A look at MWHC from BeaveRun

Round 2 of the Midwest Honda Challenge met with the East Coast Honda Challenge at Beaver Run on May 17th and 18th. This was a Hyper-Fest event, so it was considered a pro race for NASA points and money. Chris Cobetto the event director and Chapter Head for the Virginia Region of NASA ran a great show. We didn't get the overall number of spectators, but estimates were in the 7-10k range. There was 8 camera crews taking various footage of the Honda Challenge event. It was the featured event of the awesome race weekend.

I called Jeff Mishtawy on Wednesday and told him to get his car ready, I was going to enter him for this event. After an all night thrash at his shop, with a fresh windshield (mid-ohio wreck did the old one in), and me supplying tires and wheels for him, he was ready to go! Boy was he ever!

The run group was made up of 25 total entrants. 7 cars in H1 (Hybrids), 5 cars in H2, 4 in H3, 7 cars in H4, and 2 in H5.

The H4 entrants were: Jerry Birchmore, Gene Hancock (SNT driver), Tony Zelones, Lyonel Kent, Jeff Mishtawy (SNT driver), Chris Stiffler (SNT-owner), and Jon Marhefka.

Saturday Qualifying started out at 8:45 am. The track had good grip and temperatures were in the low 60's, with an overcast sky. In our team meeting before qualifying, Jeff and I agreed to run together and see if we could get in a good clean lap or two. The qualifying session was set for 35 minutes.

I had new Hoosiers and new brake pads to bed in so I took my time. There was a number of incidents on course. Gene Hancock who got together with Warren Wang's H2 ITR, left some nasty marks on Warren and Genes 89 Civic Si. Gene admitted he was learning the track and didn't see Warren coming. So with Gene running a short session his best time was a 1:15.3. With the various incidents clogging up the track, the session was checkered after only 10 minutes!

Jon Marhefka (91 Crx Si) grabbed the pole with a 1:08.4 and Chris Stiffler was off pole with a 1:08.9. Jeff Mishtawy (89 Crx Si) was third 1:09.6, Lionel Kent (Civic EX) 1:11.1, Tony Zelones (Integra LS) 1:13.0, Gene Hancock, then rookie Jerry Birchmore (89 Crx Si) 1:18.1 The fresh DPR cylinder heads we had were definitely puttin down the power! (dpr-racing.com) Dan Paramore 310-523-4074.

Chris Cobetto elected to invert the whole field to put on a better show for the crowd on hand. When the news of this circulated the paddock via the group liason (Matt Bookler), a lot of opposition arose. A drivers meeting was called just for our group and we put it to a vote. All but 4 drivers agreed that inverting the field was a bad idea. The track was too short, passing was too limited, and the number of rookies in the field made it an easy decision for most to turn down the inversion. So resolution no. 2 passed. Each class was inverted, but not the whole field. This allowed the H1 cars to start at the front of the grid, then H2 and so on..

The race was set to start at 4:50 p.m. The Qualifying session ended at 12:15, so plenty of time for repairs and set up was allowed. NICE JOB NASA! Gene's Hancock's front end alignment alone took me an hour to reset!

With the field inverted and a standing start mandatory due to dry weather, it promised to be a good race. The field was set with Jon Marhefka and I at the back of the H4 pack. Jon had the left side and was able to see the green flag when it flew. I wasn't able to see squat so I had to go when Lionel Kent went.

That proved to be near disaster! Lionel got a launch then his throttle cable broke on the grid. I narrowly missed giving him a rear end makeover! He was the only car that didn't leave the grid, figures it was just in front of me! Jon took to the grass and passed Jeff long before turn 1. Gene got a good start untill he got into the middle of turn 1 and the rear end got loose. He missed the apex going into turn 2 by over a car width and then left a hole for Marhefka. Jon shot the gap, up over the apex curbing and then got hit in the left front fender by Tony Zelones who went by Gene on the left. That sent Jon spinning at the exit of turn 2. With Jeff Mishtawy right in front of me, we figured we had enough of a gap on Jon that we could run away from him and finish 1,2. Jeff and I ran nose to tail for close to 5 laps passing anywhere we could.

On lap 6 the yellow came out to remove Lionel Kent's civic that was dead in the water just off the edge of the front straight. We ran 2 laps behind the pace car and that allowed Marhefka to close up on my bumper. On the restart, Jeff and I took off, leaving Jon about 5 car lengths back. In 3 laps, I got a run on Jeff in the back stretch and went inside him at turn 10. Jeff was holding me up and I thought he would let me go, but in turn 10, while I was passing him, Jon slipped up the inside heading onto the front stretch. My pass on Jeff stuck and I set out to reel Jon in. I followed Jon for 1 lap and closed up to his bumper in the back stretch with throttle to spare. I figured I would sit here and make the pass when it counted most. Little did I know that on the next lap, we caught the H3 Integra GSR of Phil Phillips on the back stretch. Jon got a good run down the hill, ( I got a little slowed up while lapping Keith Edwards in turn 4) and cleared Phil just before the kink. I went to follow Jon through and Phil closed the door on me. With the right half of the car in the grass at 125 mph, I spun out of control. Jon was gone, and Jeff got back by me. I didn't hit anything, and fell to third place. I chased Jeff back down in 5 laps, and attempted several passes, but Jeff drove defensively. On lap 18 I went way deep on Jeff in turn 10 out of frustration of seeing Jon long gone, and for being faster than Jeff, and bumped him in the door and got the pass done. I felt bad for bumping into him unintentionally during the pass, so I waved him back by. Tony Zelones came back by as well and that put me in 4th. Jeff and I were able to pass Tony, and then fight it out for 2nd. I did my best to get a clean pass on Jeff for the next 7 laps, but he blocked every attempt I made and I had to settle for 3rd. Excuse me, in Jeff's words- ``Defensive Driving is all it was.''

Fast race laps were: winner Jon Marhefka, 1:08.041, 2nd pl. Jeff Mishtawy- 1:09.393 3rd- Chris Stiffler- 1:08.410 4th- Tony Zelones- 1:11.482 5th- Jerry Birchmore 1:17.312 and 6th was Gene Hancock- 1:15.223 and Lyonel Kent scored a DNS for the broken throttle cable. Gene finished last due to a broken left front hub and half shaft on lap 10 of 27. What a day Gene had!

SUNDAY-

The day started of on a bad note when Jeff called me about half an hour from home saying he forgot the keys to the trailer at my house. So we turned around and went back and got the keys. Jeff tore into Genes car and when we got there at 11:00 am, we got Gene back on track for qualifying. It had rained that morning and pushed the schedule back a half and hour. On Sunday at Beaver Run, there is a mandatory one hour lunch break. Qualifying was now moved to 1:40 pm, with the race at 4:50pm.

Jeff and Gene got out in qualifying early and I was running behind due to a brake changeover and two broken studs from cross threaded lug nuts. My brake ducts got destroyed from the off in Saturdays race as well.

I got on course about 10 minutes late and on my out lap the distributor went south! I ran two laps, and the best I could muster with all 2,500 rpm was a 1:36.420- dead last in the field of 23 cars! Just Great!

The NASA officials sent Matt Bookler (liason) over to my paddock area to find out what was wrong with my lap time. They thought I was sandbagging hoping for another inverted field. Not the case at all..

So the H4 field qualified with these times-

Pole- Marhefka- 1:08.695 2nd- Lyonel Kent- 1:10.274 3rd-Jeff Mishtawy- 1:10.449 4th- Zelones- 1:11.710 5th- Jerry Birchmore-1:17.085 6th- Gene Hancock-1:17.103 and then my blistering lap of 1:36.420.

THE START-

No inversion, just a straight up start this time. A pre race drivers meeting dicussed the moving of the green flag since so many couldnr't see it on Saturday.

A logical conclusion was reached with the green flag being thrown up by the announcer/ timing and scoring booth. The booth is about 30 feet off the ground and sets off the edge of the track about 100 yards! (still couldn't see squat, there were trees right behind the flag, and the colors blended leaving me out again!)

Everyone got a good start but me. Being at the tail of the field, I really stood out when the field left me by 15 car lengths. I missed the 2-3 upshift 3 times!!!! I was not having a good morning at all- and that led to poor concentration during the race. I eventually got going and caught Gene and the H5 rookie in turn 3 and set out after the other H4 guys. The race distance was shortened by 8 laps over Saturdays race, so I had to set sail and quick. Tony Zelones was testing for the 12 hour race at Summit Point in 2 weeks, so he let me passed rather easily. I got up to 4th and had to run down Lyonel Kent. Jon Marhefka was in the lead with Jeff not far behind. It took me about 7 laps to reel in Lyonel who was trying desperately to get by Todd Reid in an H1 civic hatch. Todd held Lyonel up in the corners just enough to allow me to get a run on Lyonel going into the ``stiffler kink'' on the back stretch. Just as I swung out to pass him, there was the H5 crx of Keith Edwards. I knew better than to try to go in the grass at the kink again, so I tucked in behind Lyonel for another attempt down the front stretch. I couldn't get the pass done into turn 1. I tried again at the apex of the uphill turn 5 but short shifted the car and lost momentum. I got a good run on Lyonel down the back stretch into turn 10 and couldn't get the pass done again. We came through turn 11 and out onto the front stretch nose to tail, with the white flag in the air. I braked as late as possible into turn 1 and got the car sideways and then went through the grass exiting into the line of turns 2 and 3. I got going real quick and watched Lyonel and Todd Reid duke it out on the back stretch. Todd had the hp over Lyonel so that had to make Lyonel go crazy. I got to turn 10 and was with in only about 12 car lengths of them, so I just took it easy to the checker finishing in 4th place.

Nice job to Jeff Mishtawy (SNT driver) two seconds on the weekend! Chris- 3rd Sat, 4th Sun (after all the issues we had)

****Special thanks to: Shannon Stiffler, Sam Meyers, & Jason Pollock our crew who kept all 3 of us on track all weekend.****

A very special thanks to Shannon Stiffler for her wonderful cooking and opening up her home for Gene, Jeff and his son Tyler, Jason, and Sam- not to mention putting up with me all weekend! I love you dear!