RJRacing

September 30, 2012
No Substitute for Hard WERC

Round Five of The National Auto Sport Association’s (NASA) Western Endurance Racing Championship (WERC) would mean a three-hour race at the track that opened the series, Sonoma Raceway (formerly Infineon Raceway). Although the name of the track would be different, there would still be the same mix of elevation change and blind corners that make Sonoma Raceway a destination for all racing enthusiasts. RJ Racing (RJR) would enter the weekend confident in spite of a three-month break since their last race. The team had good reason to feel confident: they are the team to finish on the podium in every WERC race and have a comfortable, but not guaranteed, lead in the championship. Once again, the starting grid would be compiled randomly, putting the #23 RJR Miata fourth in class and 14^th overall. The E3 class would account for 10 out of the 25 cars in the field.

The green flag dropped promptly at 8:15am. The air temperature was in the low sixties for the start of the race, but would jump a good twenty degrees by race end. This would make tire strategy more complicated than usual. As the race got underway, the battle for the top four positions in the E3 class was tight and hotly contested. This would make Rob Gibson’s (Owner/Driver) stint an event filled one. An incident in turn two would bring out a full course caution at the halfway point. The E3 class leader was just ahead of the overall leader as the pace car picked up the field. This would allow them to gain an extra lap on the rest of the E3 competitors. As soon as the pace car left the track the #23 RJR Miata was in the pit for fuel and a driver change.

With John Gibson (Owner/Driver) in the car the team rejoined the race P3 in class. John would have his hands full chasing down the class leaders as his tires were beginning to go. During the last half of his stint he found himself fighting massive amounts of understeer as the front tires struggled for grip. The back end would also get loose through the many elevation changes. With all of this, John was still able to maintain consistent lap times and hold on for a third place finish in class and eighth overall. This would extend RJR’s streak of podium finishes in the 2012 WERC Series as well as maintain their position atop the championship standings with one race to go.