Wills Sweeps Formula Car Challenge Presented by Goodyear - Southwest Rounds 5 & 6
By Sandy Magrath
Rounds 5 & 6 of the Formula Car Challenge presented by Goodyear - Southwest were held at the Screaming Eagles SCCA Regional/National event at Eagles Canyon Raceway in Decatur, Texas on March 27-28.
Darryl Wills not only won FM both days, but also had the Overall Pole and Overall Win on both days beating a 30 car field of FE, FC, FA, CSR, DSR, and S2. What an endorsement for Formula Mazda! The FM can not only compete with, but beat, the far more expensive race cars.
For Saturday's race, Wills qualified on the pole with Kirk Miller in 2nd and Russ Hillenburg in 3rd. But Hillenburg had a clutch problem and Kirk Miller experienced an off track excursion and both did not make it past Lap 2 leaving Stuart Rettie and Phil Miller in 2nd and 3rd. Rettie and Phil Miller held strong to their positions and attained their best finishes of the season so far. There was a huge battle for 4th place. George Jackson, John Hugon, and David Vanhooser each held the spot for several laps with some tight racing amongst themselves and Walter Gragert hot on their heals. Vanhooser prevailed with only 2 laps to go. The "four" racing for "Fourth" had only a .399 second difference between all of their fastest race laps.
The grand battle on Sunday was for 2nd Place amongst Russ Hillenburg, Stuart Rettie, and Davis Parr. Parr, missing Friday and Saturday's events, didn't qualify as well as he would have hoped. But he worked his way up the pack and caught Hillenburg and Rettie on Lap 6. Rettie missed a gear and Parr made the pass. Parr then closed the gap with Hillenburg and passed him on Lap 12. Hillenburg took it back on the next lap and seized the 2nd place finish. Parr and Rettie finished 3rd and 4th. There was only a .307 difference in the fastest race laps of the 3 drivers battling for 2nd.
We had 2 new drivers join the Series this weekend. Kirk Miller joined us after a 17 year hiatus from racing. Kirk has raced FV, FF, SV, Shelby CanAm and IMSA. George Jackson (19 yrs old) starts his road racing career in FM with a background in Mini Sprint Car racing.
The Formula Car Challenge presented by Goodyear-Southwest will hold its next event at Texas Motor Speedway on May 1 & 2 at the SCCA Sunburn Double National.
For Saturday's race, Wills qualified on the pole with Kirk Miller in 2nd and Russ Hillenburg in 3rd. But Hillenburg had a clutch problem and Kirk Miller experienced an off track excursion and both did not make it past Lap 2 leaving Stuart Rettie and Phil Miller in 2nd and 3rd. Rettie and Phil Miller held strong to their positions and attained their best finishes of the season so far. There was a huge battle for 4th place. George Jackson, John Hugon, and David Vanhooser each held the spot for several laps with some tight racing amongst themselves and Walter Gragert hot on their heals. Vanhooser prevailed with only 2 laps to go. The "four" racing for "Fourth" had only a .399 second difference between all of their fastest race laps.
The grand battle on Sunday was for 2nd Place amongst Russ Hillenburg, Stuart Rettie, and Davis Parr. Parr, missing Friday and Saturday's events, didn't qualify as well as he would have hoped. But he worked his way up the pack and caught Hillenburg and Rettie on Lap 6. Rettie missed a gear and Parr made the pass. Parr then closed the gap with Hillenburg and passed him on Lap 12. Hillenburg took it back on the next lap and seized the 2nd place finish. Parr and Rettie finished 3rd and 4th. There was only a .307 difference in the fastest race laps of the 3 drivers battling for 2nd.
