In front of friends and family, Morgan Hill’s Graham Downey made
quite an impression in his debut at Laguna Seca’s Mazda Raceway
Sunday, finishing eighth in the SPEED World Challenge race.
MONTEREY
In front of friends and family, Graham Downey made quite an impression in his debut at Laguna Seca’s Mazda Raceway Sunday, finishing eighth in the SPEED World Challenge race.
After picking up five positions, Downey, who moved to Morgan Hill from San Jose six months ago, received the Hard Charger award.
“I thought when I first came here I’d be lucky to even finish a race,” he said. “What a way to end the year.”
Despite living less than an hour away, the closest he has come to racing at Laguna Seca was three years ago during a track day.
Downey held the seventh spot for a couple of laps toward the end, but championship leader Jason Saini passed him on the last lap.
“Coming into turn 11, I braked and he took the inside line,” Downey said. “For my first race, I didn’t want to get involved in the championship race so I gave up the spot.”
Downey’s car suffered minor damage to the side during the race when he brushed against another car.
“It got hit by a couple of the Mazdas,” he said. “There was a good battle going between the Accuras and Mazdas for the manufacture’s championship, so I thought I’d help Accura out and get in there and split them up.”
Previously, Downey raced in the National Auto Sport Association’s (NASA) Honda Challenge. He won the 2008 and 2009 championships, and he’s been a regular at Infineon Raceway — his favorite track — for several years.
“I had a lot of success in NASA,” he said. “So I thought I’d give it a chance here and see what I could do here.”
He plans on racing in a 25-hour endurance race in December with his dad and brother. Downey did it last year for the first time, but the race got shortened because of fog.
