Sportsracer Challenge Debut Race at High Plains

[Messenger Racing]

The first Sportsracer Challenge race is history. BIG fun!

Three days of high 90 degree weather and intense racing was the norm at the inaugural Sportsracer Challenge race held with the Super Tour event at High Plains Raceway this past weekend. Since I am the organizer, reporter, tow truck driver and a racer who didn't get home until late Monday (and have a day job), this report will be short with more to come later.

Here is a quick summary and some pics. Three drivers with lot's of racing history (long list of pro drives, 24 hours of Daytona, etc) but new to the car (myself), the track (Chris Funk) or both in the case of ex-pro driver (Pro SRF and Pro Sports 2000 among others) Keith Scharf who hadn't driven any racecar since the SRF reunion event - I think he kicked tail then also!

The stewards were great and allowed us to have our own split start each day. Saturday we started at the back of the wings and things and behind the separate split start for the Sports 2000 group.

Our split start Sunday was behind the wings and things but ahead of the Sports 2000 group.

The result both days was some wild racing.

Here is the link to the official results:

http://www.scca.com/events/results.cfm?eid=3845

Race one:
1 Keith Scharf (by about 1 foot at the finish line!)
2 Jay Messenger
3 Chris Funk

Race two:
1 Keith Scharf
2 Chris Funk
3 Jay Messenger

We found out early after Saturday qualifying that this was going to be wild - all three cars qualified within 2/10s of each other - see positions 13-15 on the overall grid:

Final results Saturday - the total race time for Keith and myself - less than 1/10 of a second at the line - that's close after 30 minutes!

And the lap times kept speeding up every session all weekend as we each tried to one-up the other.

And for Sunday - still nose to tail after 30 minutes on this one also.

We had an agreement that everyone ran one set of spec Hooseir spec tires for the whole weekend - no fresh set on Sunday - all tires had 6 heat cycles on them after the Sunday race - the tires were amazing - particularly in light of the repeated abuse they received.

The result - grins from ear to ear and lot's of kudos from racers, spectators and event organizers. Enough so that plans are underway for our second event later in the summer - more to come!


Sponsor thanks:
Hoosier
Mazda
KC Racing
Thinkfastbook.com

Other thanks:
Rocky Mountain Division SCCA volunteers
SCCA Marketing department
Chris Doyle - Surface Exploration
Ron Doyle
Costa Dunias
Announcer Kurt Hansen
Photographer Rupert Barrington

On track photos coming in a day or two.

Jay Messenger
Sportsracer Challenge

[Messenger Racing]

Here is a link to some great Rupert Berrington at High Plains Raceway last weekend:

http://s1209.photobucket.com/albums/...ins%20Raceway/

[Robert J. Alder]

Hey guys, don't mean to hijack your thread, but "Sports Racer Challenge" caught my eye.

If any of you have pre-84 S2000 cars, you are invited to come to the RMVR vintage Sports Racer Challenge Labor Day weekend at Pueblo. The older S2000s would be a very welcome addition, especially since as of a year or so ago they are now RMVR eligible cars.

Actually the full title is the Bobsy Reunion and Sports Racer Challenge, a special feature grid of sports racers for the weekend. I'm hoping to have 25+ vintage sports racers. Here's some links to additional info.

Bobsy Registry page on the event (which is how the idea got started).
RMVR's webpage on the weekend.

Please feel free to give me a call if you have any questions. If you think you'd like to come and play, it would be something different and we'd really like to see some of the older S2000s at our event(s). The price is right and lots of track time.

Thanks,
Bob Alder
303-981-6364