The Circuit: A Site for Fantastic Endurance Racing
Despite a wide array of cars and a longer format, our most recent enduro was full of close battling.
The recent addition to Buttonwillow Raceway Park known as “The Circuit” is wide, fast, and flowing. As we learned last month, the course’s distinctive layout suited multi-class racing quite well.
With a 50’ wide front straight and 40’ elsewhere, there was ample room to let the faster traffic by and plenty of space for running two and three-wide. Not surprisingly, the competition was close and entertaining all the race through.
Though the 2.56-mile track’s flowing layout suited the high-powered, wing-equipped cars better than momentum machines, even those running Miatas and the like were pleased with The Circuit’s shape. Svilen Kanev of Divebombers Racing found the layout surprisingly entertaining in his Toyota MR2.
“I expected to be much more boring, especially in a momentum car, but I got pleasantly surprised. Turns 2 and 3 are tricky enough to make them interesting, and The Fishbowl is heavily cambered and allows for a ton of speed,” Svilen said.
Svilen’s MR2 has been a staple at our events the last several years.
“No better way to learn a track than a 2.5-hour enduro,” added Abdul Osmani, whose RCrew-prepped E46 M3 finished second with co-driver Anthony Altwer. Behind them came Joe McGuigan and Tony Rodriguez who, on pace alone, were the class of the field.
Photo credit: CaliPhotography
Their speed was actually so strong that they were asked to serve a five-minute stop at the race’s start to ensure more competition. Though their speed was unparalleled, luck wasn’t on their side. Once underway, Tony went faster than his qualifying time and had to serve another penalty.
The team that had speed, clean driving, and consistency in equal measure was Elite Performance. Gary Yeung and Yunni Zhai took their 350Z to the finish line first.
“The endurance race was a true test to team work, patience, and the ability to stay calm. Yes, it was a relatively small field of competitors compared to other races, which I believe was caused by a weekend full of racing events and maybe the hesitation with the brand-new track, but our team was rewarded the first place overall and in class by treating it as seriously as we would any other event.
We did as many practice sessions as we can, planned our pit stop carefully, carried out hot-lapping and fuel-conserving driving styles strategically, and were just lucky enough; Joe and Tony were penalized for a ‘Super Dog’ lap and that made life a lot easier for us.
Personally, I just started out in wheel-to-wheel racing less than two years ago and I’ve definitely made all kinds of mistakes. So it’s truly rewarding to finally keep it together for once and continue improving in my motorsports journey. I’m excited to attend more endurance races with Speed SF in the future,” Yunni reported.
Group A Finishing Results:
1st - Elite Performance 350Z Gary Yeung / Yunni Zhai
2nd - RCrew Racing E46 M3 Abdul Osmani / Anthony Altwer
3rd - JM Racing E46 M3 Joseph McGuigan / Tony Rodriguez
The race was filled with strong battles between the many Miata runners.
The momentum cars Group B were thrilled with the close racing The Circuit afforded them. Class winner Michael Hopp of Team Bozo Racing, whose Spec E46 provided enough power and fuel economy to run up front. Michael, a newcomer to Speed SF’s enduros, was thrilled with the ruleset, the atmosphere, and the cost-effective chance it offered to test.
“This enduro was a fun spin on Lucky Dog-style classing rules in a shorter format. It’s an easy lift to manage with one fuel stop for the race, and I loved getting to drive two and a half hours on just one pit stop. There was plenty of good on-track action and respectful driving, so I’m looking forward to attending Thunderhill at Labor Day for the third round this year — I just hope more Spec E46 racers come and take advantage of this format, ” he said.
After a long battle with Svilen Kanev of Divebombers Racing, Michael was able to secure the Group B win.
Running closely with Michael the entire race, Svilen was pleased to see his old MR2 still had the pace to keep up with a modern 3-series. “I had a great time —lots of fun dicing it with Michael, whose car is around the same pace as our little old Toyota. At the end of the day, a long pitstop for a small mechanical issue meant Michael got the best of us. It’s great to see a new enduro series pop up and be a part of it! We will be back for the next one!” Svilen reported.
We hope to see you at our next enduro at Sonoma Raceway, May 10th-11th.
For more information on our race series, please follow this link.
Group B Finishing Results:
1st - Team Bozo Racing Spec E46 Michael Hopp
2nd - Divebomber Racing Toyota MR2 Svilen Kanev
3rd - IMS Racing 5 Mazda Miata
After assessing a protest due to Team Bozo Racing exceeding their delta laptime four times, Team Bozo Racing was moved to Group A, putting Divebomber first, IMS Racing 5 second, and IMS Racing 1 third.
For the full list of lap times, visit the link below:
