In June fifteen NorCal SpecE30 drivers and teams were back at Infineon vying for not only regional points but also a special contingency offer from 986 Driver Cooling Systems. A complete 986 Pro-Ice cooling system (valued at $900) was up for grabs to the Driver or Team who accumulated the most points between the June 2010 event at Infineon and the August 2010 event at Thunderhill. Points were accumulated using both qualifying position and race position for the four races (using the standard NASA points system for finishing position). In all, the 986 Driver Cooling System contingencies totaled $1550 in prizes and discounts to NorCal SE30 racers.
Infineon was hot and greasy as the field of SpecE30s were slipping and sliding on the rubber left over from the NASCAR boys the previous weekend. Gary Rieger (Team Berkeley Motor Works) continued his recent hot streak with a pole and win in Saturday’s race. Tony Zwain finished second and Greg Peterson rounded out the podium. Andy Chittum (Team BTM Motorwerks) decided to quench Gary’s streak by taking the pole and the win on Sunday. Gary finished in 3rd place with Greg Peterson taking the number two podium spot.
In August, eighteen SE30s showed up to do battle at Thunderhill. This weekend was owned by Gary Rieger, who took both poles and both wins for the weekend. On Saturday he was challenged by Scott Neville who hung on to Gary’s bumper for six laps until he spun in Turn 4 and falling back to finish 7th. Gary finished 10 seconds ahead of the pack with Scott Clough taking second and beating Greg Peterson by a whisker (0.2 seconds) with a textbook draft pass down Thunderhill’s long front straight. Sunday wasn’t as easy of a win for Gary as he had to work to keep Andy Chittum and Greg Peterson at bay for the race. Gary finished 1.3 seconds ahead of Andy and 3.6 seconds ahead of Greg in a hard fought battle. With Gary’s two poles and two wins at Thunderhill he came out on top to win the 986 Driver Cooling System contingency. Gary used the 986 Cooling System in his SE30 while capturing a 2nd place finish at the National Championships at Miller Motorsports Park in September. Gary is also the NorCal Regional Points leader going into the October event at Infineon.
