Five of six rounds of the NASA Western Endurance Racing Championship (WERC) are in the history books and some of the class championship chases are very close. Here is the breakdown before the finale.
The WERC is a grueling endurance racing series encompassing six rounds of competition at different tracks for multiple classes (everything from prototypes to Miatas). Winners of each race for each class earn 100 points (second place 90 points, third place 85 and so on). Teams have battled all year long through the darkness, through traffic and through weather chasing points for the championship. Below are the points totals by class:
ESR Class
Crushing the ESR class with 450 points and a huge lead is the number 88 prototype of Team Green Alternative Motorsports.
In second spot for the season in the ESR class is Tool BMC Racing.
ES Class
One of the tightest classes of the WERC series is ES with the number 66 blue Chevrolet of Team Super Truck sponsored by Jagermeister leading with 470 points.
Only 25 points behind, with 445, is the number 4 Factory Five GTM of Team Prototype Development Group sponsored by Hooked On Driving. This tight points battle is very interesting for the ES class because the final race of the season is a six hour enduro during the beginning of the 25 Hours of Thunderhill. Running a 25 hour race takes a certain amount of patience and a mellow endurance pace to make the cars (and trucks) last. If these two teams race hard during the first six hours in an attempt to capture the WERC championship, they could be jeopardizing their chances to survive and finish the 25 hour race. But the chance may be worth it as the six hour race is a double points event, winning it could guarantee a team the championship.
E0 Class
Leading the E0 class is team Road Shagger Racing sponsored by Simply Vegas Real Estate in their BMW. The E0 class is also in an incredibly tight race for the championship. Three of the teams were tied for first place after Round 4 at Thunderhill Raceway Park. Team Road Shagger picked up the win in Round 5 at Buttonwillow and grabbed the points lead with 435 points.
Holding in the second spot in E0 is the number 32 BMW of Team WolfKatz sponsored by Bullet Performance with 425 points.
In the third place spot for the championship in E0 is the number 31 BMW of Team Bimmerworld with 420 points. With three teams all within 15 points of each other, this class is totally up in the air for the finale in December at Thunderhill. The E0 class has the same dilemma as the ES class, if they fight hard early in the 25 hour race, they may blow their chances to do well for the 25 hour win. Strategy will really come into play for this championship as well as the double points possible in the final event.
E1 Class
Leading the E1 class with 430 points is team Speedy Motorsports in their Honda Civic.
In second spot for the E1 class, quite far back with 228 points, is the blue Acura Integra of Team Diva Speed.
E2 Class
Winning three rounds out of five and leading the E2 class with 300 points is Team South Bay Independent in their M3 BMW.
Team Lack of Focus struggled most of the year with mechanical woes but still managed to collect 275 points to give them the second place position in the championship race for E2.
E3 Class
The largest class of the WERC series is the E3 class with 21 competitors doing battle for the championship. Leading the E3 class with 410 points is Krider/Kramer Racing in a Nissan Sentra SE-R sponsored by Hoosier Tires, I/O Port Racing Supplies, Jim Wolf Technology, Atomic Speedware, and Circuit Sports.
In second spot in E3 is team AD3R.1 in their E30 BMW with 235 points. The E3 class has historically been dominated by Mazda Miatas so this year is an interesting upset with a Nissan SE-R and a BMW E30 in the first and second position.
Jalopnik has been covering each event of the 2010 series as the racing season unfolded and can be seen below:
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
The final round (a six hour double points race) of the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) 2010 Western Endurance Racing Championship series will be at Thunderhill the first weekend of December in conjunction with the 25 Hours of Thunderhill. The event will be televised on Versus and will have live coverage on Jalopnik. Let the night fight begin for the championship!
Photos by Vanhap Motorsports Photography and Head-On Photos.