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Jan 4th 2003 - Buena Park Raceway

Spray Glue Group 12

We had 11 racers for our first event of 2003 and with no qualifying for this class it was straight to the racing. It was Rick Elting breaking out on top and taking a clear lead for the first 2 heats. Rich Curnutte was in for heat 3 and tied Rick on the average. Chris “The Flying Kiwi” Radisich had the deep sit out and took over the lead on the average on the red lane in heat 4 with Rick now sitting out. Sam Rackham returned to the track in heat 5 and turned the first really big heat total and moved into contention after a bad first heat on white. Elting returned to the track next and took back the lead with Chris and Sam just behind. By heat 9 all the players were in and would finish on the race track. It was Elting by 5 laps over Chris, 9 laps over Bill Taylor who had started on purple and 12 over Sam. Unfortunately Elting would finish on purple and black and it would cost him. After 10 heats, it was Chris by 2 laps over Elting and 4 over Taylor. In the final heat, Bill Taylor ran down Chris and made the pass for the lead with about 30 seconds left in the race. Sam was on orange and making up laps on Elting and pulled around Rick on the lead on and  the power went out as they raced down the main straight toward the bank with Sam taking 3rd by about 4 feet ahead of the early leader Rick Elting. Jimmy Barnett, David Aikens, Rich Curnutte, Evan McKee, Chuck Panno, Brian Johnson and Earl Wilson were the other racers. This was a very good race with the top 4 positions changing in the last 30 seconds.

Group 12
We had 9 racers sign up for this class and it was Jim Swofford taking the TQ points with a time of 2.56.

Swofford lead after the 1st heat but had problems on white and dropped to 4th on the average. Bill Pinkston and Rich Curnutte swapped the lead back and forth until Jim retook the lead in heat 6. In the end it was Swofford by 2 over Pinkston. Gil Rivera managed to get 3rd with Rich Curnutte dropping to 4th. Cliff Kendrick, Dale Garcia, Chris Radisich, Al Bruin and David Aikens were the other racers.

Cobalt 12
A full field of 8 racers turned in cars for tech inspection. Rich Curnutte was the fast qualifier with a time of 2.1365

Bill Taylor led for the first 3 heats but then both Jim Swofford and Mickey Johnson got past Bill in heat 4. Mickey took the lead for good in heat 5 with Jim and Bill close behind. Bill would let the smoke out of his motor in the last heat leaving 2nd to Swofford and letting Bill Pinkston have the final podium spot. Rick Elting, Phil Larcom, Bill Taylor, Rich Humphrey and Rich Curnutte were the other racers.

One Motor Open
We managed to generate another round robin race  when we had 9 cars turned in for tech inspection.

Forrest Watchers would take command early  and lead through out the race. Jim Swofford and Phil Larcom raced for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th spots in the middle of the race. First Rich and then Jim had  problems leaving Phil in 2nd. At the end it was Rich outlasting Pat Ularte, Jim Swofford, Bill Pinkston, Mike Graverson, Mickey  Johnson and Randy Thompson.

Track Calls
It was a pretty reasonable turnout with round robin races in 3 of the 4 classes and a full field in the other. The new rules committee changed the date on this race so some of them could go out of town and we only had about a weeks notice on this race. This led to some of the regulars, particularly the San Diego crowd,  not being ready in time. The Elko group also missed out and Monty was so busy building and pitting for his customers that we lost his entries. That’s at least 10 entries we lost because of the schedule change. Could we be on one of our up cycles? I sure hope so.

There have been a number of group racers looking very closely at the One Motor Open class. This has been one of our most popular classes since it’s inception and its future looks bright.

We added one new member this month. Al Bruin. Al races with us in our Tuesday spray glue race. Al decided to try his hand at glue racing. He was last seen at Chris’ counter going thru the G-12 arm box. BURN EM DOWN BIG AL!!!