2014 NASA East Coast Championships -944 Spec

A 4-way tie for pole position. This single, amazing event sums up the inaugural East Coast Championships in 944 Spec. The week of racing included strong competition up and down the field, with no less than 5 different drivers leading the pack during the championship races.

In typical 944 Spec fashion, driving coaching and sharing speed tips abounded in the paddock. Gary Barton, a second year driver who would go on to podium, had this to say:

This is my second Nationals Event and I can say with certainty that the 4 days’ worth of driver education with this group of racers both on and off track surpasses any other race weekend or driving school I've attended, bar none.

Dan Pina also summed up the weekend well:

The entire week was a great reminder of why I joined 944 Spec to begin with. From the Chicken shack guys hospitality, to the entire group jumping in to help get Neals car back in the race, the group parade and pictures, extremely nice neighbors and just good fun TOUGH racing. Such a blast!

Starting with the test day Thursday, Neal Agran was the first to experience a wrinkle in his plans when he broke an axle, which resulted in brushing the wall. After some heroic work by Pine Tree Motorsports, Neal was able to come back for the second qualifying race, but missed competition on Friday.

Friday brought the first qualifying race. To the surprise of many, two men who were experiencing their first National championships, drove off the front and stayed there. Jason Stanley edged close to the track record, pulling through for a win, followed by Dan Williams in David Dirk’s old championship winning #76 944. Behind these two, Jason Walsh & Gary Barton traded positions 3 times in the last lap for a hard fought battle for third, with Walsh coming out on top after Gary overcooked turn 10. Further back, Brian Evans and Jeremy Pohlman had a knock-down, drag out battle much of the race as well.

Saturday brought Midwest hot shoe Neal Agran back in the mix with a newly reminted 944 courtesy Pine Tree Motorsports, which he wielded to devastating effect. The race started as the Williams/Stanley show again, who pulled out a lead over Pina & Barton. Meanwhile, Agran was on a mission, passing several cars per lap to bring him in sight of the podium contenders. Contact between Stanely and Williams occurred while they were scuffling for first place and left Williams out with a flat, and Stanley nursing a misaligned car through to the finish. An incredulous Barton assumed the lead, and I’ll let him pick up the story from there:

In qualifying race #2, after a luck-stricken turn of events, I found myself running in first place! I was like holy $%#&! I'm running in first place! By the way, don't think too much about that or you'll lose focus. How do I know? Stay tuned. So for several laps I finally got to sense what it feels like to be Jason Stanley, Daniel Williams and Neal Agran :o) when this orange 944 appeared in my rear view. Yep, it was none other than Neal Agran who was on a crusade from the back of the pack. Not wanting to give up my comfy, feel good position in 1st place, I began summoning the 'Force' from within. Translated: I began to brake deeper, carry more speed and keep Neal back there. That worked for like 2-3 laps, and then Neal (with eyes glowing red) passed me after I bit off more than I could chew one too many times. No matter, I was able to hang my tow hook on his rear bumper as he passed to keep up with him. As the white flag flew, I had a slight draft run on Neal heading toward turn 1, and I poked my nose out toward the inside of turn 1, why? Because I thought what a waste to give up all of this glorious speed on the last lap. Bad move. Real bad move. I ended up with a treacherous line through Turn 1 and we know what that can mean for the next few turns, crapola! … Oh and deja vu. Like qualifying race 1, I totally biffed Turn 3, giving me a first row seat to see Pina and Walsh drive on by. Luckily, for me, I was able to get around Walsh again between Turns 7 and 9 when his car began missing again, holding on to a third place finish.

So the first place winner from race 1, Janson Stanley, finished well back in the pack, while winner, Neal Agran, hadn’t raced at all in race 1 due to his incident in the practice day. Walsh couldn’t get his car’s motor to cooperate on the closing laps of either race, but gamely held to take 3^rd &4^th places in the qualifying races. Barton suffered some brain fade on the closing laps of each race, costing him 3 positions total. Pina lost an antiswaybar drop link, costing him a podium position in race 1. The result of all this mayhem? A certainly unprecedented result of a 4-way tie for pole position for the Eastern Coast Championship in 944 Spec. Lottery odds pale in comparison. The tie was split by laptime, to the delight of Stanley, who rose from the ashes of race 2 to claim the podium, follow by Walsh, Pina, and Barton respectively.

So the stage was set for the championship. Would Stanley, owner of the fastest time of the weekend, run off the front to the win? Could Walsh’s car cooperate to propel him to the front? Would newcomer Barton find glory in only his second year racing? Could Pina find his mojo? What about Stanley, who was leading race 2 before his retirement? And don’t forget about Agran, who’d already proved he could pull off the Cinderella story from back of the pack, running from 14^th to first in race 2. He’d have to do it again to win the championship.

The start of the inaugural Eastern Coast Championship did not disappoint. Agran set off from the back, and had already passed 2 rows of cars, two wheels in the grass, before tucking in for turn 1. Going 4 wide in turn 1, Agran was shuffled over, and straddled track out curbing to avoid contact. Unfortunately, this ended in a split oil pan, which would have implications the next lap, beyond an early end to Agran’s Cinderella story.

I’ll let Pina pick it up from here in his own words:

We started the race and I got a perfect start. I was firmly on Stanley’s tail and confident I'd find second position by T2. To my surprise, Walsh stuck the outside line and even edged me out by the time we approached T2. I gave up the position and ducked back in line. We filed through the next few corners and as we came out of T7 I was very happy to see Gary on my tail. We were nose to tail a couple car lengths back from Stanley and Walsh. As we approached T9 I could see Gary had a great run off the draft and gave me the HUGEST shove! I was FLYING!!! I knew I had a huge run so I decided a pass going down the inside of T10 was a no brainer. I flew passed the leaders and got through T10 and T11 uncontested. As we rounded T1 we got a debris flag. As I braked for T2 I saw the fluid on the track and felt the car go a bit sideways, and scrubbed lots of speed for T3. I watched my mirror in disbelief as Stanley slid off the course obviously caught out by the oil. We quickly were under a full course caution and had circulated 3 times, when I was very surprised to see the pace car duck off at the last minute and the flagger quickly drop the green (still holding two yellows in the other hand). I then just did my absolute best to run good clean laps, and manage traffic as best as possible. Finally after 4 or 5 laps Williams was on top of me. I finally blew it in T7 and had a big drift on exit. I knew I was screwed and he blew past me with ease on the outside. From then on I was on a mission to try and stay as close as possible to Williams, hoping for some late traffic to foul him up. But alas, this never came to fruition and he began to walk away. When the checkered came out I was relieved and excited to see that familiar white car [Gary Barton] behind me in third. What an awesome finish to a great weekend. I feel very lucky to have finished so highly amongst so many very skilled drivers.

Behind those two was the familiar site of Dan Walsh, still gamely fighting an intermittent miss. Stanley was charging hard behind him, having moved from 12^th to 5^th, proving the young driver will be a force to be reckoned with in future championships! Many more individual battles were fought further back, but in the best 944 Spec tradition, all cars finished excepting Agran with his holed oil pan.

Dan Williams prevailed, methodically working his way up from a mid pack start to win the inaugural NASA East Coast Championship in convincing fashion! Congratulations to him, the Rocky Mountain Region, and his 944 Motorwerks powered car.

The top 5 drivers split almost $5,000 in Toyo bucks. Generous contingencies were also available from GoPro, Royal Purple, Hawk Racing, Sampson Racing, AIM, Necksgen, Driven Steering Wheels, and Winding Road.