We returned to Pacific Coast Hobbies in sunny Ventura, CA, for round 3 of the 2001 series. Because last months program went into the wee small hours of Sunday morning, we decided to run this months event as a 2-day race.

Spray Glue Box Stock

This month we ran the spray glue race on the Kingleman. Chuck Panno, expert scale racer, continues to show improvement in his wing car program and cut fast time in qualifying with Bill Taylor 2^nd and Monte (Best of the West) Ohren 3^rd.

With 9 racers, we ran this event as a round robin. Chuck (I won’t do that again) took the orange lane to start and this was to cost him several laps to the first heat craziness. Monty and Jason Holmes put 5 and 3 laps respectively on Chuck during this first heat. Bill Taylor was in next and took up in pursuit of Monty and Jason. Monty’s lead came to a crashing end late in heat 3 when he knocked the motor out and suffered chassis and body damage that took him more than the 2 min lane change to fix. Chuck was now back in and in hot pursuit of Jason and Bill.

During heat 6 Bill slipped past Jason taking a lead that he would stretch out and would win the race by 10 laps. In addition, during heat 6, Chuck tied Jason for second. Roy (SoCalUSRA webmaster) Hood was starting to get this wing car stuff figured out and was closing the gap on the leaders. Roy was a late sit out and came back in to run the red lane during heat 8. He caught Chuck and the 2 of them were now only 1 lap down from Jason with one heat to go. In the final heat, Jason got nerfed twice and would have to settle for fourth place. Chuck and Roy raced their brains out with Chuck finishing a good solid 3 FEET ahead of Roy for 2^nd place. Monty recovered to finish 5^th, leading Dave Cook, Alan Trujillo, Darryl Atkin and John Giordano to the finish.

Box Stock

We moved to the King and started laying down the liquid traction. A short field of only 6 racers signed up and went through tech. Jason Holmes was TQ with Bill Taylor and Rory (don’t call me Roy) Kinsella 2^nd and 3^rd.

Bill and Jason were simply the class of this short field. The difference in this race was when Jason knocked the motor out while on the orange lane. Take away the orange lane from both racers and the lap totals were even. Jason’s problems allowed Bill to win the race by 34 laps. Jason moved back past Dale Garcia on the average during the 11^th of 12 heats to take 2^nd dropping Dale to 3^rd. They would finish this way with Rory Kinsella, Darryl Atkin and Rick Kinsella rounding out the finishing order.

Group 27

A short break, a bit more liquid traction and we were ready for the G27 racers. Mike Graverson ran fast lap in qualifying with Pat Ularte 2^nd and Jason Holmes 3^rd.

Mike led the early heats, then went to the tough inside lanes of white and then red and dropped back to 2^nd and then 3^rd. First time 27 racer Darryl Atkin drove into the lead in heat 5 from the blue lane. However, his experience and outright speed with these cars was not enough to hold off first Jason and later Mike. Mike started the 7^th heat 12 laps down from Jason and then ran 89’s in both of the last 2 heats to beat Jason by just 1 on the counter. Darryl held 3^rd until the last minute of heat 8 when the car quit and he lost the final podium spot to Pat. Alan Trujillo, the other 27 racer, had early car troubles and was out in heat 3.

One Motor Open

Sunday morning and it was time for the really fast guys. Sam Rackham grabbed the 7 points for TQ with Mike Graverson and Randy Thompson behind him.

Mike started out where left off in the G27 race, building as much as a 24 lap lead and then giving much of it back on the red and white lanes. Pat Ularte ran 2^nd in the early heats but yielded that to Sam as he hit the red and white lanes. Sam ran into problems on orange and gave his second spot back to Pat. Randy had early problems and was 56 laps down to Mike after just 2 heats. He kept at it and closed to within 10 of Mike after 7. Mike led from start to finish with Pat holding on to the second spot with Randy and Sam 3^rd and 4^th.

Group 7

Only 3 racers signed up for G7 race. Phil Larcom picked up the TQ Points with a nice lap of 1.97. Mike Graverson and Forrest Watchers were the other qualifiers. 

It did not matter that Forrest chose not to qualify. He started fast and in the early heats, added 10 and even 20 laps to his lead each heat. Mike held second early but dropped to 3^rd, again having problems on red and white. Forrest was never challenged for the lead. Phil came home with 2^nd and Mike picked up the final podium spot.

Track Call

This months spray glue race on the Kingleman was the first wing car race not on a King since Uncle Jax Englemann in late 1997. I did not hear any complaints about racing on it and I, for one, hope we do it again. For those of you who decided not to race because it was not the King, you missed a good close race. Horsepower was not the real key to this track. A smooth stable car was more important. Our friends from Elko, Darryl and Alan, had their first G27 race this weekend. Darryl had especially good time with his by actually leading the race at one point and only losing his 3^rd spot with a late race problem. He finished only 20 laps behind the winner. I also learned that the track in Elko is a Purple Mile. Jason, schedule a race there, now!!!!!!!! Dave Cook from Fresno, CA joined us this week for the spray glue race. They have a real active box stock program there at Hobbytown. Dave, next time bring a few of them with you! Thanks for coming down. Hope you can join us in Vegas.