Spec Miata Season Finale at Buttonwillow
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Clear, sunny and warm, a beautiful October weekend at Buttonwillow, the Spec Miata crowd were back in town for the Pumpkin run double regional. While the championship was already settled at Willowsprings a couple of weeks earlier, a large group showed up for the finale event of the 2005 season, including several who finished school just several weeks ago, running on the 3.1 miles configuration #1A (using the new Buttonhook section) in the standard clockwise direction.

For some reason, maybe due to recent rain, the track was extremely slick and many drivers had one or more offs during practice. Don Thibaut qualified on pole, with Bobby Carter from San Francisco coming in several hundredths behind, right next to him on the front row. The Turn7 team of Tim Weaver and Mark Carruthers occupied the second row, while the ALive Motorsports cars took up the next row. Ostensibly missing in that lineup was Don's teammate, Clement Lee, who had fuel pump/pickup problem, and was sputtering around the track to qualify in the last row!

For a change, the SM group was given a split start at this event. As the green flag waved, Don led the train around the corners while Clement started cautiously making his way through the field. Chuck Mathews, a karter who decided SM is the place to be, after having sampled Spec Racer Ford (SRF) and Pro7 races in the past couple events, spun at the "Dog Leg" section in his newly acquired SM and rolled back across the track just as Alan Leukhardt and Clement Lee arrived at the scene. Fortunately both Leukhardt and Lee picked the right evasive maneuver and avoided any contact.

Before long, Clement Lee was hounding the Turn7 car of Tim Weaver. Eventually, Lee clawed his way into 4th, sandwiched in between the Turn7 team cars. Meanwhile, Bobby Carter had taken over the lead from Don Thibaut and started to open up a gap. While Lee appeared to be slowly making up ground on 3rd spot, he was running out of laps.

Although Bobby Carter held a considerable lead over Don Thibaut, luck was riding with Don's once more. Carter was badly held up by an IT car in the last lap, and Don was closely up fast. As the checkered flag waved, Carter finished first but barely a nose ahead of Thibaut. Mark Carruthers came in third while Clement Lee came in 4th and Tim Weaver in 5th.

While the SM class was mostly incident free, that could not be said for the I.T. class in the same run group. Several I.T. cars were so badly banged up to the point that at impound after the race, the steward gave them I.T. a good lecture and at the same time pointing out the SM were driving quite well. Good driving to SM.

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With more rubber on the track, everyone ran faster. There was no practice session, just qualifying in the morning. This time around, Bobby Carter got pole by a few hundredths over Don. Tim Weaver was next in the 2nd row with Clement Lee right along side. Mark Carruthers was next in 5th followed closely by several kart guys, Scott Kennedy, Chuck Mathews and Grant Westmorland.

Once again, the SM class got a split start, this time starting in front of the I.T. cars. As soon as the green flag waved, Bobby Carter surged ahead and was already ahead as the train crossed the start line. However, that lead did not last long as Carter went straight off at the end of the pit straight. With Don Thibaut now in the lead, Clement Lee tucked in right behind into 2nd as the Rush Motorsport car ran in the 1-2 formation again. Tim Weaver was right on Clement's bumper as they went around the first lap. With Clement taking a defensive line from the hard charging Tim, Don was able to steadily pull away.

Clement and Tim ran nose tail for several laps and swapped position several times in the process. Even Scott Kennedy (one of the karters) managed to get into the mix but soon fell back. Clement Lee got back in front Tim Weaver and started to put the hammer down to open a small gap. Luck was not exactly on Clement side as Norris' BMW came charging up into the Sunset corner, taking the line away from Clement. Not being able to make the turn, Clement spun around onto the front straight, heading backwards toward the end of the pit wall.

Well, for Clement, it was not over until it was over. With his engine still running, he down shifted into second and powered his way around the end of the pit wall, like the Titanic trying to round the iceberg, then spun the car around into the right direction and back into action. The crowd gave a big sigh of relieve as Lee completed his save of the day.

Meanwhile, Bobby Carter had recovered from his first corner off and had charged thru the field into 2nd, looking to settle for 2nd place. Don Thibaut in the Rush Motorsport car was maintaining a 6 seconds lead over Carter and stayed that way... until 2 laps from the finish when Thibaut, in cruise mode, made an uncharacteristic mistake, lost it coming out of the "Dog Leg", spun around big time, allowing Carter to came thru to win.

It was not over until the fat lady sang. In the end, Bobby Carter came through with another win, followed in 2nd by Don Thibaut. Tim Weaver came in 3rd while Clement Lee recovered to finish in 4th. The kart guys Chuck Mathews and Scott Kennedy finished right behind in 5th and 6th.
 

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The 2005 SM racing season came to a conclusion with the SM class growing stronger and the racing getting better. Throughout the season, the front running drivers demonstrated that one could run close and fast without incidence. Asked one of the new drivers Mr. Mathews about his experiences in the 3 different classes he tried before deciding on SM, he explained: Between SRF, Pro7 and SM, Spec Miata (SM) is definitely the most fun of the 3 classes. For SRF, it was very sensitive to the setup. With Pro7, well, the competition potential is limited. For SM, you can just jump into a SM and concentrate on your driving. The class is growing, there are lots of competition and of course, there is Nationals.

For those looking to get into closed wheel racing and trying to decide which class to get into, SM is definitely the strongest contender and with SM getting National status, it is bound to attract more drivers into the class.

Thank you workers, officials, crew and drivers for a wonderful year. Looking forward to more close racing action in 2006.

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