5th Place Finish for CFR at Runoffs Debut in Sonoma

The Cheap Fast Racing Team made it’s first appearance at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs, the crown jewel of sports car racing in America. Racing in the E-Production class is no easy feat being one of the deepest classes in SCCA competition with multiple past National Champions in the field. We had a great time meeting drivers we had only read about in the SportsCar Magazine and it was a pleasure to race against many of them. We all enjoyed taking in the California sunshine throughout the week spending lots of time hanging out, fine tuning the car, and enjoying the fantastic event that SCCA put on. Being our second time at Sonoma Raceway, we spent a lot of time watching over our onboard video trying to find more time on track and surprisingly diagnosing a number of small problems. By the end of the week we had qualified 6th right behind a handful of E-Production veterans such as Aaron Downey, Matt Reynolds, Joe Moser, and Jesse Prather. Sunday morning was foggy, cold, and slick but Darren was ready for the challenge and the team had the car ready to go. Taking the green flag, Darren tucked in behind Jesse Prather in his RX7 as they went nose to tail, trailing Joe Moser. As the race settled in Prather was able to build a margin of few seconds over Darren, but local California native Anthony Jimerson went on a charge. Having started 10th he made his way through a handful of cars and all the way to Darren’s bumper after about six laps, in his very quick second generation RX7. He got through in the carousel after Darren got a little loose trying to defend. A lap later, going up the hill into Turn 1, Jimerson’s car snapped and he spun off into the bank of the hill unfortunately ending his race. With no one in his mirror, Darren now had his eyes set on catching Jesse Prather in 5th about seven seconds up the road. Crew chief Scott Hanken was able to provide lap by lap updates on the margin and at about the halfway point, Darren started to close the gap. His Goodyear slicks were up to temp and the car was handling great. After a five lap charge Darren found himself within a few car lengths of Prather. By the next lap Darren was really starting to apply the pressure as Prather made a small mistake coming out of the carousel and pushed his Hoosier’s too far dropping two tires off in the dirt which then pulled all four off resulting in a spin right alongside Darren who narrowly avoided him by a few feet. With no pressure from behind Darren was able to drive his way to his first Top 5 finish at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs with an ecstatic yell over the radio. All of the teams hard work and support throughout the season paid off with a great result on the national stage racing against some of the best competition in the country. Doing it all with a Cheap, Fast, Race Car. Until next year…. We can’t wait to do battle against some of the best on the East Coast at VIR.

We want to say a special thank you to all of our team members, sponsors, and supporters. Without your contributions and help we wouldn’t have been able to accomplish what we did. It was truly a grassroots team effort.