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2005 Wing Round 2 - Feb 4th & 5th - Buena Park Raceway

Buena Park Raceway
Buena Park, CA
Feb. 4/5, 2005

For the second wing car race of the 2005 series we moved to Chris and Lenore's newly upgraded King track. This track has been giving the Tuesday night spray glue crowd some wonderful numbers and great racing.

Spray Glue 12:
First up was the spray glue race and in a change of schedule, we ran this race on Friday night. Well, the place was jumpin' with 17 entries. I took a look back through our archives and it appears that this was the biggest turnout for the class outside the Western States since we introduced it several years ago. Our rules call for a round robin in this class regardless of the number of entries.

The early part of the race was a bit up and down with no one really getting it done and getting any decent numbers on a regular basis. It wasn't until heats 5 & 6 when Jonathon Forsyth rotated in and got a couple of good heats and moved into the lead on the average. Jonathon would hold that lead until heat 8 when Rick Elting moved in and Jonathon moved to the bottom gutters. This let Rick take over the lead until heat 10 when Evan McKee rotated in. After that it was a big struggle between Rick and Evan with both of them running strong and putting in the fast heats.  Unfortunately for Evan, his car would not go around the lead-on on the black lane in heat 14. Rick made the most of this by running a 61 on orange and was done and leading on the average after 15. He then had to sit and watch as Evan made his run. Evan needed a pair of 61 lap heats to catch Rick. He got his 61 on orange but just couldn't quite make it on white. Rick takes the win ticket with a very nice 470 laps with Evan at 466. Jonathon picked up 3rd ahead of Bob Maxwell, Steve Forsyth, Bill Taylor, Bryan Johnson, Paul Starrett, Dave Menefee, Paul Peterson, Adam Kirchhoffer, Randy Moran, Mike Stuart, Josh Bauer, Dave Turner, Al Bruyn and Lin Hammond.

A word from your rules committee:
For our new racers, last year we decided to allow the use a ball bearing in the can end of the motors for this class. Please remember this is can end only and only for the spray glue class.

There are some new "C" can magnets being prototyped and tested. These magnets are not yet legal in our series races. We will let you all know when they are approved. This magnet issue also applies to the glue racers.

Group 12:
We had another nice turnout of 12 entries, including 2 racers in from out of town.

The race started off with Bill Taylor taking a 1-lap lead over Mickey Johnston and then immediately sitting out. Adam Kirchhoffer moved into 2nd on the average in heat 2 running on the blue lane. Jim Swofford made his appearance in heat 3. Jim could only manage a 53 and was forced to spend the balance of the race playing catch up. Bill rotated back in for heat 6 and kept his lead on red and then strung together 6 consecutive 60+ lap heats to take the win. Jim kept at it and moved into 2nd in heat 9. But it wasn't to last. In post race tech Jim came up light and got bounced moving Adam into 2nd. Then there were 2 other racers who did not return their cars to impound after they had run their 8. These 2 racers had disassembled their cars and were consequently bounced on weight moving Chris Radisich from 6th all the way into 3rd. Joe Lisciandro was credited with 4th ahead of Gary Mayeda, Randy Moran, Dale Garcia, Mickey Johnston, Rich Curnutte, Jim Swofford, Bill Pinkston and Jason Holmes.

Cobalt 12:
We had 6 racers turn cars into tech.

Jim Swofford led the first heat, but in the 2nd and 3rd heats it was Phil Larcom taking over with a 74 and then a 75. Phil continued to lead all the way to the finish. Jim stayed close but just could not catch "Flyin" Phil. Score it Phil, and TQ with Jim 2nd and Rich Curnutte 3rd. Joe Lisciandro was 4th  ahead of Adam Freidman and Pat Ularte.

One Motor Open, Semi Pro:
There were 7 racers signed up and ready to go.

David Menefee is the story of this race. David moved into the lead in heat 2 and nobody could catch him. David turned back all challengers and took his first USRA win. Rick Elting took 2nd with Bill Taylor 3rd. Josh Bauer, Paul Pederson, Bill Brown and Joe Lisciandro were the other runners.

One Motor Open, Pro:
This class picked up 10 entries, making the day's One Motor program total 17 entries.

The race started off with Forrest Watchers and Tore Andersen leading on the average. Mike Graversen had a slow start on purple nut was soon making up laps on the leaders.  Forrest had problems in heat 7 dropping him way down the leader board. As the 8th of 10 started Tore was leading by 12 laps. But he was going to run on Purple, black and yellow, while 2nd place runner Mike Graversen was coming back to the track and would finish on red, green and orange. Mike was making up laps and by the end of the 11th heat he was about 1.5 laps up on Tore. Both racers went to the choke early in the final heat and Tore soon started making up ground. It would end with both racers on the same lap with Mike in the bank and Tore still in the donut. Robert Park was 3rd with Forrest Watchers, Ron Herrera, Jim Swofford, Rich Curnutte, Mickey Johnston, Bill Pinkston and Pat Ularte trailing.

Pro:
We managed to pull in another 10 entries for the Big Dog Race and for the first time in a couple of years, we had qualifying. We ran just a single round and it was Forrest Watchers with the fast time of 1.679.

As the race took shape it was Mike Graversen and Randy Thompson running the big heats and moving away from the field. Randy's car let him down as he ran on red and green and dropped from contention. Give Mike the win by 76 laps over Gil Gundersen with Jim Swofford taking the final podium spot. Forrest Watchers, Pat Ularte, Scott Salzberg, Ron Herrera, Randy Thompson, Rich Curnutte and Phil Larcom were the other racers.

Track Calls:
We managed to get 20 drivers and 27 entries for the open classes. One Motor alone had 17 entries and there were several that could not make it for a number of reasons. That's an excellent turnout.

We would like to thank Gary Mayeda, Ron Herrera, Paul Pederson and Randy Moran for coming in to race with us. Ron, Paul and Randy traveled all the way from New Mexico to race with us.

Next months race will return to the regular format with the Spray Glue class running first thing on Saturday morning. Just a reminder that at the races at Buena Park we will run the Spray Glue race on Friday evening. All the other location will have the SPG run as the first race on Saturday.