The first heat was full of the usual first run jitters and mishaps. Several drivers bumped into each other at various points of the track. The most serious of which was Brandon Adkins and Chris Rader colliding into the sweeping Turn 3. Brandon's Z06 seemed to shrug it off but Chris' McLaren did not react well to being upset in the corner and spun out, dropping him to the rear early on. Ethan Maestri had to start from the back of the grid and picked his way forward, eventually settling into fourth position. In the Top 3, Andrew Steppat started his season off right by securing the lead early, and then stretching it out to several seconds over hard charging teammate Bryan Dean. Both drivers showed an alarming amount of pace from their near 1000 horsepower Vipers. Near to, but unable to advance on them, was Travis Billingsley in his #18 Noble M600. These three would dominate the podium on the night.
The fireworks were in the air and on the track into Turn 1 in the second heat.
Heat 2 began with a little more flair as the reverse grid put the fast moving Vipers coming up through the three-wide field into Turn 1. Bryan was late on the brakes and smashed into the #12 Noble driven by Matthew Smith. Matt did a good job collecting himself, but was still trying to pick his line as he exited the turn and he made contact with an already upset Chris Rader. The woes for Chris had started with contact on the other McLaren driven by Micah Davis. Matt and Paul Maestri in the #33 AMG made heavy contact with the #92 McLaren and sent the rest of the field scattering. With the order sufficiently jumbled, this allowed Travis to take the #18 out to an early lead, with the #8 Corvette of Brandon Adkins in P2. Brandon's hold on P2 would end quickly though as Bryan gathered steam and railed around Brandon into Turn 3. Brandon would steadily loose positions as the rest of the field queued behind and eventually passed him. Eventually he would drop down to P7. Although Matt would not spin in his altercation with Chris, he would end up with severe brake and suspension damage that would force him to pit at the end of lap 1. He would make up ground on Chris, eventually catching up to him at the line, but finishing P9.
Bryan Dean would catch Travis fairly quickly and put a bold move on Travis, diving his Viper hard into the corner. Sensing that he would be clear by the next turn, he closed up the lane that Travis thought he would have. The two made contact at the apex but Bryan was slightly ahead at that point anyway and would secure P1. Andrew Steppat would catch Bryan just a few laps later, but the two ran nose-to-tail to the finish, a full 2 seconds ahead of P3 Travis Billingsley. Steppat had secured fastest lap, and by extension, top step on the podium for the night. Heat 2 largely became a battle of team garages, with D & S Performance dominating at the front, MBR racing for P4 & 5 and 4 of 7 Racing settling P6 & 7 between themselves.
Despite the distance gap between the best and the rest, there was some solid racing taking place around the track. Parity between some of the vehicles means that this could be an excellent season of racing further afield of the front. We will have to wait and see how the complexion of the season develops as we head to Sonoma on September 23rd.
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