ALL>> Sunny and warm weather were a welcome relief on Saturday and Sunday of the last weekend of April from the howling winds of the Friday test day. Team LMR was able to get in a couple of practice sessions in the dusty conditions on Friday using old tires to prepare for qualifying first thing on Saturday morning.
In qualifying Larry Mason was ready to go on a new set of Goodyear racing tires. After a few warm-up laps, he came into the pits for a quick check of pressures and temperatures. After leaving the pits, Mason was on a “flyer” qualifying lap when he came up on two slower cars in the fastest part of the track which ruined his lap. The qualifying session ended, yet Mason still qualified third in class just 0.014 seconds out of second place. When the green flag dropped for Race #1, Mason hounded the second place driver while the first place driver started to build a gap.
Mason thought about trying to work together in the draft with the second place driver to catch the leader, but he knew that wasn’t going to work.
After a few passing attempts, Mason was finally able to make the pass stick and set out after the leader. Although Mason ended up setting the fastest lap of the race, he wasn’t able to close the gap enough and had to settle for second in class.
In Race #2, when the green flag dropped, Mason dived to the inside of the leader going into Turn 1 passing him and then set out to lay down some quick laps to break the draft and get away.
He did just that and held off the previous day’s winner and won the Formula Car Challenge (FCC) race. Mason’s heart rate peaked at 163 bpm during the race according to his Polar M450 HR monitor.
Since this was his first race weekend of the year with the FCC group and all the fast guys from this series had come down to compete, Team LMR was very proud of their accomplishment. This bodes well for being competitive for the rest of the season.
The FCC was held in conjunction with the SCCA U.S. Majors Hoosier Tires Super Tour Series.
Mason was credited with second place finishes in both of those races.
Those strong finishes have vaulted Mason into the points lead in the SCCA U.S. Majors Western Conference Championship points standings.
Special thanks to Tom and Stella from Auto Diagnostic Services for their tremendous work ethic in preparing a winning race car.