By Wayne Nonnamaker

With three races in five weekends, the schedule makes for some busy weeks during the months of September and October. We ran at Virginia for the second time at the beginning of September. Our team, Phoenix Promotions was taking five cars there. As the race was a split event, we had hoped for a good result in three different classes.

Our Grand Sports I weekend got cut short when the #43 Orison Marketing Corvette hit the wall after losing braking power. We still haven't figured out the cause, but because the car had so much body damage, we parked the car for the race. Without a ride in Grand Sports I, Joe Nonnamaker ended up starting the #42 King Motorsports Acura Integra that I was going to finish. I was also slated to start the #41 Integra and hand it over to Will. As the race approached, we were very disappointed to see the rain continue to pour. Our main competition for the Championship, the #27 Integra, had never seen the track in the dry. They missed the VIR race last year, and the race earlier this season at VIR was on a different configuration of the course. We felt confident that we could have a very strong finish in the dry, but the rain came and so we dealt with it as best as we could.

The rain got the best of us, and the cards ended up playing out that the #27 Integra took the win followed by the #5 Miata. At one time Will (finishing the #41), myself (finishing the #42), Bob Beede (finishing the #27), and Scooter Gabel (finishing the #5 Miata) were all running together on the wet track. It was so much fun getting to run in a pack of four talented and clean drivers in the rain. We all gave each other racing room, and despite the rainy conditions and the Championship being on the line, no contact was made between any of the four cars.

It ended up playing out that I got to share the third place finishing position with our dad. It was the first time I had co-drove with my dad in a serious effort in a professional race. Sharing the podium with him was a lot of fun, but it would have been more fun to have gotten the top podium spot.

As we headed to Mont Tremblant, the #43 Corvette remained parked in the team shop with bodywork damage. With such a short time in between races, and a Championship on the line in Sports Touring II, we did not want to distract ourselves at all. Our dad found a ride with Team Turbo Performance in Grand Sports I. Joe wasn't sure who his co-driver would be, but in the last few days before leaving for the race, it was revealed that Bill Auberlen would be his co-driver. Auberlen is a very well respected driver so expectations were high for the weekend.

After Auberlen got in the #23 Porsche GT3 Cup to finish for Joe, he quickly moved it into the lead. After the final caution came out Auberlen was in a fifty minute sprint to the end with Doug Goad in the #11 Sunoco Corvette. Auberlen and Goad touched several times in the last 30 minutes, but when Auberlen took the lead with about ten laps remaining, his tires were toast and he spun. He quickly recovered to finish second. It was a really good weekend for Joe, but it wasn't over yet.

The Grand Am Rolex Series was low on entries for their six hour race the following day so they invited the Grand Am Cup GSI and GSII cars to participate in the six hour race on Sunday. Joe was teamed with Team Turbo owner Michael Levitas and Freddy Baker. The #23 Porsche ran throughout the entire race to take home first in the invitational GSI class, but more impressively 8th place overall!

We went to VIRginia with high hopes. We had really good speed at VIRginia in the dry, and hoped that Mont Tremblant would favor our set up over the #27 as well. I