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2002 Western States Buena Park Raceway Buena Park, CA May, 3,4 & 5, 2002

It’s Western States time again and we were expecting a big crowd to use this event as a warm-up for the Nat’s. We were not disappointed and the expanded 3-day event turned out to be a good idea.

Spray Glue G-12
The first race of the weekend drew 19 entries. This SoCal class does not run qualifying, so it was straight to the racing and a pair of round robin semi’s.

Moving out of the “A” semi were Bill Pinkston, David Aikens, Jason Stone and Bob Maxwell. Moving out of the “B” semi was Sam Rackham, Monty Ohren, Reggie Coram and Evan McKee.

Reggie would lead the main early, running on the top of the track and having as much as a 5 lap lead in the middle of the race. Sam had decided to start at the bottom and as soon as he moved to yellow he quit dropping laps to Reggie and then started to move back closer to the leader. Sam would catch Reggie in the 6th heat as Sam was on white and Reggie on was on blue. Reggie then moved to purple and black and he had no hope of keeping up with Sam. The question was could he stay ahead of Bill Pinkston. In heat 7 Sam was able to get a 3-lap lead on Reggie while Bill made up 4 laps on Reggie and 1 on Sam. In the final heat Sam added 4 laps to his lead while Reggie had a very good final heat on the black lane. Bill was racing on the red lane, which the other racers turned into a parking lot on the lead on. Bill gave it his best shot, but the amount of time he spent collecting parking fee’s, meant he was able to make up only 3 of the 4 laps he was behind Reggie and was forced to settle for the final podium position only 1 lap back. Bob Maxwell made a very rare appearance outside of PCH and was rewarded with a nice 4th spot followed by Monty Ohren with a car that had an “S” bend in both side rails after a very hard hit on the straight. Evan McKee, Jason Stone and David Aikens took up the lesser spots with various malfunctions.

International 15
With a full field of 8 and the late hour, the racers decided to skip qualifying and let the computer pick the lanes.

Jim Swofford had dusted off his I-15 program for this one time event and led all 8 heats against some pretty good east coast competition. Brian Eardly was able to stay close to Jim for a couple of heats but eventually fell back. The only drama was Benny. Benny’s motor quit in the first heat and the replacement was very good. He was able to make up a couple of laps each heat on Jim, but he would be unable to get it all back  and settled for 2nd. Brian took the final podium spot finishing ahead of Rich Humphrey, Jerry Kastner, Joe Chevy, Bob Maxwell and Jeff Bechtel.

G-12 Amateur
Saturday morning saw 12 brave and sleepy-eyed racers turn cars in to tech. Buena Park regular Bob Johnson was the fast qualifier with a lap of 2.709. Jerry Kastner and Cliff Kendrick were the 2nd and 3rd qualifiers.

Sam “the man” Rackham picked up where he left off in the spray glue race. He would break out on top and take a 3-lap lead on his nearest competitor in the first heat, David Aikens. David went to the sit out and his 57 would hold up until he came back in for heat 6. Chuck Frederick was an early player but mid race problems dropped him down the ladder. Alan Trujillo had problems early, but good pit work would put him back into the mix. Sam was continuing to add to his lead every heat while Alan was now running high 50 and low 60 lap heats and running better heats than anyone but Sam. David was running an excellent race but Alan finally caught and passed him in the next to last heat to take 2nd place with David dropping to 3rd. Jerry Kastner, Chuck Frederick, Danny Garcia, Todd Selland, Bob Johnson, Art Richardson, Cliff Kendrick, Brian Johnson and Darryl Atkin rounded out the field.

G-12 Expert
There were 9 racers ready for the fast G-12 race and it was a bit of a surprise with Wendell Smith taking TQ with a lap of 2.598. Jim Swofford and Jason Holmes were 2nd and 3rd.

Wendell picked the orange lane to start and used all that special lane preparation to take a 1-lap lead over Jim and Rich Curnutte after one. Wendell then increased his lead to 5 laps over Jim in heat 2 while Rich was sitting out. For heat 3, Wendell goes to black Jim moves to yellow and takes 3 laps out of Wendell's lead while Rich runs a good red lane to tie Wendell on the average.  Jim then catches Wendell and Rich drops about ½ lap back on the average to these two. Jim then moves into the lead but he can’t shake Rich. Jim and Rich would race to the end with Jim not more than 3 laps up at any time. Wendell would be unable to keep up the pace and would slide all the way to 5th. Gil “Mr. Concours” Rivera would run a steady race edging out Jason Holmes for the 3rd position. Wendell would settle for 5th ahead of Dale Garcia, Pat Ularte, Reggie Coram and Bill Pinkston.

Cobalt 12 Amateur
SoCal regular, Phil Larcom, was the fastest qualifier with a lap of 2.152. Jeff Bechtel and Jerry Kastner were 2nd and 3rd.

The computer printout shows that Phil and Gil Rivera both ran perfect heats to lead the field with Phil at 73 and Gil at 72. Phil would lead until the 3rd heat when he moved to black and dropped all the way to 5th, although this was only 3 laps out of the lead. Chuck Frederick and Gil were now tied on top of the leader board just 1 lap ahead of Reggie Coram and Jeff Bechtel. By heat 5 Phil was back into the lead by 1 lap over Gil and 3 over Reggie. But there was more to come. In heat 7 Phil moved to red and Reggie ran blue. Reggie’s heat was 8 laps more than Phil’s to move back into the lead, dropping Phil into a 2nd place tie with Gil, just 3 laps down. In the final heat it was Phil now on the fast green lane and about halfway through the heat we got the call of “new leader”. Phil goes on to take the win ticket with Reggie surviving to edge out Gil by a few sections, 3 laps behind Phil. Jeff Bechtel was 4th after a bad 1st heat. Jeff ran competitive heats and lap times after that but could not make up the laps. Chuck Frederick faded mid race but finished ahead of Jerry Kastner, Darryl Akins and Jason Holmes.

Cobalt 12 expert
There were 14 entries for this event and it was Beuf with the top time of 2.040. Bill Pinkston and Benny Justice were .04 and .049 slower.

Moving out of the “A” semi were Benny Justice, Beuf, Wendell Smith and Jim Swofford. Transferring out of the “B” semi was Richard Curnutte, Greg Mills, Gary Puetz and Bill Pinkston. Among those luminaries not making the transfer were Paul Ciccarello and Les Wright.

The main started with Benny, Gary and Jim the early leaders. Benny had problems in heat 3, starting his slow road to oblivion. The race was so close at this point that Bill Pinkston was able to move from 6th to 2nd in that 3rd heat only 4 laps behind Jim. Jim was not going to make it easy on anybody, but Bill was up to the task. He threw down a 75 on orange in heat 7 to move past Jim and into the lead. Jim would have no answer in the final heat and Bill took a 5-lap win over Jim. Beuf came from several positions down mid race to take 3rd place ahead of Wendell, Richard, Greg, Gary and Benny.

G-27 Amateur
The last race of the day was the G-27 amateurs. Mike Graverson was the fastest of the 10 racers with a lap of 2.011.

Chuck Frederick was the early leader with a 99-lap average through the first 2 heats. Mike entered for heat 3 and was able to tie Chuck with the 99-lap average. Chuck stumbled in heat 4, but he was so fast in the early heats, he was able to maintain 2nd position on the average. Chuck was able to make up a few laps on Mike but not enough to prevent Mike from picking up the win. Chuck was 2nd with Jim Brown holding down the 3rd position for most of the race but he had problems on white in his final heat dropping him to 4th, behind Jerry Kastner. Brian Eardley, Darryl Atkin, Alan Trujillo, Jason Holmes, Wendell Smith and Rich Humphrey were the other racers.

G-27 Expert
It’s now early Sunday morning and the bleary eyed racers are setting up cars for the Expert 27 race, eating donuts and drinking coffee. Although I did notice a couple of half-awake racers trying to put guide flags in the donut holes. Eleven racers found their way through the glue haze and we were off to qualifying land. Larry Blanton would be the fast qualifier with a lap of 1.898. Richard Curnutte and Beuf were next.

Benny Justice would be the early leader with an average of 103.5 laps through the second heat. In heat 4 Beuf would lay down a 106 laps on orange to move into the lead on the average. Greg Mills would move into the lead on the average as Beuf would move to the sitouts. Beuf would re-enter the race in heat 9 of 11 and laid down a 103-lap heat on red to move back into the lead on the average. Buef would set a new track record for the class with 819 laps and finish 11 laps up on Greg. Benny would finish 3rd with Paul Ciccarello, Jim Swofford, Gary Puetz, Larry Blanton, Pat Ularte, Scott Fisher, Richard Curnutte and Ronnie Keener the other racers.

One Motor Open
The largest race of the weekend was for the One Motor Open Class with 21 entries. There is no qualifying for this class, so it’s straight to the semi’s.

Moving out of the “A” semi were Bob Everett, PA Watson, Pat Ularte and Greg Mills. Transferring out of the “B” semi were Beuf, Paul Ciccarello, Benny Justice and Larry Blanton.

Beuf would break out on top to lead the first heat by 2 laps over Bob and Paul. Paul would catch Beuf and in heat 3 he would take a 6-lap lead over Greg with Beuf fading to 3rd. They would run this way until the 7th heat when Greg would break down and Larry would slip past Beuf into 2nd. Paul would win the final heat and turned the fastest lap of the race to take a 17-lap victory over Beuf with Larry dropping to 3rd. PA took the 4th spot ahead of Bob, Greg, Pat and Benny.

Semi Pro
There were only 7 brave souls to enter the semi pro race and it was Phil Larcom taking his 2nd TQ of the weekend with a lap of 1.926. Chuck Fredrick and Wendell Smith were 2nd and 3rd.

Mike Graverson struck early grabbing a 5-lap lead in the first heat over Richard Curnutte and Wendell Smith with Chuck Fredrick another 2 laps back. Chuck sprinted past the leaders in heat 2 to take a 3-lap lead on Mike. But Mike had a bit too much for the rest of the field, he moved back into the lead running on the green lane for heat 3 and never looked back. Chuck and Richard would swap 2nd place in heats 5 and 6. Mike would continue to stretch out his lead to win by 51 laps over Chuck and 88 over Richard. Darryl Atkin, Wendell Smith, Phil Larcom and Ronnie Keener were the other racers.

Group 7
A pre Nat’s turnout of 15 racers was a very pleasant surprise. It was decided to allow this group to run 2 rounds of qualifying and after the 1st round it was Paul Ciccarello on top with a 1.640. In the 2nd round, driver after driver took their best shots at Paul and as the session went on Paul’s smile got bigger as one by one, they failed. But last up was Greg “The Wonderkid” Mills. After a few aborted starts with a bit to much glue on the tires, he finally got the car rolling and set the store buzzing with an outstanding 1.635, setting a new track record.

The “A” semi started with Les Wright and Benny Justice leading by just a few laps over Scott Fisher and Benny Justice. “The Wonderkid” was in trouble early dropping 17 laps to the leaders in the first heat. Greg would continue to give up laps until the 4th heat when he would start blowing up motors. Benny would move past Les and into the lead in heat 3 and then have problems on orange and drop to 4th, letting Les back into the lead. Les would lead until the final heat when Jim Swofford and Benny Justice got past him. PA Watson took the final move-up. Scott Fisher, Bob Everett, Greg Mills and Al Chuck were consigned to the marshalling positions.

In the “B” semi, Forrest Watcher took the lead in the first heat running on red. Forest was able to lead by as much as 6 laps until the 7th heat. Paul Ciccarello caught him when Forrest got caught up in somebody else’s crash and gave up those 6 laps as the marshall's fixed his braid. Forrest moved back into sole possession the lead in heat 8 as Paul faded to 3rd behind Gil Gunderson. John Tore Anderson took the last transfer to the main. Beuf let the smoke out of a couple of motors and he along with Gary Puetz and Larry Blanton would corner marshall the main.

The main would start with Paul leading the 1st heat by 1 lap over Benny and Jim with Forrest another 2 laps back. Benny would drop back in the 2nd heat and Jim would hold 2nd until the 4th heat when he bent up his racecar. Les would briefly move into 2nd and then give it up to Gil. Going into the final heat Paul was on red and had a 20-lap lead over Gil. Gil was now on the fast green lane and had made up a couple of laps. With less than 25 seconds remaining in the race, the fragrant aroma of burned epoxy filled the raceway and Paul’s car stopped on the bridge with smoke pouring out the back. There was a brief flurry of excitement as we all scurried to the monitors to see just how far back Gil was. Too far was the answer. Congratulations to Paul for his excellent drive. Gil would be 2nd only 10-laps back. Les, Tore, Forrest, PA, Benny and Jim rounded out the field.

Track Calls
A very good turn out with racers from Washington, Idaho, Colorado, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Kentucky and the killer award goes to Brian Eardley. Brian drove across the country from Maryland to race with us.

Greg’s TQ in the G-7 race confirmed him as one of the racers to watch in the future. I hope you all realize that it will only be about 30 more years until he can run in the senior race.

Greg’s lap has many wondering just how deep into the 1.5’s you will have to go at the Nats to TQ. I find the very notion of a lap that fast kind of scary. When I started racing, it took that long to get up the donut.