Day three of the Tire Rack SCCA Time Trials Nationals began with rain, which doesn’t make for a great TT event. Though it was short lived, it was heavy enough to wet down the track.
But as James Taylor once sang, there was something in the way she moved – and the TT collective banded together to dry the track with pace laps and reset the schedule.
Rather than a Track Sprint and a three-lap flyer on the short course, the schedule was revised on the fly to go to full lapping on Saturday and combine it with Sunday, meaning the final Time Trials National score will be the overall quickest lap on Thursday/Friday and the overall quickest lap on Saturday/Sunday for a two-part final score.
Like A Hawk
Every corporate organization likes to claim to be a part of the community. At Hawk Performance, they actually walk the walk.
DJ Alessandrini and Michael Kubiak are carrying the wings for the company at this weekend’s Time Trials Nationals, but the reality is that it’s almost just a coincidence that they are Hawk employees. They’d likely be here, or anywhere else they can drive a race car, regardless of their careers.
“We would be doing this regardless, we just also happen to work in an office that sells brake pads,” Alessandrini said. “I would say 90 percent of the time it’s just like any other job, but 10 percent of the time it actually involves stuff with race cars and driving. It’s fun to come out and use the products and hang out with others who are using the products and remember that you have this deep passion for driving and competing.”
That, of course, makes them even better at their jobs, which is why Hawk is a leader in the brake market.
And, that passion is contagious. Just ask this year’s intern, who unknowingly was placed next to Alessandrini as a “car guy” and quickly became a “racing guy.”
“It gets spoon fed into you forcefully,” Alessandrini admitted. “You don’t have a choice. He had a collection of trinkets and sold it all to build a sim rig. He started going to autocross events and now he’s full into it. He just liked cars. Now he thinks racing is awesome.”
Of course, Alessandrini is no stranger to the motorsports world. He’s done wheel-to-wheel racing, he’s done autocross, he’s a sim racing superstar. But Time Trials holds a special place in his world.
“I almost get my most enjoyment here because I’m typically co-driving with someone,” he said. “It’s a team effort, both of us go as fast as we can, compare data, have those conversations and the comradery that goes with it. Just trying to have the best team effort possible adds to the experience that you don’t normally have when it’s just you competing against everyone else. It just adds this whole other level of enjoyment when it’s two brains on one drive. It’s super rewarding and keeps you engaged the whole weekend.”
So far so good. After two days, his Corvette is 0.141-second ahead of David Marcus’ Toyota Supra for the M2 lead. Sunday morning’s session may be the decider.
Guac and Roll
If you’re a regular reader of this space, you’ll know that we highlight the strange, the unusual, and the ultimate in #FunWithCars. That automatically makes Alan Lani a favorite.
Last year, Lani showed up in a PT Cruiser. This year, well…
“I’m trying to be fast in half a Mini Cooper,” Lani describes this year’s effort, with only little exaggeration. The car was built for the Grassroots Motorsports $2000 Challenge, so the Mini has most of the rear end cut out and a giant wing attached. But it also is being carried by a stock 1.6-liter, normally aspirated motor. To put it politely, it doesn’t have the horsepower that one might expect from an Unlimited 2 class car.
“It corners great, it just doesn’t have any power,” Lani admits.
And did we mention it’s painted to look like a giant avocado? It stands out, that’s for sure. But it may be short-lived project, as the next focus may be on something a little bit, um, quicker.
“The red mist might be getting to me a little bit,” Lani said. “For two years I’ve been messing around and having the fun cars and the People’s Choice or whatever, and that’s great. But I’m feeling a little more competitive. I’ve got the bug. I want to be a little racier. If I can do that in an unusual car, great and I would prefer that. But for 2025, the emphasis is to be a little faster and a little more competitive.”
An SCCA History Lesson
NCM Motorsports Park sits, not coincidentally, very nearby the National Corvette Museum and a stone’s throw from the factory where every Corvette has been made since 1982. That museum is a testament to the enduring qualities of Chevrolet’s Corvette, but for those in the know it features a large chunk of SCCA history as well.
In many ways, Corvette history is SCCA history. The list of those who are in both the Corvette Hall of Fame and the SCCA Hall of Fame is significant, including Donna Mae Mims, Briggs Cunningham, Bob Bondurant, John Fitch, Dr. Dick Thompson and Jim Jeffords. The Corvette museum features Bill Mitchell, the designer and namesake of the Billy Mitchell Bend (nee Bridge) at Road America; John Heinricy, who is almost certainly a future SCCA Hall of Fame member and second all-time in Runoffs wins; and Dan Binks, whose mother, Marge, is an SCCA Hall of Famer.
The 1961 and 1962 B Production-winning Corvette is on display, as is David Hobbs’ Corvette Trans-Am car. There’s an SCCA Pro Racing Spec Corvette and an A Production champion.
All in all, it’s a must-see for automotive fans, and an even more impressive pit stop for SCCA members.
One More Verse, With Feeling
One single day with full lapping is coming up, and you can follow along here with audio, live timing and results. It’s coming down to the wire, with plenty of track records, class wins, and personal bests on the horizon in a morning that may be cool, cloudy, and (most importantly) dry.
More information on the Tire Rack SCCA Time Trials Nationals Powered by Hagerty can be found on the event page here.
