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During qualifying session B for Sunday’s Redline Time Attack competition, there was a major incident that resulted in a wadded up Evolution. I heard two stories, one from officials and one from one of the two drivers involved. I do not know which was official and won’t speculate how the Evo ended up in the gravel. However, once it did it was still sideways and dug in, causing it to roll two and a half times before landing back on its wheels. As I mentioned earlier, the driver walked away frustrated but was able to do so under his own power. The session was red flagged for nearly an hour.
While it would remain there for the rest of the day, it wasn’t done so as a reminder though it probably worked that way. The car was damaged enough that it could not roll away on its own without a flatbed or being pulled back on to its own trailer. So, instead, it was pulled away from the track so that if someone else went off, they would miss it.
Why, yes, that is Cyrus Martinez of Formula Drift fame and owner of Final Speed Garage! He was at Buttonwillow to support one of his customer's cars.
That customer would be Jay Valle, the pilot of this 4-door Honda Civic with a bone stock K20! It was fast and there is still more left in it according to Cyrus. FWD competitiors may want to keep a lookout for this Civic.With qualifying over, it was now on to the main competition! Drivers were far calmer than the weekend had lead up to and times seemed to reflect that. Here are the top results for Round 1 at Buttonwillow Raceway!
Enthusiast RWD
1. Amir Bententou – BMW M3 – 2:04.083
2. Steve Rice – Nissan 370Z – 2:07.619
3. Howard Chai – Honda S2000 – 2:11.099
Enthusiast AWD
1. Ken Kasitz – Subaru WRX – 1:57.994
2. Matthew Coon – Mitsubishi Evolution – 2:02.213
3. Wright Boatwright – Subaru WRX – 2:10.699
Street FWD
1. Dominic Bautista – Honda Civic – 2:08.083
2. Joel Etrata – Acura Integra – 2:10.045
3. Yuita Akaishi – Honda Civic – 2:11.818
Street RWD
1. Tony Fuentes – Honda S2000 – 1:59.020
2. Dennis Casey – BMW M3 – 1:59.292
3. Ted Park – Subaru BRZ – 2:04.533
Street AWD
1. Ramon Ornelas – Mitsubishi Evolution – 1:57.392
2. Jay Laoharoj – Mitsubishi Evolution – 1:59.362
3. Mark Jager – Subaru STi – 2:00.326
Modified FWD
1. Jay Valle – Honda Civic – 2:03.494
2. Craig Utter – Honda Civic – 4:51.605
It should be noted that Craig did complete a lap despite a car that was smoking very severely.
