Braving some of the highest temperatures this year, 11 teams pulled into Willow Springs International Raceway for round five of the SoCal Spec E30 race series.
Right out of the box, Hubert Young showed he was the man to beat by taking the first pole of the weekend with a qualifying time of 1:38.452. Steve Stepanian’s qualifying effort fell short by a tenth, while Charlie Buzzetti posted the third fastest time of the session in a car he rented for the weekend.
The temperature reached 100 degrees as the cars were still for the traditional Spec E30 standing start. All got off to a good start except Stepanian, who had problems finding second gear.

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When Southern California’s most hardcore Spec Miata racers reported for duty in July, the mercury was rising on the thermometer. Low triple-digit temperatures were the order of the day and winning a race meant mastering the heat.
Fresh from a pair of podium finishes in June, Steve Champlin took pole position for Saturday’s race, followed by Ryan Pond, Brett Becker, Rob Burgoon and Mark Hazboun.
At the green flag, Champlin was right on the bumpers of some out-of-class cars, which immediately mired the Spec Miata field in traffic. By Turn 3, Pond had squirted into first followed by Champlin and Burgoon. Two laps in, Becker dropped out due to an oil leak.

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NASA SoCal offered up rounds four and five of the Western Endurance Racing Championships series in July at Willow Springs International Raceway.
Saturday night’s three-hour enduro kicked off at 5:10 p.m., which meant racers wouldn’t have to find their way around Willow Springs in total darkness, but they would have to contend with a setting sun and dusk conditions.
Unlike the March event, which ran from start to finish with nary a yellow flag, the Saturday night race dished up a double-yellow and a red flag due to a fire on pit row.
 
ES
At the one-hour mark, Team Prototype Development Group held a one-lap lead over Team Coldcock Whiskey and Lang Racing Development.

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Team TruSpeed Autosport comes to WERC races to win. With a crew outfitted with a full complement of gear on a tractor trailer for its GT3 Cup car, Team TruSpeed Autosport plays at a high level, yet a win in 2016 had eluded them. That is until the sun went down at Buttonwillow Raceway Park in June.
 
ES
TruSpeed Autosport has been battling with Team Prototype Development Group all season long for top honors in ES and for overall wins. In every event this year, Team Prototype Development Group has come out on top, and they had a one-lap lead over TruSpeed for the first hour even after one pit stop.

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