Today is a new day with the disappointment of Round 3's result put into distant memory yet key learnings absorbed, as team Off Camber's Justin Hall attempts to come up with a new qualifying strategy to hopefully grab pole. For the last 3 consecutive races held at Laguna Seca, Hall has qualified second and in none of these races has he exited t2 higher than 3rd. Starting off-pole at Laguna Seca is a bit like kissing your sister (so I am told) as it is quite easy for the car starting p3 to suck in behind the pole car and take the apex away from the car starting p2. If someone has any good tips for cars starting p2 at Laguna please drop Hall a note... Today Hall and Steve Ott decide to pair up in qualifying, but the two had not worked with each other in the past and unfortunately seemed to have different strengths. Combine this with generally lackluster driving from Hall via flat spotting tires, carrying too much speed and dropping wheels at exits, being black flagged for speeding in the hot pit, etc. and Hall was very pleased with the resulting qualification in p2! For the second consecutive day it would be an all black front row with the Valley Collision black SM of Bobby Carter capturing the pole with a 1:49:133 and Hall's black Off Camber Car at 1:49:430. Drivers in the second row would swap positions with Ott qualifying p3 with a 1:49:700 and Dobson finding himself in the unfamiliar position being outside row 2.

The green flag drops with Carter getting a much better start than Saturday and able to pull ½ car length ahead of Hall. Dobson also gets a nice start and due to Ott's lackluster start decides to drop in behind Carter instead of giving Hall some much needed bumps. Again Hall tries to make up the distance in the braking zone going into t2, goes way too deep and is forced to concede the positions to Carter and Dobson, luckily being able to stay ahead of Ott. Make that now 4 consecutive races starting off pole at Laguna for Hall and not at least holding his position..arrrrhhhh!!!!

On lap 2 Dobson gets the jump on Carter out of t11 and makes an aggressive move to the inside and captures the lead through t2. Hall was not close enough to chase in behind Dobson and remains in p3. The next lap Hall gets a superior exit out of t5 and is able to get along the inside of Carter going up the hill and complete the pass into t6 and hold the position through the corkscrew. Similar to previous day's action Ott is getting into the game as well with the 4 cars running nose to tail for a number of laps and able to put significant distance between themselves and the rest of the field.

On two consecutive laps Hall had a marginally better run out of t5 and attempted to pass Dobson only to be unsuccessful, slowing both drivers and allowing Carter and Ott to stay in touch. It was after the second of these attempts that Hall decided to try to work with Dobson via bump drafting and make no pass attempts given it was still early in the race in an effort to extend, rather than have a repeat performance of the previous day. In large part this strategy worked, as Dobson/Hall were able to retain a comfortable margin over Carter/Ott, not leaving them at all but at least maintain a few car lengths.

This went on for the next 8 to 10 laps with never more than a car separating Dobson and Hall and neither drivers making so much as a bobble. However, Hall was suspecting that time was running out and confirmed that with Donna Barham over the radio. While a 2nd place finish would have been a great improvement from the previous day, Hall felt that he had saved enough of his car throughout the race following the patience strategy to make a run at Dobson, so he started to look for opportunities. With just 4 laps remaining, Hall was able to parlay a nice run out of t10 into an inside line overtake through t11. Dobson, recognizing Hall's position, decided to stay wide for a superior exit out of t11 and was able to pull along side Hall at t1 with Hall defending down the straight. Just before t2 Dobson was able to reclaim the lead, however in doing so went a hair too deep into t2 allowing Hall to slip back inside and swap positions yet again.

Hall was able to hold on to the position and now it was Dobson's turn to consume Hall's mirrors. Fortunately Hall was able to extend a 3-5 car length lead by the time the white flag flew, and now the focus became not making a mistake. By t9 Hall realized he was driving a bit too conservatively as Dobson was really taking some ground back. Hall was able to hold off a hard charging Dobson at the line and capture his first career SCCA Pro racing victory! Rounding out the top 5 were Carter, Ott, and Jon Davies.

Post race tech focused on weight, heads were removed with bore / stroke measured and various other aspects of the head and block inspected with the top 5 impounded cars found to be compliant.

Official Results

Written By: Justin Hall
Photos courtesy Doug Gentges, Donna Porter, and Spec Miata West, used by permission.