In a return to their former headquarters at Sears Point Raceway, World Speed Motorsports continued their season of success in the Star Mazda Series by placing one driver on the podium and three others in the top ten in round two of the Best Western Championship. The weekend was not without some controversy, however and the finishing order wasn’t declared official until Tuesday evening.
Qualifying on Saturday morning found Grant Ryley in the Cupertino Electric/Del Monaco Speciality Foods Mazda fastest as he lapped the 2.5 mile road course under the existing track record, followed closely by Scott Bradley in fourth position in the Polycom/Radvision machine. Alex Figge and Chantz Wade also qualified in the top ten as they qualified 7th and 8th respectively.
The first controversy of the weekend occurred after qualifying when it was decided that Ryley’s car was illegal due to a minor technical infraction and his qualifying time and track record were disallowed. As a result he would have to start 37th overall. “Being moved to the back was a real motivator for me. I really wanted to show everybody that I belonged at the front of the grid,” Ryley stated afterwards.
The disqualification left Scott Bradley to battle with the Valley Motor Center cars of Matt Beardsley and Jason La Point at the start of the race. Bradley passed LaPoint going into the first corner of the race and charged after Beardsley, before caution flags and lapped traffic left him in second place.
“When the green flag dropped I was able to get past Jason going into turn two. It was a struggle of wills to see who would give in and he did. I made a point of overslowing turn two just to get a gap on him. It worked great but it allowed Matt to pull a bit of a gap. After a few laps I realized he and I were very evenly matched,” Bradley said. “ I tried my best to make up ground. I was beginning to close the gap when the first caution flew. I thought the caution would give me a shot but somehow Matt managed to get a few lapped cars between us. It gave him the edge he needed.”
Those lapped cars would be the source of additional controversy as it was initially determined by the Chief Steward of the series that Bearsley had passed the two cars under the yellow flag. The steward had decided to move Beardsley back two positions and award the win to Bradley before being overruled by the series president.
While Bradley was battling up front Ryley was charging through the field, passing 29 cars on his way to an eighth place finish directly behind Wade and Figge. “The race itself went great. It was just unfortunate we had to finish under yellow because I think the 14 car had a little something left in her for a charge at the end,” Ryley said.
World Speed and Star Mazda Series rookie Rick Waddell was having a solid race on the challenging circuit only to have his race cut short by Western Series points leader Bryan Selby in an overly optimistic passing attempt in turn seven. The contact sent Waddell airborne through the runoff area, and fortunately he was unhurt.
The Best Western Championship now moves to Mosport, Canada for round three on August 6th, as Bradley, Wade, Ryley and Figge all look to improve on their top ten positions in the championship.
Speedvision will air the Sears Point race on Aug. 7, at 8:30 p.m EDT, with a replay of the telecast on Aug. 8, at 12:30 a.m. EDT.