West Coast D3 Racing
Retro F1 and Retro Can-Am races, August 11, 2007
Buena Park, CA

Bryan Warmack and Mike Steube dominate.
Warmack demolishes the Can-Am field, sets new qualifying and race records, places in 2nd in F1 with loaner car.
By "Gene Husting", photos by "Al Hall" with a little help from Keith Tanaka...
 

Pre Race Activity

No less than 17 F1/Indy entrants and 23 Can-Am entrants today on this very challenging track. Chris and Lenore Gallegos were expecting much smaller fields and were quite impressed with the ever-increasing interest in D3 racing.
This was the first time the Can-Am class used the newer generation of FK-size motors, mostly the Falcon VII and a few of the D3-spec motor that will become mandatory from September 1st, 2007 for this class.
Practice showed that these motors are fast, have much better brakes and are very consistent in their speed. No motor failures of any kind were recorded with these new motors.
Practice during the week showed Bryan Warmack and Mike Steube as fastest, turning times in the 3.4", well below the track record. Mike actually turned a 3.4" on the difficult and slower black AND red lanes! Bryan's cars were equally impressive with utter consistency and "jet" motors.
Mike had a new F1 car that just did not work well, but race-day and lots of work on it proved that perseverance pays at the end of the day.
Philippe de Lespinay had set up the former Steube King track "wire" car, now rebuilt by Mike as a possible Kingleman contender, and it also proved to be quite impressive but a shade too stiff for the track, lacking grip. When tested on the Hillclimb after the races, it showed great potential there. De Lespinay stuck to his Steube-built conventional car for the race.
Paul Sterrett chose to use his well-proven standard car that has done so well in the past.
Several John Gorski-built and Joe Neumeister-painted F1 cars showed up and looked impressive. Certainly they are very pretty and did conform to D3 specification with the accepted narrower bodies and frames than those run in the East Coast retro series.

Practice time featuring crash testing of the highest caliber...

Retro F1/Indy Qualifying
D3 regulations requires that the F1/Indy cars use a standard, controlled TSR motor. After transforming his ill-handling new car in an absolute jet by the time qualifying began, Mike Steube simply drove as perfectly as one can, setting a new qualifying record of 3.76". Bryan Warmack borrowed Mike's back-up car and nearly edged him at 3.81", also bettering the previous record. Nor-Cal Jim Fowler was 3rd fastest at 3.89", showing the best result for an out-of-towner so far. John "The Jet" Cukras of Team Legend had a tougher time with his new floating frames and settled for 8th, his other car driven by Oscar Morales in 16th spot. Jay H. had his Gorski car in 10th with a 4.28" that does not reflect the car's potential.

Concours laureates with Jim Fowler's Ferrari edging the Philippe de Lespinay Cooper-Ferrari and the Paul Sterrett Lotus 56.

The F1/Indy field, growing with every race... the Steube yellow Lotuses are already up front...

* New qualifying record

 
Retro F1/Indy "B" Race

Craig Williamson, winner John Javier, Yoshio Akiyama, Roger Uusitalo, Kyle Matthes, Oscar Morales and Jay Henry ready for the crash-fest.

The survivors! John Javier smiles with his first D3 win, while Kyle is a bit unhappy to be only a single lap behind. Lee Hines must be happy after coming back from the doldrums to fill 3rd spot.

John Javier edged Kyle Matthes for his first D3 win, hardly fought in a demolition-derby race. John led the first segment over Kyle, Yoshio Akiyama and Mark Wampler, only to be edged by Kyle in the second segment, with Akiyama 2 laps in arrears. In the third heat, Mark took the lead followed by Yoshio, Roger and John, with Jay Henry driving his fast Gorski car now in 5th spot. But once John got on Orange, he got things together and took a strong 3-laps lead over Mark, Roger , Jay and Kyle. Nothing much changed in the next heats but due to the rotation, at the end of the day, John found himself leading Kyle by a single lap, while Lee Hines did well to be 3rd but 6 laps behind.

* Fastest lap

Retro F1/Indy "A" Race

Mike led on front of Philippe de Lespinay and Bryan Warmack in the first heat, all in the same lap, with Jim Fowler and Keith Tanaka a lap behind. Paul Sterrett started on Purple and was only 2 laps behind. Mike led the 2nd segment with Bryan and Philippe still in the same lap, Jim and Paul 1 and 2 laps down. As Steube went through the purgatory of the black lane, Bryan took a 2-lap lead over him and Philippe on Red. Once on Orange, Sterrett reduced his deficit to 2 laps and passed Mike Steube and Philippe who was beginning having collision problems with errand cars. Mike took the lead back in the 5th heat over Bryan and Paul and this remained even for the next 3 heats. In the 8th heat, Philippe found how difficult it is to pass John Cukras, hurting in last spot with an ill-handling car. Philippe's car was destroyed in the shunt and became a DNF. Philippe had the fastest lap as a consolation. Behind the Usual Suspects, Keith Tanaka was best-of-the-rest ahead of Jim Fowler, Doug Matthes and de Lespinay, still finishing ahead of Cukras.

Doug Matthes, Paul Sterrett, John "The Jet" Cukras, Mike Steube, Dokk P, Jim Fowler and Keith Tanaka seconds before the get-go.

Mike Steube is the King of F1, and Bryan Warmack is the Dauphin. Paul survived to collect a 3rd spot with a motor less than stellar.

* Fastest lap, new race record
 

Retro Can-Am  Qualifying

The field before tech inspection. Yes, tech is lenient because after all, is this not for fun?

Concours laureates with the Lolas of Paul Sterrett, Jim Fowler and Bryan Warmack.

Concours winner was Jim Fowler with this wild Lola T160.

* Fastest lap, new qualifying record

** Identical times to the 1-million", back-up time made the difference.

Retro Can-Am "C" Race

Mark Wampler led from start to finish and fought John Javier to the end, edging John by less than a lap for the win. Behind them, a virtual demolition-fest took place with Steve Walker surviving the carnage in 3rd, ahead of the munchkin club of Brendan and Gavin Aguirre and Gibson Coutley. Jay Henry was doing well with his brand new Gorski car when his pinion began to slip on his motor. He was subjected (by force and circumstance) to pinion-soldering school as well as a general set-up class by Philippe de Lespinay who just happened to be there. Jay had lost too many laps to shine but encouraged by his new non-union teacher, came back with a vengeance (and a car that suddenly rocketed) to fastest lap of the race, by far.

Morality: always ask the old timers with at least a modest track record if you run into technical trouble.

The Demolition Derby ready to begin with John Javier, Gavin Aguirre, Steve Walker, Gibson Coutley, Mark Wampler, Brendan Aguirre and Jay Henry seconds before the Big One.

Mike Aguirre vainly counseling his rug-rat about where to actually use the brakes. Problem is, Gavin's finger is still too little to reach the spot.

The survivors, left to right: John Javier, Mark Wampler, Steve Walker.

The same seen from planet Earth. A bit of variety is the spice of life.

* Fastest lap

The happy winnahs: Mark W ampler is flanked by John Javier and Steve Walker.

Retro Can-Am "B" Race

Doug Matthes put 5 laps on John Cukras still in his re-learning period to win the "B" race. Behind these two, Adam Kirchhoffer survived various maladies from the finger to make the podium 4 laps ahead of Albert Cruz who had an excellent race. Ryan Miller crashed his way to 5th, setting fastest hare-lap of the day, ahead of Lee Hines in all kinds of trouble. Craig Williamson also had problems but none like Keith Tanaka who has to be the most unlucky racer I have seen in years.

* Fastest lap

Ready to rock n' roll: Hines, Kirchhoffer, Cruz, Matthes, Miller, Williamson, Tanaka and Cukras smile to the camera.

Furious action as John "The Jet" Cukras has regained his famous stance and is fighting it out with Doug Matthes.  Meanwhile, Gibson is bored to death waiting for someone, anyone, to crash.

Doug is the happy winner ahead of John and Adam.

Doug's car in center has a Kallas chassis, while Adam runs his own (right) as well as Cukras. Motors are Falcons.

Adam's Lola at right shows the scars of battle.

Retro Can-Am "A" Race

With only two laps over Mike Steube, one would believe that Bryan Warmack had a fierce battle with the former Checkpoint ace, but don't let that fool you: Bryan just MURDERED the opposition and simply cruised to an easy win with the added luck of not getting caught in some of the incidents of which his opposition fell victims.

By the second heat and after early race carnage, Bryan led by 4 laps over hapless Steube and Sterrett and Mike Kravitz. De Lespinay had been ignored by a marshal and lost 2 laps right there and then, while Mike Boemker also ran into a couple of bad breaks with an ill-handling car. Yoshio Akiyama and Jim Fowler did their best to keep up but this crowd was a tough one. In the next heat, Mike Kravitz car got destroyed and that was it for him with a case of the Kingleman DNF Syndrome. Eventually, Bryan extended his advantage to 7 laps over Steube, while Philippe got his act relatively together and passed Paul Sterrett in mortal agony to fill the last spot on the podium. Boemker held 5th spot ahead of the barely alive Akiyama and Fowler who spent lots of time in the pits for various fuel-pressure problems.

* Fastest lap, new race record

Jim Fowler, the Dokk, Yoshio, Mike S., Mike B., Paul S. and Mike Kravits, with Bryan W. on the tough red lane.

The podium cars with Mike and Bryan Lolas and the de Lespinay Ferrari 312.

Bryan's car in center is most imaginative and uses simple but efficient design. Mike's new car at left was good but proved no match for it, and neither did his other machine driven by the Dokk.

Bryan Warmack now 3 for 3! Mike has some work to do and so does de Lespinay. Back to the drawing board!

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