WC 2019 Recap

Thursday morning was finally here and the drivers that got here early were unpacking. It was a cold cloudy morning, but no
rain. Cars began hitting the track to lay down that all important rubber we need so much. Thursday would end up being a
full practice day. Friday is here and it's time for business. The Goodwine's once again did a great job of representing
everyone that participated with the nations flags on the back straight.

After the Opening Ceremony and Anthems played, one more layer of traction compound was sprayed and we were off. Due to the upcoming freakish storms we have been having, the organizers decided to get in two qualifiers on Friday because of 100% pending rain on Saturday. That was a good call. The traction was coming up and the times were coming down. Once we saw Markus in the 20's we knew that track had come alive and even with the cold weather and your favorite tire choice the track was more than driveable.

Reinhard would get the best of Andreas in round two but not enough to take over the TQ Pena would take round two but could not better his time. Markus would better his time in round 2 and get his 30 lapper with a fastest lap of 20.176 . Larry Dy would get round 2 over Dwayne Lawler by 4 seconds and the guy that had to be the most estatic in Super Bike was Dereck Butterfield finally getting to compete with his bike. Tony Tam would remain top qualifier in SPEC 5.

STC Markus Feldman 30 Fastest Lap 19.936
F1 Andreas Lum 27 Fastest Lap 21.861
GT Frank Pena 25 Fastest Lap 23.395
SBK Larry Dy
SPEC 5 Tony Tam

Everyone held their breath and hoped that there may be a slim shot that we would get in some rounds on Saturday but by noon it was evident that no racing would happen. Bench Racing, Food and Shopping ensued. What better time for race announcer Mike Brawn to break out a model he had been putting off building for a while.

Saturday night we had our now must attend Meet and Greet. All the characters were there, Mossimo and Marquel, Tony and Victor, Craig and ..... The triple L threat of Luis D, Luis C and Luis R. Everyone had a great time.

Sunday was another day of fingers crossed. Kyle and Mike were doing their best to mitigate any drops of water landing and staying on the track until the window appeared that we were waiting for to start. Finally the call to hit the track by Victor to lay down some rubber and scrub off the wetness was given and 1.5 hours later we were racing.

The lower mains were first. The track was still a little slick from being so cold but the drivers battled through. Everyone being on the same playing field. Then it was time for the finals. Superbike would be first. It was your six place qualifier putting in the upset and winning 2 of the 3 triple mains for the bikes. Ian Francisco would be 2nd and Dereck Butterfield 3rd.

The SPEC guys put on a good show and after 20 minutes of racing it was TQ Tony Tam with the win Ken Gerberding ran a solid race and would come home 2nd on the lead lap. Gary Keys finished 3rd followed by Matthew Myers and Steve Bollew.

Now it was time for F1 and that nice looking ride of Andreas Blum was on pole. The race would start and he never looked back. The would end up being for second between Reinhard Maron and Fernando Jose finishing 2.5 seconds apart. 4th would go to Craig Kaplan and 5th to Rich Reybok.

Next up would be GT. I can honestly say I have never seen Tom Wong run such a clean race. Typically Frank Pena starts off slow and then tracks you down like an aligator after it's prey. But Tom never allowed Frank to get close enough to start and attack. After he passed Frank on lap 2 that was all she wrote. Greg Shum making the most of a one day showing would come in 2nd in the B main and then come home in third in the finale. Rick Wang winner of the B would be 4th and Jojo Bayabo from the RAMS Club ran a solid race and would take 5th.

The days main attraction,the STC Finale. The clouds were starting to get a little thicker and fingers were crossed. Pole sitter Markus Feldman would lead everyone off the line. Matias Garcia had a couple shots at Markus early in the race but once Markus settled into his pace that was pretty much the race. The only thing hanging over his head was would there be a repeat of last year with him running out of gas in the last few minutes. The weather played into that with no one running anywhere close to the lap times of last years finale. Craig Kaplan had to be the heartbreak kid while running 3rd and looking pretty good for finishing in that spot he suffered a mechanical on lap 38 that put him out of the event. 8 of the 10 drivers would continue on to finish. Congrats to the A Main drivers and winner Markus Feldman, Matias Garcia, Luis Diaz, Luis Rinzivillo, Tony Vega, Kyle Goodwine, David Wang, Fernando Requejo, Craig Kaplan and Cedric Collins.

A Big thanks to the Goodwine's for hosting the event. Kyle for running the show while Dad was away, Victor Garcia and Mike Brawn, race director extraordinaire.

World Challenge 2019