West Coast D3 Racing
TSR24, Retro NASCAR and Retro Can-Am races, June 9, 2007
Buena Park, CA

June's D3 racing kicked off with TSR NASCAR, except it didn't. After a few tries at getting the timing equipment to work with a Crash and Burn format they called it a day and started preparing for D3 NASCAR.

D3 Retro-NASCAR

Both Keith Tanaka and Allen Low were taking pictures so that should add to the text of this race report. We don't do it as seamlessly as PDL did when he took his own pictures but I ain't retired living in some fancy seaside trailer. You get what you pay for! I'm posting this before I've received pictures from our trusty D3 photog's to shut up a taunting frog like creature. He get's so bitter when you out qualify him.

The D3 NASCAR boys don't qualify so with lanes assigned 9 racers lined up for a round robin. It's definitely time to retire PDL's rocket motor. His car would get a horsepower hit like a high performance 2 stroke motor cycle and he would pull a foot on Mike Steube on the main chute. Now I'm an expert on fast motors because I got to watch all the fast ones pass my fairly good motor on the straights.

At the top of the heap Mike Steube and PDL had an all race epic battle. At the end, a couple of crashes sealed the victory for De Lespinay, both had 242 laps. Paul was in a class of his own circulating a few laps down from the lead pair but 19 laps ahead of Yoshio. The Boemker vs. Tanaka battle saw Boemker's Ballistic Banana (Boy is that car bright yellow!) edge out Keith Tanaka, both with 215 laps. Jeff Easterly (213), Lee Hines (207) and Brendan Aguirre with 207 laps filled out the rest of the finishers.

Fast laps
Philippe De Lespinay 5.539
Mike Steube 5.648
Paul Sterrett 5.928
Yoshio 5.987
Mike Boemker 6.038
Keith Tanaka 6.152
Jeff Easterly 6.319
Lee Hines 6.0392
Brendan Aguirre 6.257

D3 CanAm

Little known racing facts:
Tore Anderson is a Pepper. I'm writing the first part of this report while the C main is finishing up. Tore walked by sucking up a can of Dr. Pepper and getting ready for a B Main. Tore came in late as is his habit, but this time it cost him, because a so-so motor wasn't enough horsepower to get him into the "A" main. It's good to have him back in D3 and there is more to this story.

CanAm C Main
"Last Heat, last chance," said Paul Sterrett at the start of the last heat of the C main. Only 6 laps separated 1st from 3rd. Cries of, "sandbagger Salvino," are gently echoing through the building. Pete Zimmerman returned after a mere 40 year hiatus got 7th in the C main gave Jeff Easterly the winner a chance to say, "I beat Pete Zimmerman!" Jeff wouldn't do that because he is way too modest, but it makes for a good line anyway.

Qualifying saw Mike Steube TQ (Natch) with a 5.168. It's hard to beat a smooth driver with a fast, well balanced car. You can understand how Mike Steube earned his reputation.
Bryan Warmack had been my bet for TQ after running next to both him and Steube in practice but a 5.214 ended up being his best lap and good enough for second.
Rounding out the A main qualifiers were:
3rd. Kyle Matthes 5.242
4th. Paul Sterrett 5.286
5th. Allen Low 5.298 ( Check out his new chassis design in the pictures.)
6th. Mike Boemker 5.309
7th Keith Tanaka 5.311
8th Doug Matthes 5.3402
9th. PDL 5.345 ( We let PDL into the A main on owners points, or a bribe or???)

Letting the winner of the lower mains move up, returned this race, and was a decision made after qualifying. I for one like this, because it rewards race driving, not just qualifying.

CanAm B Main
Mike Chavez informs me he needs some speed as he gets ready to try his luck on Black in the B main. Tore Anderson was TQ in the B Main with a 5.35 There would be a spread in qualifying times in this Main from Tore's 5.35 to Adam Crashhoffer's 5.709. (Gavin Aguirre assures me that's the right spelling.)

Hey have I told you about Talladega Nights? Once again B Main race director Rick Salvino was tirelessly ( endlessly? ) promoting Talladega Nights, a hard body vintage NASCAR 36D race scheduled for August 25th. I'll likely still be recovering from knee replacement surgery but I'm hoping to be healthy enough to make this fun race and Boemker likes fun races!.. Did I mention the Fried, Chicken and Watermelon? Look for details on the blog. Did I mention it will start at noon?

Oh yeah back to the B Main. Tore jumped out to an early lead even though he started on red. C main move up Jeff Easterly was only a lap behind. By the third heat Tore had pulled out a 4 lap lead over veteran racer ( ummmm aren't most of us geezers veteran racers? ) Gil Gunderson.

By the fourth heat Mike Chavez had worked his way into 4th with steady driving. Tore had extended his lead to 5 laps over Adam Kirchhoffer and Gil was holding down third.

The field would shuffle a little over the next few heats as Yoshio fought his way into contention with a third place showing by the end of the 9th heat. Mike Chavez was holding onto 4th. On the leader board it looked like Gil might take the lead from Tore who was sitting this heat out but Tore had finished with 260 laps.

At the end of the tenth and final heat no one had been able to catch Tore. Gil finished second with 249 laps. Adam was able to grab third with 249 laps, not quite able to catch Gil. Mike Chavez kept his 4th place with 238 laps barely edging Yoshio who had the same lap total.
Rounding out the order:
Lee Hines 234
Jeff Easterly 231
Ryan Miller 224
Ron Kiyomura 146
Craig Williamson 74

CanAm A Main
Tore's win in the B Main earned him entry into the A Main field. Ten racers meant two sit outs for any given heat. First heat action saw Tore notch a one lap lead but 2 laps separated 1st from 7th. By the third heat TQ Mike Steube was on the track and turning the heat's fast time of 5.320 on red. As the race developed Paul Sterrett started to become a factor. Paul was jetting with a 5.273. On red! I had a shunt and found that my pan no longer was held on at the front. Securing it with tape let me continue but forced me to be careful. ( A novel concept )

Ryan Warmack who had looked so fast in practice had his car slow to a 5.5 best in the 5th heat, that wasn't fast enough to stay with the leaders. Kyle was holding onto third 2 back of Allen Low.

By the 8th heat PDL was trying to gain ground on the field. His 31 laps on red were only good for a tie for 6th in the heat. OK, it did let him gain ground on me. Paul was continuing to run a tenth faster than the field. Steube would survive Black lane only giving up a lap.

The 9th heat would see Bryan end with 256 laps his race done. Paul was continuing to run almost a tenth faster than the field and Mike Steube's car didn't seem capable of answering.

At the end of the 10th heat Paul had another win pulling Mike Steube by 3 laps, a 32.8 average vs. Mike Steube's 32.4. Tore had pushed his move up car to a 3rd for the final podium spot at 258 laps capping a Pro level drive..
Bryan's 256 held up for 4th.
PDL 5th at 252 laps
Doug Matthes 6th at 249 laps
Mike Boemker 7th at 244 laps
Allen Low 8th at 241 laps.
Kyle Matthes 9th at 239 laps
Keith Tanaka 10th at 186 laps

Race Trivia and Summary

Another great D3 race is in the books, People that read these reports probably are a little skeptical about this Woodstock meets slot racing atmosphere that we keep writing about in our reports. All I have to say is come be a part of it, you'll understand.

Psssst, don't tell anybody but the non existent Team Checkpoint dominated once again. They did it the old fashioned way, they earned it. Kudos to Paul Sterrett.

Adding to the flavor of this race was John Cukras and Pete Zimmerman giving it a try. John got pretty comfortable quickly. Talking to John after the race he was already figuring out different tire combinations for the next race. I ran next to Pete Zimmerman in practice and we were pretty much running door to door. Race jitters struck Pete in qualifying and the race, but with a 40 year lay off that is very understandable. Pete I'm told was a motor guy back in the day and as we stood by the bank he was commenting that they left out the horsepower. I told him to check out the RetroPro race in 2 weeks.

Some of you may have seen previously posted pictures taken by Allen Low of Ryan Miller's cars. He showed me his 3 flavors, light weight, medium weight and heavy weight cars and all 3, like the pictures showed all reflect good design and workmanship. Expect Ryan to be a factor soon. Ryan also showed me a restored car of his from 40 years ago. It still looked cutting edge

Mr. De Lespinay made my day a couple ways. He let me out qualify him, which is rare, but then he found a way to top it. He brought over a blueprint for the new D3 Fk replacement motor. Hmmm, very interesting blue and white drawings and some words and numbers and ... Here try this.

PDL had extended a controller in my direction offering me a chance to drive his car with one of the new motors in it . ( Did I mention he is a brave man? ) Ok, here we go this is what we should have had from the get go. Lighter than the 16Ds we enjoyed the handling of the Fks. Now we added a little acceleration and more top end. What a difference! With horsepower close to the ProSlot RetroPro motor it actually has a nicer power band, extremely linear and easy to drive, even in the light car I was driving. If the production form of this motor delivers on the promise of the prototype for performance, reliability, and can do it while being pretty equal in horsepower levels, we are all going to be sending PDL thank you cards.

So where would that leave RetroPro? Allen Low was giving demos of the Big Dog and it's the answer for those of us that like a little more horsepower!

A note to those of you that may have noticed the absence of Dennis, "Foamy," Hill's name from the report. Dennis had the flu and after missing 3 days at work, staying home to heal up was a smart move. We expect him back for the next one. Feel better Dennis!

Last Laps
Cukras came bearing gifts. The Fourth place racers in all the mains went home with a nice little automotive collectable. Thanks!

Much of the report was typed at the track while people kindly marshaled for me. After the race I stopped off at Foamy's house to see him, drop off some drag bodies for BP's next weeks Volkswagen Drag Race and to talk to Dan Wise, a former racer and USRA race director. Dan's facing some pretty serious health issues but we had a nice talk about racing and other topics.

The friends we make in our hobby are more enduring than our wins. Coming home from visiting Dan and Dennis I was looking at a 92 mile commute home. A fast group of fellow travelers, who also thought the speed limit was north of 80 miles per hour and good tunes on the radio and CD made for a decent commute. With Tumbleweed Connection's, My Father's Gun, playing I pulled into my driveway and ended a pretty darn good day.

RACE PICTURES (Courtesy Keith Tanaka)

_________________
Go slow, stay on, encourage others to fall off.
Mike Boemker