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Report by Greg Gilbert -- Report by Chris Radisich

 SoCal USRA 2003 Western States Scale Championships, Buena Park Raceway, Buena Park California

Once again the SoCal USRA returned to Chris and Lenore Gallegos Buena Park Raceway host, of the 2000 USRA Scale Nationals. BP has hosted the Western States more than any other track and no wonder, with two world class Ogilvie tracks, an incredible facility with pit space for days and an unbelievable inventory,  plus some of the nicest and most knowlegable people around  behind the counter.

4" Nascar Amateur drew 20 entries, a little less than most monthly USRA races but still quite strong. Jerry Johnson won the A semi by four over Robert Park who is always deadly at BP with Jimmy Ross besting wing standout Sam Rackham by fifteen laps with Ryan Fookes and Alex Freund also moving up. Andrew Ross and Colin Herzig also moved up from the B semi.

The  main looked to be all Jerry Johnson untill Jimmy Ross got going in the sixth heat and almost ran Jerry down. Jerry held on to win by three with Robert Park five back in the last podium spot with Andrew Ross another three back in fourth. Colin Herzig, Sam Rackham, Alex Freund and Ryan Fookes filled out the main.

Expert 4" Nascar drew only seven entries  with notables such as Roy Hood and Greg Gilbert sitting this one out.

It was rumored that Duran Trujillo had a monster mill hiding in his box just for this race and the rumors turned out to be true. Duran strapped  at least one but as many as three laps a heat on the field untill in the eighth heat he spent time in the pits and only turned 25 laps. Duran had enough real estate on second place Mike Hudson to hang on to win by one with Steve Forsyth, who finally overcame his streak of bad luck to finish third  just one behind Mike. Almost retired Gil Rivera turned in an awesome drive for fourth with Paul Sterrett  two more back in fifth. Chris Radisich and Bill Vanderzeil rounded out the field.

Amateur 4.5" Nascar filled up two eight car semis with Jerry Johnson taking the A win over Phil Phillips and Daniel Hudson taking the Bs over Tim Peck. Slot racing icon Philippe Delespinay made the move up from the A semi along with Andrew Ross while Jimmy Ross and  Mike Kravitz escaped from the B semi. In the main, Jerry Johnson was the class of the field jetting to a ten lap win over Daniel Hudson with good guy Mike Kravittz claiming third. Andrew Ross came in fourth with "Uncle Phil" Phillips fifth. Jimmy Ross, Tim Peck and Philippe filling out the main.

Six Expert 4.5" Nascars lined up to battle on the Hillclimb and after Duran's steller performance in 4" the troops expected a runaway victory. In a stunning upset Gil Rivera steadily pulled away from the field early on the fast outer lanes as Duran held down second over Paul Sterrett on the slower inner ones. Duran hit the fast lanes and came on strong but Gil didn't crack under the pressure as so many have with Duran on their tail and took the win by less than a lap.   Sterrett took third with Jonathan Forsyth fourth, Radisich fifth and Mike Hudson limped home in sixth.

Amateur Gt-1 moved to the swoopy king, or "Elvis" as the locals call it and drew 17  of the prototype based, Sportsman/Contender powered race cars.   The A main was super fast with unknown Scott Stromwall won with 329 laps with former softball World Champion Tim Hould two back and Jerry Johnson four more back in third. Daniel Hudson also moved up. The B semi was almost two tenths slower and turned  seventeen less laps than the As with Colin Herzig, Phil Phillips ,T.J. Albu, and  Dennis Rios moving up in that order. In the main the real Jerry Johnson showed up and took a three lap win with consistent driving and great speed. Daniel Hudson took second with a great drive with Colin Herzig less than a lap back in third. Dennis Rios was fourth, Scott Stromwall fifth, Phil Phillips sixth, Tim Hould  seventh and T.J. eighth.

Expert was an eleven man round robin with Los Angeles' Roy Hood jumping into the lead with an amazing first heat show of ponies and handling. Only Duran Trujillo was in the same ballpark as the pair quickly rocketed away from the field . Mick Antonelli and Tyson Joyce made the trip from Las Vegas and battled with Radisich for third .  Roy held off Duran to win by one with Chris third by feet over Mick with Tyson fifth. Rude Boy Bill V. took sixth, Jonathan Forsyth seventh, Steve Forsyth eighth, Paul Sterrett, Vegas' Joe Pelan and the mangled Gil Rivera filled out the field.

Amateur GT-12 was an eleven car round robin. The surprise was Expert GT-12 drew 16 and required semis for the first time in years. The Amateurs jaws dropped when "Big Brian" Johnson unleashed his famous Group 12 horsepower and ran 47 on the slow white lane in the first heat. T.J., Jerry Johnson and Phil Phillips ran 46 each but it was obvious that barring unforseen events Brian was going to walk away   with this one. Tim Hould had no ponies but his car was on rails and he drove it like a man posessed  trying to stay with the lead duo of Brian and T.J.

Brian must be living right as he drove like a madman, passing on the outside where he shouldn't have been able to and taking incredible risks but staying on and going incredibly fast. In the the big guy won by seven over T.J. with Tim Hould third . Alex Freund took an impressive fourth with Jerry Johnson fifth. John Emmons and Colin Herzig finished on the same lap for six and seventh as Sam Rackham barely nipped Phil Phillips for eighth.  Adam Shaw and Darrell Atkin limped home with broken cars to round out the field.

In the A semi young gun Alan Ohren set a blistering pace with Casey Scott in hot pursuit. Alan set the pace untill in the eighth heat he was involved in a major incident and broke his chassis in half. Casey won with Radisich five back and Jonathan Forsyth third. Even though Alan only turned seventeen laps in the last heat versus the fifth place finisher's 45 he still made the move up by seventeen laps.  The B semi was a duel between Duran and last years series champ Roy Hood. Roy took the win by inches with Monty Ohren, third and the always impressive Bob "Cruzin'" Scott also making the move.

In the Main Radisich took off in the lead but soon Duran had blown by and Roy had pulled even. As the race wore on things spread out and Duran won by ten over Roy who had eleven in hand over Radisich with Bob Scott fourth. Monty Ohren was fifth and Alan, whose broken chassis gave him a fast but rather weird handling car managed sixth behind his "Papa" with Jonathan Forsyth seventh and Casey Scott, who looked like a threat early decided to pull out and settle for fast time after mechanical troubles.

As an added attraction a True Scale Racing Federation event was scheduled and run as European style multiple main event race after two qualifying races to seed the mains. The races were run IROC style with the color coded cars all remaining on same lanes and only the drivers moving.  Paul Sterrett drove a brilliant error free race to win the A main by half a lap over Daniel Hudson while Tim Peck nipped International racer Chris Radisich by inches for the last podium spot. Jonathan Forsyth was fifth after a great drive with Jimmy Ross sixth, Bill Vanderzeil seventh and the legendary Dennis "Foamy" Hill rounded out the top eight.

Thanks to Chris and Lenore and congrats to all of this years Western States Scale Champions.

Greg G.

SoCal USRA Scale Round 9 - The Western States

This year the Scale Western States races were held at one of the worlds finest raceways, Buena Park Raceway, on Saturday and Sunday September 27th and 28th. All the usual SoCal top guns turned out to do battle on both the super fast King (GT 1 and GT 12) and the shorter tougher Hillclimb(4 & 4.5" NASCAR), and this time the race format reverted back to the standard USRA semi final and main format. In a departure from previous years it was decided before the meeting to race all the semi finals and the mains over 8 x 3 minutes, instead of the usual 8 x 2 minute semi finals, giving everyone more racing, a welcome addition to the premier event on the Socal racing schedule.

Amateur 4" NASCAR
Starting out the weekends racing was the Amateur 4" NASCAR race on the Hillclimb. With 20 entries there was to be two round robin semi finals and a main. The first semi final was controlled by the fast maturing Jimmy Ross who cruised to a 15 lap win over Sam Rackham. Jimmy ran three heats of 36 and one of 37, never dropping below 34 on his way to the win. Sam had a race long battle with new boy Ryan Fookes, and only edged out Ryan by one lap. Alex Freund managed to hang on to the final move up position, edging out one of the favorites,  Phil Phillips who had a terrible run on black only turning 29 laps. Brian Johnson, TJ Albu, Paul Abbey, Gene Matrin and Kenny Rodger were the others to not make the move up in this first class of the weekend.

Jerry Johnson took out the A Semi with 283 laps with two 36 lap heats and a 37, and like Jimmy in the previous race never had a heat under 34 laps, which for Jerry was Black lane. Four laps back was the hard charging Robert Park, who had 4 laps in hand over Colin Herzig. The real battle in this semi was for the final move up position. The battle raged race long between Andrew Ross and Ryan Bertich, and ended with both on the same lap, but Andrew was just ahead, so he took the final main spot. Missing out on the move up were Ryan Bertich, Jim Waterson, Brian Delperdang, a disappointed Tim Peck after trouble on green lane left him with only 9 laps, Bob abbey and wing racer turned scale racer for the day Darryl Atkin who put in a very credible total.

The lineup for the main at first glance looked like it would be a Buena Park shutout, with 6 of the 8 racers listing Buena Park as their home raceway brothers Jimmy and Andrew Ross, Robert Park,  Sam Rackham, Alex Freund and Ryan Fookes, with only Jerry Johnson from Arizona and Colin Herzig from Uncle Kals. Also interestingly the average age of the racers in the main was very young, with only Robert, Jerry and Sam over high school age, a great sign for SoCal racing. At the green light Jerry Johnson showed his intentions and immediately ran two 37 lap heats to give himself a buffer to work with. A very consistent Andrew Ross took up the early running in second place with some very consistent driving, but then Robert Park and Jimmy Ross moved into gear past him later in the race. Again Jerry did not fall below 34 laps and posted four heats of 37 to take the win with 289 laps, 3 ahead of a fast finishing Jimmy Ross (286), with 5 back to Robert Park (281), then 3 back to the very consistent Andrew Ross (278). Colin Herzig pushed all race and finished a credible 5th(276), one lap over Buena Park specialist Sam Rackham (275). The final two positions went to Alex Freund(265) and Ryan Fookes (254).

Expert 4" NASCAR
Next up was the 4" Expert main. The usual suspects were all present and with Duran Trujillo on his home track noone expected anything but a win from him. Duran did not disappoint, jumping out to a good lead over local fast man Mike Hudson. Durans mastery of this track really showed with his first four heats, a 38 on yellow, 38 on orange, 39 on white and 39 on red. He was well in control of the race. Mike pushed on with three 37 laps heats,, but really had no answer for Durans pace. Behind these two a battle raged between Steve Forsyth, Gil Rivera, Paul Sterrett and Chris Radisich with positions changing all the time, sometimes two or three times a heat. Meantime Duran had backed off a little and was cruising to victory when in the final heat on black the unthinkable happened, he lost a motor. The smoke poured out of the motor and most thought he was done. The car was thrown to him and he disappeared to his pit to make a green flag motor change. Incredibly he got the motor changed and back into the race without losing the lead, although it was very close. When the power went off Duran (291) had less than a lap over Mike Hudson (290) who had only a lap over the very fast finishing Steve Forsyth (289), who only had a lap over Paul Sterrett (288) in 5th, while it was 5 back to the luckless Championship leader Chris Radisich (281) and rounding out the field was Bil Vanderziel in his first race for quite some time with 265. Incredibly there was on 5 laps separating 1st to 5th, a very close race.

Amateur 4.5" NASCAR
After the excitement of the expert 4" main, next up was the lumbering 4.5" NASCARS. With 16 Amateur racers it was another two semi and a main race. The pace of this class has picked up so much this year the 4.5" cars are now only 1 or two laps a heat slower than their lighter and more nimble 4" cousins, and the racing is even closer. Daniel Hudson put his stamp on Semi B with a 35 first up, and he never lost the lead in the semi. Tim Peck drove a strong race to end up 4 laps behind Daniel with the hard charging Jimmy Ross just one behind Tim. Fourth place and the last move up sport fell to Mike Kravitz on his return to SoCal USRA racing. Local racer Greg Carter showed great improvement to take 5th, only 4 laps behind Mike. Alex Freund struggled to 6th place showing signs of little horsepower while Brian Delperdang and Paul Abbey rounded out the field.

If Semi B was close, Semi A was a walkover. Champion elect Jerry Johnson (269) just checked out on the rest of the field, putting 21 laps on the rest of the field by the end of the race. Phil Phillips (248) and Andrew Ross (248) battled the whole race with Phil  just getting the position over Andrew at the end. Eight laps back was longtime racer Philippe de Lespainay, with a borrowed car from Paul Sterrett. Philippe had  come along to run the TSRF IROC race, but was convinced by Paul to run in the 4.5" field and showed everyone that he can still be competitive with the current crop of racers in a "scale" (well by SoCal USRA standards anyway) car. Rounding out the field was Darryl Atkin, Kenny Rodger, Bob Abbey and Robert Stubbs.

In the main, Jerry Johnson (272) again showed everyone why he is headed to the expert field next year and came home with a solid 10 lap win over rising star Daniel Hudson (262). Daniel ran a solid race driving well and being very consistent, but in every heat Jerry was just that little bit quicker. Taking a well driven and well deserved third place was Mike Kravitz (258). Andrew Ross had a good run into 4th place with Championship challenger Phil Phillips having to settle for 5th. With Andrew in 4th older brother Jimmy found himself in 6th after a slow start on black and yellow wondering what he had to do to beat his younger brother. Tim Peck finished in 7th after being in contention for 2nd or 3rd for almost the whole race until problems on green in his second to last heat left him stranded with 13 laps in the heat, and rounding out the field was Philippe de Lespinay, making a surprise main appearance at yet another Western States race, many years after taking a starring role driving wing cars.

Expert 4.5" NASCAR
Next onto the track was the 4.5" Expert race. With only 6 entries this was another main only event for the Experts. Surprisingly to many Gil Rivera took an early slender lead over runaway Championship leader Duran Trujillo, the two battling hard for the whole race. Mike Hudson was also in contention early on, but motor problems in heat two dropped him to the tail of the field and he never recovered. At the end of the race it was Gil (281) taking a win, with Duran (280) less than a lap back. Paul Sterrett, Jonathan Forsyth and Chris Radisich battled hard the whole race, never being more than a few laps apart at any time, but it was Paul (274) who won the race for the final podium position, followed by the country's youngest expert racer Jonathan Forsyth (271) and Chris Radisich (268), with Mike Hudson (246) rounding out the field after his problems.

TSRF IROC Semi Finals
That concluded the racing for day one of  the Western States, with racing resuming on Sunday morning on the fast King. Before then though it was time for the TSRF IROC qualification races. This race put the drivers in identical TSRF cars prepared by Philippe de Lespinay, helped out by Dennis Hill. This race was something new for SoCal USRA, and we hope will become a regular event in the future after it's great success. There were 19 entrants, and the intention was to run two qualifying semi finals of 8 x 2 minutes with the top 16 going through to two 8 x 3 minute mains on Sunday, with the winner being the driver turning the most laps no matter which main he drove in. The attitudes of the racers varied from the serious to the not so serious, but once the power went on as usual, things got very serious. The racing was fast and furious, and as the drivers learnt how to drive the tricky cars there was a lot of crashing and bashing, the likes of which Philippe had never seen, but through it all the cars stood the test and noone was disadvantaged through any car malfunction.

With a random draw the heats got underway, with Chris Radisich dominating the first semi with a monster 18 lap heat on black to take the win with 131 laps. Behind him on 128 was Tim Peck from the same semi and Daniel Hudson the winner of the second semi with 128 laps. Then came the ever consistent Paul Sterrett with 127 from Semi B then Colin Herzig (semi A), Jonathan Forsyth (semi A) and Brian Delperdang (semi B) The rest of the field was spread out following this group, but it was clear that Sundays races were going to be brutal, but close.

Amateur GT 1
First up on Sunday morning was Amateur GT 1 which attracted 17 entries on the fast Buena Park King track. Semi B was first up and was won comfortably by young Colin Herzig (312) showing Phil Phillips (303) a clean pair of heels. TJ Albu ran a strong race to finish just three laps back from Phil with 300 while a battle raged for the final move up position between Dennis Rios and Tim Peck. Dennis finally managed to slip ahead of Tim in the dying seconds to take that final position in the main. Rounding out the field was Adam Shaw (266), Darryl Atkin more at home on the King track than the Hillclimb despite having problems in his last heat which dropped him out of contention for the move up, Bob Abbey (241) and the luckless Mike Lewis who had major crash damage in his first heat ending his race.

Semi A saw a new racer come to the fore, Scott Stromwall from Las Vegas made the trip to Buena Park for the Western States and promptly won his semi (329) , finishing two laps ahead of Tim Hould (327). Jerry Johnson was looking dangerous with 323 laps and taking the final move up was Daniel Hudson (318). Just missing the move was Jimmy Ross (317), Brain Johnson (298) after motor problems in his last heat, John Emmons (279) and Paul Abbey (59) after retiring in his second heat.

The stage was now set for a battle royal, with most of the Championship runners making the main, and new racer Scott Stromwall determined to keep everyone honest. The race started out at a faster pace than either semi making it apparent that some drivers saved their best motors for the main. Mr Consistency Jerry Johnson had his hands full fending off the challenge from the young guys in the race Daniel Hudson and Colin Herzig, but he finally pulled clear with a monster run on blue of 44 laps. Daniel and Colin were not finished though and both responded with 43 lap heats, but Jerry was just too consistent taking the win with 334 laps. Colin and Daniel battled right to the end, finishing on the same lap (330), with Daniel being a little ahead of Colin. Dennis Rios had shadowed the younger pair the whole race and was only two laps back (328), followed by Scott Stromwall who found the going in the main a little tough, especially on black and purple (317). Phil Phillips was a contender for a top 4 finish but a terrible run on black for 31 laps consigned him to a 6th place finish, while Tim Hould got behind early on with a 29 and 31 run on purple and black and never really recovered. Rounding out the field was TJ Albu with only 6 laps on purple after a number of problems. The only sour note to the race was afterwards in post race tech Colin Herzig was relegated to 8th place after a mid race motor change saw his pit crew put in a motor with a non standard endbell.

Expert GT 1
The Expert  field grew overnight  to 11 drivers with the addition of Roy Hood and Vegas racers Mick Antonelli, Tyson Joyce and Joe Pelan, which meant we had an 11 man round robin. At the front of the field there were two races, one for the win, and the second fight for thrid. Roy Hood and Duran Trujillo had the rest of the field covered and battled between themselves for the win, with Roy finally emerging the winner (343) after putting in a couple of huge 45 lap haeats, one lap clear of Duran (342). Chris Radisich, Mick Antonelli and Tyson Joyce scrapped the whole race for that third and final podium position, and it was not settled until the dying seconds of the race, with Chris sitting out waiting to see if Tyson and Mick could get past him. Chris (334) managed to hold on to third only a few feet ahead of the fast finishing Mick (334), with Tyson a further two laps back (332)  in 5th. Bill Vanderziel was certainly in the race for 4th, however a 38 lap run on black ended his chances, leaving him in 6th. The field was rounded out by Jonathan Forsyth (325), Steve Forsyth (324), Paul Sterrett (318), Joe Pelan (317) and Gil Rivera (233)

TSRF Main Events
Next up during the break between Gt 1 and GT 12 was the TSRF IROC main events. The field of 17 left from the previous day were all seeded into two mains by their race finishes the day before. Bob "Cruzin" Scott had arrived for Sundays racing so was drafted in to replace Roy Hood who had decided to forgo the TSRF race to concentrate on some last minute GT 12 testing along with a couple of other drivers. Picking a winner from the group was almost impossible, and a great race was assured.  The B main got underway after some stern warnings about on track conduct from Mr TSRF Philippe. Immediately it became apparent that this was not going to be an easy race, with heat one winners Jimmy Ross and Bill Vanderziel turning 16 laps each, and Kenny and David Rodger bringing up the rear with 14 laps each. Ass the race developed noone could get a break out front, with Jimmy, Bill and Dennis Hill locked in battle often running side by side heat after heat. Behind them Bob Scott  cruised along proving that missing the previous days races was no handicap for him running several 16 lap heats. Behind Bob another battle raged between Phil Phillips, John Emmons and Kenny Rodger who were also running side by side for much of the race, with David Rodger bringing up the rear, but not too far off the pace with 14 and 15 lap heats. At the flagfall it was one of the SoCal wonder kids Jimmy Ross taking the win over the wily old fox Bill Vanderziel (who couldn't believe how close the racing was) and Dennis Hill, all on the same lap (125). In 4th was Bob Scott only 3 laps behind them on 122, then it was 3 laps back to Phil Phillips 119 who just edged out John Emmons by less than a lap 118, and Kenny Rodger 117, with tail end Charlie being David Rodger only five laps back on 112.

Tension now mounted as Jimmy, Bill and Dennis marshalled the A main, would the A main drivers pass their 125 laps or not ?. If the B main was close, the A main could only be described as a titanic battle, the likes of which many said had never been seen at a Western States race. For much of the race the lead pack on the lead lap was five, yes, five drivers, all running side by side heat after heat. At half  distance the entire field was separated by 4 laps, but incredibly the top 7 were only separated by 2 laps with Tim Peck leading on 64 laps followed closely by Chris Radisich, Daniel Hudson, Jonathan Forsyth and Colin Herzig all with 63. This group was followed by Paul Sterrett, Monty Ohren and Brian Delperdang all with 62 while Alex Freund was following along with 60 laps.

Paul Sterrett started off the second half of the race with a huge 17 lap run on green, only equaled by Tim Peck on orange and Monty Ohren showing some his of past Western States fire on purple, and Jonathan Forsyth on green. Pre race favourite Chris Radisich ran an 18 lap heat on Saturday, but could not match it on Sunday only running 6 heats of 16 laps to find himself caught in the middle of a great fight with the young guns Daniel, Tim and Jonathan. Paul's big run on green elevated him to about a ½ lap lead over early leader Daniel Hudson, and he follwed that up with three runs of 16 to hold off the hard charging Daniel who also ran 16 in his last three heats, leaving Paul to take the spoils with 127 laps. Daniel was tied for the win also with 127, with Tim Peck (126), Chris Radisich(126) and Jonathan Forsyth (126) all faltering in their last few runs turning 1 15 lap heat each to finish in that order, 1 lap down on the leaders. Behind them in 6th was the hard charging Monty Ohren (123) tied with Brian Delperdnag (126) while Colin Hezig (121) fell from contention with a 13 lap heat on yellow tied with Alex Freund (121) after he had a 13 lap heat on red. Amazingly after it was all over the A main had a race spread of 6 laps covering the entire field, quite incredible.

Jimmy, Bill and Dennis had spent the entire A main watching nervously to see if anyone could pass their 125 laps, and it wasn't clear until the dying moments of the final heat, but in the end the top 5 in the A main passed all three, with the final overall top 10 being Paul Sterrett, Daniel Hudson, Tim Peck, Chris Radisich, Jonathan Forsyth,  Jimmy Ross, Bill Vanderziel, Dennis Hill, Monty Ohren and Brian Delperdang. The difference between first and tenth was 4 laps, an incredible performance by all. Truly an IROC race in the finest tradition.

Amateur GT 12
After the close racing of the TSRF races everyone wondered what was to come fro the T 12 racing on the very fast Buena Park King track, and they would not be disappointed. In an about turn this time there were no semi finals for the Amateur field with 11 entries. Everyone wondered if Jerry Johnson was beatable, and not many people were putting any money on anyone else. As it turned out it was a rough and tough race with only the tough making the finish in one piece. The front runners early on were Jerry, Alex Freund who is always fast on the King track, Tim Hould , TJ Albu, Phil Phillips and Colin Herzig, with the later two both striking trouble early on dropping them both form contention. Big Brian Johnson started on white so only had one heat before sitting out, but ran a solid 47 lap heat before dropping off the leaderbaord as he sat out for three heats. Jerry struck trouble in his second heat to also drop him off the leaderboard, but in his usual unflappable style he set about getting himself back into contention, running his high heat of 48 laps on black. Meanwhile Big Brian was back on the track and was building up to a race high heat of 49 on purple and was starting to build a good lead. TJ was also more at home on this than some of the tracks we visit and was slowly consolidating his second place. Behind these two Tim Hould, Alex and the recovering Jerry battled for the last podium spot. Behind them John Emmons and Colin Herzig were battling for position, as were Sam Rackham and Phil Phillips behind them.

So at the flag it was Big Brian Johnson who had stolen a march on the rest of the field, finishing up with a display of awesome horsepower with 369 laps, a seven lap margin over the fast finishing TJ Albu (362). The final podium position went to Tim Hould (355)  with a big finish on purple, while Alex Freund (349) took out 4th.  Jerry Johnson (347) managed to claw his way back up to 5th after his second heat misfortunes while John Emmons (34) just edged out Coling Herzig (340) for 6th. After a race long battle 8th place went to Sam Rackham (337) with Phil Phillips only feet behind him also with 337. Rounding out the field were Adam Shaw (275) and Darryl Atkin (215) who retired after major problems in his 6th heat.

Expert GT 12
With 16 entries it was time for the experts to face their first GT12 semi finals of the year. Many were found scrambling around looking for motors if they made the main, as most had expected a round robin as usual. When the power went on in Semi B it was Roy Hood that jumped out to an early lead with a race high of 51 on orange, showing early on that he was intent on taking 100 points and a Western States title. Duran Trujillo stayed in touch throughout the race, and finished  a close second to Roy, on the same lap (382). Behind these two came Monty Ohren  5 laps back (377) with another 5 back to Bob Scott, surprised to be in the final move up position. Paul Sterrett made a rare GT 12 appearance and was still looking for a high downforce NASCAR body to put on his GT 12 and finished in 5th with 364 laps. Steve Forsyth seemed to be lacking speed, and had problems on red to finish in 6th with 354 laps, while Gil Rivera and Tyson Joyce rounded out the field after some major problems.

Semi A looked like a tough one on paper with Casey Scott, Alan Ohren, Chris Radisich, Jonathan Forsyth, Mick Antonelli, Jason Stone, Mike Stuart and wing racer Jeremy Marquette all being more than capable of making the move up. Alan Ohren stamped his authority on the race right from the first heat with a huge day best total of 53 laps on black, sending a clear signal to everyone else in the race. Casey was the only other driver in the race to be able to run close to Alan, so he settled into a comfortable second place. Behind them a battle raged for the final move up slots between Mike Stuart, Jonathan Forsyth, Mick Antonelli and Chris Radisich, with the positions changing heat by heat. Jeremy Marquette was the first to go out in the second heat while on red. Next to strike trouble was Mike Stuart who struck major trouble in his 4th heat on orange. Jason Stone had got off to a bad start on yellow, only turning 36 laps, so had dropped off the leaderboard, but was gaining momentum. Mick Antonelli was in a solid move up position in third for most of the race, but it all came undone for him in the 6th heat, leaving him wondering what could have been. While Mick was still running in third, Chris and Jonathaan continued their fight for the final move up position, running a couple of heats locked together, but Chris finally surged ahead after Jonathan struggled on black in his 7th heat. Inot the last heat and the positions were Alan, Casey, Chris and Jonathan in the move up positions with Mick working hard to make up laps. Part way through the last heat Alan struck trouble on the main straight, breaking his chassis severely, and spent the rest of the race trying to do something to get back on the track, while watching his lead disappear, and it wasn't until the final seconds he was assured of a berth in the final. So at the flag it was Casey Scott (388), Chris Radisich (383), Jonathan Forsyth (374), Alan Ohren (373), Mick Antonelli (356), Jason Stone (352), Mike Stuart (328) and Jeremy Marquette (71).

After the first heat of the main it was a surprised Chris Radisich leading with 49 laps on purple, from Duran Trujillo, Roy Hood and Casey Scott on 48. Monty Ohren was locked in a battle with son Alan, whose badly broken chassis had been soldered together with whatever he could find after the brutal crash in the semi, and was not handling perfectly anymore. Through the next few heats it was apparent that the fight for the win was going to be between Casey, Duran and Roy, with Chris just not able to match the first three, however in the 5th heat Casey struck trouble and his race was over, leaving  Roy and Duran to argue over the win. Roy tried hard, but he could just not quite break the 50 lap barrier, while Duran managed to find 3 50 plus heats to pull ahead, finishing with 393, 10 laps ahead of Roy with 383. Chris Radisich faded a little after his race starting 49 never making it over 47 again to finish in a solid 3rd with 372 laps. In a very surprised and happy 4th place was Bob "Cruzin" Scott (361) joining us all the way from his new raceway in Arizona who was locked all race long in a battle with Monty Ohren (360). In 6th was Alan Ohren, who had started out in the leading group, but handling problems left him out of contention with 320 laps. Jonathan Forsyth had showed much promise in the Semi, but struck all manner of problems throughout the race ending up in 7th with 280 laps. In the final position was Casey Scott after retiring with terminal problems in the 5th heat.

That bought another Western States Championship race to an end. Once again thanks for Chris and Lenore from Buena Park for yet another well hosted major race, and thanks must go to Bill Vanderziel for his efforts in running most of the races.

Chris Radisich.