Monterey, Ca - The 2005 Spec Miata (SM) season kicked off this past weekend at Laguna Seca, with 55 cars qualifying for the SFR season opener - two SM races in one weekend. Team Off Camber Racing (OCR) arrived in full force with at total of 6 factory cars under the tent in familiar offset stripe livery, adding SCCA Pro SM winning Brad Rampelberg to the OCR team with Justin Hall behind the wheel of a newly developed OCR '05 1.6l SM.

Qualifying began under clear skys Saturday afternoon, but late in the day thus within the 90db sound window. For those that are not familiar, SMs have great difficulty running at 90db, forcing the competitors to run compromized exhaust configurations. The faster drivers, who are higher on the RPM curve exiting t5 where sound is measured, typically run at or within 1db of the limit. As it turns out, a marine layer moved over the track with about 7 minutes left in the session causing 9 meatballs with 5 being drivers in the top 10 in qualifying. Fortunately all times ended up being allowed due to a very rare clerical issue between tech and T&S, placing 4 OCR cars in the top 10; Hall p2, Rampelberg p3, McAnaney p7, and Hsu p9. Matt Cross of Hoover Motorsports was able to grab the pole with a qualifying track record time of 1:48:177, a mere .072 ahead of OCR Principal Justin Hall and only a .10th ahead of Brad. Great lap Matt!

But, as we all know, checkered flags are not collected in qualifying and Sunday would bring two exciting SM races bookending the schedule for the day. The SM race kicked off at 8:30 AM (7:30 for those forgetting to set the clocks forward for DST). Again, based on the nuances of Laguna Seca no PA announcements are allowed before 8:30AM, grid ended up being chaotic with many racers failing to make the grid including Brad. Justin was fortunate enough to pull up to grid just as the 1 minute board appeared, snugging his harnesses and putting his gloves on as he entered the track behind the pace car.

As the green flag waived Matt entered the Andretti Hairpin uncontested with Justin falling behind to defend a surge from the ever talented Randy Evans. For the next 7 laps Matt would drive a brilliant race defending at least 2-3 attempts to overtake from Justin per lap - you could quite literally throw a blanket over the two cars with mere inches of separation. Many spectators would later comment that it was the best battle at the front they have seen in recent SM memory. Justin was finally able to overtake Matt exiting t5 into t6 on an outside/in move due to Matt defending t5. Justin was able to extend his lead to over 2 seconds and take the first SM checker of the 2005 SFR season. Peter Hsu piloted his SM to 6th, with Brad finishing 12th after starting from the rear. OCR principal David McAnaney was a disappointing DNF after running as high as 5th with a diff failure due to contact with Terry McCarthy, who would later be DSQ due to the contact with McAnaney. Justin's fastest lap of 1:47:950 is a Laguna Seca race record time for SM!

Thankfully there were 7 hours between the 1st and the 2nd SM races, enough time for the buzz to wear off but also enough time for mechanicals to take place allowing all the cars from the first race to reach the grid for the second race. We all seemed to be 15-20 minutes early to grid this time. As the green flag fell on this final race of the day, Brad starting from p3 was hammering on Cross' bumper with nearly enough momentum to clear t2 in p2, but Justin's start was just good enough to hold the inside line out of t2 and Brad let Justin fall in. With Justin and Brad working together Matt would find himself relegated back to p3 rather quickly. Exiting t11 on the 2nd lap Justin was able to get inside Matt, with Brad able to give a little assistance both were able to clear Matt exiting t2 and by the end of the lap shake Matt from the draft. Justin and Brad finished 1-2 putting two OCR cars on the SM podium! Dave McAnaney was able to recover from the morning race and finish an impressive 6th competing with a spare open differential. Peter Hsu was able bring his white OCR SM around in 8th, placing 4 OCR cars in the top 10!

All in all a stellar weekend for team OCR - two wins, 3 total podiums, and a race record lap time!

Official Results - Race 1
Official Results - Race 2

Written by Justin Hall
Photos courtesy Mike Rampleberg and Spec Miata West.