, Elliott 2:06.040, Adam 2:07.258, and Ron 2:07.945.

Click here for in-car video of the race start from Scott Neville's in-car video.
Click here for some wild High Definition Video from Adam Lazur's in-car video.


L to R: Kevin Borchers, Tommy Lo and Scott Neville
Photo by NASA NORCAL