Saturday practice started with 23 drivers and a fast time in the 1:47s by Mike Lawrence.
Things intensified during qualifying with Mitchell Ferguson topping the charts at a 1:47.2 followed by Sam Ryan and Mike L under mild southern conditions. I’ll call out Maggie Tally running a 1:52.3 which is much faster than I’ve been able to manage. After Mitchell qualified 1st He was followed by Sam Ryan, Mike Lawrence, Sherman Engler, Trevor Carmody and Greg Brunz.
In the race Trevor Carmody, driving Ray’s car, made a spectacular move on the final lap, going 4-wide on the back straight to take the win. Look on Facebook and youtube for Trevor’s video. Mike Lawrence and Mitchell Ferguson rounded the podium with Steve Eaton taking the Hard Charger trophy. Unfortunately, Jack Herberger had a right spindle snap I think on lap 2 when he hit the T5 exit curb, ruining another great run. I saw his wheel bounding down the track from T5 to T6 which caused much excitement an dodge-wheel amongst the pack. Luckily, he was able to source a replacement from a generous driver, I wish I knew who it was, and was able to race on Sunday. I personally had my linkage break shortly after the wheel situation ending my race. Luckily Sherman Engler (veeTen) generously helped me out and I was able to be back on track for qualifying Sunday morning.
Sunday morning we qualified at 8am (ugh) in sub 50 degree weather – good for quick times! Mike L. ran a 1:46.9 (WOW) followed closely by Trevor and Sam. Jack H. managed a 1:51 on his new spindle and I did a 1:53.6 qualifying 10th of 22, a personal best.
Rain came in not long after qualifying and hung around steady but light-ish until our race at 1pm. The track and drivers were all well soaked and cold with temps not rising above 50. The race went very well with only one caution at the end due to a stranded car. Mitchell took the win with Sam R. and Mike L. on the podium and Nick Fay taking the hard charger award because he slept in and missed qualifying (sorry man, you deserve it). Conditions were tough with our first wet session of the weekend but racing that I could see was very clean through the pack, well done all!
Wrapping up the weekend – I’d like to thank all the northerners that came down from Challenge Cup and NEFV to join us. It was really great to see/meet you all and share a race weekend! I’d also like to thank, on behalf of all of us in Driverz Cup, Greg Bruns for his vision, sweat, hours upon hours of work and passion for FV racing in creating Driverz Cup. He certainly is the reason I and many others in the Southeast joined the group and his efforts are greatly appreciated! FV, CC and DC have bright futures because of folks like Greg!
We absolutely thank our volunteers who include Cece Wojtalik Rice (registration & surrogate mom), Richard (photos), Scott Brallier and Rich Guyette for taking care of drivers commitee, Tracy Snow for the awesome photos that are posted on the facebook group as well as Maggie Tally and Mike Lawrence (taking over management of Driverz Cup) among many others – we love all that you do for us!
We had a great time and hope to see our northern friends again in February when we kick off our Driverz Cup 2025 season in Savannah, Georgia at Roebling Road!