Viperrick
Enthusiast
I had the pleasure of watching (and crewing a little) on John Fernandez's SCCA SSC Neon racecar yesterday. The final SCCA Central Division race took place at Blackhawk Farms Raceway in Beloit WI on Sunday Sept 2nd. John started the race with a slim 2 pt. advantage over his closest competitor and need a strong finish to take the crown. Most people think that the run-offs (at Mid-Ohio in three weeks)are the big deal but as John said, you race all year to become a divisional champ while the run-offs is a crap shoot. You can break early in the week and you are done. The divisional crown means more to some drivers ( I get the feeling that it ment a lot to John).
After scrubbing in some tires for Mid-Ohio at an early Sunday morning practice it was crunch time. John had captured the pole for SSC class and was starting on the outside of the second row(he had a a couple of SSA cars infront and behind him). As the green flag flew he jumped into third place overall and started to build a nice cushion between himself and his closest competitor. The race was 25 laps on the Blackhawk 1.9 mile course and at midpoint he finally decided to let two SSA sedans pass that had been hounding him most of the race. I guess he felt that there was no need to take any unforseen risk. All he needed to do was finish ahead of his clsoest competitor.
John took the checker with a fifth place in this race and a first in his class which netted him twelve points and the overall championship.
Congratulations need to go out to Johns crew cheif, David Haydon as well. They both spent most of the week after hours straightening out the slightly bent Neon from last weeks race. I would like to think that even I had a small part in the victory as I took alot of noce pictures during the race which took a lot of the pressure off John as he was trying to cut perfect apex's so the pictures would turn out good.
Great Job you guys.
John Ferandez is Mr. Viper if you didn't know. Untill recently he was the Executive Managing Engineer of Team Viper (SVE). He is now the Director of the newly created PVO (Performance Vehicle Operations) The grand pubah of performance and racing at DC.
After scrubbing in some tires for Mid-Ohio at an early Sunday morning practice it was crunch time. John had captured the pole for SSC class and was starting on the outside of the second row(he had a a couple of SSA cars infront and behind him). As the green flag flew he jumped into third place overall and started to build a nice cushion between himself and his closest competitor. The race was 25 laps on the Blackhawk 1.9 mile course and at midpoint he finally decided to let two SSA sedans pass that had been hounding him most of the race. I guess he felt that there was no need to take any unforseen risk. All he needed to do was finish ahead of his clsoest competitor.
John took the checker with a fifth place in this race and a first in his class which netted him twelve points and the overall championship.
Congratulations need to go out to Johns crew cheif, David Haydon as well. They both spent most of the week after hours straightening out the slightly bent Neon from last weeks race. I would like to think that even I had a small part in the victory as I took alot of noce pictures during the race which took a lot of the pressure off John as he was trying to cut perfect apex's so the pictures would turn out good.
Great Job you guys.
John Ferandez is Mr. Viper if you didn't know. Untill recently he was the Executive Managing Engineer of Team Viper (SVE). He is now the Director of the newly created PVO (Performance Vehicle Operations) The grand pubah of performance and racing at DC.
