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Uncle Kal's Underground Raceway,
Monrovia, CA, April 3, 2004
This was the first race for the wing
car crowd on Kal's newly set up Engleman. This was the track that
was at Uncle Jax in Orange County in the late 90's and it has been
in storage for several years. With Kal's moving to his new and VERY
IMPRESSIVE new facility, they had the opportunity and space to bring
this track back to us. It's a very interesting track that presents
many different and unique challenges in car setup and driving skills.
SPRAY GLUE G-12
First up
was our Spray glue G-12 race with 13 entries. Greg Gilbert, Chris
Radisich and Jan Qualkenburg were out of the gate fast and led after
the 1st heat, each with 37 laps. Jan dropped of the pace with a
slow black lane, leaving the race to be decided by Greg and Chris.
After 4 heats Greg led by only 3 and then went to the sitouts. Chris
got to within 1.5 laps on the average and he went to the sitouts
after heat 7. Greg was back in for heat 10 and was running good
heats, but could not put Chris away. Chris was back in for the final
heat and was only 4 back of Greg, with Greg running on black and
Chris on red, it was doable. But Chris managed to make up only one
lap on Greg, leaving Greg with his first USRA wing car victory.
Chris took 2nd with Monty Ohren 13 more back in the final podium
spot. Jan was only 3 laps behind Monty in spite of having slow heats
on both black and red. But Jan can take heart with the best heat
of the race and the 2nd fastest race lap. JB Barnett, Colin Herzog,
Adam Kirchoffer, Roger Zorba, Bob Maxwell, Lin Hammond, Evan McKee,
Scott Johnson and Bill Taylor made up the balance of the field.
G-12
This was a very interesting
and close race with Dale Garcia, Chris Radisich, Bryan Struck and
Monty Ohren all running within 4 laps for the first half of the
event. Dale moved to the lead in heat 2 and held a slim lead until
heat 5 when Monty slipped past and into the lead. Dale broke a gear
late in heat 6 and gave away at least 10 laps. Chris and Bryan continued
to work hard and kept Monty in sight. Dale was back in now with
a new gear and he was pissed. He was making up laps by the hand
full and in the end it was Monty's 5 consecutive 40 lap heats bringing
him the win ticket and the 7 TQ points. And then there was the call
for the tie. Bryan, Chris and Dale all had 300 laps. After the call
we scored it Bryan, Chris and Dale. Lin Hammond and Jim Swofford
were the other racers.
Cobalt 12
Pat Ularte was
the early leader and led by just one lap over Tore and Bill Taylor
after 3 heats. Pat then moved to the bottom gutters and had a particularly
bad time leaving Tore in the lead ahead of Bill. But Tore still
had purple and black to run and he also suffered down there, leaving
Bill with a 16 lap win ahead of Tore, Pat, Phil Larcom and Bill
Brown.
One Motor Open
Pat Ularte
won the 1st heat, but after that it was all Forrest. Forrest was
able to build up as much as a 16-lap lead. Even the broken gear
on black in the final heat was not enough to derail him. At the
end it was Forrest, 8 laps up on Tore with Pat another 20 back.
Monty had the race high 70 lap heat to take 4th ahead of Mike Graverson,
Robert Park and Bill Taylor.
G-7
Once again Pat led
the first heat but then started to suffer from a variety of minor
problems leaving Forrest in the lead. Forrest pounded out the laps
and at the end he was 72 laps up ahead of Pat, Gil Gunderson and
Phil Larcom.
Track Calls
A special thanks
to Phil Larcom for his generosity in the C-12 race. Phil not only
had his own car and a car for teammate Pat Ularte, he also loaned
motors to Tore and Bill Taylor. The problem was that the motors
that Tore and I ran were faster than the motors he and Pat ran.
Phil, buddy, you're not supposed to lend out the fast stuff. But
isn't that the way it usually works out?
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