Thunderhill Recap

April 6-8, 2018

The weekend started off wet at Thunderhill Raceway Park. But the rainy start to the weekend did not deter the west coast's best from turning out, as a total of fourteen Formula F class cars would take part in the weekend event. 

With heavy rain on the Friday test day, and dry conditions forecast for the rest of the weekend, the team decided not to run in the wet conditions Friday. That meant that Saturday morning's qualifying session would be the first laps at the tricky circuit for Nicky Hays. While much time was spent reviewing data and video prior to his first laps, it still takes some seat time to get acclimated to the many blind corners at Thunderhill. Once on track, Nicky made steady progress and with the session shortened by a yellow flag, he still managed to clock the 7th fastest time in the #4 Piper DL7. 

The Saturday qualifying session did not go as well for Brad Hayes in the #7 car. An issue with the throttle cable would prevent him from getting any solid laps in during the session. Brad would qualify in the 14th position.

The mangled radiator from Nicky's #4 car after significant contact....luckily it still held water for the remainder of the race 1.

The Saturday race would prove eventful for both drivers. Nicky would get a great start, jumping from 7th to 3rd by turn two on the first lap. He would spend the whole race battling with Denny Renfrow, Skip Streets, and Chuck Horn at the front of the field. Two laps from the finish, contact in turn 14 would drop Nicky back to 4th position. Then on the final lap, a mad scramble through turns 9-10 would see Nicky jump from 4th to 2nd. At the checkered Chuck Horn would take the win, followed by Nicky Hays in 2nd. In his first race on his track with minimal laps in qualifying, Nicky proved a quick learner. He ran with the front pack the whole race, and turned a best lap of 1:55.297, bested only by Skip Streets fast lap of 1:55.196. 

Brad started Saturday's race well too, jumping from 14th to 10th by the end of the first lap. Brad would have a race long battle with Mark Keller. On the next to last lap Brad would pass Mark to move in to 8th position and close in on Steve Meyer who was running 7th. But before the end of the lap, Brad and Mark would make contact in turn 14. After climbing a tire, and catching some air, Brad's car would land on all fours and continue on. Slight damage to the car would cost a couple of positions, but Brad was able to limp to the checkered flag finishing a disappointing 10th.

Tire marks on the side of Brad's #7 car...evidence of a rough race 1.

With significant contact to both cars during the Saturday race, the team would spend a busy evening in the paddock repairing the damage and preparing the cars for Sunday morning's qualifying session. Doug Learned Sr went to work replacing a mangled radiator and repairing the sidepod on Nicky's #4 car. Meanwhile, Doug Learned Jr would have Brad's #7 car on the setup pad getting everything pointed back in the right direction. Remarkably, the only only damage to the #7 car was some cosmetic damage to the right side of the car, and a bent rod end on the left rear pushrod. By dinner time, the cars were back together and ready for Sunday.

The Sunday morning qualifying session would come early with an 8:25am start time. Nicky picked up right where he left on on Saturday, qualifying in 2nd position, only .03 seconds off of Chuck Horn's pole time. Brad would also improve from Saturday's pace, and would qualify in 7th position. In the post session debrief, both drivers were commenting on understeering conditions in the early morning qualifying session. So the crew went to work with some slight adjustments for the afternoon race.

For Sunday's feature race, Nicky Hays would start on the outside front row. A fast starting Rick Payne would get past dropping Nicky to 3rd on the opening lap. From that point on, it was an intense wheel to wheel battle involving a pack of five cars. Rick Payne, Chuck Horn, Nicky Hays, Skip Streets, and Denny Renfrow would run wheel to wheel for much of the race. Mid way through the race, Rick Payne would drop back and Chuck Horn would pull a small gap over the rest of the field. Skip and Nicky would trade positions for 2nd and 3rd several times as the closed the gap to the leading Chuck Horn. Things were shaping up nicely for Nicky, until a miscue in turn 9 would let Denny Renfrow by and the top 3 would then pull away. Skip Streets would go on to catch and pass Chuck Horn, taking the win.

Back in the middle of the pack, Brad Hayes would spend the race battling with Steve Meyer and Stephen Temple. By the end of the race, Brad was able to capitalize on errors by Steve and Stephen, finishing the race in 6th position. 

While the team did not walk away with the checkered flags, it was still a great weekend of racing. Nicky was competitive all weekend battling with the leaders in both races. Brad made steady progress, but was ultimately disappointed to not find the same pace he showed at this race last year. He will look to rebound when he next hits the track at Laguna Seca in May. Nicky's busy season will continue, as he jumps back in the kart on April 14-15 at the Rok Challenge of the Americas race at Sonoma.