SoCal USRA Scale Race #2 Uncle Kal’s Model Car Raceway  February 21st, 2004 / Monrovia, California

After almost five years in the “Underground” basement location, Uncle Kal’s moved across town to a larger, brighter facility and everyone was excited about racing on the giant Engleman track, SoCal’s largest track.   Gone was the 160’ Dadds Grandstand Hillclimb, which had become a favorite of USRA racers and was the site of the 2001 scale Western States.  The Nascar races were held on the Engleman with it’s wide sweeping flat turns and chicane, while the infamous “Korkscrew’ hosted the GT-1 and GT-12  races.

 The Korkscrew had been “massaged”, adding more banking to the downhill section, a bit of “camber” to the two 90 degree turns, the donut lowered to slow it down slightly and the leadon banked to reduce deslotting as the cars come onto the main straight. Add to this the power being raised to 13.4 volts from the old 12.6 and the lap times were going to come down.  They did!  Rumors of GT-12s in the 2.9s and GT-1s in the 3.4s were common as racers prepared.

Amateur 4” Nascar pulled 19 entries on the big “flat track with one bank” and UK local fast kid Colin Herzig blasted into the lead on yellow. “Rocket Scientist” Sam Brown tied it up in the second as Tim Peck came in with a great heat on red. Tim, Sam and Colin battled the entire race with new racer Ryan Colores just a couple of laps back until a bad heat on blue took Colin out of contention for the win. Tim Peck won by  two over Sam Brown with Colin third and Ryan Colores two more back in fourth. Randy Crippen was fifth ahead of BP’s Mark Lazzar with Charlie Scrogum and “Bada Bing” Brian Johnson rounding out the top eight.  Fast time was Colin at 6.1014 on the fast orange lane.

Advanced 4” Nascar was a great battle between Steve Forsyth and locals “Uncle Phil” Phillips and Tim Hould. Steve and Tim battled until the fourth when Tim put three on Steve as Phil pulled even with Steve as he drove a remarkably consistent race. Tim held off Steve and Phil’s last heat charge to take the win by three with Phil just sections behind Steve in third.  Alex Freund was fourth just three behind Phil with Bob Johnson, T.J. Albu and Bill Vanderziel next in line.

Expert 4” looked like it could be Mike Hudson’s race as he pulled out an early lead on the yellow lane. Greg Gilbert pulled ahead by the end of the first heat with Chris Radisich and Paul Sterrett tied for third. Series leader Duran Trujillo gave up six laps to the leaders with an ill handling car as Jonathan Forsyth battled motor gremlins and faded back. Radisich passed Hudson for second as Greg G. stretched his lead but Mike turned up the heat in the last two segments and nailed down second by one with Chris third. Paul Sterrett was fourth, Duran fifth and Jonathan Forsyth sixth.

Amateur 4.5” drew 15 of the scale racecars with Sam Brown looking fast in practice.  Sam took off in the lead with Mike Kravitz, Steve Hutchinson, and Jimmy Ross right behind.  Tim Peck came in during the seventh with a great red and the battle was on.  The five racers mentioned diced back and fourth in the confusing round robin until Sam looked to be in control at the end of his eight heats. The excitement then turned to the close races for second and fifth.  Orange County’s Mike Kravitz edged Tim Peck by less than a lap for second with Tim barely ahead of Jimmy Ross in fourth.  Andrew Ross had one on Steve Hutchinson for fifth with veteran Mike Jacobson rolling to a seventh place finish. Ryan Colores filled out the top eight.

 Advanced 4.5” Nascar  was a battle for the lead between Bill Vanderziel and Bob Johnson.  Bill finally won by five over Bob with T.J. Albu, in his first 4.5” race ten more back in third. Steve Forsyth nipped Ventura’s Jason Stone by mere feet for fourth with Jason setting fast lap at 9.379 on the black lane. Alex Freund suffered crash damage early while in third and limped home in sixth.

Expert 4.5” was the last race of the day on the big Engleman and Mike Hudson again came out  rockin’ with an incredibly fast car. Mike slowed halfway through the first heat and Greg G. took over. Chris Radisich and Hudson battled for second as Duran Trujillo and Paul Sterrett raced for fourth.Greg pulled away to win by seven over Mike who had one over Radisich in third. Sterrett topped Duran by less than a lap for fourth with Jonathan Forsyth fifth.

  After a short lunch break the action moved to the wild and wacky 95’ Korkscrew roadcourse.    Amateur GT-1 drew 12 brave racers to the challenging little nightmare track.   Local boys Sam Brown and Colin Herzig were ready and willing to go as fast as possible while dodging the wild action and wrecks that always come with the territory in Amateur GT races and especially on this tight twisty and narrow track. Sam Brown jumped out to a huge lead in the first heat but soon Jimmy Ross and Colin Herzig were chipping away at it.  By the time Colin sat out after four Sam’s lead was down to only one lap and “Big Brian” Johnson was starting to rack up the laps and looked like he could be a threat. Colin came back from his sit outs and ran high heat of 43 on green to take the lead for good and win by seven over Sam with that “Bada Bing” guy Brian Johnson third in his first race on a roadcourse.  Bob Johnson was fourth six more back with Dennis Rios fifth, Gene Martin sixth, Charly Scrogum seventh and UK’s Paul Abbey eighth. Colin set fast time of 3.734 on orange.

Advanced GT-1 started out rough and fast with John Emmons leading the first heat on green. Monty Ohren and Tim Hould took over and tied for the lead in the second as five cars were all within three laps of the leader. In the fourth Phil Phillips and Tim Hould hit the faster lanes and started to assert themselves to take over first and second with Monty Ohren in third.  Tim kept putting the big heats together to pull away from Phil and win by six with Monty, who ran the only 44 lap heat of the race third. Steve Forsyth was fourth, Jason Stone fifth, John Emmons sixth and Bill V. withdrew.Tim Hould set fast time with a 3.789 on blue.

Expert GT-1 was a wire to wire win by Greg G as the veteran flat tracker was first into the first turn and never looked back as he sailed to a fourteen lap win. New Zealand transplant Chris Radisich used his road course experience to take second by six over BP ace Duran Trujillo who did a great job on the little track which is mostly turns connected by very short straights, not all of which are really straight. Jonathan Forsyth held down fourth with Mike Hudson fifth and Paul Sterrett sixth.Fast time was Greg with 3.620 on the fast blue lane where Greg set high heat at 48.

The final class of the day was GT-12.  A 15 minute practice session is customary before the 12s are teched in so racers can make last minute tuning decisions.  In Amateur GT-12 it was obvious from the moment the power went on that Colin Herzig had the car to beat. Sam Brown tied Colin at the end of the first heat but after Colin’s 45 on yellow and 47 on orange it was clear that barring a bad accident or equipment failure it was Colin’s race. Only Sam Brown seemed to be in the same ballpark early on. Adam Shaw showed that his experience on his home raceway’s old American Orange was helping him adapt to the quirky Korkscrew and “Big Brian” got faster as the race went on and his tires came down. It looked like Sam had second nailed down until he was nudged onto an adjacent lane by a marshal’s hand and ridered full chat into the donut wall, breaking his axle and bending the chassis. Brian Johnson ran another awesome race to take second behind Colin with Adam Shaw third, and Dennis Rios fourth. Sam got back in after losing at least 20 laps in the pits replacing an axle and straightening out his car to take fifth. Mike Kravitz was sixth, Wayne Shaw seventh, and Charly Scrogum who broke early finished eighth.

Advanced GT-12 was probably the most exciting race of the day with Josh “Horsepower” Bauer, and “Uncle Phil” Phillips tied at the end of an ugly first heat. Tim Hould and Phil Phillips began to turn some big numbers in the fifth as Josh faded back and John Emmons suffered durability concerns. Phil had put six laps on Tim in the first five heats but the former softball World Champ ran high heat of 49 on the fast orange lane to pull back into within striking distance. Phil gave up four more on red to set up the final heat shootout with Tim on red and Phil on the faster green lane one up.  The two were exactly one lap apart racing dead even on red and green for two minutes, neither coming off until Phil’s car was collected by another racecar damaging his body and requiring a pit stop. The one lap cushion was gone before Phil got the car in his hands and Tim won by six laps.Josh Bauer was third with Emmons fourth and Steve Forsyth fifth.  Tim had fast time of 3.410 on orange.

Greg G. was three for three going into the Expert GT-12 race and had his eye on a sweep.With multiple National Champ Alan Ohren, multiple Western States Champ Monty Ohren and Chris Radisich in this race Greg would have his work cut out for him.Radisich and Alan Ohren jumped out to an early lead until Greg ran them down and finished the first heat leading by about ten feet. Greg held onto the slight lead on red as Radisich stayed on his bumper. Greg hit green and started stretching his lead when Chris went to black. Towards the end of the third Chris’s car met a turn marshal’s hand, causing the body to suck through the gear in a spectacular incident where Chris’s car flew from the finger to near the bridge with the body nearly turned inside out. This is the dreaded “double Gawronski” where the car does two flips in mid air and lands on it’s wheels. Chris pitted to extract the body from the gears and missed most of the heat. Duran Trujillo was motoring around avoiding wrecks and gaining confidence on the track as Alan Ohren slowed after multiple encounters with other cars, but stayed in the podium picture. Greg set high heat of 50 on the fast blue lane to take the win and the sweep by seventeen with the steady Duran second and the determined Alan third ahead of his “Papa” Monty in fourth. Fifth was the wounded Chris Radisich, John Torre Andersen was sixth and followed by Jason Stone and Jonathan Forsyth. Fast time was Greg with a 3.285 on the blue lane.

  For those who didn’t get enough slot racing, or who had no choice but to come back on Sunday, the USRA added some extra races for showing off the True Scale Racing Federation cars championed by slot racing legend Philippe De Lispinay, Falcon powered LMP bodied flexi-cars and a local race for whatever interesting class the host raceway feels would be fun .T.S.R.F. drew 11 racers and was run as a multiple main event race with lap totals from two races counting towards overall places. Sam Brown won the B main by two over veteran Dan Wise with Phil Phillips third, Paul Sterrett fourth and nine year old Francis La Placa fifth.

  The A main was all Colin Herzig after Philippe, who led early blew a motor and dropped out. Colin took the A main and overall win by six over Chris Radisich who finished second overall.  Casey Scott was third in the A main followed by Robert Stubbs, the burnt out Philippe and Dennis “Foamy” Hill who “foamed’ a bit after mechanical problems. Overall it was Colin, Radisich, Sam Brown, Dan Wise, Casey Scott, Phil Phillips, Robert Stubbs, Sterrett, and Francis finishing in that order and Philippe and Foamy DNFed.

The Falcon LMP race provided some really close, interesting racing with a four on/four off format with A’s and B’s mixed together.  Greg G. started out looking like the guy to beat running mid and high 4.2s on a 4.20 default.  Radisich and Sterrett tried to keep up while little Francis La Placa tried to stay out of the way. Casey Scott joined the race in the fourth and looked as fast as Greg prompting the default to be lowered to accommodate the two fast cars. Sam Brown and Phil Phillips stayed on but didn’t have the motors to stay with Radisich, Scott and Gilbert. As the race for first progressed it began to look like the out come would be determined more by traffic than by whose car was faster and after 12 of 16 heats Greg had 321 in hand and stopped in the beginning of the downhill or “Korkscrew’. In the 15th heat Casey needed 42 to tie and 43 to win and came up about six feet short giving Greg G. his fifth win of the weekend. Radisich finished strong on purple but was nine laps behind the leaders with Paul Sterrett fourth and Sam Brown fifth in the A’s.

 Francis La Placa took the win in the B’s with young standout Angelica Hammond second. Phil Phillips smoked a motor and DNFed.  Fast time was a 4.117 by Greg on purple. Good thing we lowered the default.

The final race of the weekend was spray glue GP-12 wings, and SoCal characters and Rosecrans kids J.B. Barnett and Scott Johnson joined Uncle Kal’s wing regulars Mike Struley, and Linn Hammond, as well as Greg Gilbert and Chris Radisich in the A’s.  The B’s consisted of Francis, Jan, Jim and Sam Brown. The B race was close with Jan running faster lap times than most of the A drivers to take the win by four over the consistent Sam Brown with Jim third. Francis was fast early but suffered from motor problems the second half of the race.

The A’s promised to be a good race as J.B., Scottie and Greg G. were talking smack to one another as soon as the power went on. Greg grabbed a quick 2 lap lead and held it even with Radisich’s awesome 40 lap heat on blue.   Linn Hammond came on strong at about mid race and held down second until a bad heat on black dropped him to third. Linn had fast time of 4.164 on blue. J.B. Barnett came from behind to nip Linn for the last podium spot with Radisich second while Greg G. rang up his sixth win in as many races. Linn was fourth, Mike Struley fifth and Scott Johnson DNFed after fighting a car that was way below this super talented driver’s standards.

  Thanks to Paul Sterrett, Bill Vanderziel,Chris Radisich, John Emmons, Bill Brown, Josh Bauer, Philippe De Lispinay, Jeremy Kroll, the legendary Uncle Kal and the “Underground Staff”.   This was truly a FULL weekend of racing and fun with toy cars.

See you all at the Western States at Santee next month.