This month our meet was at Gene and Jennifer Braham’s Motown raceway. These guys work hard at their business and are strong proponents of Retro racing. This month we had a mix of a few stalwart traveling racers and several Motown locals who have become strong followers of Retro. We had Ted Essy, Gene Braham, Dave Cummerow, Jerry Wilson, John Mohrle, Eldean Huntington and Kevin Webster who are all (mostly) Motown guys. We also had Randy Keil, Richard Matthews, Jim Fowler, Russ Toy, and John Wilbur who all travel the circuit regularly. As always, Kathy Wilbur deserves our great thanks for volunteering to race direct all day and for keeping husband John in line.
We started with Can Ams on the hillclimb track and this was just the first example of how hard it is to beat the Modestoids on their home track. In the past a 34-35 lap heat has been the goal and a total of around 275 has been usually on on the podium. We ran a conventional rotation and I started out with a good 35 on the difficult (for me) purple lane for a one lap lead. There were several cars that were fast enough to win this race and it could have gone any which way. I caught some gear damage early in the second heat and lost several laps fixing it. Meanwhile, Ted, Jerry, Gene, and Dave were all running really strong and consistent heats while John Mohrle, and Eldean were running a tad faster than Randy and John Wilbur though the middle heats. This turned out to be a pretty rough race and John snapped a guide dropping him out of contention and Eldean succumbed early to handling issues. Going into the last few heats, Jerry had a great average but had a couple of really rough heats with traffic. Dave was staying out of trouble but so was Ted and he was running clean as well as fast while Gene was running fast but not that clean. At the end, the traffic did Jerry in just enough and Ted earned a good win with a fast 277 lap total just edging out Jerry by track distance.
L-R: Dave Cummerow (builder Fowler) Ted Essy (builder Essy) Jerry Wilson (R-Geo by Fowler)
We stayed on the Hillclimb for our rocket fast anglewinder coupe class. We had nine racers so we ran a center six rotation with four minute heats. John Mohrle has owned this class here of late but this time out, Ted and Jerry were going to have something to say about the results. I have had good cars in this class here in the past but this time, I was a non factor from the start. Early in the race, John, Ted and Jerry all turned some 50-51 lap heats. Any of those three guys might have won this race but Ted had a snapped guide that dropped him many laps down. Dave and Russ both had good cars but both struggled with handling at times and assorted glitches. Randy Keil put in a solid showing with no major issues ending up fifth. I managed fourth and that was just all I had. Ted was fast enough to win but couldn’t claw back from the guide problem and he wound up third. Either Jerry or John could have won this one but in the end, John held on for a two lap win.
Jerry Wilso (Fowler) John Mohrle (Fowler) Ted Essy (Fowler)
Our last race of the day was for F-1 cars on the twisty Korkscrew which is a 90’ bullring of a flat track. Gene has worked hard on the power for this track and it is a tic faster than in the past. We had nine racers so we again sttled on the center six rotation for the race. Early on it was evident that there were three really fast cars in the mix. Ted, Jim and Gene were all in the mix right from the start. In the past a 50 lap heat was rare. On this day it was fairly commonplace among those three cars with 51 and 52 lap heats showing up.
I started my race with a mundane 48 while Gene was flying but wrecking a lot while Ted sat out. Gene settled down with a 50 in heat #2 while Ted rotated in with a 50. I ran a 51 on the normally slow white lane right before I rotated out. I got to watch Ted and Gene go at it tooth and nail for the next several heats while they each ran off several 50 lap heats. John Mohrle was the fastest of the rest while Randy, Russ and John Wilbur were all tussling with local ace Dave Cummerow for positions. Right before I came back in, Gene had an intermittent controller issue that eventually caused him to drop out.
I came back in with four heats to go and ran 50 very comfortably while dodging slower cars all around me. With three to go, I had to average 50 for a tie and of course do one better for the win. I thought that I could do that pretty easily but my confidence only lasted about 20 laps of the next heat. I had a very bizarre lash up with a couple of lapped cars that caused unrepairable damage and just like that….I was done. Ted cruised in for an easy win over John Mohrle while Dave, Randy, John W and Russ followed, each within a few laps of the other.
John Mohrle (Fowler) Ted Essy (Essy) Dave Cummerow (Fowler)
Thanks go out to Gene and Jennifer for their untiring support of Retro, Eldean and Kevin for helping out much of the day when not racing, Dave for doing the race set ups and Kathy for her excellent work as race director.
