Thunderhill Race Report

[Tony G]

Race weekend number four of the 2002 Camaro Mustang Challenge season was held at Thunderhill Raceway May 11th and 12th under beautiful sunny skies with temps in the low 80's.We had 14 entries, including 2 rookies, Dave Morin and Mike Plumb making his debut in the #38 Camaro.

Mothers day weekend was a little tough on some others who couldn't make it, but we understand.

We were in group A with GTA, ASC, A/I and AIX cars, all of which in turn are all really fast cars!

 

Qualifying saw Campbell, Steel, Littleton, Guaglione, Trask and Pfaff at the front but as the flip of a coin prevailed, we went to the famous CMC inversion. This put the rookies to the front,veterans to the back and newcomer Mike Plum was in for a treat being on pole position for his first race!

 

Saturdays race was ready for action as the CMC cars saw the green flag drop for a perfect start.It was a five car wide first turn when Bergman clipped the rear of Team BAF's Mustang sending him into a spin, and cars were scrambling everywhere.By turn two Guaglione had gone from starting in 12th and was already in 4th place chasing down Adams and super hard running Donahoe. Ben Pfaff had everyone in sight and was charging from behind. The transmission in Plums car went out early on and he had to watch from the sidelines. Guaglione eventually took the lead but that didn't last long

as he blew his motor and had to retire early. This left Pfaff with first, Donahoe with a fantastic run took second, Ducharme took an impressive third and Trask took fourth. Trask failed to show up at impound and was subsequently disqualified which moved Campbell up to fourth. It was then Steel, Littleton, Stowell, Adams, Little, Morin,Bergman, Guaglione and Plum rounding out the field.

 

Sunday qualifying saw the grid set Stowell, and rookie Morin on the front row. The rest of the field was rounded out with Pfaff, Littleton, Steel,Donahoe, Campbell, D. Trask, Adams, Little and Bergman. Plumb and Guaglione were sidelined by mechanical problems. Plumb with a broken transmission and

Guaglione with engine problems.

 

The start went off well with Stowell, Pfaff, Morin and Steel off and running out front with Campbell and Littleton giving chase. Pfaff and Stowell soon broke away putting in some blistering laps leaving everyone in the dust, turning times in the high 2:06's. About 5 laps in, the safety car was deployed due to an

incident with two of the GTA cars on the track and in a case of mistaken identity picked up Steel as the race leader for half a lap. After the dust settled, it was Pfaff, Stowell (Team BAF)(Who was DQ'd after finding the wrong size jets in his carb) and Steel in the top 3. Littleton secured 4rd after holding off hard charging Campbell who claimed 5th. The rest

of the field was rounded out by:Donahoe,Adams,Morin,Trask,Little, and Bergman

 

Coming shortly, the June 8th & 9th at Willow Springs race report!

 

Nick Steel & Tony Guaglione

CMC Directors

http://www.camaromustangchallenge.com