August 15, 2009 - USERA Spec Racer Challenge Hosts Enduro and Sprint Double at Lime Rock Park

The USERA Spec Racer Challenge Presented by Motion Dynamics joined the NASCAR Camping World Series this weekend as part of the 2009 Mohegan Sun 200 at historic Lime Rock Park in upstate Connecticut. The Spec Racer Challenge ran a one and half hour endurance race Saturday morning and a 30 lap sprint races Saturday afternoon.

The format for the Saturday morning endurance race was pretty simple. Spec Racer Fords are spec race cars built by SCCA Enterprises. The cars typically average about 45 to 50 minutes on a single tank of fuel at Lime Rock Park, so everyone knew the pit window for fueling would open at the around 40 minutes into the race.

The father/son driving team of Herb Sweeney III and Herb Sweeney IV qualified on the pole, with Lee McNeish, John Steinmetz, Jason Barfield and Robert Reed completing the top five qualifiers in the 20 car field.

The first of several exciting on-track incidents occurred about 6 laps into the race when the 21 car of Reid Stewart broke a right rear hub and had to limp around the track to the pits.

The 98 car of J. P. DeVillars lost control in the diving turn 11 and made heavy contact with the tire wall spinning him back across the track and coming to a rest at pit in. The car was heavily damaged forcing DeVillars to retire from the race on lap 17. DeVillars was not hurt in the incident.

Sweeney IV would hold on to the lead for the first half hour until retiring due to electrical issues. Steinmetz would take over the lead until the pit stop action began around lap 38 and 40. The 77 car of Jeffrey Lehner was the first car to make a scheduled pit stop, but on his out lap he suffered from a seized rear wheel bearing that ended his race.

Steinmetz led from lap 33 to lap 39 and pitted on lap 40. Following his pit stop, Steinmetz was moving through the field and was back in 7th place when his left front hub failed at turn 10 causing him to spin to the bottom of the hill. This resulted in the first and only full course caution of the event but the caution came as a handful of cars were still completing their stops.

After all the stops were made and at the race was restarted, the top three were Lee McNeish, Robert Reed and Jeff Swann. Swann would be hounded by Roy Albertalli in fourth until three laps from the end when Albertalli muscled his way past Swann for third. The top ten finishers in the Endurance race would be McNeish, Reed, Albertalli, Swann, DeFonce, Ferguson, Cirillo, Youngsma, Wiehl and Mailhot.

Mechanical problems hit several of the quickest drivers in the endurance race so we found ourselves with what amounted to a driver induced inverted field for the start of the afternoon sprint race. Drivers such as Myers, Lehner, Sweeney III, Barfield and Stewart, who had all qualified in the top ten for the endurance race, would be starting in the 15th, 16th, 17th and 20th spots on the grid.

At the start, Jeffrey Lehner made an amazing run through the field on his first lap and advanced from 16th to 7th. Sweeney III followed Lehner through the field and moved from 17th to 9th. Swann, who had finished 4th in the endurance race, would have his day end on lap 6 due to a driveline failure. Lehner's was the next to retire on lap 8 when he made contact with the wall. At the end, McNeish would take his second win of the day, followed by Sweeny IV and Barfield. Barfield was another driver who started at the back in 18th place and had an incredible race to finish 3rd. Myers and Sweeney III would round out the top five.

"Winning anytime is always a great experience but I must confess that the results of the weekend were greatly influenced by multiple mechanical failures. I think there were four or five in the endurance race alone," said Lee McNeish. "The entire event was a pleasure to be a part of and so much more fun and exciting than what we normal see on a typical club race weekend."

"The racing was fantastic this weekend and I just can't thank USERA, Erik Skirmants of SCCA Enterprises, the drivers and teams that came and the staff at Motion Dynamics enough for the efforts to make this event happen," said Shawn Morrison, owner of Motion Dynamics. "The weather was absolutely perfect and to be in an environment with fans, friends and some of the best competitors in racing made this event unforgettable. The endurance race was really fun to watch and the racing was some of the closest I've seen in a while. The pit stops were exciting and throwing in a full course yellow as half of the field were in the pits refueling made it even more exciting as mid pack cars moved to the front. There were a few cars that sustained pretty heavy damage during the race and the folks at Motion Dynamics did an amazing job in getting them back together for the sprint race. Ken Grammer and the folks at USERA did an excellent job running the event for us. Everything from registration, timing sheets delivered to the trailer door after every session, to the double checker flags thrown by Stacey to end the races. I certainly look forward to the next USERA event!"

"After hearing from my customers about the great events USERA had run in the past at Lime Rock, I was certain that I could not miss this one," said Erik Skirmants, President of SCCA Enterprises. "Thanks to Motion Dynamics' original efforts and Ken Grammer and the USERA team's professionalism; I can say that everything exceeded my expectations. The only person I felt bad for was the Race Communicator who was busy filling in line after line of 'close racing' report calls from the corner stations. Ken used great judgment in allowing the racing to continue and allowed for much more exciting green flag racing that I think others would have. He promised to treat the competitors like adults and never waivered! I won't soon forget the racing, camaraderie and professionalism that were exhibited. The only thing left to do is make sure this happens again!"

Steinmetz set a new USERA Spec Racer Challenge track record in the endurance race with a 59.707.

Full timing reports from all track sessions can be found here.