By Lynne Hunting

It was a long day but it wasn’t a dull day Saturday for Day Two of the Sonoma Majors and SFR Regional. The day started ten minutes late due to a breaking of the “No engines on before 8am” rule. During the morning the schedule was caught up only to slow down after lunch during the races. The good news is that no drivers were hurt. However, several cars were. And the subsequent wear and tear, towing, debris cleanup, and repairing of tire walls and barriers took its toll on the schedule. We were on a Follow-By Schedule, so technically we didn’t run overtime. But finally we called it a day and headed to Worker Camping for a big, delicious pot-luck dinner, prepared by various regional chefs.

Race control was busy working between the various teams to keep things running smoothly.

One exciting Saturday occurrence was the setting of five – FIVE – new track records in three race groups! And four of the five drivers are San FrancR members!
TROY ERMISH/No.38 Datsun – GTL – Group One – 1:51.217
JAKE PIPAL/No.28 Mazda – BSpec – Group One – 2:02.743
JIM DEVENPORT/No.29 SCCA Formula Enterprise 2 – Fe/2 – Group Two – 1:39.943
LEE FLEMMING/No.00 MG Midget – HP – Group One – 1:55.140
MIKE MISERENDINO/No.11 SRF3 – SRF – Group Six – 1:47.238 – Cal Club

Mike King busy announcing the races and new lap records

Mike’s father, Tom Miserendino, raced No.15 SRF3 in the same race. He lives in London, so hands down he wins the Longest Tow Award… Not!. He keeps the car in his son’s race shop, at Buttonwillow, which Mike manages.

Start of the Spec Racer Ford Gen3 sprint race

Speaking of young Jake Pipal – he couldn’t get off to be at the track until Saturday morning. He got the BSpec pole with only one of his two qualifying sessions to count … and won the race. The results don’t show the gap between second and third place BSpec finishers – Robert Rodriguez Jr/No.6 Mazda 2 and John Phillips/No.3 Honda Jazz. But I heard it was a foot, maybe 0.0001 second. They came down the front stretch side by side. It was thrilling! And this class has the smallest cars.

RC Photography: Jake Pipal in BSpec

With races come Pace Car rides, a perk San Francisco Region offers to, among others, workers who are new or visiting from other regions. Todd Heilicher of Chicago Region was Saturday’s Pace Car Steward/Driver, and gave informative commentary during each ride.

Large fields kept the grid crews busy

In Group Two, FM Race Winner, Bill Weaver/No.67 Formula Mazda presented his Checkered Flag to Flagger Heather Streets on Turn Eight. Such nice gestures are so appreciated by the Workers.