March 2008 Thunderhill Raceway Report, Willows, CA
written by Scott Neville
March 2008

Sunday's Reverse Grid of 9 SpecE30s L to R: Mike Scharzbart (29), AJ Goldsmith (93) , Ron Harness (18) , Adam Lazur (804), Carl Chiu (36), Brenden Selvig (88) , Scott Neville (44), Steve Krshul (10) & Donny Edwards (1) (photo courtesy of G. Porter)

For Additional Event Photos Check out Valley Motorwerks' Gallery

This weekend saw the second race of the 2008 Norcal Spec E30 season. Saturday six SpecE30s were on grid and for Sunday a total of nine SpecE30s were racing. Sunday's grid was the largest yet for NorCal. Two new rookies joined the field: Mike Schwarzbast and Adam Lazur. Brenden Selvig re-earned his rookie license following his re-test on Saturday. The weather for the weekend was northern California perfect....sunny, clear with temps in the high 60's low 70's.   

Saturday Group A:  Kevin Borchers took pole for Saturday's race in the #36 Valley Motorwerks SpecE30. He qualified with a 2:12.84. Kevin would be sharing driving duties with rookie Carl Chiu who would be driving the #37 car on Sunday. Scott Neville qualified in second position with a 2:13.96. Steve Krshul qualified 3rd in the 10/10ths Motorsports #10 SpecE30 with a 2:17.00. AJ Goldsmith turned a 2:20.29 putting him forth on the grid. Following AJ would be Elliott Taylor driving the #1 Team Brimstone Dynasty SpecE30 who turned a 2:.20.90. Ron Harness qualified in the number six position with a 2:22.47. The slower lap times were due to a number of yellow caution flags flown during the qualifying event and the fact we had almost 70 cars out for qualifying with Race Groups A & C.

Saturday's race would see the SpecE30s grouped directly behind the Honda Challenge and USTCC cars for a standing start. The USTCC cars were first to go with their own green flag...the HC and SpecE30 cars received the second green flag. Behind our group would be the Performance Touring cars for a flying green flag start. A total of 46 cars competed in Saturday's Group A race. Kevin got a good jump at the start and was weaving his way through the slower HC cars followed by Scott Neville, Steve Krshul, Ron Harness and Elliott Taylor. These positions held for the first lap where Steve managed a pass on Scott exiting Turn 6. As Steve and Scott came through Turn 8 they could see a drifting #36 car...Kevin ended up on the right side of the track with both Scott Steve passing Kevin on his left side. Kevin was having clutch slave cylinder troubles and had to lift the clutch pedal up with his foot...this happened just before turning into Turn 8 and he apexed early and ended up in a drift on the inside of T-8. After passing Kevin, Steve was the first into Turn 9 followed by Scott and Kevin who had quickly recovered from his spin. The running order was now Steve in first, Scott in second, then Kevin, AJ, Ron and Elliott. As Scott and Kevin were making their way out of Turn 15 and coming up on a slower HC car...Kevin was able to pass Scott just before Turn 1. But Kevin's clutch foiled him coming out of Turn 9 and Scott was able to re-take postion 2 back from Kevin. This order held for a few more laps until Scott spun exiting Turn 4 giving up his # 2 spot to Kevin and the #3 spot to AJ. The race finished with Steve first, then Kevin, AJ, Scott, Ron and Elliott

Fast race lap times were as follows: Steve Krshul 2:12.59, Kevin Borchers 2:11.93, AJ Goldsmith 2:14.02, Scott Neville 2:13.04, Ron Harness 2:20.29. and Elliott Taylor 2:20.15.

Sunday Group A:  Elliott handed over the Brimstone Dynasty SpecE30 to Donny Edwards. Likewise, Kevin Borchers gave the keys to the VM Werks #36 car to Carl Chiu. Also racing in Sunday's race would be Steve, AJ, Scott, Dave, Ron, Brenden and newly minted racers Mike Schwarzbart and Adam Lazur for a total of nine SpecE30s. This would be the largest SpecE30 field for NASA NorCal yet. The class is really growing.

Sunday's qualifying session was a bit hectic with Group A & C cars all out on track (a total of 66 cars)...consequently with a few local yellow flags it was hard to get in a clean fast lap. Sunday's grid would be: Donny Edwards with pole with a screaming hot lap of 2:08.93 followed by Steve Krshul with a 2:12.99, Scott Neville 2:13.39, Brenden Selvig 2:16.42, Carl Chiu 2:17.09, Adam Lazur 2:19.18, Ron Harness 2:19.56, AJ Goldsmith 2:20.48, and Mike Schwarzbart with a 2:28.47.

As per Saturday's race format would see the SpecE30s grouped directly behind the Honda Challenge and USTCC cars for a standing start. The USTCC cars were first to go with their own green flag...the HC and SpecE30 cars received the second green flag. A new twist was thrown at everyone...the grid would be set in reverse order of qualifying...slowest times in the front...fastest times in the back. Mike and AJ would be in the front of the pack of nine SpecE30s. In the excitement of the moment AJ Goldsmith jumped at the sight of the first USTCC green flag....then realized his mistake and backed up his car to his grid position. As soon as he took his spot the green flag was dropped. Click here for a video of the start from Scott Neville's in-car camera. Carl, Donny, Steve and AJ managed to squeeze into the early lead pack followed by Brenden, Ron, Adam, Mike and Scott in last place. Scott managed to work his way up to 6th spot during the first lap as Donny grabbed the lead followed by Carl, AJ and Steve and Brenden. The race was cut short by a rollover accident involving Brandon Kraus who contacted another car in Turn 5 and rolled his car several times. He got glass in his eyes and was otherwise OK but was airlifted out to the hospital to take care of his eyes. He is expected to make a full recovery. Race finish positions and fast race lap times were: Donny Edwards 2:11.15, AJ Goldsmith 2:13.01 Steve Krshul 2:12.16, Carl Chiu 2:12.52, Brenden Selvig 2:13.82, Scott Neville 2:13.71, Adam Lazur 2:19.53, Ron Harness 2:25.27, and Mike Swarzbart 2:31.56 .

L to R: AJ Goldsmith, NASA Jennifer and Steve Krshul (not in picture Donny Edwards)