Steyn drives Spec Miata from 22nd to 2nd on a rain soaked track in Race 1, then wins Race 2 on Sunday
With the 2019 SCCA runoffs being held at VIR, this past weekend over 500 racers showed up to compete at the VIR Hoosier Super Tour, including 70 of the nation’s fastest Spec Miata drivers.
Unfortunately, the weather was very uncooperative, and while Test Day turned out to be a dry day, the first and 2nd Qualifying sessions were hampered by wet conditions and lots of carnage that limited the laps run.
On a drying track, Danny Steyn only managed to get his outlap in Qualifying Session 1 before the session was black flagged, and this lap put him 23rd on the provisional grid. Other Rossini drivers fared better with Nash Lawson starting in 10th, Jonathan Davis in 12th, Joe Tobin in 18th, while others were even further back including Amy Mills, Jason Connole, Ralle Rookey, Jarret Jones, and more.
The 2nd Qually session was run in full rain conditions, and while Steyn was a full 3 seconds faster than the next Spec Miata driver before the session was black flagged, his and every one else’s times were slower than the Q1 session which meant that no-one moved up. This created the unusual scenario where many of the top Super Tour drivers were mired in the mid to back of the field.
For Race 1, Super Tour front runners Preston Pardus started in 9th, Jim Drago in 19th, Steyn in 22nd, Elivan Goulart in 48th, Tyler Kicera in 51st, and Todd Buras in 55th. Totally bizarre!
Race 1 was run in the rain, and at the start Steyn narrowly managed to miss the carnage in Turn 1 and quickly passed14 drivers before the Full Course Yellow was waved. Starting from 8th on the restart, Steyn started moving through the field picking off drivers one by one, and finally got into clear track and set after the leader Brian Henderson, but despite running significantly faster lap times, was unable to close the deficit by the checkered flag and finished 2nd.
Rossini drivers Jonathan Davis finished a very respectable 6th, and Ralle Rookey moved all the way from 54th to 16th, a truly impressive drive.
Fortunately, Steyn’s race time moved him up to 8th place in the grid for Sunday’s 35 minute Race 2. Steyn made quick work of the field, moving up to 4th place through T1 and T3, but the FCY was thrown before the field completed a lap. On the restart Steyn was caught of guard, lost some ground but he stayed behind Rob and pushed Rob past Nick Bruni and Brian Henderson the next lap going into Turn 1 and took the lead.
Steyn hit his marks cleanly while the drivers behind were running two wide allowing him to build up a bit of a lead, but waiting for the train behind to swallow him up. For whatever reason it never happened and Steyn pulled out a 3 second lead at the front and was pulling away when the 2nd FCY came out.
Steyn held his lead on the restart going into T2, and started to build up a lead again, but now Preston was behind Bruni with one and half laps to go they had caught Steyn, but When Pardus tried a pass on Bruni in South Bend, that allowed Steyn to get away again.
With one lap Pardus and Bruni were on Steyn’s bumper, but with a good run through South Bend and Oak Tree, Steyn was able to hold the lead into Hog Pen. With a push from Pardus, Bruni got alongside Steyn, but couldn’t complete the pass. Steyn and Bruni touched lightly at the top of Hog Pen and Pardus tried to go to the right, but Steyn was able to hang on for the win over Pardus and Bruni, scavenging valuable points in the Hoosier Super Tour Championship race. Tyler Kicera had a great run finishing in 4th with Jim Drago in 5th, Todd Buras in 6th and Elivan Goulart in 7th
Jonathan Davis finished 12th, Ralle Rookey was 17th, Nash Lawson 24th, Caleb Bacon 30th, and Amy Mills 41st.
Watch Danny Steyn’s in car camera racing from 22nd to 2nd in the rain at VIR.
