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Buena Park Raceway Buena Park, Ca March 6, 2004
For the 3rd month in a row, we head up to northern Orange County
and Chris and Lenore’s Buena Park Raceway.
Spray Glue G-12
Buena Park regular Cliff Kendrick led the
field from the drop of the flag. Bill Taylor ran second for the
first half and then changed the mill. This lump went 5 laps and
threw the wires dropping him from contention. New comer Mark Gonsalves,
in his first USRA start, then moved into 2nd place. At the end it
was Cliff, with his first SoCal USRA win ahead of Mark and Chris
Radisich. Bill Taylor, Evan McKee, Adam Kirchoffer, JB Barnett and
David Menefee were the other racers
Group-12
With 9 racers we were treated to everyone’s favorite,
a round robin race. Rich Curnutte led the first heat over Jim Swofford
and Bill Pinkston and then went to the sit out. Rich couldn’t get
around red and it looked like Jim was going to lead but lost a gear
with about 12 seconds left in heat 3. Jim then moved to the sitout
and on his return he quickly regained the top spot ahead of Bill
and Sam Rackham. Bill’s motor quit in heat 8 dropping him from the
race for the lead. Sam was done after 8 with 469 laps, stopped in
the deadman. Sam marshalled the final heat while waiting for Jim
to run him down. Jim crossed the counter with 469 laps showing there
was a terrible sound of a gear stripping. We all looked up and saw
Jim’s car tumbling across the infield to the back straight; it was
his car that stripped a gear. Unfortunately nobody could say exactly
where his car actually stopped, or did it? After much discussion
it was decided to call the race a tie. A decision that both racers
completely agreed with. Sam is not running for points this year,
so Jim would have gotten the 1st place points anyway and Sam gave
Jim his win ticket as rental for the One Motor Open Race. But that’s
not all. Bill dropped in a new mill and set off in pursuit of Wendell
Smith. Bill needed to make up 5 ¾ laps but only managed to get 5
¼. Wendell 3rd, Bill 4th, Bryan Struck, Rich Curnutte, Dale Garcia,
Chris Radisich and Cliff Kendrick rounded out the field.
Group 27
This was a real close race for the first 4 heats
with Mike Graverson, Pat Ularte and Jim Swofford. Jim broke in heat
6 leaving it to Mike and Pat. But then Mike could not get around
red and Pat moved to the lead for good. Rich Curnutte took the final
podium spot only one lap behind Mike. Jim came home 4th ahead of
Randy Thompson and Gary Mayeda.
One Motor Open
We had 12 entries for this event, making it
the biggest class of the weekend. With that many racers, there was
a lot going on. Scott Fisher was the first sit out and made his
first appearance in heat 2 and moved to the lead on the average.
He held that lead until heat 5 running on the black lane. Forrest
was running on orange and made the big move taking over the lead
on the average. Scott nibbled away at Forrest’s lead finishing up
with a 107.38 average. He would have to wait for Forrest to run
red in the final heat. Forrest would need a 103 to beat Scott and
he finally ran a 106 to take another win. Scott took 2nd with Tore
Anderson finishing 2nd. Jim Swofford, Rich Curnutte, Gil Gunderson,
Sam Rackham, Robert Park, Bill Pinkston, Mike Graverson, Phil Larcom
and Pat Ularte were the other runners.
G-7
And the return of Carlos!
This was destined to be a 2-man show from the start. Only Carlos
and Forrest had the necessary speed to consistently big lap totals.
Unfortunately, Forrest picked the wrong motor for orange and the
wrong tires for green leaving Carlos with a commanding 39-lap win.
Pat Ularte got off to a bad start and never really made up the difference.
He finished up 3rd ahead of Gil Gunderson, Phil Larcom, Scott Fisher,
Randy Thompson and Mike Graverson.
Track Call:
Bryan and his dad Phil continue to do way more
than their share of marshalling. We all appreciate your efforts,
keep up the good work.
We almost had a round robin pro race. Jim Swofford and Rich Curnutte
had made late night plans, separately, and could not stay for the
race.
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