The Mark Amenda Memorial Majors at Blackhawk Farms Raceway this past weekend was Wynnfurst Racing's first SCCA event of the 2022 Season. This was also the first race for Jason with the new larger displacement Kohler Engine in his Prototype 1 car. The event was a double header weekend, with Qualifying and a Race on Saturday and Qualifying and a Race on Sunday.
Saturday's Race:
Saturday was a cold and very wet day with heavy rain off and on. We were able to get our qualifying session in on a dry track and Jason held the pole until the final minutes when he was bumped off and qualified on the outside of the front row.. As the final call to the grid for the race went out, the sky opened up and the rain came down. The crew did an awesome job of quickly changing over to rain tires and getting him to the grid before it closed. Jason started the race from the pit lane which meant the back of the field. After one lap, Jason had passed the entire field and was in the lead. Over the next several laps, he pulled out a commanding lead and was pulling away from the field, being one of the only cars to start on rain tires was an advantage. Unfortunately, before the halfway point of the race, a mechanical failure struck in the crankshaft bringing Jason's race to an end.
Sunday's Race:
The crew worked hard Saturday night to replace the engine in Jason's car and have it ready for the Sunday morning qualifying session. While cool, the track was dry. Jason dominated the qualifying session, qualifying for the pole with only one car within a second of his time. At the start of the race Jason jumped out front and after several laps was already starting to lap the field. As he was passing a Formula Continental entry on the inside of the last corner, the FC driver cut down on Jason hitting him causing both to spin off track. Thankfully Jason was able to quickly get turned around and back on track. With half the race to go, Jason climbed from 9th all the way back to 2nd overall and 1st in class. It was a great rebound from an unfortunate on-track racing incident. Jason set the fastest lap of the race on his charge to the front.
While Saturday showed the strength of the car, it wasn't the result that we had hoped for. Thankfully the opportunity to regroup and run again on Sunday is there on these double header weekends. A pole, fastest lap and first in the P1 class was a great way to end the weekend and start the season.
