Honda Challenge takes BeaveRun by Storm

For the second race of the East Coast Honda Challenge (ECHC) 2003 season, ECHC drivers made their way just west of Pittsburgh to the BeaveRun Motorsports Complex. BeaveRun, now in its second year of operation, is growing quickly, with a 1.6 mile road course, a large skidpad/autocross lot, and a challenging go kart track already in place. The May 17th and 18th event was the first HyperFest to be hosted by BeaveRun, and despite the overcast, cool weather, turnout was impressive. The ECHC has the headlining race event for the weekend, and drivers provided quite a show for the fans.

Warren Wang, whose H2 Integra Type R has a reputation for attracting damage at ECHC events, got it out of the way during practice on Saturday morning when the driver?s side of his well-worn R was decorated with black swirlies from another driver's sidewall. Wang?s engine builder, Steve Sakai, removed the marks with a rag and some gasoline, which prompted many to suggest that he stop building engines and open a detailing shop. On the whole, drivers liked the 12-turn BeaveRun North track. Few drivers had any experience on the course, so times in practice were sure to come down as the weekend progressed.

In qualifying Saturday, drivers pushed hard to earn the forward positions in the five classes. Chris Brinson's H3 GS-R stopped shifting during qualifying, so he pulled in early, and with the help of paddock-mate Lyonel Kent, the process of dropping the tranny was begun in hopes of finding the problem and a fix to salvage some of the weekend. After qualifying, NASA Director Chris Cobetto declared that the field would be inverted based on their qualifying positions, which earned a strong, mostly negative, reaction from the drivers. Drivers who complained about their performance in qualifying stopped doing so at first wind of the inverted field rumor.

It was decided that a the decision would be put to a vote. Many argued that there were too many Rookies on the new, tight track to make the decision a safe one, since it's impossible to learn a course when you're driving with your mirrors. When put to a vote, only four drivers wanted the field to be inverted. However, the prospect of inverting by class was of interest to a majority of the drivers, and this was accepted by Chris Cobetto. This would ensure a good show for the spectators, and give drivers who are used to a clear field ahead of them some experience in dealing with traffic other than lapped cars.

Drivers waited for the late race start, and despite the looming threat of rain from the thinly overcast sky, a strong wind was blowing a significant amount of dust around the paddock. Finally, after several hours of waiting, the ECHC cars started reporting to the grid just before 5PM.

ECHC drivers took their warmup lap and found their positions on the grid for the signature Honda-Challenge standing start, this time with the fastest cars in each class starting behind those who qualified slower. Lyonel Kent's H4 Civic suffered from a broken throttle cable when the green dropped, and those behind him darted left and right to avoid the stalled Civic. On lap 3, the yellow flag flew to clear the track, and the cars tightened up and completed several laps under yellow. When the flag flew again, the battle at the front of the pack was between H1 drivers Chad Slag, who set the fastest lap of the race, and James Evans, as they created an impressive gap over the cars behind them in their hybrid-engined cars. Corey Jacobs and Warren Wang fought hard in the H2 race for several laps, but a shift linkage failure was the end of Jacobs' race. Kevin Ruck, a visitor from the MidWest Honda-Challenge, was also forced to retire early.

The R&D MotorSports red H1 hatchback, driven by Chad Slagg, went off at the end of the back straight and hit the tire wall. The leader of the race, due to mechanical trouble, was falling off the pace, and Warren Wang, who had passed Jason Franza for the lead in H2, started catching the overall leader at a surprising clip. After several laps of reeling in the lead car, Warren took P1, and several laps later, took the checkered flag with both the overall win and a class win in H2, his first ECHC race victory. Moments after Wang took the flag, the number 48 H5 CRX Si of Jedd Fahnestock came down the hill after turn 7 billowing smoke. Lyonel Kent, who was stranded in the middle of the track after his throttle-cable break, rushed with the course workers to the extinguish the smoking car. Fortunately for Fahnestock, he still secured a class victory in H5 as a result of the finishing lap order despite a broken, smoking car. A friendly rivalry exists between the H2 and H1 drivers about overall win positions, and with Wang's overall victory despite the ``slower'' car class, the pressure was on for H1 to take an overall lead on Sunday.

Rain finally came overnight, and for practice on Sunday morning the ECHC drivers were greeted by a fairly damp track. Corey Jacobs' H2 Prelude, which had retired due to broken shift linkage, was in partial working order, minus a 4th gear. The track was dry by the time qualifying began, and Jacobs had arranged with friend and competitor Warren Wang for a bit of help in the qualifying session. A masking-tape bulls-eye with the words ``HIT HERE'' was applied to the rear bumper of Jacob's Prelude, and for the first qualifying laps, Wang would run his Type R (sporting a few layers of protective tape on the front bumper) into Jacobs' tail down the straights for an added boost of speed to help with qualifying. Amused by this tactic, race director Chris Cobetto printed a sign for Jacobs' car that read ``I've Been Wanged''. Chris Brinson continued to perform repairs on his GS-R's clutch assembly, having diagnosed the problem, he worked feverishly to get his car back together for the race.

Sunday's race started with an exciting but clean standing start, though Saturday?s overall winner, Wang, had an abysmal launch, and lost several positions. One of the cones surrounding the track ended up in the middle of the front straight just before the braking zone, and one of the drivers smacked it head on in spectacular fashion at what must have been more than 100 MPH. The H1 cars of Chad Slagg and James Evans put on a spectacular show the entire race, trading the lead several times, and putting a large gap between them and eventual H2 winner Warren Wang. On the final lap, Slagg and Evans were at each other's throats, making contact on the downhill after turn 7 and pushing their cars to the limit. With the checkered flag out, Slagg was ahead of Evans coming up the hill towards the front straight, and Slagg took the win. Brinson, whose GS-R was fixed in time for the race, took the H3 win despite starting at the back of the pack as a result of not being able to qualify.

ECHC will continue their relationship with HyperFest for the next event in West Virginia at Summit Point Raceway, for the weekend following July 4th. See you there!