Race Recap June 2026 - 2.5 Hour Enduro - Sonoma Raceway
Sunday June 7th found the United States Touring Car field back at Sonoma Raceway for a 2.5 hour endurance race along with Speed SF hosting the event. Because of the length of the race, either some number of pit stops or some very unusual strategy would be necessary for the cars to make it to the end of the race still moving under their own power.
The previous evening, the field took to the track for qualifying which is somewhat less important for such a long race, but some positioning and of course more importantly bragging rights were on the line for that one perfect lap.
Reza Arsham answered first in the #30 Honda Civic, with a 1:50 flat, and then a lap later Chittum also clocked a nearly identical time. But while Gogogear stood on that time, also ahead of the e30 328 driven by Cobalt California's Ben Penn, Chittum stayed out, first clocking another 1.50.02, then in the last lap of qualifying knocking it down to a personal best 1:49.496, Chittum's PR, and just a few ticks ahead of the lap record that Reza set in round 2, a 1.49.361, a true standoff between Chittum's well dialed in MX5 and the powerful K24 fortified Civic.
Sunday Sunday Race Day
The grid began forming at 7:40am with promise of heat later in the day, but a gorgeous Sonoma morning in the high fifties featured a light breeze that cleared away the last wisps of fog and passing clouds. 25 teams set up for parade and warmup laps and filed out onto the track.
Chittum's pole position put him ahead of the other USTCC Sportsman cars, but as green fell, those more powerful cars surged ahead, including Ben Penn's #65 Cobalt California e36 BMW. Chittum quickly got up to speed, controlled the positions, and a few laps in passed Ben and took off into the distance, while both cars pulled away from the #30 Gogogear Civic, which adopted a much more aggressive fuel saving strategy.
As the laps clicked bu - 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour, the two car's strategy decisions began to play out. Penn ran consistently in the 1:54-1:55 range, saving for a very long run, while Chittum, given the smaller fuel tank had to go for a one stop strategy, but could push rather hard while doing it dipping into 1:50s flat for several laps and evening things out into 1:51s. After about 36 laps, Chittum found himself catching Penn and was just about to lap the BMW, when a yellow flag came out.
Initially, the Mazda still had too much fuel to pit under the yellow, but after the yellow stretched on for nearly 15 minutes, the team decided to pit the car, fill up, and get the last stint underway. The good news was the Mad Man Motorsports team executed a near perfect pit stop - not a drop of gas spilled, perfect timing, and out within a second of the 5 minute mandated fuel window. The bad news was the Mazda was now down 2 laps, and if the BMW didn't pit at some point, Chittum was going to have a lot of ground to make up.
So now, fully fueled to the end, and it starting to look nearly certain the BMW wasn't going to pit at all, Chittum began a legendary charge to catch up. Fully an hour and 45 minutes of racing under his belt, Chittum began cracking off low 1:50s, occasionally breaking into the 1:49s in the little Mazda. In fact the second fastest time Chittum had ever set in this 164hp SMX built car with Hankook tires happened on lap 58 of 68 - a smoking fast 1:49.5 - a testament to the solid Mazda build and Chittum's uncanny ability to coax exceedingly fast times out of a race car especially late in a race.
After unlapping once, and continuing the charge, the BMW started to slow even further, now trying to stretch the fuel even more as the race reached its finishing minutes. Getting a white flag on lap 67, Chittum kept the hammer down, and could start to see the BMW ahead through T7, as it made its way down the hill out of T8a. His final lap again a speedy 1:50.141 to the BMW's ultra saving lap over 2 minutes, the BMW was rapidly getting closer, but had just enough fumes left to make it out of T11 and coast across the finish line 3.853 seconds ahead of the Mazda.
Considering the whole world of things that could have gone just a little differently - not such a long yellow mid race, a slightly earlier pit strategy to catch the field going a little slower under yellow, a 3.8 second gap after 8760 seconds of racing it was a notable achievement.
None of this could have happened without the Mad Man Motorsports Crew with
Eric Schubert, Crew Chief
Jason Chittum, Fuel
Ken Ferrari, Fire
And special thanks to Hankook for another amazing set of tires, Autosport MFG for support in the pits, and Gyraline alignment tools.
Mad Man Motorsports will return soon with USTCC competition...and a new venue with a guest appearance in Europe this summer. Stay tuned to this site for all the details!
