A Close Second at Laguna Seca finishes off Francis Racing’s 2009 Season

Even thought Jeff Francis finished a close second to his rival’s Volvo at the September SCCA Laguna Seca event, he still felt it was one of his best drives in years. “That was a lot of fun and id say that race was probably the most intense race I have ever been in” exclaimed a tired but satisfied Francis after the race. “We didn’t win it, but driving every lap as hard as I had to made it an absolutely incredible race to participate in”.

After starting at the back of the usually large Touring field, Francis methodically moved his way through the slower traffic and set his sights on the tail end of the class leaders. Halfway through the 30-minute timed race, Francis had moved into fourth and entered what was a most spirited 4-way battle that would last the rest of the race. Lap after lap, Francis stalked the car in front and after an inside move, finally darted into 3rd place. The leaders (including Francis) were driving this race as if it would be their last, and passing opportunities were rare on this beautiful sunny day at the historic track. As time began to become a factor, Francis beautifully set up the 2nd place driver and dashed inside to grab the position just before the infamous corkscrew. It was a great move, but the toughest racing of the day had just begun and Francis knew it.

As Francis pulled up to the bumper of the leader, a white Volvo driven by his years-long division rival, he knew it was going to be tough to get past. As the laps counted down, Francis’ BMW was glued to the rear of the white Volvo trying to find a spot to make his move. Inside, outside, Francis whipped his BMW racer around the track looking to make the pass as the leader was doing everything he could to keep him behind. As the white flag flew Francis knew he had only one more chance to take the top spot and proceeded to make his move to the inside under the bridge but the leader also made a move to the inside to stop the attacking BMW. As the two were bumper to bumper, Francis made one last move to the inside just out of the corkscrew but to no avail. The checkered flag fell with Francis’ BMW racer still glued to the rear of the leader to take a much- deserved 2nd place finish.

“He definitely made his car a little bit wider on that last lap”, joked Francis as he climbed out of his racecar, “there was just no getting around him today”. “It was an great race and every lap was just so intense that I can’t even describe how exciting it was”

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