In my plans to cover all of (The Mazda Raceway at) Laguna Seca's events this season I headed down for the NASCAR Winston West race this past Sunday. I really did not know exactly what to expect. I have been to many NASCAR Winston Cup races and knew that Winston West cars are essentially the same (same chassis, lower compression engines) as the better-known Winston Cup cars. I have also been to a number of Winston Cup road races so I knew what they are like on a road course (a little bit lumbering and slow but very exciting). I was anxious to see these beasts plummeting down the world-famous corkscrew (turns 8 and 8a). Much to my pleasant surprise I also witnessed an incredible car race with a Cinderella story line that I will always look back on fondly.

While Winston West is a regional division of NASCAR and thus not full of big name stars and big bucks teams, many of the teams present were top flight and well funded with full-sized transporters and solid sponsorship packages. One exception to this was a one-off effort from Austin, Texas in one C.T. Hellmund.

C.T. has driven everything from karts to modifieds to sedans and also went over and raced in the UK for a time. This one-off drive was to be his NASCAR Winston West debut in a Pontiac with Suzuki sponsorship arranged with the help of his friend Kevin Schwantz (of motorcycle racing fame). C.T. had a chance to shake down the car in Austin for all of 9 laps on a local track before the team loaded it into the trailer for the trip to California. The crew consisted of friends rounded up in Texas so the entire team was really working together for the first time. When they unloaded the car (from a modest 40' trailer towed with a pickup truck in amongst many full-size team transporters) on Friday and C.T. drove it for the first time his quote was "we were absolute junk".

With the help of NASCAR and some other teams on car setup the team got the car dialled in for him on Saturday. Despite never having raced at Laguna Seca he put the #39 Suzuki Pontiac fourth on the grid on the outside of the second row. A good start, but it gets better. In a 69 lap race with 4 caution periods for a total of ten laps C.T. had the most laps led and took the lead three times. He fell back due to a pit stop that was slowed by his inexperienced crew but he made up for that with speed on the track. There were a total of 8 lead changes among 6 drivers. With 5 laps to go C.T. Hellmund made a pass for the lead that stuck and pulled out to a 4 second lead by the time he crossed the line to take the win.

NASCAR historians are scouring the record books to find the last (if there ever was) driver who won a NASCAR race in their first try. Congratulations to C.T Hellmund! A great drive and a well earned win. Second and third spots were the past two season's champions, Eric Norris in the #32 Ford Taurus who started 12th, and Sean Woodside in the #45 Monte Carlo.

Also of note was the return of long-time series runner Hershel McGriff in the #04 Monte Carlo who started 16th and finished 9th at the young age of 74 years old in his first time back at Laguna Seca in the new track configuration.

Several support events rounded out race day including a World Super Karts event that featured motorcycle racing legends Eddie Lawson in the #7 kart who blew everyone away, and Wayne Rainey (which turn 9 at Laguna Seca is named after) who started 25th and finished 5th in a fine drive. The NASPORT series ran a sedan race that was won by a Nissan 240SX but of note was the Audi TT race car I noticed out there for a few laps before retiring with unknown problems.

The strangest support event was Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's ProTruck Challenge. These trucks would be right at home racing in some desert off-road race like the Baja 1000 but looked totally out of place at Laguna Seca's road course. Qualifying for these trucks was done on the full road course but their race was run on a course made up of a portion of the racetrack and a dirt stadium-style course with dirt piles for the trucks to jump. It was a lot of fun shooting those things flying through the air!

The race winner is an endurance sportscar road racer named Lance Huffman. Lance once drove off-road racing buggies so he had some experience on dirt but he shined in the road course qualifying to put the #20 truck on pole for his brother Chet who owns (and normally drives) the truck. Lance took the race win flag-to-flag in convincing style.

So there you have it - a great day of racing to open the 2001 season at the newly renamed "Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca". Next event I will report on is the Sears Point NASCAR Winston Cup in about one months time.