Nor Cal Retro; Race Report Sept 16, 2019, Fast Track Hobbies
Took me a while longer than usual to get this out due to my work load in preparing inventory for a new store.
Our race for this month drew 10-12 racers per class so despite not having a huge turnout, we had good enough fields for good marshaling coverage and pretty clean racing. This month all the attendees were either FTH locals or at large racers. The crew consisted of Gary Brown, Randy Keil, Richard and Buddy Matthews, Mike (Pops) Cassar, Cliffy Gaither, multiple time Nats champ Justin Colvin and the newest “young gun” challenger in the person of 13 y/o Jeffry Cone (all 6’ 2” of him). In addition, traveling racers, John Wilbur, Herman James, Tracy Chin and myself were on hand.
Our first race of the day was for 4.5” stock cars on the banked Purple Angel track. We had nine racers for this race so we ran center six rotation. With the marshaling help of Gary Brown, we had good coverage and minimal track calls. In fact, this race was very clean with at least one heat where there were no de-slots at all. The cars were very even in speed and the track was just a touch loose so this was really a drivers race. The younger crew of Justin and Jeffrey were the fastest on the track and it was pretty obvious that they were going to pull away from the rest of us. Herman and I were in the same time zone as those two but clearly a tic off their pace. At the end, Justin held sway by two over Jeffrey while I was another three back in third while holding off Herman by one. The remainder of the field was very close especially in the 5-8 positions with 4 cars separated by three laps.
Our next race of the day was a “switchup” in which we ran a class on the opposite track than we normally would. In this case, our Can Am cars which are normally run on banked tracks, were raced on the flat Yellow Dragon. This race was also an experiment in which some racers optionally raced Mini Brute motors rather than our normal Retro Hawks.
I started the race on white and drove poorly enough to only manage 26 laps my first heat. I then went to my sitouts in this center six format race. Tracy and Herman were alternating between 28 and 29 lap heats and when Justin came in, he started a run of 30’s. I came back in with a string of 29’s and I slowly crept up on Tracy and Herman in lap average as each of them had at least one heat of 27. Randy Keil was having a good race and he was notably quicker than the rest of the field. This was a pretty clean race and most drivers were managing the track and traffic well. Justin was clear of the field but Tracy, Herman and myself were looking pretty tight for the other podium spots. I spun a pinion and dropped out of contention with Tracy and Herman but those two stayed close to the end With Tracy taking second by two over Herman in third. Randy ran a good fourth with some good speed while the rest of the field was tight.
The Mini Brute Experiment:
There are logical objections to this idea from one or two racers but at the end of the race, most drivers thought that this was a very good call. Keeping in mind the general good for the group as a whole, we will probably adopt this for the future as our direction for the few times each year that we run Can Ams on a flat track. The best description of the benefit came from Justin who as everyone knows is among the faster racers in the U.S. To paraphrase, his take was that “I had to run 50 feet of choke with a Retro Hawk and it was still a handful. I ran no choke on the Mini Brute and the MB was much easier to drive” It’s worth noting that his best lap times with the MB were within .06 sec of his best with the RH.
Our final race of the day was for our F-1 cars on the Yellow Dragon. We had 12 racers for this one so we ran a normal 8 lane rotation. The same suspects were near the front all race with Justin and Jeffrey running a bit ahead of Tracy and Herman and I running a just tic behind them. Tracy pulled some distance on me and I pulled a bit ahead of Herman as we all chased the two leaders. With a few heats to go, I hit a car under the bridge and split the braid pocket on my guide so I was done. Tracy was running very close to the two young guys but he had one poor heat which cost him a couple of laps. In the last heat, Justin and Jeffrey were on adjacent lanes (red and white) with just a few feet of separation. With 30 sec or so to go, Justin was about a foot back and was a bit faster than Jeffrey but I doubted that he could make a pass with these open wheeled cars. I got to watch the final few laps and eventually Jeffrey and Justin tangled with Justin surviving the scrum to take the lead and the eventual win by perhaps 20 feet. The mid pack was led by Richard, Buddy, Randy and Cliff. Although Cliff was the fastest of this group, Richard eventually stayed on the best and he took 5th with Buddy, Randy and Cliff following in that order.
Thanks go out to Scott Cone for doing race setup and race directing, Randy for helping with signups and Cliff and Gary pitching in to volunteer corner marshal when they weren’t racing.
Our October race will be 10/20/19 at Motown. This will be a normal format race.
Can Am – Hillclimb
Pro Coupe – Hillclimb
F-1 - Korkscrew
