Super Vee Race : Bren Uses Traffic, Beats Groff to Wire

Most people hate crawling rush-hour traffic. But not Steve Bren.

The Los Angeles-based driver used slower-moving cars to his advantage Saturday and made an inside move going into Turn 9 to pass Mike Groff of Northridge and win the Sports Car Club of America’s Super Vee race at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

“I just took advantage of the running traffic,” Bren said after the race. “I didn’t think I had it at first. But there was a car in front of him (Groff), and I used them both for a draft and passed them up.”

It was his first win in Super Vee competition. Bren, a former motocross rider who started racing cars only three years ago, finished seventh in the SCCA’s point standings last year. His best 1985 placing was second in the Meadowlands Grand Prix.

Bren’s 1986 debut was stronger. He drove his Ralt RT-5 to the checkered flag at an average speed of 73.372 m.p.h. on the 11-turn, 1.67-mile street course. Bren had qualified first at 81.134 m.p.h. and was confident by race time.

The start was aborted twice because Bren pulled slightly ahead of the pack. When the green did finally appear, Ross Cheever--younger brother of Formula One racer Eddie Cheever--made a mad dash to get by Bren for the front position. Cheever ended up in the outside wall in Turn 1 for his effort.

Jeff Andretti, the youngest of the Andretti racing clan, grabbed the lead, but lost it on Lap 6. An accident involving Dan Thayer, Joe Tabor and Donald Peterson brought out the yellow flag on Lap 4 and allowed Groff to get into a position to pass Andretti and Bren.

When the green reappeared, Groff made his move, waiting until his Ralt was well into Turn 1 to start applying the brakes. He passed both Andretti and Bren from third position. Bren later passed Andretti, and the leaders remained in that order until Bren passed Groff on the 22nd lap.

Bren won the race by a margin of 2.279 seconds and took home $6,500.

The race was the first of the 13-race SCCA Bosch Cup series for Super Vee machines, a scaled-down version of an Indy car powered by a 190-horsepower Volkswagen engine.