The second round of the Prototype Sprint Series Association (PSSA) West Championship took place on April 18-21 at Sonoma Raceway formerly known as Sears Point. Competitors were eager to get on track for the first sessions on Thursday as the track had just been resurfaced for the first time in 23 years. The competitors were the first to run on the 11 turn configuration utilising the full esses and Turn 10.
Early runs on the test day showed that the track had definitely improved for grip levels and very low tire degradation. Ron Fletcher of Del Mar, CA entered the round as the Western PSSA PS1 leader and sits P2 in the Revolution Cup – North America behind leader Judd Miller of Esses Racing.
Ron brought the #19 Revolution A1-500SC sporting a brand new and improved Batman livery completed by Steve Fowle of @Wraps_SF which was a favourite on and off the track for kids and parents alike. Supporting Ron Fletcher at Sonoma was Revolution North American Racing Co-ordinator Jason Miles and Revolution UK Factory Racing Engineer Phillip Hurn, who is also Team Principal of 24-7 Motorsport.
After an extensive amount of preparation including full flat patch setup, the car ran flawlessly all weekend finishing all 5hrs of on-track action without requiring any setup changes or having any mechanical failures. Thursday test sessions were used to dial in the tyre pressures and driver comfort items including a new seat insert from Totim Racing and VBox refresh.
Ron entered Friday’s first official practice session with a sticker set of Hankook C52 tires and immediately set a new Revolution track record of 1:32.300. Sonoma offered some stiff competition in the combined run group including a Wolf Extreme, Norma M20FC, Ralt RT41 and 15 other sports prototypes.
Friday first qualifying was held in the afternoon which heightened the track temperature causing all competitors to go slower than first practice however Ron was able to set a provisional time of 1:32.400 putting him P4 on the grid overall. With overnight preparations including the fitting of the newly announced EBC SR-11 brake pads and optimised fuel setup Ron was poised for an early morning qualifying in optimal conditions. Ron was able to move up to P3 overall.
Sprint Race #1 was held at 11:00 and Ron was able to set a blistering time of 1:31.893 setting another new Revolution Lap Record nearly 3.5 seconds faster than the 2023 time set by Marco Cencetti finishing the race first in the PS1 class and P3 overall.
The final day of the race weekend had 2 scheduled races including a 60min Enduro combined with International GT. Ron finished the enduro P1 in class and P6 overall with a best time of 1:32.207.
The final showdown of the weekend was a 30min sprint race held at 14:10, Ron was lined up in P3 after the grid order being set from the results of Sprint Race #1. However an unfortunate incident in the pitlane involving Vasili Stratton driving a Wolf Extreme moved Ron up to P2 alongside polesitter Stuart Crow and in front of Maurizio Brandhoff in a Norma M20FC. Ron and Maurizio had a great battle for 30 mins with Ron the Revolution prevailing and ending up P2 overall and P1 in the PS1 class.
After the weekend Ron said that the car felt the best it ever has and he felt like he had the dream team on the car. Ron also said he loved sharing the weekend with his daughter Kenna. Ron looks forward to Laguna Seca in 2 weeks’ time where he will take on fellow Revolution driver Dave Tweedlie and the other competitors.
