The fourth weekend of the Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA Super Tour is underway, and the weekend the clocks spring forward absolutely felt like Spring. Road Atlanta brought some showers to the field on Saturday morning, but it kept things interesting for all eight 25-minute group races during the day.

Here’s what we learned:

All Guts, No Brains

Road Atlanta is, by its nature, a difficult track. It’s a favorite precisely for what it is – and old-school, natural terrain road course with blind corners and elevation change, and super fast.

So you can imagine what that’s like on a wet day. It turns out that there are two distinct approaches to a rainy day in the South.

Peter Norton is a Southeast Division racer who has plenty of laps around Road Atlanta, both in the wet and the dry. He uses a more textbook approach to a wet day, combining local knowledge with the lessons handed out in any driver’s school.

“You have to drive with an egg between the pedals, and be very gentle,” Norton said. “Knowing where the point the car over the hills or down the hill is really important.”

That worked to take the overall Production group and E Production class win.

On the other hand, there’s Mason Workman’s approach. That one also worked; he took the win in F Production. He started with crediting Hoosier’s rain tire.

“It was almost like it wasn’t raining,” Workman said. “Those tires were so incredibly grippy, you just had to trust them.”

But beyond that, it was just brute force.

“This is only the second time I’ve been here and the first time in the rain. I generally don’t know what I’m doing, it’s all guts and no brains.”

Kids, don’t try that at home.

Spray It Down

It’s one thing to know the basics of driving in the rain – stay smooth with inputs, find the available grip.

But what’s it actually like to race in the rain, especially in an open wheel car? Fewer of us have experienced that. Jason Conzo has, however, and did it on the way to a first-place trophy in Formula Enterprises 2. He was happy to talk us through it.

“I can sum it up in one word, and that’s visceral,” Conzo said. “We’ve seen on-board footage and what it’s like to drive in the dry, but add all of that intensity, the vibration, and then stick your hand in front of your face and you can’t see it. Add that blindness in.”

The aerodynamics from the open-wheel cars can help a little bit. At least right up until it doesn’t.

“With the aero, it does do a good job of morphing the rain and the wind around you,” Conzo said. “But when I was tucked up behind Russ to make the pass for P1, he was kicking up all that spray and you’re kind of blind for a little bit. You have to trust the car and you.”

The most important thing is to maximize visibility, because there are obviously no windshield wipers on a car that doesn’t have a windshield.

“Everyone has their own water proofing methods,” Conzo said. “Some drivers like RainX on their visors. I like tear offs. It doesn’t work too well if it gets underneath, but if I get in a jam with some dirt or mud it’s pretty easy to rip the tear-off and get some clear vision.”

Luckily, the rain stopped, and the track had dried by mid-afternoon. That should carry over into Sunday.

Making More Noise

Michael Kamalian’s racing background had mostly been in the Production category – but 2024 is the year he tries something different.

That “different” is a brand-new Ford Mustang GT in Touring 2, which, bluntly, requires a different drive than his Mazda Miata that he has run in F Production and GT-Lite the past eight years. To be fair, Kamalian’s first go-round in racing did include some American Sedan, among other things, but it’s been nearly 20 years since that happened.

“We did a test two weeks ago, and it was the first time this car had been on track,” Kamalian said. “Then we did the test two days ago, and everything was fine in the dry. In the wet it’s a whole other animal. It’s almost double the weight of my Prod car, with almost three times the horsepower.”

it's going to be a learning experience as the year goes along, but all signs point to a great October at Road America and the SCCA National Championship Runoffs.

To The Victors Go The Spoils

In all, 27 drivers took home class wins on Saturday at Road Atlanta. Those class winners, with name and car, are below (all results remain provisional – official results can be found on the event page here):

American Sedan: Phillip Waters, Chevrolet Camaro
B-Spec: Chris Taylor, Mazda2
E Production: Peter Norton, Caterham Seven
F Production: Mason Workman, Mazda Miata
H Production: Vesa Silegren, Honda CRX
Formula 600: Eric Van Cleef, Novakar J-10
Formula Atlantic: Jerome Mee, Swift 016/Mazda
Formula Continental: Brandon Dixon, Citation F2000
Formula Enterprises 2: Jason Conzo, Formula Enterprises/Mazda
Formula F: Sebastian Mateo Naranjo, Mygale SJ2014/Honda
Formula Vee: Andrew Whitston, Protoform P2/Volkswagen
Formula X: Brad Yake, Star Formula Mazda
GT-1: Michael McAleenan, Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo
GT-2: Steven Lustig, Chevrolet Camaro
GT-3: Andrew Lott, Pontiac Sunbird
GT-Lite: Peter Shadowen, Honda CRX
Spec Miata: Charles Mactutus, Mazda Miata
Spec MX-5: Matthew Novak, Mazda MX-5
Prototype 1: Todd Vanacore, Elan DP02
Prototype 2: Sherman Chao, Stohr WF1
Spec Racer Ford Gen 3: Bobby Sak, Spec Racer Ford
Super Touring Lite: Danny Steyn, Mazda MX-5
Super Touring Under: James Slechta, Nissan 300ZX
Touring 1: Hugh Stewart, BMW M3
Touring 2: Michael Kamalian, Ford Mustang GT
Touring 3: Richard Baldwin, Nissan 350Z
Touring 4: Marc Cefalo, Mazda MX-5