Buttonwillow, CA - Larry Mason raced to two podium finishes including a win on Sunday to cap off a good weekend of racing. Mason qualified second on Saturday and finished in that position after trying to get by the leader. “We had gone into the weekend on old tires and were hoping to use one set for the entire weekend. We were within 0.6 seconds of the fastest race lap, but I missed a shift on the second lap and that allowed the leader to gap me and he was never headed after that. I was hoping that he might get held up in traffic enough for me to make a move, but it just didn’t work out that way,” said Mason.
As it turned out, by the end of the race there were no more tire wear bars left on parts of the tires and the decision was made to put on a fresher set of rubber for Sunday’s race.
The idea was to put as few laps on the newer set as possible during qualifying to preserve them for the race (you must start the race on the tires you qualified on). “I was on a bit of a “flyer” lap and got held up a bit in traffic,” Mason explained. “There was more traffic I’d have to work through after that to get a clear lap so I decided to pull it into the pits and conserve the tires for the race.” As it turned out, he qualified 2nd in class and 3rd overall.
The race was almost over before it began as a systems check on the car found that there was a cracked brake rotor on the right front. Fortunately for Mason, Eric Purcell from EFM Racing lent Team LMR a used spare that they had on hand.
Based on qualifying, Mason had the inside line going into Turn 1 for the start of the race. “I had a good start and was able to snatch the lead (in class) at the start. I was being closely followed by Saturday’s winner but I was able to hold him off just a bit – until – I missed a shift and he was able to pull alongside. I was able to out-brake him going into Turn 3 but he got a great shot onto the back straight and pulled close again heading into the high-speed ‘Riverside’ turn. I held my line and due to him losing some aero grip I was able to gap him there and was never headed again. The gearbox will be coming apart to see if there’s anything misaligned so that we try to prevent these missed shifts in the future.”
It was a very satisfying win as it was the first time in many years that Larry has owned his own car and done the prep work in-house. He’s won many races and championships for other teams but it’s always gratifying to succeed this way.
“I really want to thank Russ Botelho, Guy Sappington, and Sonia Mason for their hard work over the weekend. Everybody worked well as a team to get Mason to the podium twice this weekend. Each time we run the car we continue to learn how to make it go faster and we are eagerly anticipating the next event. An extra-special thanks has to go to Tom Engelsman from Auto Diagnostic Services for his tremendous support!”
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| Larry receives the checkered flag after winning his race. | |
 Photo by Sonia Mason |
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