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It was off to Sin City for the third
round of the 2003 SoCal USRA championship on Saturday March 22nd.
As usual a number of drivers made the trip out to Vegas on Friday
to make sure they got their fair share of the limited pit space
and to get some track time on the unique Vegas King.
The raceway was open bright an early
on Saturday morning, ready for the onslaught of the speed crazed
slot car racers, and quickly the raceway filled with the familiar
"heads up in the ….. ---bang----" and "caution in
the ….. ----bang---- s**t" It was also amusing to watch
those that did not arrive on Friday attempting to test their
cars without adding a six pack of guide spacers first, they would
invariably go flying down the straight only to stop dead in the
deadman (I always wondered why it was called that !) as the braids
lost contact with the track. Times were a little slower than they
had been in the past in practice, but most thought it was due to
the amount of rubber on the track, and with conditions on Saturday
morning significantly different than on Friday night we were in
for some rough and tough racing.
4" NASCAR Amateur
The
first class up as usual was the 4" Amateur NASCAR race. With
a 16 man round robin and the top 8 all running 32 laps per heat
or better it unfolded into quite a race. Hitting the front
early and really never looking back was Jerry Johnson. He used his
usual smooth and very consistent style to break away from the field
to take the win, the only driver with a 34 plus average and 277
laps. Behind him the battle raged. Alex Freund finally got the better
of the rest, taking 2nd with 269, just ahead of Phil Phillips 267.
the next 7 drivers were covered by 8 laps with Jody Freund taking
4th with 262, Matt Carroll 5th with 260, Dennis Rios 6th 259, "Big"
Brian Johnson right behind him with 258, then "Baby Bing"
Colin Herzig with 256, Tim Peck from Santee right behind him with
255 and Daniel Hudson in 10th with 254. Rounding out the field was
Mike Hudson Snr with 244, Wing racer turned scale racer Darryl Atkin
in his first NASCAR race turning a credible 242, T.J. with a head
scratching 236, Bob Abbey who was not feeling well with 189 after
missing most of the last heat. Young Jordon Atkin put in a solid
performance in his first SoCal race to turn 183 laps, and in the
final position was a very troubled Paul "The Newsletter"
Abbey after a number of motor changes.
4" NASCAR Expert
Following
on straight after the Amateur race was the 4" Expert NASCAR
race. Right from the start it was clear that this race would be
a fight between Duran Trujillo, Joe Pelan and Chris Radisich, as
those three all ran a 38 lap heat early on. As the race settled
down it was Duran and Chris separated by no more than a lap, with
Joe running along just behind them keeping a small gap over Paul
Sterrett. In the 6th heat the unthinkable happened, Duran had a
gear let go. He hurried to fix it and get back into the race, but
his race for the win was effectively over. This left Chris Radisich
with a comfortable lead over Joe Pelan as the race ran down, and
he showed his consistency never running less than 36 in a heat,
finishing up with a 36.6 average for 293 laps, amazingly exactly
the same number of laps Joe Pelan had won with at the last Vegas
race in 2002. Joe ran in 2nd with 288 laps, with Mr "give
me a break and turn the power back on" Paul Sterrett taking
the final podium spot after a strong run to 283 laps. Snapping at
Pauls heels all race was Mike Hudson, who finished up with 280 laps.
After Mike there was a gap back to Steve Forsyth (268), Chuck Panno(268)
and Jonathan Forsyth (266) who had waged a race long battle. Rounding
out the field was the unlucky Duran Trujillo (262) and Tyson Joyce
(255) in his first "real" appearance as a SoCal expert
after some motor troubles towards the end of the race.
4.5" Slixx Decal Challenge
Amateur NASCARS
With the "new and improved" schedule,
local race director Chuck was not given much time for a much needed
smoke break before the 3500 pound monsters rumbled onto the track.
A number of drivers were heard before the race comparing their cars
handling to that of a small pink animal. This race was never destined
to be one of the great races of all time, and Jerry Johnson made
sure of that, never running a heat of less than 32, and a race high
of 34 laps in three heats to take the win with 265 laps, 12 laps
more than last time we visited Vegas. Daniel "it's not fast"
Hudson showed us he is a new force in SoCal racing this year by
running 7 heats of 32 laps and 1 of 34 to lock down 2nd place, turning
258 laps, while Phil Phillips overcame some recent bad luck to reach
the podium for the 2nd time on the day after turning 253 laps, the
exact same total he turned to win his first SoCal race at this track
October 2002. The final driver to break the 30 lap average was Jody
Freund in 4th, just making it to 250 laps. Behind Jody there was
a four way race long battle with Tim Peck winning that one with
239, followed by Mike Hudson Snr 237 after dropping a couple of
laps on Green, Alex Freund was right behind Mike with 236, then
it was 2 back to a consistent Paul Abbey with 234. Rounding out
the field was local Vegas racer Matt Carroll with a very credible
performance that would have seen him in the top 5 but for problems
in his first heat leaving him with only 2 laps in the heat and a
total of 209, then came Darryl Atkin with his first taste of these
monsters of the slot car track with 202 after striking trouble early
on in his first heat, and finally it was the ill feeling Bob Abbey
after withdrawing late in the race.
4.5" Slixx Decal Challenge
Expert NASCARS
Again with little time between races
it was straight into the Expert 4.5" NASCAR race. Duran Trujillo
was determined to make up for his problems in the 4" race and
simply raced off into the distance from the second the power
went on, waving to the rest of the field following behind who were
unable to get close enough to draft up to him. Duran turned the
best heats of the race, running 5 heats of 35 laps, with only 2nd
placed Joe Pelan managing to run one 35 lap heat, and everyone else
locked into 34 lap heats at best. So by the time the fat lady had
sung it was Duran Trujillo welcomed into victory lane with cheers
from the crowd after turning 276 laps, a little down on our last
visit when he won with 281. The victory speech was short and the
photographs had to wait as the building emptied out to the cries
of "what's for lunch".
Joe Pelan ran a strong but quiet
race to 2nd, 5 laps short of Duran with 271. The race for 3rd was
the real story of the race, and where the battle raged. Tyson Joyce,
Chris Radisich and Paul Sterrett were locked into a battle that
lasted the whole race, and was only resolved in the last couple
of seconds. Going into the last heat Chris and Tyson were locked
on the same lap with Paul showing one lap back on the counters.
Chris and Tyson both fell off once each that heat, with Chris ending
up sitting under the bridge for a lap, leaving Tyson to move into
a safe 3rd. The ever consistent Paul Sterrett refused to budge even
a millimeter from his slot as he and Chris went at it for the last
half of the heat for 4th place on Purple and Yellow lanes, right
next to each other. Into the last 20 seconds of the race there was
an outbreak of racers disease, and several racers were heard to
scream "trrrrraaaacccckkk", so loud in fact the race controller
turned the power off, leaving Paul and Chris locked side by side
during the several periods of short racing time. With only 5 seconds
to go they were locked side by side going into the donut, and it
was make or break time. Both punched their controllers waited for
the power. Somehow once the power came on both snaked through the
donut and leadon without taking each other out, real side by side
racing. Chris just managed to pull ahead and when the power went
off he had less than a foot over Paul, both having turned 265 laps.
While that battle for 3rd, 4th and 5th had been going on another
battle was raging behind them between father and son racers Steve
and Jonathan Forsyth, leaving them locked on the same lap with Steve
just ahead of Jonathan on 254 laps, talk about even equipment !
Rounding out the field was Mike Hudson (249) after losing a good
a part of his last heat after being on target for a much higher
finishing position earlier in the race, and Monty Ohren struggling
to find the right traction balance with 247 laps.
With the NASCAR part of the program
finished for the day it was time for some last minute practice for
GT 1 and GT 12 and time to sample some of the local foods. With
the new format requiring both Gt1 and GT12 cars to be in tech together
there was some frantic last minute adjustments to be made, and even
in some cases bodies to be mounted.
Amateur GT 1
With tech
over and concours decided in favor of Jerry Johnson it was on to
the racing. Once again Jerry showed his "local" knowledge
after spending a lot of time racing on this track when it was in
Arizona and drove away from the field, racing to 305 laps to take
yet another win. A strong run to 2nd saw Uncle Kals racer Phil Phillips
taking his 3rd podium out of 3 races on the day with 295 laps, just
4 ahead of new rising star Colin "Baby Bing" Herzig who
finished up with 291 earning yet another podium in his first full
SoCal season of racing. Cruising along in 4th was Dennis "The
Iron Man" Rios with 286 laps, 5 ahead of the ever improving
wing racer T.J. Albu with 281. Daniel Hudson had another consistent
run to 6th with 273, ahead of Big Brian "head of the bing family"
Johnson with 269, just ahead of a hard charging Paul Abbey
with 268 and John Emmons 258. Rounding out the field was father
and son team of Darryl Atkin with 225 after striking trouble during
his run on yellow, and Jordon Atkin running consistently in his
first GT 1 race with 217.
Expert GT 1
John Tore Anderson
won yet another concours event with one of his great looking white
and green paint schemes, and continues to amaze everyone with how
clean the bodies look. Tyson Joyce was determined to show everyone
that he has matured as a driver in the last year and did just that
showing a clean pair of heels to the rest of the field racing to
328 laps, 1 more than Alan Ohren won with last time here. Behind
him Joe Pelan and Duran Trujillo waged war throughout the race with
Duran finally clinging to 2nd over Joe, but only just, both finishing
with 220 laps. In 4th was Mike Hudson finishing up with 216 laps,
while behind him Chris Radisich and Alan Ohren both struggled with
too much grip in light cars, with Chris finishing with 211 and Alan
with 209 to continue his troubles in Gt 1 this year. Rounding out
the field was Chuck Panno (302), Jonathan Forsyth (301), Paul Sterrett
(297), John Tore Anderson (292), Steve Forsyth (260) after
trouble on blue and Mick Antonelli (178) after motor troubles.
Amateur GT 12
After GT
1 it was straight into Gt 12. T.J. took the concours honors with
a nice looking white and purple paint job. A surprise to many was
the pace and consistency of local racer Rick Armstrong. Rick ran
very strongly in every heat to take his first win in his first attempt
at a SoCal race, quite an achievement. His total of 334 was only
1 lap short of Casey "the rocket boy" Scott's total of
335 at the October 2002 race, so hopefully we will see Rick at some
further races this year. Running strongly with no shortage of horsepower
was Big Brian Johnson, who ran down everyone except Rick on his
way to a solid 2nd placed finish with 332 laps only 2 back from
Rick. Taking 3rd in his best result for the day was Dennis Rios
with 329 laps, followed by Jerry Johnson struggling a bit after
a couple of bad early runs with 319. In 5th it was Phil Phillips
(316), just missing out on making 4 podiums in one day with T.J
snapping at his heels with (314). Daniel Hudson drive to a solid
7th (300) with Colin Herzig fading to (297) after a dismal orange
lane. In 9th it was John Emmons (284) struggling to recover from
a disastrous first heat on the orange lane, while in 10th it was
Darryl Atkin sampling his first SoCal GT 12 crash fest (280) with
the field rounded out with Paul Abbey (255) and Alex Freund (204)
after missing a couple of heats.
Expert GT 12
It was finally
time for the last race of the day, and at the reasonable hour of
9pm no less. John Tore Anderson took yet another concours, again
with a very neat and tidy white and green paint scheme. With Greg
Gilbert, Roy Hood and Casey Scott all absent this was a golden opportunity
for those attending to make up some ground, but there must have
been a full moon because it was a total crash fest. Out of the ten
man round robin at least 5 drivers missed a whole or part of a heat
with crash damage, making it a survival of the fittest race. The
ultimate survivor was Mitch Pelan, and although we cannot give him
a million dollars, we can offer our congratulations on a fine win
for the Vegas racer. His 368 laps was 6 more than the 362 Roy Hood
had to win last time out. Taking 2nd was track owner Mick
Antonelli after finally taking the plunge and running in the expert
class, well done Mick (354). In third was the ever popular John
Tore Anderson (344), afterwards showing a car that hardly had a
scratch on it despite the enormous carnage in this race. 4th place
was secured by wing racer turned scale racer for a day, Scott Fisher.
Driving unfamiliar cars on a familiar track he did very well in
the rough and tumble of "scale racers gone wild". In 5th
was Chris Radisich the first of the walking wounded. He was in contention
early on for a podium spot until his car launched in the bank, not
once, but twice, fully crash testing the new Mossetti GT 12 chassis
in the worst possible way. The car survived, although the motor
did not, and Chris limped to 5th with 323 laps. In 6th was Monty
"Mr BOW" Ohren (315), again after a couple of spectacular
crashes in the bank, one of which saw his car land by the race control
panel with no rear wheels, axle or gear. In 7th was the still luckless
in 2003 Alan Ohren, who just seemed to be in the wrong place at
the wrong time in this race, with the field being rounded out by
Tyson Joyce (255), jonathan Forsyth (204) and Chuck Panno (173),
these final three all ending up with very bent and twisted cars.
So that was it for another day. A
day of hard and fast racing SoCal style, where noone gives an inch,
and you'd better bring your best horsepower, and oh, don't forget
the box to take the parts home in afterwards.
See you all at Santa Maria, where
I believe the word "Track" is not understood..
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