7 replies to this topic

[Ken Bryan]

The 8th and final race of the Northwest Retro Racing club took place on a beautifully crisp fall day in the rolling hills of southeast Washington.  Overall, for 8 races, we had 103 entrants, meaning we averaged 13 racers for the season.  Turnouts ranged from 19 in August to the 7 hardy souls who turned out for the October event.  The light turnout was a combination of three things: 

 

• the beginning of the fall points series in the Tri-Cities area (racers from Pasco/Kennewick/Richland make up about half of our normal turnout)
• a home football game for WSU in nearby Pullman, and
• a last minute illness for one of our most faithful regulars

Fortunately we were joined by Danny Martin, a "new to the club" racer who raced 1:24 cars in Spokane some 25-30 years ago.  AND he brought along his lovely wife, who bravely pitched in to help with turn marshal duties.  Bear, another former racer, and Leroy's wife Cheryl also pitched in to help.  All of them were great, and the help was much appreciated.

 

As usual, the race day began with Stock Cars, this time on the red track.  We all knew that Robert Clements would be the man to beat in every class, and in this class he showed why, with a comfortable 8* lap victory.

 

Why the asterisk after the number, you ask?  Well, at the start of the 7th and final heat, the unthinkable happened.  Suddenly, and for no readily explainable reason, the track lost power about 3 laps into the heat.  When it became clear there was no readily available solution, we decided to award the people in the final heat the average lap total of their other 3 heats (hence the asterisk).  Final totals with "awarded" laps in parentheses:

 

1.  Robert Clements    144 laps

2.  Leroy Sanders        136 (35)

3.  Ken Bryan               131 (33)

4.  Dave Cuellar           128

5.  Wes Spencer          116

6.  Tom Brown              113 (28)

7.  Danny Martin ®    111 (28)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ken Bryan]

Because of the malfunction on the red track (our first race day issue on this track in its 8-year history), we ran the remaining 3 heats on the blue track, where we thought that "just maybe" we have a chance to catch Robert, as he is a little less dominant here.  But he was just fast enough to top the podium for the second time, as Ken and Leroy changes places for second and third.  As usual, there were plenty of spectacular crashes when we run open wheel cars on a track with 3.5" lane spacing!  Here were the final totals:

 

1.  Robert Clements    110 laps

2.  Ken Bryan              109

3.  Leroy Sanders        104

4.  Wes Spencer           97

5.  Dave Cuellar            95

6.  Tom Brown               85

7.  Danny Martin           76

 

 

 

 

 

[Ken Bryan]

After a lunch time break of build your own tacos, followed by cheesecake (thanks, Cheryl) we resumed racing with Can Am cars.  Wes Spencer had been steadily moving up: 5th in the first race, 4th in the second, and was challenging for third here.  And when the dust settled after the final heat, he had indeed earned his first ever podium, beating out yours truly by a matter of about 18 inches!  Danny Martin showed he was also getting the hang of the red track, improving by a full 10 laps over his F1 finish.

 

1.  Robert Clements   114 laps

2.  Leroy Sanders       111

3.  Wes Spencer         108

4.  Ken Bryan              108

5.  Tom Brown             100

6.  Dave Cuellar            97

7.  Danny Martin           86

 

 

 

[Ken Bryan]

Before I get to the last class of the season, I thought I'd throw in pictures of our two tracks.  The red track, shown here, runs counter clockwise, meaning the cars head down the straightaway into esses and an unusual 135 degree left turn.  Angles are not uniform on the various corners, providing different challenges everywhere.  I believe it to be about 8 years old, built by Leroy Sanders with help from Dave Cuellar (and probably others).  Lane spacing of about 4" means it is not difficult to pass, which is one of the reasons that lap totals tend to be more spread out on this track.  Interestingly

 

 

The blue track, on the other hand, was originally built by Bob Ward from Puyallup (with some finish work by me) circa 1990.  It has undergone 2 major revisions (and 2 moves), adding length, the esses, and changing much of the track from original plywood to MDF.  With 3.5" lane spacing and some very tight corners, passes have to be planned carefully, especially in F1 and stock car classes.  It runs clockwise.

 

 

 

[Ken Bryan]

We tried.  We really tried.

 

Final race of the season, and my coupe was running better than I ever remember.  I was racing on my former home track, and seemed dialed in. Leroy was likewise quick, and Robert seemed vulnerable.  At the end of the race, Leroy and I would have the fastest lap time each of the 4 lanes.  But it was not to be.  Just like in F1, Robert pulled out the win...by one lap.

 

The key was consistency.  Robert ran 4 heats of 29 each.  I had three heats of 29 and one 28.  Leroy had three 28s and a 29.

 

In the end, here were the totals:

 

1.  Robert Clements    116 laps

2.  Ken Bryan               115

3.  Leroy Sanders         113

4.  Tom Brown              109 (his best race of the day)

5.  Wes Spencer          106

6.  Dave Cuellar           103

7.  Danny Martin            88 (showing continuing improvement as the day went along)

 

 

 

 

 

[Bill from NH]

Good field of great looking race cars. It's interesting to see a couple inline chassis that were competitive with the anglewinders.

[Ken Bryan]

Yes, they are competitive, which is nice, because inlines are easier to build, and it is possible to run Can Am and coupe with the same car, just changing bodies.

[Waracer86]

Excellent driving and racing on very interesting and challenging tracks. This was my first time and I just watched, but I’ll be a regular racer next season. They’re a great group and it’s great facility in beautiful Palouse.