BLOOMINGDALE, Ga. (July 3 , 2007) - The racing at Roebling Road Raceway for the Lou Ella Cook Memorial 27th Annual SEDiv Double National was as hot as the weather. Twelve track records were set over the course of the weekend at the 2.02-mile road course just outside of Savannah, Ga. Obviously, the re-paving done over the winter agrees with the track and racers. Luckily, those infamous late afternoon thunderstorms, so prevalent in Georgia in the summertime, held off until after the racing was done on both days.

 

Race 1 - Saturday (FV, F5, FF, FC, FE)
Early race leader, Ian Harms, of Key Biscayne, Fla., was given a warning for being over the sound limit, but managed to complete the race without any further infractions. Matthew Inge's Formula SCCA (FE) took the lead briefly on lap eight, but Harms was able to come back for the overall and FE win, even though Inge set a new track record for FE, a 1:07.954.

In Formula Continental, Chuck Moran of Oakton, Va., took the win by one lap over Rossella Manfrinato. In Formula Ford, Shandelle Leonard of Thonotosassa, Fla., beat Nick Hollingshead by 16.914 seconds. The Formula 500 race win went to Clint McMahan, of Belle Chase, La., by 20.036 seconds over Gregory Riehle. Formula Vee honors went to Stevan Davis of Powder Springs, Ga., who bested Donnie Isley by 15.962 seconds.

 



Race 2 - Saturday (EP, FP, GP, HP, GTL)
The race was slowed by a full course yellow on lap 10 when Richard Hallman spun his F Production Fiat X1/9 to avoid another spinning car and was struck by Mike Miller’s MG Midget, taking both drivers out of the competition. The race restarted on lap 14 and Omer Norton, of Pelham, N.C., drove his Caterham 7 to the overall and E Production win over Greg Ira, setting a new EP track record of 1:17.176 along the way.

In FP, the Mazda Miata of David Bryson, from Clemmons, N.C., beat Sid Collins in a Porsche 912 by 29.196 seconds. The GT-Lite class win was taken by Dan Robson of Moore, S.C. over Mark Ward. Robinson and his Mazda MX3 set a new GTL class record of 1:19.118. The G Production race was won by Jay Marlowe, of Hendersonville, N.C., in a Toyota Corolla by 28.270 seconds over Keith Church. Marlowe also set a new GP track record of 1:19.692. In the H Production battle of the Volkwagen Sciroccos, David Boles, of Melbourne, Fla., took the early lead over Don Barrak, of Waterloo, S.C., but Barrak was able to regain the lead on lap five and went on to win by a lap over Boles.

 

Race 3 - Saturday (FA, FB, FM, CSR, DSR S2)
After an early lead by polesitter Dorian Foyil, of Nassau, Bahamas, the D Sports Racing car of Jean-Luc Liverato of Alpharetta, Ga., and the Formula Atlantic of Canadian Jacek Mucha swapped the lead until Liverato took it for good on lap seven, going on to win the DSR class by 20.717 seconds over Foyil and setting a new DSR class record of 1:04.466. Mucha took the Formula Atlantic win over Ben Johnson by 6.724 seconds.

Jim Downing of Atlanta, Ga., took the C Sports Racing win and Ken Tyrell, of Tallahassee, Fla., won FB and set a new FB class record of 1:08.603. In Formula Mazda, defending National Champion James Goughary, of Jupiter, Fla., won over David Donovan by 2.795 seconds.

 

Race 4 – Saturday (SRF)
A group of Florida drivers put on quite the show in the Spec Racer Ford race. Mark Eaton, Brian Schofield and Nathan Offutt swapped the lead seemingly every lap. On lap eight, Eaton took the lead for good, but the battle behind him never let up. Schofield and Offutt were eventually joined by Jordon Gore and Andrew Charbonneau. Each of them ran in second place at one time or another during the remainder of the race, with Schofield ending up on the second step of the podium, 9.733 seconds behind Eaton, but only 0.280 seconds ahead of Gore, who was only 0.173 seconds ahead of Charbonneau.

Race 5 –

 

Saturday (GT1, GT2, GT3, T1, T2, AS, BP, ST)
In the “Big Bore” race, Jeff Emery, of Longwood, Fla., got a great start in his GT-1 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, while polesitter and 2006 GT-1 SCCA National Champion, Philip Simms, of Orlando, Fla., got a terrible start in his Jaguar XKR. This allowed Emery to have more than a three-second lead by the end of lap one as Simms fell to fifth place. It took Simms until lap eight to catch Emery and go on to win the GT-1 class by over 35 seconds.

In Touring 1, Chris Ingle, of Raeford, N.C., and Phil Croyle, of Boca Raton, Fla., had a great battle going, running their Corvettes nose-to-tail for several laps until Croyle’s engine let go on lap 12. Ingle went on to win by 8.143 seconds over Jerry Onks.

In GT2, Richard Smith of Loxahatchee, Fla., ran away with the race in his Mazda RX7, winning by a full lap over Thomas Vlasak in a Porsche 911. The GT3 race saw Steve Spiers of Marietta, Ga., and Fletcher Williams battling it out in Nissans, with Spiers the eventual winner by just 0.177-second over Williams. Tom Wilson, of Dacula, Ga., won the B Prepared race in a Dodge Viper convincingly over Al Wicht in a Camaro, and set a new class record of 1:18.646 in the process. The American Sedan class win went to Tom Ellis, of Pompano Beach, Fla., by 3.443 seconds over Robert Eubanks. Both drivers were in Ford Mustangs. Rob Hines of Arlington, Va., was the Touring 2 class winner in a Nissan 350Z, topping John Tecce’s BMW M3 by 14.052 seconds and setting a new T2 track record of 1:20.425.

 

Race 6 – Saturday (SM, SSB, SSC, T3)
Polesitter, Eric Foss of Braselton, Ga., led until lap seven, when Mark Pombo, of Duluth, Ga., took over. Foss spun off on lap 12 while fighting to regain the lead and ended up finishing third after a valiant effort to catch back up to the leaders. Rick Maki finished second, 9.219 seconds behind Pombo.

The only Touring 3 car in the race, the Saturn Ion of Mike Kramer of Lewisburg, Tenn., made a good showing by finishing eighth overall after qualifying 19th. In Showroom Stock B, Jim Daniels of Germantown, Tenn., had a good run in his Mazda MX-5, starting 23rd overall, but finishing ninth overall and first in class ahead of Charles Guest’s Pontiac Solstice by 6.078 seconds. Brian Peele of Huntsville, Ala., and Mark McCaughey had a good race-long SSC battle, with Peele’s Toyota Corolla XRS winning by just 1.689 seconds.

 

Race 1 – Sunday (FV, F5, FF, FC, FE)
Ian Harms broke the track record set the previous day by Matthew Inge with a lap of 1:07.896 on his way an FE class sweep of the weekend. The Formula Continental race was much closer on day two, with Rosella Manfrinato again taking second place behind Chuck Moran, but this time by only 5.746 seconds. Sunday’s Formula Ford race was similar to Saturday’s race with Shandelle Leonard besting Nick Hollingshead by 14.823 seconds. Clint McMahan once again dominated the Formula 500 race, winning with more than a lap on Bob Berman. The Formula Vee race was an exciting affair with Michael Leonard, Stevan Davis, Jonathan Weisheit, Charlie Rogers and Ray Phillips all battling for the lead in the first half of the race. Things began to settle down a bit when Leonard dropped out on lap 13 and Davis, who had taken the lead from Leonard on lap eight, went on for the win over Weisheit by 6.735 seconds.

 

Race 2 – Sunday (EP, FP, GP, HP, GTL)
Saturday’s winner Omer Norton exited Sunday’s race early on lap 10 when contact with lapped traffic damaged his car and forced him to retire. The rest of the excitement was all up front, with Greg Ira, of Plantation, Fla., and Don Ahrens of Gainesville, Fla., running nose-to-tail much of the race until Ira’s Datsun 240Z dropped out on lap 20. Ahrens went on to win a close one in a Nissan 240Z over Jeff Dernehl’s Mazda RX-7 by only 0.417-second. The results in F Production, G Production, H Production and GT-Lite, were near carbon copies of Saturday’s races with David Bryson over Sid Collins in FP by 54.219 seconds, Jay Marlowe over Keith Church in GP by a lap, Don Barrack over David Boles in HP by 29.689 seconds and Dan Robson over Mark Ward in GTL by 7.013 seconds.

 

Race 3 – Sunday (FA, FB, FM, CSR, DSR, S2)
Saturday’s winner, Jean-Luc Liverato, dropped out after only six laps, making life much easier for Dorian Foyil, who won the D Sports Racing competition by a minute. In Formula Atlantic, Jacek Mucha won again over Ben Johnson, this time by 46.799 seconds.

There may have been only two C Sports Racers running, but they had one heck of a battle. John Zuccarelli III managed to take the lead from Jim Downing early, but when they got into lapped traffic on lap nine, Downing was able to regain the lead and hold off Zuccarelli for the win by 7.584 seconds.

Formula Mazda win was again taken by James Goughary over David Donovan by 3.838 seconds.

 

Race 4 – Sunday (SRF)
Once again, the Spec Racer Ford race offered the most excitement of the day. Mark Eaton, Matthew Inge, Mick Robinson, Jordan Gore, Nathan Offutt, Brian Schofield and Andrew Charbonneau all contributed to an outstanding race. Eaton took the lead from Robinson on lap two, but then dropped out on the following lap, allowing Robinson to take over. On lap four, Inge took the lead again, but four laps later Offutt was out in front. Offutt then dropped back to fourth as Schofield slipped into the lead on lap 10. Charbonneau slowly worked his way to the front from a ninth-place start and took the lead on lap 14. He was able to hold the lead until lap 20 when Schofield snatched the lead again. It was all Schofield could do to keep Charbonneau behind him and squeak out a win by just 0.077-second!

 

Race 5 – Sunday (GT1, GT2, GT3, T1, T2, AS, BP)
The GT-1 race was again won by Philip Simms, this time by 34.679 seconds over Ken Bupp. Richard Smith took GT2 honors by beating Joe Jacalone by a lap. Saturday’s close race in GT3 was not repeated, as Steve Spiers was gone from the start.

Another close battle in Touring 1 saw Chris Ingle and Jerry Onks fighting to an even closer finish than Saturday, with Ingle besting Onks by only 0.178-second. The Touring 2 results of Saturday were reversed for Sunday’s race with John Tecce winning over Rob Hines by 36.052 seconds. Saturday’s second and third-place finishers in American Sedan became first and second on Sunday as Robert Eubanks topped Ronald Lebaron Sr. by 10.248 seconds. Tom Wilson managed to lower his B Prepared track record ever so slightly to a 1:18.627 on his way to beating Al Wicht by a lap.

 

Race 6 – Sunday (SM, SSB, SSC, T3)
For the first half of the Spec Miata race, the lead changed quickly and often, but on lap 14 the finishing order was established. Eric Foss, who had finished a disappointing third on Saturday, got the victory, 5.161 seconds ahead of Rick Maki, who had also finished second the previous day. Saturday’s winner, Mark Pombo, finished third.

Jim Daniels again finished ahead of Charles Guest in the Showroom Stock B race, but by only 2.138 seconds the second time around. Brian Peele and Mark McCaughey fought it out for most of the Showroom Stock C race, just as they did on Saturday, but Peele dropped out on lap 18, leaving McCaughey the task of holding off Luke Russell. He managed that feat, but just barely, winning by 0.077-second.

The final SCCA Club National event on the Southeast Division schedule will take place August 11 at Virginia International Raceway.