Sonoma race report

BMW, MAZDA DRIVERS SCORE BIG IN SEARS POINT SPEEDVISION CUP RACE

SONOMA, Calif. The BMW M3, prepared to Professional SportsCar Racing's SPEEDVISION Cup for Stock SportsCars rules, scored its first win since 1989 leading a BMW sweep of two of the four classes and the Mazda Miata became a first time winner. All this happened during Saturday's three hour SPEEDVISION Cup race at Sears Point Raceway. Scooter Gabel and Terry Borcheller drove the Massari Mueller BMW M3 to an eight second win over the Speed Source Mazda RX7 Turbo of Nick Ham and Sylvain Tremblay. In the Sports class, Jeff Purner and Mike Fitzgerald put the Thomas Blam Racing BMW 328is into the winner's circle for them second time this season, taking a hard fought win over the Honda Prelude VTEC troops. It was the first time in the 13 year history of the series that BMWs have won two classes in a given race weekend. Mike Courtney and Jim Jordan started in the 54th position with an engine in their Mazda Miata which had just undergone a rebuilt 45 minutes before the race. They took the Compact class win by one lap over Roger Foo and Greg Theiss, driving a Honda Civic, giving the Miata badge its first ever win in the series after 2 1/2 years of trying. The Touring class win went to John Norris and Craig Stanton in a Nissan 240SX. The win was the first in the series for Stanton, but the third for Norris, who had gone winless since this race a years ago. The race featured a lengthy red flag session to repair the tire walls after Bob Towery hit one in his Mazda RX 7 on the sixth lap, and two minor full course yellow flag sessions.