6/10/2006 - Gingerman Raceway, South Haven, MI - The weekend began with the club's driver Chris Berube taking the car out for Friday evening practice, with plans for the rest of the crew to arrive later in the evening. Kevin K, Deebs, and Doug N. arrived around midnight to find rain falling from the sky. A bit worried, the crew tried to get some sleep to prepare for this weekend of fun on the track.

The team woke on Saturday to clear skies, chilly temps, and a strong desire to go racing. The club's ITA SC2 was paddocked between Tony Roma and Carlos Franca, who are both colleagues of Chris at GM High Performance Vehicle Operations. Tony drives a Spec Miata, and Carlos was crewing for a friend in his Formula Contenental. As the SPC Racing entry was well-prepped and working great, the crew lent hands, tools, and stopwatches to our new friends, effectively turning our area into a 3 car team.

Crew members Doug N, Kevin K, Chris B, Jon T, and John L.

Chris and Tony took to the track for qualifying, and found themselves on their respective class poles. After servicing the cars, the crew had some lunch and relaxed for a while. Since Chris and Tony were gridded ahead of everone else in their classes, the race quickly ended up being ITA Saturn vs. Spec Miata, both in the hands of the best SCCA race drivers that General Motors has to offer.

"The rulebook doesn't specify this as part of a Spec Miata..."

While waiting for the car to cool down for a brake job, the entire SPC Racing crew lent a hand to the corner workers for the last 2 races of the day. After spending just over an hour out in the corner stations, the team came away with a new respect for the hard work that goes into putting on a race from the other side, including watching how the race workers deal with "CarBQs" when an RX-8 caught fire on the front straight.

After Saturday's race was over, the final crew member arrived in time to prep the car for Sunday's race.  Tapp drove up just in time to lend a hand in replacing the brake pads, and bleeding the calipers. Once the car maintenance was done, the crew headed back to the hotel to clean up and go out for dinner and ice cream.

The crew returned to the track Sunday morning, completed the morning prep on the car, and sent Chris out to qualify on the pole. Unfortunatly, Tony and his Miata were  not running in the same run group on Sunday, so Chris found himself on the pole - a full 6 seconds ahead of the only other car in the ITA class.

Tapp showing Chris the status board during a lap.

Gingerman has a "quiet hour" on Sundays so the nearby church can hold services without being interrupted by the sound of race engines. During quiet hour, the team saw a sweet silver Ion Red Line pull in to the paddock. "Alredline" from the Red Line Forums made the trip and came out to support the team.  Thanks again Alan!

The team had lunch, and Chris was sent on his way to the grid. Chris described Sunday's race as a "driver's school," as he found a nice section of open track, and worked on hitting every apex.

As the day came to a close, the car was loaded back on the trailer, supplies were packed up, and everyone said their goodbyes.  This weekend's take: two more first place finishes!  Congratulations team!!

Carrying the flag during Sunday's victory lap.

If you are interested in helping the SPC maintain the GF Racing SC2 or would like to help us as a crew member during this year's racing season, please contact us. We would be happy to get all the help we can!

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