With over 350 entries for this race the June Sprints continues as the second largest SCCA race next to the Runoffs.  So, we had the largest entry field as well with sixteen entries.  In practice and qualifying for the Saturday race, Clint McMahan continued as the perennial favorite for the pole with a 2:23.747 followed by Calvin Stewart, 2015 Runoffs and Mark Donohue winner, with a 2:25.339.  Third was Barry Luterek, 2:25.627, fourth was Aaron Ellis, 2:27.385, fifth was Eric McRee, 6th was Sven DeVries, 7th was Hunter Brayton, 8th was Zak Morvik and 9th, Carl Maier.  Jeff Delong crashed on Friday and was unable to return to the track.  Near the end of qualifying, Clint suffered a left front brake fire and he went straight to the hot pits to have it put out.  This meant that Clint and Dan had to replace the entire wheel assembly – upright, hub/bearing, rotor and caliper.  And for good measure, replace the right front wheel assembly as well, this meant a long night on Friday.  Jeff’s crashed car was the donor for several of these parts.  Also, Carl suffered both vibration and ratcheting issues which resulted in his slow times.  The last qualifying session showed why Carl was having this trouble as his rear axle broke in half causing Carl to miss the Saturday race.

For the Saturday race, Clint McMahan, took off from the pole and had the lead when he suddenly slowed down and stopped on the track on the 3rd lap – they later found a wire for the electric fuel pump had come loose.  This left the race lead open for both Sven DeVries and Barry Luterek to duke it out and they did with Sven (suffering a broken exhaust) eking out the win over Barry.  Third was Zak Morvik, still learning the track and dialing in his car, 4th was Aaron Ellis, driving a new red car with teething problems, 5th was Clint and 6th was Eric McRee.  In addition to Carl and Jeff not running, Hunter had car trouble and Calvin was not present.

The grid for Sunday’s race is based on the best lap time each driver has during qualifying and the Saturday race, thus, the order for the grid changed a little.  Clint stayed on the pole with Calvin in 2nd, Barry in 3rd, Sven moved up to 4th , Aaron in 5th, Eric in 6th, Hunter in 7th, Zak in 8th and Carl in 9th, driving Aaron Ellis’ familiar white car graciously provided by Larry and Aaron Ellis – the Ellis’s had brought the white car as a backup.

In the Sunday race, Clint did not lead from the pole with Calvin and Barry ahead of him but he got back around them by the end of the first lap and set sail.  Later, there was a full course yellow that finally cleared up in time for the now bunched up pack to race for a two lap shoot-out but Clint took control and won with a fastest lap of the weekend of 2:21.819.  Calvin was second and Barry finished third.  Fourth was Sven DeVries with a replacement exhaust that was borrowed from Carl Maier’s broken car, 5th was Hunter Brayton with his best showing of the weekend dialing in his heavily revised car, 6th was Zak, 7th was Carl who ran out of gas on the 9th lap, 8th was Aaron and 9th was Eric McRee who suffered some loose lug nuts.  Here is the winner’s interview video – https://scca.com/videos/2032560

The weekend series points are as follows:

  1. Sven DeVries 24
  2. Barry Luterek 22
  3. Clint McMahan 20
  4. Aaron Ellis 18
  5. Zak Morvik 16
  6. Eric McRee 14
  7. Calvin Stewart 13
  8. Hunter Brayton 12
  9. Carl Maier  11

The updated series points as of the June Sprints Round #4 are as follows:

  1. Clint McMahan          90  (tie breaker = more race wins & faster lap times)
  2. Sven DeVries              90
  3. Jeff Delong                 58
  4. Zak Morvik                  52
  5. Carl Maier                   49
  6. Aaron Ellis                   38
  7. Calvin Stewart            27
  8. Barry Luterek              22
  9. Mo Makki                    18
  10. Eric McRee                  14
  11. Hunter Brayton            12

There is a virtual tie for first place going into the series finale at the Indy Run-Offs and 3rd, 4th and 5th are still up for grabs as they are close together.    Here is all the information on the upcoming Indy Run-offs –  https://www.scca.com/runoffs

We are very thankful for our valued sponsors who have made this series possible:

Metalloid Corporation of Sturgis, Michigan (www.metalloidcorp.com )

Shrieve Chemical Products of Houston, Texas ( www.shrieve.com )

Hoosier Racing Tire ( www.hoosiertire.com )

Honda Performance Development (www.hpd.honda.com/racing-line)

Solo Performance Specialties (SPS) (www.soloperformance.com)

Pegasus Auto Racing Supplies   (www.PegasusAutoRacing.com)

Speed Partz   (www.speedpartz.com )

Hawk Performance  ( www.hawkperformance.com )

Winding Road Racing  (www.WindingRoadRacing.com )

Discovery Parts  ( www.discoveryparts.com  )

Bottoms Up Chop Shop (www.bottomsupchopshop.com )

The Formula 600 Challenge series was developed to help promote an affordable open wheel formula car series to showcase talent without large financial race budgets.  There are no paid staffers and one hundred percent of all sponsorship monies and product goes directly to the drivers in our series mostly as a tow fund payment for each race.  The Formula 600 open wheel cars use a 600cc motorcycle engine and a 6-speed sequential transmission revving up to 15,000 rpm with speeds in excess of 140 mph. The sound of this drive train is likened to a F1 car.

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