The V8 StockCar Series traveled to Virginia International Raceway May 14 & 15 to race in front of the Grand Am Rolex Series fans at the Bosch Engineering 250.
The V8 Racer's had three sprint races for points for the weekend. The Grand Am fans also got to see the fire breathing SCCA Trans Am Corvette's, Camaro's,
Mustang's, Jaguar's and Glen Jung's fast Mazda RX-7. A good group of TA racers and some of our regulars who were racing in the Trans Am event elected to join the V8 Series for some track time, adding to the excitement. The weather for the weekend looked threatening with intermittent showers forecast and delivered, however the V8 races luckily all went off in dry track conditions. The feature event, the Bosch Engineering 250 for Daytona Prototypes and GT's was not as fortunate and started in a downpour.
V8 Series qualifying went off on a dry track with TA Champ Tony Ave taking the pole by a wide margin with a 1:50.084 clocking with Doug Harrington second, Dave Machavern third in his new Riggins Competition Falcon. Kenny Bupp was fourth in his Camaro, followed by Rich Koehler, who took the PitBoxes.com V8SPO pole and Larry Hoopaugh in his V8 SPO ex Nascar ride. Kurt Roehrig got the Howe Racing V8 GTA top spot, with Pete Johns setting a new class standard in the LG Motorsports V8 GT2 class with a record 2:02.223 run. VIR regular, John Morgan did a fine job in his GTA late model despite it being powered by a Chevy short track 604 Crate motor making only about 400 HP. Bob Stretch brought out his brand new Camaro TA2 and got faster in each session. The car was brought to the track with the paint still drying. Under our rules the car was classed in V8 GT-1 as the splitter and wing it features are not yet legal for the GTA class.
For Saturday Mornings race, Ave, Harrington and Bupp elected not to start as they were saving the rides for the big TA race to come. This meant Machavern and Koehler would start on the front row. At the green, Koehler missed a shift, sending cars
scattering to get around and keep up the momentum. Turn one was interesting with a three wide entry into same resulting in some contact. Kurt Roehrig and Pete Johns got together and others had some donuts on the side of their cars as well. At turn five on the first lap, Koehler now back up to speed and Machavern got together resulting in the Falcon's rear bodywork dragging on the track. Machavern retired and Koehler sailed on to overall and V8 SPO class victory. Paul Breehne ran solidly in the Rousch/Yates Performance Parts Ford Fusion garnering second overall and second in V8 SPO. Bob Stretch got the V8 GT1 honors with Rob Morris the V8 GTA win and third overall. Pete Johns got the V8 GT2 win with an impressive fourth overall placing.
Saturday afternoons race went off on a drying track shortly after the thrilling end to the Rolex race where Joao Barbosa and the Action Express team ended the Ganassi Racing string of victories. With Machavern starting at the rear as result of his morning DNF, Koehler led overall for the first eight laps. As Machavern charged through the field, Koehler slowed at turn six with an ailing gear box. Within seconds Machavern was by and gone winning overall by some 35 seconds. Rob Morris again took the V8 GTA win and second overall with Paul Breehne third and first in V8 SPO. Johns again took the V8 GT2 class.
The Sunday morning race went off at 0925 with Machavern leading wire to wire. Breehne chased down the fast V8 GTA winning Monte Carlo of Rob Morris for second overall and first in the PitBoxes.com V8 SPO class. Larry Hoopaugh ran strong in the Hoopaugh Grading Company Monte Carlo but couldn't quite get into striking distance of Breehne and Morris. John Morgan was impressive all weekend in his Monte Carlo cutting his fast lap of 2:03.058 in the finale. Doug Sanders in the Baucom Motorsports entry ran solidly all weekend garnering some valuable points.
It was a great weekend with the V8 Series getting introduced to a whole new crowd and getting a lot of attention. A good number of local racers came up and introduced themselves and stated that they were interested in competing in the series.
A big thanks to Steve Tye and Butch Kummer who traveled far to help officiate the series. The V8 Series also sends out a big thank you to Randy Hembrey and his staff at SCCA PRO RACING for administering our races and making it rather painless for our racers.
Next up for the V8 Group is Daytona International Speedway August 6 & 7 with the Central Florida Region SCCA. This should be a well subscribed event as many racers are anxious to try out the newly paved high banks of Daytona. Earlier this month, at the SCCA Daytona Classic many in the big bore group cut their fastest laps ever.
