On October 25-26, 2003, at Buttonwillow Raceway in Central California, Team Radical West made a spectacular showing, as the awesome Radical SR3 machines ended up in the top three positions.

Fabian Okonski and Justin LaJoie, of Team Radical West, placed second and third respectively, after a challenging race on the Buttonwilow three mile track that included speed, finesse, and a couple of offs.

It was an exciting day for all of the racers at Buttonwillow, with a total of 32 cars in the run group at the starting line. In the CSR class Radicals swept 1st, 2nd, and 3rd positions both Saturday and Sunday. 

Team Radical West member Justin LaJoie, was leading the race in his class in Saturday’s race until he spun off the track in Lap 9, where he ended up in a “back of the pack” position. After fighting his way quickly up to the front, Justin managed to edge his way back into 3rd place in Saturday’s race.

On Sunday Justin was in second place trying to catch the leader in his class, and he spun in Lap 4 leaving him in the back of the group once again. Justin fought his way back up again through the group of skilled CSR drivers to the 3rd place level in his class. After his two offs in the Buttonwillow race, we now call him Justin “LaSpin”. 

Fabian Okonski has some vivid memories of the first race, “I’m feeling a bit nervous but fairly confident. I’m gridded on the outside of the grid, about half way back. As the green flag drops I’m immediately boxed in and by the time we’re around the first corner, I’ve lost about 6 positions including getting passed by DJ, Mark, and Justin. Over the next couple of laps I pass several cars and now most of the CSR crowd is all lined up with DJ, Mark, Justin and myself.” Fabian ended up in 2nd place on both Saturday and Sunday. As he recalls, “COOL! My first podium! 2nd place in CSR and 11th overall. Plus I turned fastest lap of the CSR’s at 1:47.8″

Fabian was happy about the weekend overall. As he says, “All in all, a very satisfying weekend for me. The car was perfect and I didn’t make any stupid mistakes. Learned a ton! Can’t wait for the next one!”

DJ Johnson of DJ Johnson Racing, a fellow Radical SR3 owner and friend of Team Radical West, placed first both days in his yellow SR3. Mark Dalen, also an SR3 owner, of Midlife Crisis Racing, placed fourth on Saturday.