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Buena Park Raceway, Buena
Park, CA, July 8, 2005
We returned to Chris and Lenore’s
most excellent facility for round 7 of the 2005 series. This was
going to be the last race before the Nat’s and there was a lot of
testing going on.
Spray Glue G-12
There were
13 racers for this class and as required it was a round robin event.
From the racers who got in a couple of heats early, it was Jonathon
Forsyth and Kenny “blue hands” Richins leading on the average. As
the race took shape it would be Jonathon leading Kenny by just a
few 10th’s on the average. As Jonathon came up from the bottom,
he was unable to keep up the pace and slowed just as Kenny was increasing
his average. Kenny ran down Jonathon and moved into the lead and
took the win by 5 over Jonathon. Bob Maxwell took 3rd just 1 lap
ahead of Brian Johnson.
Group 12
Richard Curnutte
would open with a nice 62-lap heat on white followed closely by
Big Brian with a 61 on red and that would establish the pattern
for the race. Richard was just a little bit faster than Brian in
most of the heats and although Brian caught Richard in the middle
of the race as Richard was down on the bottom gutters, Richard had
just a bit to much speed and experience for Brian to handle. Jason
Holmes ran in 3rd for most of the race. Jim Swofford burned one
down in the 1st heat and gave away a minimum of 30 laps. He made
up spots but not laps on the leaders and was relegated to 4th.
Cobalt 12
Another 10 entries
and another round robin race. As the race started to take shape
it was Phil Larcom leading Mickey Johnston on the average. As the
race moved into the later stages Phil had problems getting around
red and only ran a 54 lap heat handing a 10 lap lead to Mickey.
In the final 2 heats, series leader Phil quickly closed the gap
and moved onto the same lap with Mickey with about 30 seconds left
in the race. As the power went off it was Mickey over a fast closing
Phil by about 20 feet. Rich Humphries took 3rd.
One Motor Open, Semi Pro.
Open
motors and semi pro’s, a recipe for disaster and ugly racing. Bill
Taylor led the early heats but dropped to 2nd when he ran on black
lane. Bill broke a gear in the next heat leaving Rick with a 15-lap
lead. Rick went on to take his 1st one motor win with Bill 2nd and
Steve Schaffner, making his return to racing after a long absence,
finishing 3rd.
One Motor Open, Pro
This
was perhaps the most bizarre race I have seen in almost 40 years
of involvement in our hobby. The carnage and demolition was so extreme
that by the 5th heat there were only 3 racers that were able to
put cars on the track. Heats 5, 6, 7 and 8 saw only 3 cars running
and one of those dropped out halfway thru heat 8. Heat 9 saw only
Mike Graversen and Jim Swofford hook up with Mike carrying a 16-lap
lead. Jim got victimized by a bad glue job in the deadman and his
car simply would not get around, so he picked his car up. Two laps
later, Mike picked his car up and the final 2 minutes of the race
ticked off with no one on the track. Mike, Jim, Rich Curnutte were
the podium with Bill Pinkston in 4th more than 300 laps back. Yes
that right, 300 laps behind in 4th.
G-7 Pro
We had 9 racers
for this event so it was another round robin race. Forrest Watchers
was the early leader, leading by more than 5 laps on the average
thru the middle part of the race with Jim Swofford holding 2nd.
Third place was passed around like so much bad cheese. Jim melted
one down late in the going, allowing Al Chuck to pull into 2nd.
Jim held on for 3rd ahead of Mike Graversen.
Track Calls
Mike Stuebe
made his return to high end slot car racing this weekend with an
entry into the S/P One Motor race with a car borrowed from, Gil/Tore/Al?
Unfortunately, the car was so fast that they had to choke it right
down so as not to overwhelm him with the speed and we battered poor
Mike into oblivion. I, myself, managed to punt Mike’s car behind
the counter. Maybe his driving wasn’t quite ready for that kind
of speed, but I can tell you he has not lost his ability to see
the track and understand what’s happening around him. When I was
running next to him, on more than one occasion he double blipped
the straight away to let me pass before I realized I was on him.
Mike seems to have the bug again for the scale and true scale cars
this time around, so welcome back. Mike, it was an honor to share
the track with you.
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