Hi All,
there's a big group of vees at Thunderhill, 3 hours north of San Fran, for the West Coast 45th Anniversary race this weekend. I dont know how many regional and division champs there are exactly, but the field is deep and fast. The track has been resurfaced so its billiard table smooth and it looks like lap records will tumble.
As for cars, there are protoforms, mysterians, crusaders, an Anduril (Brian McCarthy), caracals and more. Most of the drivers are Left Coasters including a big contingent from Oregon and Washington.
We had practice and qualifying today in 80 degree heat and the top 10 were all within 6 tenths!! Thunderhill is a great drafting track so tomorrows race promises to be a humdinger.
I'll try to post results tomorrow
Ian
West Coast 45th Birthday
Re: West Coast 45th Birthday
Guess who won?
z
z
Re: West Coast 45th Birthday
Wow, what a weekend! We had two races, the first was the last regional race of the year, the second the official 45th birthday race with Vees having the whole track to ourselves.
Going into the regional race there were three guys all within a couple of points of winning the championship - Brian Swanson, Ron Wake and Jim Petrek. If I'm not mistaken the difference was just 2 points. With the last regional being a double pointer with 56 points up for grabs, no one could take it easy. These poor guys had to handle that stress while surrounded by blow-ins for the weekend from all over the west coast! Of course the blow-ins weren’t actually slouches either - all of them ex-regional champs, national race winners or runoffs drivers. People like Brian McCarthy, Blake Tatum, Rick Schick, Bob and Quinn Posner.
The first turn at thunderhill is flat (almost) in 4th gear and it makes for some hair-raising racing. For some reason we had a F500 included in our split start which made the first turn even more exciting. Normally there are separate green flags for the split start but the pace car did such a poor job of separating the two groups (FF and FV) that the vees were already on the main straight when the fords were given their flag. So the vees dropped the hammer at that point too and we were racing. As we barreled towards the first turn there was quite a bit of jockeying for position with the front few rows being sitting ducks due to the draft. Everyone seemed to make it through ok and we settled in for an epic battle. Alan Harrington had other ideas however. He made a break from the front and built a nice lead. He was followed by a group of 5 guys. I was sitting 3rd in this group of 5 thinking how we were going to steam roll past Alan, Nascar Style , in a 5 car draft. No chance! Before I knew it, I had been shuffled back to 5th in line and we were racing like it was the last lap...great fun! Alan’s luck ran out though when his throttle cable slipped giving him a bad case of LTFT (less than full throttle) and we sailed past him.
All of this dicing allowed the following group, led by my brother Gavin, to catch up. Now, its not good for the ego when your little bro, with only a handful of vee races under his belt, is filling your mirrors. The vision of a long drive home from the track with him bragging how he put one over me was the motivation I needed to go for the front. It seemed I wasn’t the only one planning on getting to the front though. As we hurtled towards turn 1 we must have been 4 or 5 abreast. What seemed to me like a huge gap suddenly disappeared and I found myself flat in 4th with wheels interlocked with the yellow mysterian of Ron Wake on my inside and Blake Tatum in the silver crusader on my outside. Right about that point, I ran out of talent, got loose, clipped my buddy Blake and watched the front of his car sail over the front of my car, taking my right side mirror out. Ouch, that was hairy. Thankfully Blake’s car wasn’t too damaged and I was able to keep going.
All of this reshuffled the group and with Ron Wake leading (I think) , my bro Gavin (Uh-Oh), Rick Schick then me. Rick got past Gavin. Just as I’m lining Gavin up at turn 10/11 complex (two left handers) he decides to loop it. As I arrive on the scene he’s in the middle of the track broadside. I could see his eyes were opened WIDE and I was pretty sure he was in need of a clean pair of shorts as he watched me appear. I swing right, keep the boot in and dirt track back on to the asphalt at the exit of 11. As I get back on track, in my mirrors I see a silver crusader bearing down on me – does this guy never give up? I just pitched him into a 100 mph spin and he’s back for more. This will work for me though as we can team up for a bit of drafting to catch the leaders.
At some point the F500 that started with us has caused Quinn Posner some heartache and a damaged nose on the P3. Quinn’s not so happy and later when we pass the 500 he uses the internationally recognized single digit sign to let him know so.
Meanwhile at the front Rick Shick and Ron Wake are battling for the lead. If Ron finishes in that position the Regional Championship is his. It’s not over yet though. I’m following Blake and we’re working well together except for right hand turns where Blake’s car is throwing oil out – likely as a result of my earlier indiscretion. We can see Rick and Ron though so we have a chance. Next thing Blake gets the meatball flag for the oil and pulls over just as Quinn tags on to my tail.
Somewhere behind us Brian Swanson and Jim Petrek are doing their best to keep their championship hopes alive. Quinn and I get down to business and start reeling off quick laps and we’re catching Ron and Rick who are dicing for the lead. As the laps tick down its not clear that we have enough time to catch them though. As we head into turn 1 for the last time we can see we’re catching them a couple of tenths every corner and we can probably catch them for the long draft to the finish. Turn 5 at t-hill is a corkscrew like turn that requires heavy braking before flicking the car left and launching off the top of a steep decline. I’m leading as we head up the hill and I’m busy thinking “we can get them”. Unfortunately I should have been thinking about braking points and lock a wheel, turn in a smidgeon too late and get two wheels in the dirt..just enough to lose a second or so and mess Quinn up as well.
Its all over at this point with just 2/3 of a lap left. We keep at it though, there’s still the last step on the podium to be decided. Time to start thinking about whether to lead, or not, going into the last turn. Then all of a sudden, there’s Ron Wake executing a perfect pirouette off line in turn 11. DOH! Will he get going before Jim and Brian arrive on the scene and take the title from him? I don’t have time to think about it though - Quinn is drafting by me as we head into the last corner. As we round the last turn I’m tucked behind Quinn readying myself to pop out. I pull 4th, I start gaining on him and then ease out and slowly pull alongside. We pass under the checker stand and I’m still not level. The finish line is actually about 200 yards passed the flag stand so Quinn and I are looking at each others front wheels as we barrel towards the line. I definitely have the momentum but I’m not ahead yet. And there it is…the line. I think Quinn got me, but its really too close to call. Meanwhile Ron has gotten going and takes 4th and the Regional Championship. Rick Schick is enjoying the spoils of victory as the rest of us roll into impound. Lots of pats on the back and everyone’s smiling after an epic race. About 10 mins later timing and scoring finally give me the nod and award me second place despite my best efforts to throw it away. The margin? 0.002 seconds!
What a race and we still had one more to go!
Going into the regional race there were three guys all within a couple of points of winning the championship - Brian Swanson, Ron Wake and Jim Petrek. If I'm not mistaken the difference was just 2 points. With the last regional being a double pointer with 56 points up for grabs, no one could take it easy. These poor guys had to handle that stress while surrounded by blow-ins for the weekend from all over the west coast! Of course the blow-ins weren’t actually slouches either - all of them ex-regional champs, national race winners or runoffs drivers. People like Brian McCarthy, Blake Tatum, Rick Schick, Bob and Quinn Posner.
The first turn at thunderhill is flat (almost) in 4th gear and it makes for some hair-raising racing. For some reason we had a F500 included in our split start which made the first turn even more exciting. Normally there are separate green flags for the split start but the pace car did such a poor job of separating the two groups (FF and FV) that the vees were already on the main straight when the fords were given their flag. So the vees dropped the hammer at that point too and we were racing. As we barreled towards the first turn there was quite a bit of jockeying for position with the front few rows being sitting ducks due to the draft. Everyone seemed to make it through ok and we settled in for an epic battle. Alan Harrington had other ideas however. He made a break from the front and built a nice lead. He was followed by a group of 5 guys. I was sitting 3rd in this group of 5 thinking how we were going to steam roll past Alan, Nascar Style , in a 5 car draft. No chance! Before I knew it, I had been shuffled back to 5th in line and we were racing like it was the last lap...great fun! Alan’s luck ran out though when his throttle cable slipped giving him a bad case of LTFT (less than full throttle) and we sailed past him.
All of this dicing allowed the following group, led by my brother Gavin, to catch up. Now, its not good for the ego when your little bro, with only a handful of vee races under his belt, is filling your mirrors. The vision of a long drive home from the track with him bragging how he put one over me was the motivation I needed to go for the front. It seemed I wasn’t the only one planning on getting to the front though. As we hurtled towards turn 1 we must have been 4 or 5 abreast. What seemed to me like a huge gap suddenly disappeared and I found myself flat in 4th with wheels interlocked with the yellow mysterian of Ron Wake on my inside and Blake Tatum in the silver crusader on my outside. Right about that point, I ran out of talent, got loose, clipped my buddy Blake and watched the front of his car sail over the front of my car, taking my right side mirror out. Ouch, that was hairy. Thankfully Blake’s car wasn’t too damaged and I was able to keep going.
All of this reshuffled the group and with Ron Wake leading (I think) , my bro Gavin (Uh-Oh), Rick Schick then me. Rick got past Gavin. Just as I’m lining Gavin up at turn 10/11 complex (two left handers) he decides to loop it. As I arrive on the scene he’s in the middle of the track broadside. I could see his eyes were opened WIDE and I was pretty sure he was in need of a clean pair of shorts as he watched me appear. I swing right, keep the boot in and dirt track back on to the asphalt at the exit of 11. As I get back on track, in my mirrors I see a silver crusader bearing down on me – does this guy never give up? I just pitched him into a 100 mph spin and he’s back for more. This will work for me though as we can team up for a bit of drafting to catch the leaders.
At some point the F500 that started with us has caused Quinn Posner some heartache and a damaged nose on the P3. Quinn’s not so happy and later when we pass the 500 he uses the internationally recognized single digit sign to let him know so.
Meanwhile at the front Rick Shick and Ron Wake are battling for the lead. If Ron finishes in that position the Regional Championship is his. It’s not over yet though. I’m following Blake and we’re working well together except for right hand turns where Blake’s car is throwing oil out – likely as a result of my earlier indiscretion. We can see Rick and Ron though so we have a chance. Next thing Blake gets the meatball flag for the oil and pulls over just as Quinn tags on to my tail.
Somewhere behind us Brian Swanson and Jim Petrek are doing their best to keep their championship hopes alive. Quinn and I get down to business and start reeling off quick laps and we’re catching Ron and Rick who are dicing for the lead. As the laps tick down its not clear that we have enough time to catch them though. As we head into turn 1 for the last time we can see we’re catching them a couple of tenths every corner and we can probably catch them for the long draft to the finish. Turn 5 at t-hill is a corkscrew like turn that requires heavy braking before flicking the car left and launching off the top of a steep decline. I’m leading as we head up the hill and I’m busy thinking “we can get them”. Unfortunately I should have been thinking about braking points and lock a wheel, turn in a smidgeon too late and get two wheels in the dirt..just enough to lose a second or so and mess Quinn up as well.
Its all over at this point with just 2/3 of a lap left. We keep at it though, there’s still the last step on the podium to be decided. Time to start thinking about whether to lead, or not, going into the last turn. Then all of a sudden, there’s Ron Wake executing a perfect pirouette off line in turn 11. DOH! Will he get going before Jim and Brian arrive on the scene and take the title from him? I don’t have time to think about it though - Quinn is drafting by me as we head into the last corner. As we round the last turn I’m tucked behind Quinn readying myself to pop out. I pull 4th, I start gaining on him and then ease out and slowly pull alongside. We pass under the checker stand and I’m still not level. The finish line is actually about 200 yards passed the flag stand so Quinn and I are looking at each others front wheels as we barrel towards the line. I definitely have the momentum but I’m not ahead yet. And there it is…the line. I think Quinn got me, but its really too close to call. Meanwhile Ron has gotten going and takes 4th and the Regional Championship. Rick Schick is enjoying the spoils of victory as the rest of us roll into impound. Lots of pats on the back and everyone’s smiling after an epic race. About 10 mins later timing and scoring finally give me the nod and award me second place despite my best efforts to throw it away. The margin? 0.002 seconds!
What a race and we still had one more to go!
Re: West Coast 45th Birthday
Ian,
I'm worn out all over again just reading this.
Quinn
I'm worn out all over again just reading this.
Quinn
Re: West Coast 45th Birthday
This sounds even better with Ian's accent.
z
z
Re: West Coast 45th Birthday
Gents,
here's a very professional video of the 45th race from Terran. Those of you who've seen Grand Prix the movie will recognize the inspiration for the start.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNH1js97nDE
Ian
here's a very professional video of the 45th race from Terran. Those of you who've seen Grand Prix the movie will recognize the inspiration for the start.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNH1js97nDE
Ian