Team Dynamics Rush Motorsport Struck Gold:

After a long 3 month hiatus and uncharacteristic rainfall around Southern California, Cal Club, with its full contingent of Spec Miata racers, was back in force at California Speedway for the SCCA 2005 double regional season opener. Apart from Cal Club's South Calif. regulars, there were drivers from North Calif, Nevada, Arizona and other parts of the country to join in a weekend of fun. In total, more than 30 Spec Miatas took to the Speedway on a cool and beautiful Saturday. Amongst the racers were the newly crowned 2004 Championship winning Team Dynamic sponsored Rush Motorsport cars, as well as the CERT family racing quartet.
 

As racers headed out for practice, we quickly realized the track was set "tighter" than in previous seasons and the extra seconds in the lap times reflected this change. A few racers were a bit over zealous and made contact with the tire walls. Still most were satisfied to be on the track again after such a long holiday break.

Qualifying at California Speedway saw the #68 Team Dynamics Rush Motorsport car of Don Thibaut running nose to tail with Ed Railton while the Christian brothers worked together drafting Nascar style down the oval. At the end of qualifying, William Christian II took pole followed closely by Ed Railton, Don Thibaut and Bob Wright. Missing out on the fun was your truly. While my new #33 Team Dynamics Rush Motorsport ride looked very sharp, it could not be readied in time for the race and thus having to hand over valuable points in a sure to be tight championship race this season.

A split start from the I.T. cars saw a swarm of Spec Miatas in tight formation taking the green. With William Christian II leading Ed Railton, Don Thibaut, Bob Wright and the rest of the pack, everyone made it through turn 3 from the oval into the infield safely without incident. In a couple laps, the front 4, in tight formation, started to open a small gap from the rest of the SM field.

As the fuel load lightened up, Don Thibaut in his #68 made his move for the lead, out braking William and Ed coming into the infield, and at the same time taking advantange of I.T. traffic to open up a small gap. But William and Ed were not so easy to dispose of. The pair drafting down the front straight easily closed up the gap Don had opened up earlier. Lapped traffic turned out to play a major role in the race as Don's #68 was completely bogged down by an I.T. cars going ever so slowly through the infield kink next to the paddock. Don was like a sitting duck as William and Ed stormed past on either side. Back in third, Don gathered up his composure and stayed in the leaders' slip stream coming around the front straight.

In racing sometimes you have to be lucky. Both William and Ed had to split an SE-R coming into turn 3, missed their turn in into the infield and ran wide. Taking full advantage of the situation, Don quickly slipped through and opened up several car lengths before the other pair could fully recover. After a couple more laps, a full course yellow came out when someone smacked the now infamous turn 16 tire wall. With only 9 laps completed, the race was called 20+ minutes after the green flag.

Don Thibaut in his Rush Motorsport prepared Team Dynamics #68 carried over his winning form from 2004 to finish 1st. William Christian II came in 2nd, Ed Railton visitng from NoCal was 3rd with Bob Wright finishing 4th and David Bahr from AZ rounding out the top 5.
 

With such a beautiful day on Saturday, you would not have guessed the weather would change so drastically on Sunday. As the storm came in, so did the cloud cover. Practice and qualifying was combined into a single session. In the name of time constraint, the combined session was further shortened from 30 minutes to 20 minutes. As luck would have it, 4 cars (including Don's and the Christian's) exceeded the 103db sound limit by a db even though they only hit the meter at around 88db the day before. Because of the combined session, these 4 cars did not have any opportunity to make corrective actions. With their qualifying times removed, they had to start the race from the back of the pack in the wet.

Tim Weaver from Las Vegas took pole for the first time, followed closely by Bob Wright and Andrew Staveley. Due to heavy rainfall, the start of the race was delayed for an extended period. Quite a few competitors decided to call it a day and packed up early. The Spec Miatas were finally let out when the rain subsided. The start on the first lap was waved off to give the competitors another chance to survey the track. The competitors got their green flag on the second lap and all made it through turn 3 from the oval into the infield without a scratch. Tim Weaver, Andrew Staveley and Bob Wright were running in such tight formation down the front straight that you can hardly see any daylight between them. The trio drafted each other around the oval and ran nose to tail through the infield.

Bob Wright, with years of experience and no stranger to driving in the rain, took his Team Dynamic Rush Motorsport car into the lead coming into the infield. Bob was able to open up a small gap as he made his way through the I.T. backmarkers and never relinquished the lead. Due to the initial delay, the race was shortened to 20 minutes with Bob Wright finishing 1st, followed by Andrew Staveley, Johnny Kanavas, Tim Weaver and Ken Pearson.

For this opening race in 2005, the Team Dynamics Rush Motorsport prep'd cars continued their strong showing. Don Thibaut and Clement Lee will be sporting new colors and new cars for the next race at Willow Springs. Will their new Rush Motorsport Team Dynamics cars be as competitive as in 2004? We shall find out soon enough if black is the color to have in 2005.