HappyKojot Takes First THR Victory at Laguna Seca
SDH-M ~ HappyKojot led all but one of the 48 laps at Laguna Seca to claim a first recorded THR race win, while Adam Celárek and Nat Stevenson contested the remaining podium places and the championship arithmetic produced an unusual dead heat at the summit.
A landmark win
There was a certain authority about SDH-M ~ HappyKojot's afternoon at Laguna Seca. In the Shelby Cobra 289 Hardtop, the Polish driver was at the head of the field almost from the outset and stayed there for 47 of the race's 48 laps. It was a performance of control rather than display, but its significance was considerable: this was HappyKojot's first recorded victory in THR competition.
The race did offer one brief alteration at the front. Adam Celárek, driving the TVR Griffith Series 200, took the lead on lap nine, only for HappyKojot to reclaim it on the following circuit. Thereafter the Cobra resumed command and completed all 48 laps in first place. Celárek remained second, with Nat Stevenson third in another Shelby Cobra 289 Hardtop, all three reaching the flag.
Celárek holds off Stevenson
Behind the leader, the contest for second was rather more changeable. Celárek and Stevenson ran closely together through the middle part of the race, their order reversing first in Stevenson's favour on lap 10 and then back to the Czech driver on lap 15. Celárek thereafter retained the place to secure the runner-up position.
The TVR driver also set the fastest lap, a 1:13.920 which underlined the pace available to him. Yet HappyKojot's steadiness at the front gave Celárek no second opportunity to turn that speed into the lead. Stevenson, who had arrived at Laguna Seca as one of the joint points leaders, had to settle for third after a closely argued race within the leading group.
The early championship struggle breaks apart
For a time, the established championship figures were compressed into a tight group. Stevenson, meisterJaeger, Celárek and Brandon Hawkin were all closely placed from laps 10 to 18, while the order behind HappyKojot continued to shift.
meisterJaeger, sharing the championship lead before the race, had been part of the early argument with Celárek. Celárek moved ahead on lap three, meisterJaeger regained the advantage by lap 10, and the TVR returned in front before lap 19. An incident at Turn 1 on lap three coincided with meisterJaeger dropping from second to third, but there was no single moment that accounted for the later separation. The German was ultimately classified 20th after completing 33 laps.
That result gives the championship table a curious complexion. HappyKojot and meisterJaeger stand level on 77 points after Laguna Seca, with Stevenson third on 74. In a season governed by the dropped-result rule, HappyKojot's breakthrough has therefore acquired weight beyond the immediate pleasure of a first win.
Ferrari and Corvette in close company
Further back, Florian Masse's Ferrari 250 GTO Series II and Brandon Hawkin's Chevrolet Corvette 1967 provided a quieter but sustained contest for fourth. They ran within two seconds of one another for much of the race's middle portion, Hawkin briefly moving ahead before Masse reclaimed the advantage on lap 22.
Masse kept fourth to the end, Hawkin fifth, both completing the full distance. Their duel had none of the bearing on victory carried by the fight ahead, but it gave the race a useful second current: the Ferrari's precision against the Corvette's presence, neither driver conceding the place readily.
Laguna Seca thus belonged to HappyKojot, not through a late flourish but through possession of the race from its opening phases. The first THR victory is now entered in the record, and it arrives at a point when the championship order has become notably less straightforward.