Joey Has a Record Weekend Winning TWO SCCA National Races at Portland International Raceway on July 4th & 5th, 2009

 
Joey had a terrific record setting over the July 4th weekend at PIR by winning his first two SCCA National Races. In addition to his two National Race Wins, he earned one National Pole, the Fastest Lap in class for BOTH races, and the fastest recorded Spec Miata lap of the weekend. Once again, Joey’s driving was strong and consistent and his car performed absolutely flawlessly on both days of racing.

During the first race, Joey and Ken Sutherland had quite a battle as they fought for the
lead. A little more than half way through the 1st race, after swapping positions nearly every lap or two, Joey gained the lead for good and raced away for the checkered flag and Joey’s first National Race win.

The track was configured without the ‘chicane’ or ‘festival curves’ for these two races (turns 1, 2, & 3 are blocked off creating a very long front straight. The more faster powerful cars in other classes will take full advantage of the long straight away and the fans love to see those high horsepower cars zoom by.

For the second race on Sunday, Joey once again had a great inside starting position in the Spec Miata class and started 10th overall with the faster and more powerful cars all in front of him. Joey worked his way very carefully through traffic to keep his lead in the Spec Miata Class and moved away from all the other Spec Miatas with each lap of the race.

As is often the case in mixed class racing, other traffic creates real challenges on the track and later in the race, traffic slowed up Joey giving Will an opportunity to close up the gap behind him. Joey drove smartly
and he was able to use the traffic to his advantage and deny Will the opportunity to challenge Joey and make a pass on him.

Joey lead Sunday’s race from start to finish in the Spec Miata and collects his 2nd checkered flag of the weekend! Once again we want to thank Pat McFall and FMR for the great job they have done on the set-up of Joey’s car this year! With two races remaining at PIR, Joey is 3rd in the points, only 2 points behind Ken and 6 points behind Will. It is going to go right down to the wire for the championship of the Oregon Spec Miata Class.