Sonoma has always been an up and down track for us. In 2004, my car broke and I had to run a backup, yet 2005 was a good finish. In 2006, my car broke again but in 2007, we came out as the champion. According to our Sonoma calendar, we were due for another broken car. We had a serious ignition issue with the Z in Seattle that we couldn't figure out, but our crew chief, Kevin, was not going to let that end our weekend. Our ECU was verified to be in good order, and after two days spent with the Z strapped to the dyno, we finally figured out that the crank trigger inside the junkyard motor we installed in Seattle was about .005-inch off. It's unbelievable to think that such a fraction of an inch can be so important!
We got to the track late, unloaded the trailer and prepped for practice. After some minor suspension tuning, we were putting down near-perfect runs. It felt so good to be back in our car again, without the problems! I dedicated spare time on Friday to helping teammate Tony Angelo with repairs to his car, slept a little, then put down few practice laps on Saturday morning to set the mood before qualifying.
I tore down the hill for our first qualifying run: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, clutch-kick! We posted an 88 mph entry speed, and initiated the drift almost 50 feet before anyone else! The run was clean and landed us tied for Second Place! After our second run, we ended up sitting in Sixth; a huge improvement from previous events. Our first competitor in the tandem rounds was Kyle Mohan. We ran against him in the past while he was in a broken car, so I was interested to see what would happen this time. I was the lead car on our first run, so I hauled down the hill and threw it in as hard as I could. We were both on the steering lock all the way to the first outer clip, but Kyle straightened out and received zero points. I came back for our chase run, knowing all that I needed was a nice clean pass. Going down the hill, I kept a one to two car gap between us for the braking zone. As we approached the main clip, I was closing in pretty hard to Kyle's car. I got nervous that I was too close, but as we rotated around the main clip his car came around to a stop. I hit the brakes and stopped inches away. We won the first round!
Moving into the Great 8, we were paired up with Bill Sherman, a NOPI champ and new competitor to this season of Formula D. After some practice laps, we found that he was lightning fast down the hill, but I was faster through the corners. On our first run, I tried to keep up down the straight and as I initiated into the first turn. There was a four car gap between us, which quickly turned into a zero car gap; I was hard on the brakes trying not to hit Bill, and under-steered a little before I could regain control of the car. We were awarded two points... and there's almost no coming back from that. Our next lap was my lead, so all I could do was throw down a clean run and hope for Bill to make a mistake. He didn't. Bill moved on to the semi-finals and we ended the event with a Sixth Place finish, and in solid position to finish within the Top 5 for the season.
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Sam Hubinette
In First Place, Sam is on the cusp of adding a third Formula D title to his name. With Tanner trailing behind, Sam and his Viper need every point to maintain his lead.
The whole season, I have been in First or Second Place in the points standings, and after the Seattle event, I held a 12-point lead over Tanner. I knew it was nothing to be comfortable with, but still had a nice feeling, arriving in Sonoma for Round 6 of Formula D.