SoCal USRA Scale Race #1 Buena Park Raceway

For 2004 the season kickoff was held at Chris and Lenore Gallego's world famous Buena Park Raceway with the Nascar races held on their world class Ogilvie King and the GT or sports car classes on the 155' Ogilvie Hillclimb.

The first race was 4" Amateur Nascar and with BP's strong tradition of Friday and Wednesday night Nascar races the locals were expected to dominate on the ultra fast but tricky punch bowl.  Jimmy Ross, the young BP prodigy jumped out to an early lead until Mark Lazarr, another BP regular of slightly more advanced years started reeling off the laps. Mark held Jimmy off to win the big 26 car double round robin by less than a lap with Santa Maria's Dennis Rios third after Colin Herzig, who actually finished third on the track failed the post race teardown by a hair and was dropped to eighth.  Fourth was Jim Waterson, fifth Andrew Ross, sixth Tim Peck, seventh Steve Paden and eighth was the demoted Colin Herzig. Big Brian finished ninth and Charly Scrogan tenth.

The new Advanced class was a big hit and drew nine racers.  Alex Freund, another of BP's prodigies used a fast car and consistent driving to score the first win in the Advanced division by 12 over the High Desert's Steve Forsyth. Bill Vanderziel took third with Bob Johnson fourth, Cliff Kendricks fifth, "Uncle Phil" Phillips sixth and T.J. Albu seventh. Daniel Hudson looked good at the start until a 10 lap heat on white sent him to eighth place, with Robert Park limping home in ninth.

 Expert 4" looked like a fast field with Mike Hudson looking fastest in practice and Duran looking confident as usual. Greg Gilbert made his return to the USRA after a six month absence and looked fast as well, with Paul Sterrett and Chris Radisich fielding fast rides too. Jerry Johnson, who dominated the Amateur races last season moved straight to expert to challenge the established pros. The elements were in place for a great expert shootout on the King.

Greg G. jumped into an early lead but the BP pack ran Greg down and then a great race got under way. Halfway through the first heat Mike Hudson's body sucked up in the bank and caught a napping Greg G. by surprise with a horrendous crash that sent Greg to the pits and hurt Mikes car enough to make it tough to drive. Radisich was battling a cold and a slightly off the pace car as Hudson and Sterrett battled into the lead on the same lap. Duran hit the fast lanes and that was all she wrote as the BP ace pulled away to win by sixth with the steady Paul Sterrett second and Mike Hudson's bent rocket rounding out an all BP podium. Arizona's Jerry Johnson finished a credible fourth with Greg G. battling back to one behind Jerry in fifth and Radisich sixth.

Amateur 4.5" drew a strong 13 racers and topped the charts by six when it was all over. The race for the remaining podium spots was really close with new USRA racer Sam Brown from Pasadena using super consistent driving and great crash avoidance  Skills to take second by one lap over "The Big Guy", "BadaBing" himself Brian Johnson. Jimmy Ross and Steve Hutchinson were only one more back, nearly tied for fourth with Jimmy getting the nod and Steve fifth. 4" winner Mark Lazaar was sixth, Conner Gunn seventh, Greg Carter eighth, Paul Abbey ninth and Pete Christiensen filled out the top ten.

Advanced was again owned by Alex Freund. Alex steadily pulled away from second place Robert Park with consistent driving to take the win by five. Robert just edged "Rude Boy" Bill Vanderziel by feet for second place as Daniel Hudson's poor gutter lane heats kept him off the podium despite his fast car.  Cliff Kendricks and Ventura's Jason Stone battled for fifth with Cliff taking that spot by four over Jason.

Expert was pretty much all Duran but Greg G. surprised a few people by dusting off the car he took fourth with at the 2000 Nats at BP and almost giving Duran a race. Duran took the win over Greg by four with Paul Sterrett's great looking car five more back in third. Chris Radisich took fourth, Jerry Johnson fifth in his first Expert 4.5 race with Mike Hudson, who suffered mechanical trouble all race  long sixth and followed by Jonathan Forsyth and Crazy making a rare BP appearance.

The afternoon sportscar races kicked off with Amateur GT-1. Fifteen of the scale looking hot rods engaged in a big round robin and Arcadia's Colin Herzig got the holeshot. Colin looked to be in control until Jimmy Ross came in with an amazing 40 lap heat on red. Big Brian and Dennis Rios battled for third with Paul Abbey in the hunt as well. Jimmy held on to win by four with Colin second with the fast time of the race at 4.22 seconds. Big Brian was third with Dennis Rios fourth and Paul Abbey fifth. Blues guitar legend Robert "Bob" Johnson took sixth with James Grinstead seventh.  Sam Brown changed motors and straightened the chassis repeatedly to come in eighth in the brutal crashfest with Charly Scrogan and "Mountain Man"Gene Martin rounding out the top ten.

Advanced GT-1 was another rough one but Steve Forsyth doged the carnage best to take the win by a whopping ten laps over Bill V. with Daniel Hudson taking the last podium spot. "Uncle Phil" Phillips took fourth over Monty Ohren with the bruised and battered Tim Hould taking sixth by eighteen over John Emmons in seventh.  T.J. Albu and Cliff Kendrick filled out the field.

Expert GT-1 started out looking like a classic Alan Ohren v Duran Trujillo battle with Roy Hood and  Greg G. thrown in as the long shots. Duran looked like he had it until his motor went south at the beginning of the ninth heat and he had to tough it out and wait till the break for a fresh one. Greg G. got faster and faster as the race went on as Alan just kept piling up the laps and stayed fast with frequent motor changes.  Alan won by two over Duran with Greg three more back in third. Roy Hood was fourth, or first in the "Non-National Champion Division" with Radisich fifth, Paul Sterrett sixth, Torre Anderson seventh, Jerry Johnson eighth, Jonathan Forsyth ninth and the always fast Mike Hudson finished well back in tenth with a broken car.

Amateur GT-12 got off to a fast start with Pete Christiensen, Colin Herzig, and Adam Shaw battling for the early lead. Sam Brown came in on red in the second and joined the fray as reeled off the first 40 lap heat of the race to move into contention.  Dennis Rios came in with a 40 of his own as the field spread out.  As the race progressed it was clear from the lap averages that Dennis  and Colin would be the guys to beat. Colin set high heat of 42 to take the win by five over Dennis with Sam Brown taking his second podium of the day by three over Big Brian in fourth. Adam Shaw was fifth, Charly Scrogan sixth, Pete Christiensen seventh, Steve Paden eighth, Wayne Shaw ninth, and Paul and Bob abbey filling out the feature.

Advanced GT-12 drew a full field with Steve Forsyth jumping into the lead with three solid 41 lap heats in a row. T.J., Cliff, and Uncle Phil were a lap or two back when Steve had to pit and did only 31 on purple to lose some ground. Cliff took over until traffic took it's toll and T.J. moved to the front. Tim Hould was fast but a bit inconsistent as he tied high heat before knocking the motor out in an emotionally charged last heat.  In the end it was T.J. holding off Steve's comeback charge to win by six with Steve second, Phil Phillips third, Cliff Kendricks fourth, and John Emmons fifth. Tim Hould made up six laps on Emmons after his motor was reinstalled but had to settle for  sixth with Bill Vanderziel seventh and the somewhat inconsistent Daniel Hudson eighth.

The Expert GT-12 main started well after midnight and provided quite a bit of excitement to keep the sleepy racers awake. Roy Hood took off in the lead, but Greg G. came back to tie it up at 42 after one. John Torre Andersen came in with a strong heat on red as Greg pulled 47 on white to take over the lead.  Duran kept getting faster and faster as the race wore on and Casey Scott tied Greg's high heat with 47 on white. Duran also ran a 47 on orange and a 46 on white to move into contention.   Greg closed out strong with a 46 on yellow to take the win by six over Duran with the steady Radisich taking the last podium spot despite his bad cold.  Alan Ohren looked like he had a sure fire podium spot until lap traffic took him out of the race.  The steadily improving Jonathan Forsyth was fourth and Roy Hood was one back in fifth. Casey Scott came back to finish sixth with Torre seventh after a great, clean drive and Monty Ohren took eighth, two ahead of Mike Hudson. Jason Stone and Jerry Johnso finished out the round robin main.

Many racers returned on Sunday for TSRF, Falcon LMP and Hardbody stockers as the USRA has added some Sunday classes to promote more realistic looking cars.  Hope it catches on. That's another race report altogether.

Thanks to SoCal USRA and Buena Park Raceway for this awesome, record setting event the drew 140 entries. WOW!! Kudos to SoCal USRA for running so many classes and entries so smoothly and so quickly!  It was a hoot

Greg Gilbert