Track near Palm Springs hosts Rounds Three and Four of Western Conference, with eight Mazda winners.
Chuckwalla Valley Raceway, a 17-turn, 2.68-mile track in Desert Center, Calif., hosted its first Majors races, Rounds Three and Four the SCCA U.S. Majors Tour Western Conference. Saturday’s on-track events included 15-minute qualifying sessions, divided into seven race groups, for the 25 National Championship Runoffs-eligible classes what were present. Following the mid-day lunch break, those same seven race groups competed in separate 30-minute sprint races. On Sunday, each race was 20 laps.
As this was the first trip to the venue for the Majors Tour, new lap records were on the chopping block. A total of 13 lap records were reset over the two-day race weekend.
Dan Erickson, of Chandler, Arizona, took home a narrow 0.692-second victory over Doug Nelson in Formula Mazda on Saturday. Nelson was the better of the two drivers during the qualifying session, but Erickson drove his No. 6 Brawndo Formula Mazda to the eventual win. Larry Mason was the Sunday winner in FM.
Clement Lee, of San Diego, California, cruised to an atypically large margin of victory in Spec Miata on Saturday. Lee qualified his No. 33 RM Autosports Mazda Miata in third, but did what he needed to do to lead the field to the line.
On Sunday, Steven Powers, of Mesa, Arizona, turned the tables on Lee. After finishing second to Lee the day before, Powers came home first in his No. 145 Amerifirst Financial Mazda Miata. Lee finished the feature race in second.
Derrick Ambrose (Mazda2) and Mike Henderson (RX-7) were double winners in B-Spec and GT-3, respectively.
The next two rounds of the SCCA U.S. Majors Tour Western Conference Championship will be held at Thunderhill Raceway Park on April 11-12.
SCCA Western Conference Majors Tour
Chuckwalla Valley Raceway, Desert Center, Calif.
March 21—22, 2015
Round Three Mazda Winners
| Class | Driver | Hometown | Car |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chuckwalla B-Spec | Derrick Ambrose | Vancouver, Wash. | Mazda2 |
| Formula Mazda | Dan Erickson | Chandler, Ariz. | Formula Mazda* |
| GT-3 | Mike Henderson | Alpine, Calif. | Mazda RX-7 |
| Spec Miata | Clement Lee | San Diego, Calif. | Mazda Miata |
Round Four Mazda Winners
ClassDriverHometownCar
| B-Spec | Derrick Ambrose | Vancouver, Wash. | Mazda2* |
| Formula Mazda | Larry Mason | Burbank, Calif. | Formula Mazda |
| E Production | Anthony Jimerson | Benicia, Calif. | Mazda RX-7 |
| GT-1 | Richard Gray | Moorpark, Calif. | Mazda RX-7 |
| GT-3 | Mike Henderson | Alpine, Calif. | Mazda RX-7* |
| Spec Miata | Steven Powers | Mesa, Ariz. | Mazda Miata |
