ROSAMOND, CA –After a tremendous amount of work to repair the Auto Diagnostic Services Team LMR Formula Mazda (FM) after the last race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Larry Mason was looking forward to racing again at “The Fastest Road in the West” – Willow Springs International Raceway. “First of all,” Mason said, “Thanks to Scott and Greg at The Fiberglass Body in Hawthorne, California for repairing the center section of the bodywork as well as the replacement nose that arrived damaged in shipping. These guys are class acts and do fabulous work. Also, thanks to Tom Engelsman at Auto Diagnostic Services for all his help with rebuilding the left front corner of the car including the steering rack which had been damaged in the shunt.”
This was a two-day race weekend of the SCCA US Majors Hoosier Tires Super Tour Series with no official practice sessions. The first session was qualifying at 8am on Saturday morning. With track temperatures in the 45 degree Fahrenheit range, it was no surprise to find a lack of grip from the spec hard-compound Goodyear tires for the first few laps. After those laps however, the grip increased and Mason qualified second in class and 11th overall. This was good as it put him on the inside line heading into Turn 1 for the start of the race in the afternoon. When the green flag dropped, Mason had a fantastic start and darted to the inside of the car in front of him. Exiting Turn 1, he still held a narrow advantage over the pole-sitter in class. Heading into Turn 2 Mason had the inside line and about a half car-length advantage. Flat out in fourth gear in the long uphill right hand turn, the car got sideways on Mason losing grip at the rear. The pole-sitter passed Mason on the outside and pulled away. Although he couldn’t close the gap on the leader, Mason still had enough speed to gap the third-place car.
Sunday’s race saw Mason start second again, and after some changes to the set-up, he was looking to be much more competitive. It started out that way on the first lap, but a faster car (P1 class) that had started in the back got in between Mason and the leader in FM and that was enough of a hindrance to break the draft to where Mason couldn’t close back up again. Towards the end of the race, with lots of traffic to deal with, all of a sudden, Mason saw the third place car in his mirrors. Mason didn’t take any chances and put in a couple of faster laps, gapped him and finished second again.
These finishes have solidified Mason’s standings in second place in the SCCA US Majors Western Conference Championship. “We’ll keep working on trying to find the speed we need to get back to Victory Lane.”
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| The Formula Mazda podium with second place finisher Larry Mason on the left. |
 Photo by Sonia Mason |
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