We got the win with a last lap pass!! The Thunderhill SCCA Majors was a whirlwind of a weekend and I had the best time battling Kurt Frietzsche (Grey RX7) and Glen McCready (Black NC MX5) both days as the three of us ran nose to tail at the front in the EP class. Glen is the former EP Runoffs pole sitter at Sonoma and Kurt's RX7 seems to be faster than ever, so I knew it was going to be a tough weekend to try and keep up based on my lack of experience at Thunderhill.

No testing for me on Friday so I relied on my sim work to get me up to speed with the track as this was only my second time racing there. During the Saturday race I was in a good position staying patient right behind the two of them and felt like my car was a bit better at the end of the race but was waiting for the right opportunity to get by. Unfortunately with about 6 minutes to go my entire exhaust system from the header back started dragging and then fell off the car. The rubber mounts were all new one race ago but the bumps at Thunderhill were enough to loosen it up and the V-band eventually gave way. I coasted around piercing my ears to cross the finish line in 3rd out of 5 in class. 

For Sunday we got the exhaust repaired with new more solid mounts that I had as spares. I ran right on the heels of Glen and Kurt for the first half trying to be patient and kind on my equipment to keep my tires and brakes under me with it being a 30 minute race. Glen who was running P2 at the time ended up having an axle failure which left Kurt and I to battle it out. He raced me very hard but fair and we had an awesome race! He held me off all the way until the final lap when I was able to get alongside him going into Turn 1 as we took the white flag and I made the pass stick. P1 in class out of five and third overall out of 34. Our Goodyear slicks still had a lot of pace in them at the end of the race! I ran the second fastest time for the group with a 2:02.3 in the race. I'm still giving up time in 1, 8, 9, and 13/14 but most of those places require commitment and trust and that just takes more laps! I'm excited to go back next year. 

I had the best time racing with both Kurt and Glen! Lots of clean, hard, racing with no contact all weekend. What a great group to race with! It was also such a pleasure to also share the podium with my friend Aaron Downey who I grew up watching so much as a kid. His EP RX3 is one of my favorite cars in the world! It was a full circle moment for me to share the track with him. 

A big thank you goes out to my whole family for making the road trip south to support me. We had to work out some kinks and small issues all weekend being our first race of the year, but we persevered to get a podium and a hard earned win against some great competition at a newer track for me. 

An extended thanks goes out to all of our partners for their help and support. We are excited for GoSunoco Race Fuels, Goodyear Racing, Techno Toy Tuning, Cobalt Racing Brakes, AR Motorsports, Valvoline, Mac's Tie Downs, PDX Garage, Factory Wheel Outlet, Rotary Engineering SB, Renown Steering Wheels, Alpinestars, and Proferred Tools.

The Portland Super Tour is next at the beginning of May and I’m excited to be back at our home track!