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It was of to the northern suburbs
of LA County and Uncle Kal's venerable and tough Hillclimb, where
the 2 main topics of conversation were the return of Jeremy Marquette
and Rick Elting's recent angioplasty. Rick was excused from this
month's race, but showed up late in the afternoon just to see what
was going on.
Spray Glue G-12
  We
had 10 racers sign up for the first race of the day and after the
computer picked the lanes, it was race time. Monty drew the White
lane to start and he would lead on the average for the first 3 heats.
Chris Radisich and Lin Hammond were close behind with Jeremy giving
up 7 laps on the tough black lane. Bill Taylor drew the last sitout
and was on pace with the leaders on red and took over the lead on
green with a race high 53 lap heat. Bill had the heat from, well
you know, the hot place, on blue and only managed a 41 after having
his lane turned into a parking lot by the other racers. The resulting
damage dropped Bill out of contention and let Monty and Jeremy take
over the top 2 spots. Jeremy was back on in heat 7 as Monty moved
to the bottom gutters. Jeremy was making up laps and moved into
the lead in heat 8. Jeremy would run the final heat on the tough
black lane while Monty was only 4 back and on the orange lane. Monty
was closing in on Jeremy and got to within 1 lap, but there was
a crash and Monty stopped short to avoid the wreck and while he
waited for the marshal to clear the track, Jeremy put those 3 laps
back onto his lead. It was too late now and Jeremy won in his return
to SoCalUSRA by 1 lap over Monty and 3 laps over Chris Radisich.
Phil Phillips, Lin Hammond, Bill Taylor, Lance Lee, Johnny Blackflag,
JB Barnett and Mike Stuart took up the lesser places.
Group 12
 There
were only 5 brave racers for this class and it was 13-year-old Anjelica
Hammond turning the fast time with a lap of 3.241. I should probably
take this opportunity to make a rude comment here about Jeremy getting
cut in qualifying by a girl, but I won't.
The race started with Anjelica showing
the boys the fast way around and leading after the 1st heat. Jeremy
took the lead in heat 2 but couldn't shake Anjelica. A crash and
broken gear in heat 4 finally did her in. After that, Jeremy ran
pretty much unopposed and won his 2nd race of the day by 11 laps
over Chris Radisich with Anjelica recovering to take the final podium
spot. Dale Garcia and Lance Lee took 4th and 5th.
G-27
 There
were only 3 racers for this class. Pat Ularte went wire to wire
to win this event. Phil Larcom used Pat's equipment to take 2nd
with Uncle Kal's and Best of the West employee, Bill Brown finishing
3rd.
One Motor Open
  The
race opened with Pat Ularte and Forrest Watchers leading the field
with Scott Salzburg, yes, that Scott, in 3rd. Forrest couldn't take
the pace and Scott took over the 2nd spot and ran there until he
broke the guide in heat 7. Mickey Johnson made up 13 laps on Pat
in the final heat but had to settle for 2nd. Forrest ended up 3rd
ahead of Monty, Scott and Phil Larcom.
Track Calls
 The
highlight of the day was Anjelica TQ'ing for the G-12 race and showing
the guys how to qualify. Congratulations to Anjelica.
 As
I mentioned earlier, Jeremy Marquette made his return to racing
and brought along another retired racer, Lance Lee. Lance is a real
good racer, but just did not get the breaks that Jeremy got and
his results were not up to his old standards. Lets hope we see them
both again real soon.
 This
will be the last race for the wing cars on this track. Uncle Kal's
is moving over the summer to a new and larger facility just a few
blocks away. In place of the hillclimb will be the Engleman that
was in Uncle Jax raceway in Lake Forest. As I understand it this
was the track from Orange County Hobbies (?) that was just off the
55 freeway in the early 90's. Except for the bank, the track is
very flat and the surface has a lot of natural bite to it. The scale
guys are going to love it and if the wing car crowd give it a chance,
they will get to like it also. And the best part is, I hear it's
on the ground floor!
 We
were all somewhat shocked and pleasantly surprised to see Scotty
walk into the raceway during the 27 race. The One Motor Open race
was Scott's first race with us since he finished 3rd in the spray
glue race on his king track all the way back in January 2001.
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