Spring Jefferson 2025 was held May 24-25, 2025 on the Jefferson Circuit track at Summit Point Motorsports Park in Summit Point, WV. This event was hosted by Blue Mountain Region SCCA and was the first event in the eight event 2025 PHA Championship Series.
The weather couldn’t have been nicer for our first event of 2025, with temperatures in the 70’s both days and no rain except for a very brief shower or two Fri night.
Mark Aubele ran a 70.506, taking FTD and setting a new Special 2 (S2) class record in his 2012 Wolf GB08. He beat his own record that he set in 2024 in the same car by almost 2.5 seconds, and is just over a second from the course record of 69.354 that has been held by Bob Gardner since 2015. Maybe next year (no pressure Mark :-))!
Kenneth Company came in second overall, running a 72.040 in his 2014 Van Diemen, classed in Formula Continental (FC).
Bill Feist was third with a 72.253 in his 2024 Jedi Sport Racer that he runs in Special 3 (S3). Bill was having mechanical issues on Saturday, so his crew ran home (hours away) and brought back his other car. Fortunately he was able to get the Jedi running, and turned a time good enough for third overall despite all of his car woes.
This event was Jason Fraley’s first time at Jefferson in a Prototype car. Not only did he come in fourth overall, he managed to take the Prototype 2 (P2) class record by .002 seconds, running a 72.403. Congratulations Jason! The previous record was held by Michael Company.
Rounding out the top five was Kenneth Company in a Stohr P2 that he also runs in Prototype 2 (P2). His fast time was a 73.717. He tried hard to beat Jason and preserve Michael’s record, but Jason ultimately prevailed. Yes, this is the same “Kenneth Company” who came in second overall. He ran two cars, and I imagine they are very different, so kudos to Ken for his good showing in both cars. Also, this is the car that Michael set his record in, which tells you just how good Michael was.
I have to take a minute to talk about Michael Company. Michael passed away in July 2024 at age 22. He started running with the PHA when he was only 17 years old, running a Merlyn Formula Ford in CF — #90 — and currently holds records at Jefferson, Giants, Polish and Shenandoah in that car. In 2024, he ran the Stohr for the first time at Jefferson, and set the P2 class record, narrowly missing FTD by .113 seconds. Michael is sorely missed.
Ok, well, I’m not sure how to transition back to event results after I wrote that, so I’m going to keep this awkward paragraph here as a transition. Onto the event.
The fastest “door slammer” was Michael Robinson, running a 75.313 in his 1999 Chevrolet Camaro that is classed in the new Outlaw (O) class. His time was good for eighth overall.
Of special note, Brian McCrea was the third fastest “door slammer”, coming in 13th overall. He ran a 77.826 in his 2013 Scion FRS that has moved to the new Modified (M) class. Brian’s car is mainly stock with only suspension and aero changes, and a 2.4L engine swap (stock is 2.0L). OK, maybe not so stock, but he is driving well above his “weight class”! Note that he used to co-drive with Don McLaughlin years ago, and has just returned to PHA in recent years after a 30 year hiatus.
Also of special note, this event was Todd Bowland’s first time back in 38 years — the last time he ran with the PHA, he was 19 years old! He came in sixth overall, running a 73.895 in George Bowland’s Purpose-built BBR that runs in Special 1 (S1). He beat George (his father), who ran a 76.431 in the same car, good for tenth overall.
Todd will probably want to kill me :-), but George shared the following story with me when we were reminiscing about OZ (Bob Oswald Sr), who passed away December 2024:
My story begins in 1987, when my son Todd and I entered the Duryea event. On Saturday, Todd missed his brake point at the right hander at Pagoda, and hit the one way sign in the island. Suspension and front frame damage would have ended the weekend, but along came OZ. He had me bring the car to his shop, and he and Jim helped me repair all the damage by midnight that night. I ran the event Sunday, while Todd was too upset about his adventure Saturday to get back in the car. Jim awarded Todd the one way sign, which still is on display in his garage. Amazing man with an amazing wife and four great kids. I believe that there are a whole gaggle of folks up there that are VW lovers and are holding a large welcoming party for him.
There were so many drivers and so many good stories, but there isn’t room for them all. I do need to mention BP Wisniewski. BP and his wife came to this event all the way from Eastlake, OH with a 1976 MGB that runs in E Production (EP). Unfortunately, car problems prevented BP from completing a single timed run. He worked on the car all weekend to no avail, but was (strangely) cheerful anyway every time I talked to him. I really enjoyed pitting next to him at Giants Despair 2024, and I hope he is able to sort out his car issues and returns to run with us soon.
My car was running really well, but the driver not so much. I had foot surgery last December and discovered that the clutch on the race Scirocco is a lot heavier than my daily driver, and my toes haven’t recovered well enough to be fully up to the task. I found a work around (stuffed my orthotics into my driving shoes to transfer some of the weight of the clutch pedal to the other parts of my foot), but I clearly have something to work on for the next events! Despite my times being more than 20 seconds off my fast time at this course, I actually did manage to drop a lot of time from last year. My toes held up well enough that I was able to take every run offered, and I had a lot of fun to boot, so I’m going to count this event as a success.
And of course there was a campfire! The temps dipped down into the 40’s overnight both nights, so it was very welcome. There was a bit of a problem Friday night when we realized that no one brought any firewood, but Jim Swift and Jim Cosner came to the rescue and picked some up in town.
I’ve included a gallery below of more pictures from this event.
Don McLaughlin also took some photos and they are here on his flickr account. Note that his gallery also includes some photos from Spring Weatherly.
