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ECHC Round 7 & 8 - Summit Point Raceway - Hyperfest 2007 |
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Hyperfest kicked off Rounds 7 & 8 at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia. This is NASA Mid-Atlantic’s premier event and attracts numerous racers. ECHC had its best turnout of the year with 21 entries. The racing was very close in all the classes as the points races start to tighten up. Two 6-race winning streaks were on the line for Kevin Helms in H1 and Beno Rubin in H5.
Round 7 & 8: June 23-June 24, 2007
Article By: Beno Rubin The Saturday race was shorted to just 5 laps due to a red flag incident on lap 6. Kevin Helms continued his winning ways in his Hondaworks Civic, taking first place in the 9 car H1 field with a fastest lap time of 1:23.426. Scott Burner placed a strong second in his S2000 with Pete Curpier capturing third.
Brian Casella from the Northeast NASA region took the win in H2 with his Integra, turning a fastest lap of 1:29.821. Walt McKinney finished second in his Prelude.
AJ Nealy has been getting stronger with every race. He finished first in H4 with a fastest lap of 1:27.323, just on the heels of the H1 cars. Trevor Melville turned in another consistent performance finishing second with his Prelude. Bradley Smith finished third in his Prelude.
Zephyr Belski returned to the Mid Atlantic region and took a convincing win in H5, turning a fastest lap of 1:31.955. Shane Lovely in his ’98 Civic took second with Beno Rubin finishing third.
The story in H1 was again Kevin Helms, leading the race wire to wire. His fastest lap was 1:24.447. Second and third was a three car race. Pete Curpier grabbed second on lap 7 but lost 2 positions on lap 10 to Chris Drabouski and Scott Burner. In the end, Drabouski finished second with Curpier clawing back into third.
Brian Casella had to come from behind, passing Walt McKinney for the lead on lap 7. Casella never looked back, winning H3 with a fastest lap of 1:28.673.
H4 seemed to belong to AJ Nealy as he took the win by over 31 seconds. His fastest lap was 1:27.210. Trevor Melville placed second with Darren Mingis finishing third.
Zephyr Belski repeated his performance on Sunday, but not without feeling the pressure from Shane Lovey. Lovely kept Belski close finishing just 2/10ths of a second behind. Rubin rounded out the top 3 finishing third. Is Lovely’s ’98 Civic the answer to the ’87 Civic/CRX for H5? Stay tuned.
Next stop for the East Coast Honda Challenge is VIRginia International Raceway’s North Course on July 28th and 29th.
The East Coast Honda Challenge would like to extend its sincere appreciation to King RAT Motorsports , NASA Mid-Atlantic , the entire Summit staff, the fans, the competitors and their families for providing yet another memorable weekend.
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