RACE RECAP: FORMULA 600 CHALLENGE at PITTRACE
It was a wet and wild weekend for the first races of the Formula 600 Challenge 2025 Race Series at Pittsburg International Race Complex (PittRace) on May 3-4. Thankfully we lost only one preregistered competitor to the weather forecast and hosted the largest F600 field ever at PittRace, including a multi-time national champion, many Runoffs podium finishers and even a former professional driver from the SCCA World Challenge series.
Rain impacted every session in varying degrees, with the Saturday morning qualifying and Sunday race having the best track conditions (mostly dry). Dave Lapham used his decades of experience in changing conditions to take pole for the Saturday race with a lap time of 2:05.9, followed by Keith Joslyn and Jack Walbran. All nine F600 cars took the green flag for the Saturday race in pouring rain with almost zero visibility. Keith Joslyn, David Lapham and Steve Jondal proceeded to put on an amazing wet racing clinic and finished in that order. With everyone soaked from the race and the rain still falling, all F600 competitors decided to skip the Saturday afternoon qualifying session.
We finally had a break in the rain on Sunday morning, but the lack of sunshine and wind meant the track was still partially wet for the F600 feature race. Multi-time national champion Calvin Stewart didn’t run on Saturday, so he started at the back of the combined F600/FF group. When the green flag dropped, Calvin immediately started passing cars and was leading within a few laps. According to Calvin, it wasn’t an easy drive, with wet patches at key points on the track, but he won with a comfortable margin and best time of 1:52.6. There was great racing throughout the pack, with Keith Joslyn and Steve Jondal completing the podium.
It was a great weekend of racing and bonding over the challenging weather conditions for the Formula 600 Challenge Race Series relaunch. Below is a group photo from the Sunday feature race podium ceremony, including competitors, crew, family and friends. Missing from the photo are competitor Robert Gray, plus crew J.R. and Al Sauerland. Now we turn our focus forward to back-to-back weekends at Watkins Glen on May 31 – June 1 and Road America on June 6-8.
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