MotoRep Sean Grogan swept his class in his #37 Spec Neon at the Weekend 2 races June 8-9 at the Waterford Hills Road Race course.
Grogan led the pack for both the Saturday and Sunday races, qualifying 1:20.8 and running a 1:20.517 in the Saturday race. He followed up Sunday with a best lap time of 1:20.998 for the eight-lap morning race, and went on to win the Sunday feature race with a fastest lap time of 01:21.153 amid heavy traffic.
"The car felt a little off in qualifying, but ran fast enough to take the pole," Grogan said, after Saturday's qualifying session. "Switching back to old tires for Saturday's race and stiffening the rear shocks actually helped quite a bit. The lap times reflected this."
Grogan led the entire Saturday race, holding off advances from the #76 and #77 cars driven by Eric Mozer and his son Andrew.
During the Saturday tire change, a stripped wheel stud threatened to derail the weekend, but some quick work from his chief mechanic Jim Kidd got the tires on just in time for the race.
"I could tell after just two laps the car was fast and stayed ahead of the Neon/Focus pack. I was even able to reel-in a few Spec Miata drivers and slip by them once a caution flag brought both fields together," Grogan said.
Aside from the handy crew work and support from some of his colleagues at Motovicity who attended the weekend races, Grogan credited Moroso's deep sump aluminum oil pan for keeping the Neon engine fully lubed over the weekend.
Several competing racers saw their weekends dashed due to oil starvation, bringing out several caution flags during the races.
"You can see our car corning at the absolute limits in the race pics, but even at these extreme G-forces, our motor stayed fully lubed with the Moroso pan," he said.
For the feature race, Grogan and the #3 Spec Focus driven by Lee Stouse, started in the back of the Neon field and worked their way through traffic. They managed to work their way through the field, but not without a challenge from the Mozers.
"I had to find some creative places to pass, because they weren't giving any room down the front or back stretch of the track, but I eventually made the move out of the turns heading into swamp to pass both drivers in separate laps," Grogan said.
Grogan has been on a hot streak so far this year. In May he topped the Spec Neon class races at Waterford's Weekend 1 races, that left spectators on their feet and track marshals applauding as he battled Stouse.
Earlier this month he finished in a trophy position at the National SCCA Solo Match Tour event in his 2013 Scion FR-S, in Peru Indiana, the first national event he's taken this car.
"The event showed me how much development still needs to be done with the car, but I know where the improvements can be made and I expect a much better showing at the SCCA Toledo Pro Solo later this season."