RJRacing

Buttonwillow heat - 109° F

Buttonwillow, CA – It does not get much better than this: two pole positions, two fastest laps, three wins, taking the lead in the Western Endurance Racing Championship (WERC), and moving into second place in the Performance Touring “E” (PTE) championship with the #23 Weekend-Racer.com Mazda MX-5.

RJ Racing could not have scripted a more perfect weekend. It was certainly an ambitious one with a full test day on Friday, sprint races on Saturday and Sunday as well as a 3-hour endurance race on Saturday night. All of this in 100+ degree temperatures!

The team spent the day Friday tuning the car and testing new parts on the car. Overall it was a tiring but successful day. And one that would certainly put the team in a good position to be competitive all weekend long.

And compete it did. Rob took the wheel early Saturday and immediately put the car on pole almost a full second ahead of the second place starter. For the race, the team decided to set the car up to be fastest towards the end of the 35 minute sprint race. This would allow Rob to make a last minute pass for the lead (if needed).

Rob got a great jump on the field to start but was slowed up by other cars competing in other classes. This allowed the second place competitor to stay within two seconds of the lead. The battle for the lead continued for about 10 minutes until the #23 car came into its own. Rob spent the last 15 minutes of the race steadily building a gap and winning the race by 10 seconds.

Brimming with confidence after the win, Rob took the green flag for the 3-hour endurance race. Starting third in class the team had its work cut out for it. Rob drove a fast and steady first hour of the race keeping the car within 30 seconds of the Honda CRX in first place. Rob would take second place when the leader pitted after only one hour of competition. He passed the new leader (a BMW M3) shortly before the BMW took to the pits. With the fast and fuel efficient RJ Racing MX-5 in the lead it was going to be difficult for any team to challenge.

Several laps later, Rob brought the car in for fuel and a driver change. John hopped in the car with a full tank of gas and exited the pit lane still in the lead. It immediately occurred to the entire crew that they had just performed the fastest pit stop in RJ Racing history. This made John’s job very easy. With a half a lap lead with half of the race to go his only job was to keep the car on the track – which sounds easy but gets even more difficult as the sun goes down and the dark desert night sets in.

After an uneventful 90 minutes in the car, the checkered flag flew with the team crossing the finish line almost a full lap ahead of the field. The win catapulted the team into first place in the championship with a massive 80 point lead with only two races remaining.

On Sunday the pressure was on John to continue the winning streak from Saturday. Due to carnage during another race the day before, RJ Racing’s biggest competition in the sprint race was not able to compete on Sunday. The team pushed the car to its limits anyway, grabbing pole position and posting the fastest lap of the weekend. The sprint started and John flew out to a huge lead. After 35 uneventful minutes the #23 crossed the finish line in first place, over a lap ahead of the next competitor.

With a full head steam the RJ Racing freight train will be stopping in Fontana, CA at the AAA Speedway August 1st and 2nd before for the last race before the National Championships in Tooele, Utah.