West Coast D3 Racing
F1 & Can-Am races, October 13, 2007
Buena Park, CA

Anderson and de Lespinay share the wins, the new D3 "spec" motor shines.
By "Gene Husting", photos by "Al Hall"... (Seriously, pictures courtesy Keith Tanaka)
 

Pre Race Activity

While the Retro Formula One / Indy race cars used the old handout TSRF motors for the last time, The Retro Can-Am race was the first using the new TSR D3-spec motor exclusively. The motors had been shipped to raceway owner Chris Gallegos, who had an ink stamp manufactured so as to mark the motors for this race only. This was to prove a point, and the point was simply well made as the same Usual Suspects were found in their typical finishing order, putting a definite clamp on the rumors of cheating that had been floating for a while. People, if you THINK that you are being consistently beaten by those so-called "cheaters", please get a grip: you are too slow.  And it has nothing to do with your motor because as all racers witnessed, save for the few usual complainers, and to quote Chris Gallegos: "I have never seen such even motor speed in any racing class, period."

New cars had been build by many to use the newly found power, and several ultra-lightweight chassis appeared, the most impressive being that of Monty Ohren for Chris Radisich and himself.  Unfortunately, they did not handle the power too well as the track was stuck with glue and had not been cleaned on Friday evening as it should have been, because some racers liked the traction. This will never happen again, and regardless of conditions, it was agreed that the track will ALWAYS be cleaned the evening before any D3 races.

Mike Steube's car, that was doing really good laps earlier during the week, was so stuck that it became un-drivable, and he reverted to his back-up car that de Lespinay was going to race since his own chassis was far from being satisfactory (translation: it was a pile). Others liked the grip but the drag in the straightaway did cost a good 1/10" if not more to most cars.

Retro F1/ Indy Qualifying

17 racers applied for the right to be "F1 King of the King". Mike Steube set a new qualifying record for F1/Indy, bettering Philippe's previous 4.9666" record with a blistering 4.9377". No one was even close or broke the 4-second mark, Keith Tanaka being fastest of the rest at 5.0756".  Doug Matthes was impressive at 5.0776", with de Lespinay a full 1/10th behind at 5.1765" after his 8-race old rocket motor appeared to have died in practice, hence using another used motor from the handout box. Pete Zimmerman was first of the Team Legend at 5.2194", right ahead of John Cukras with a 5.2743". John Wakamatsu was next and the third Team Legend racer at  5.3043", all three bogged in the leftover glue. Kyle Matthes was equally bogged at 5.4065" ahead of Paul Sterrett in dire hurts with low power with too much bite, at 5.4522". Terry de los Santos was a no-qualifier and started from the last spot, but as you will see, did quite well for himself.

The Balding, Aging, Evil Dokk himself, tech-checking the cars for minimum tire diameters as well as width, clearance and Snell certification of drivers helmets. I mean, who is wearing a dress shirt at slot car races nowadays???

* New qualifying record

Retro F1/ Indy "B" Race

Run in round-Robin format, the race began with Terry de los Santos taking an immediate lead that he would never relinquished. But Mike Chavez on the tough red lane also turned 31 laps, making him a contender. Sinz was a lap behind with Uusitalo, Morales and Akiyama all with 30 laps. Terry got another lap over Chavez in heat 2, with Oscar another lap behind. Paul Sterrett came in but could only turn 30 laps on red, hurting for torque in the glue.
In the next few heats, Terry and Mike kept only 2 laps apart with John Sinz another lap behind. As Terry stretched his lead, the battle went for the tow other podium spots, and after mike Chavez ran into some trouble, John Sinz passed him to end ahead by half a lap. Oscar Morales drove his best race yet with his new PM controller ahead of a hapless, powerless Paul Sterrett who will surely welcome the advent of the new D3 motor for the next F1 race. Yoshio ended in 6th place ahead of Ken Bryan who did well for his first D3 race. Roger Uusitalo and Mark Wampler were left in their dust with too many mechanical issues.

The "B" race field with the Mike Chavez Lotus 56 on the red lane. Next to it is Yoshi's Cooper-Maz and Terry's Ferrari.

The "B" racers ready to pounce. L to R: Mark Wampler, John Sinz, Ken Bryan, Roger Uusitalo, Oscar Morales, Terry de los Santos, Yoshio Akiyama, Mike Chavez and series founder Paul Sterrett.

D3 novice Ken Bryan held his own against the big boyz.

Da winnahs! Terry flanked by John and Mike.

John and Terry's Ferraris with Mike's Lotus after their race.

* Fastest lap

Retro F1/ Indy "A" Race

Terry de los Santos moved up to the "A" race after his dominating performance. At the flag, Keith Tanaka took an immediate lead and began stretching it over de Lespinay and Cukras, with de los Santos close behind. Mike Steube then entered the fray and took the lead on average. But after it purged its cleaning fluid, Philippe's motor got going again, and going, and by the end of the second heat, his car began slowly reeling Mike's  and by heat 4, took the lead that it would never relinquished. Mike fought tooth and nail but Philippe's lighter car had too much of a top speed advantage, able to pull an extra tooth on the crown. At the end, Philippe kept controlling the pace on the slower white lane and still edged Mike by a single lap. Both bettered the previous race records, both for lap speed and lap total.

Terry de los Santos was "best of the rest" with a superb performance in third place over the very competitive Doug Matthes and poor Keith Tanaka who collected an errant car that simply destroyed the nose of his Ferrari. John Wakamatsu was in 6th spot with a car lacking both horsepower and cornering speed (likely too much grip on the stuck track) ahead of a disappointed Kyle Matthes in the same predicament. Pete Zimmerman had similar problems but kept the finger all the way down, that resulted in a lot more crashes that it was worth. Pete wanted more horsepower and he will get that by the next race as the class moves to the new motor. John Cukras simply gave up, pulled his controller and went to work on his Can-Am car and utter frustration.
 

The de Lespinay's Steube-built Lotus 49 next to the Tanaka Cooper-Maserati, Wakamatsu Cooper, Cukras Ferrari, Doug and Kyle Matthes Coopers,  Zimmerman and de los Santos Ferraris.

The drivers seconds before the start.

Mike Steube has joined the fray and is chasing his team mate. Cukras looks dejected and will soon pack up. The next F1 race will get him all the power he would like to have had today.

Terry de los Santos won the "B" and did very well in the "A" race against the two former Checkpoint team mates. Mike missed the win by a mere lap after chasing Philippe the whole race. Today, de Lespinay had a "no fault" and kept a one-lap advantage at the end. His Steube chassis was on rails and never came off.

The two Steube Lotuses and the Santos Ferrari.

3 Steube chassis of different configurations. Today the lighter car won as its top speed was simply too much for the heavier cars to match.

Mike built this chassis nearly a year ago. It was badly damaged during the last Hillclimb D3/F1 race. Philippe repaired it just in time for the King race, but motor problems surfaced. Once fixed after a motor wash, the car was simply a rocket. At 98 grams it was the lightest F1 car on the track. Gearing was 9/27.

* New race record

Retro Can-Am Qualifying

No less than  30 racers qualified and raced the D3 Retro Can-Am event.  Despite the track being somewhat stuck, Bryan Warmack was punched all the way to set a new qualifying record on the King with a blistering 4.1608". The previous record was held by Mike Steube at 4.3398" using the previous generation Falcon V. This is to be compared in some ways with Joel Montague's world record of 4.11" on the King in 1970. Regardless of track-design and construction progress, think that a 10-dollar motor stuck in a dead-simple INLINE chassis with virtually no added aero, is generating average speeds comparable to that of state-of-the-art pro-racing cars fitted with hand-built C can motors with single-24 wound armatures... truly amazing!

Pete Zimmerman was also fast and broke the pervious track record with a clean 4.2007", followed by a disappointed Anderson who could not coax any more than a 4.2796" from his Warmack-built loaner. He also bettered the previous track record.  So did Mike Steube in semi agony with his back-up car at 4.2826".

Best of the rest was Philippe de Lespinay who was resigned to drive his own lightweight pile and scrounged a 4.3725" after he added a couple of lead slabs to it,  barely cutting Ryan Miller in constant progress at 4.3953".
Yoshio Akiyama had a rocket and set a personal best at 4.4223". Paul Sterrett was absolutely stuck in the sticky mess and resigned himself to a 4.4622", edging Kyle Matthes also stuck by mere thousands of a second. Bob Scott was on "visitor's pole" at 4.4985" followed by the second of Team Legend contenders, John Cukras, who had forgotten to remove the small shunt used on the TSR RTR cars and shorted his chassis out.
Chris Radisich was having trouble with his ultra-light car, lacking speed everywhere, and could only cut a 4.5435" just ahead of his partner in crime Monty Ohren at 4.5721".

Conditions were so stuck that even with the new horsepower, many went actually slower than their previous qualifying times on this track. This was the case for Mike Aguirre hurting with a lowly 5.1953, nearly a second slower than pole-sitter Warmack.

John Sinz had another twin-motor car using two D3 motors and it FLEW. But it simply could not corner and transition fast enough to be truly competitive. It is not impossible to think of the day when one such car will actually prevail, but... not yet.

25 of the 30 cars entered awaiting tech inspection.

Both Warmack cars were painted the same, and it did cause confusion to Bryan who at one time drove... Anderson's car, or so he thought! In fact his car had been the victim of an errant Zimmerman-mobile under the bridge. All cars were fast and closely matched.

The variety of chassis design was astounding. And all work quite well!

Bryan qualifying, setting a blistering new record. This writer has little doubt that another 1/10th or better could have been achieved on a drier track. Gibson is awaiting his turn while Yoshi is shock-and-awed by the speed shown on the monitor.

* New qualifying record

Bryan's record-setting chassis was a very simple affair. Easy to build, it is a solid, predictable performer and works well on all 3 Buena Park tracks. Weight is around 105 grams for the king. Bryan adds weight for use on the other tracks. Note that everything is fabricated from flat .042" brass sheet including the motor bracket. Gearing is 9/26. Wheels are JK, guide and crown gear by Parma, angled pinion by ARP.

Retro Can-Am "C" Race

To save time and aggravation and because several of the racers had booked flights or other obligations later that afternoon, the races were split in 3 events rather than the usual 4.

The "C" race, run in round-robin format, saw an outrageous domination by Rick "Sandbag" Salvino who crushed his team mate Mike Aguirre by no less than 17 laps. Dale Garcia did well and ended in 3rd spot ahead of newbie Bob Hackl with a Mike Steube-built loaner, the very car that won the first D3 Can-Am race a bit over a year ago on the older King track. Oscar Morales kept his cool and using his new PM controller, was able to hold Roger Uusitalo not in his best of days. Albert Cruz cruised to a 7th place spot ahead of "Zero" Aguirre and Ken Bryan who had his troubles.

The "C" race on the starting line. Ken Bryan's Ti22 is on red.

L to R: Mike Aguirre, Rick Salvino, Brendan Aguirre, Bob Hackl, Oscar Morales, Albert Cruz, Dale Garcia and Ken Bryan, all seemingly happy before the destruction derby.

Bryan and Hackl were both D3 novices and acquitted themselves quite well. Hackl finished in 4th spot after holding 2nd spot for a long time. Bryan had a bit of a stiffer learning curve and placed 9th. After this race, the Hackl motor went into the de Lespinay car and placed 4th in the "A" race, never losing any speed. Proof that a D3 motor can run at least two good races.

Albert Cruz and D3 novice Dale Garcia also had a good race. Albert is a true amateur and a collector of older slot cars.

"Wing Rick" Salvino had little trouble beating on little children after outrageously sandbagging during his qualifying run. His team mate Mike Aguirre was simply crushed by Rick's mastery of intimidation. Dale Garcia had his first podium in his first D3 race. A good start!

* Fastest lap

Retro Can-Am "B" Race

John Cukras led Chris Radisich and Monty Ohren by one lap after the first heat. All others were already in the weeds as the old pros simply ran away and had a battle between themselves. Most hurting was Mark Wampler with only 25 laps on green and off for a while for some rebuilding time. With Cukras on stand-by, Radisich and Ohren got in the same lap with Tanaka now only two behind. Radisich then got a 2-lap advantage over Ohren, with Tanaka now in the same lap as the motor man. But the Big-O twins began pulling away, simply out driving everyone with cars that were not especially kind. By race end, Chris had won with a 3-lap advantage over Ohren, while Cukras was an unhappy third another 4 laps behind with a car simply stuck in the glue. Tanaka survived to fourth. Everyone else was simply way out of contention against those very serious customers. First in class was Mike Chavez, a true amateur learning fast. Mark Wampler came back after a vacation to edge young Gibson Coutley who frustrated himself from wall to wall with his on-off switch. Someone ought to offer Gibson a real controller and a pacifier.
 

The "B" machines awaiting the signal.

L to R: Gibson Coutely, Chris Radisich, Steve Walker, Monty Ohren, John Wakamatsu, Mark Wampler, John "The Jet" Cukras after a poor qualifying performance due to mechanical issues and Keith Tanaka.

Sinz, Radisich, Chavez and Ohren just realizing that ALL their cars are piles. Mama, it hurts!

Wakamatsu, Walker, Cukras and Gibson  ignoring each other. It worked.

Someone had to pinch Cukras to make him smile for the picture. Chris survived the carnage and moved up to the "A" race. Ohren is not displeased but there will be another day.

* Fastest lap

Retro Can-Am "A" Race

Chris Radisich moved to the "A" race but could only do 26 laps in the first heat as mechanical issues arose. The first segment was dominated by Pete Zimmerman with a record-tying 40 laps on green. Kyle was in second but already 2 laps behind, with Paul Sterrett in tow as well as stuck in traction agony. Scott, Miller and Doug Matthes made 37 laps, Yoshio crashing his way to 33 of them.

Heat two saw little change but Radisich recouped his way to 40 laps on orange, while Bob Scott moved to third spot. Mike Steube entered the contest but could only turn 39 laps on red, meaning that a win would be tough. Meanwhile, Zimmerman had now 4 laps over Scott, with Kyle on stand-by. Tore came in and turned 40 laps on red, basically crushing everyone. Then he turned 42 laps on green, setting a new D3 race record for that lane, blowing Zimmerman away. Bryan turned 39 laps on red and the race was pretty much over for everyone else.
 

Then, the crashes began. Zimmerman had serious trouble on the black lane and hit the wall several times in the "90" going under the bridge, taking a few other cars with him each time that included Warmack, badly bending his car. Yoshio was also in deep trouble and began crashing at the same spot as well as Ryan Miller, taking de Lespinay and Sterrett in the process. So that's racing luck, but the luck was in Anderson's camp as his car was away from the carnage when it happened, and he cruised to a clear and well-deserved win. Mike Steube's car flew over the lap counter a couple of times, meaning that he could have been right there with Tore for a fight to the finish, but it was not to be. Bryan was justifiably frustrated as he really thought that he would win this one before he ran into bad luck. Most surprised was Philippe in fourth spot as his car was to say the least, not the best he ever had and he encountered serious vision trouble with his unique lens. Pete Zimmerman was the biggest loser, slipping from a possible win to a lowly fifth, surviving over poor Paul Sterrett himself stuck in the muck by a mere 2 laps. Bob Scott drove a good race in 7th spot with a car that could have been faster. Chris Radisich recovered some of his early trouble, but in spite of excessively good driving, could not overcome the handicap presented by his lightweight car: plenty of speed but lacking consistency and predictability. The Matthes family were first in the amateur class, both in the same lap, in 9th and 10th spot. Miller and Akiyama crashed their way to 11th and 12th.

Line 'em up! The "A" race is about to be run. Note the variety of body styles, as everyone is searching for the miracle speed-trick.

Seconds before the flag drops, everyone poses for a pic. Bob Scott, Ryan Miller, Chris Radisich, the Matthes, Doug and Kyle, Pete Zimmerman, Paul Sterrett and Yoshio Akiyama await the signal.

The racing was intense and it shows. Pete Zimmerman is beginning to run into trouble after holding 2nd spot for a long time. Anderson simply out-drove everyone and got out of trouble.

Anderson has just lost his bearings and is checking the wind direction. Steube did some heroic driving to keep up with a car that could have been better. Warmack lost a likely win after being destroyed in multiple assaults by errant cars.

Anderson's car was a loaner from the Warmack stable. It also won Concours. The chassis is a twin-rail with fabricated brass-sheet nosepiece and side pans. Motor bracket is a Buena Park Raceway item. Wheels are JK, guide and crown gear by Parma, pinion by ARP. The body is a MAC Abarth with full spoiler.

Mike Steube's car was more conventional and used twin rails and thick brass sheet. Mike drove really well but could not hold Anderson's flawless driving and superior machinery. Back to the drawing board or...? Parts are identical to those used by the majority of entrants.

* New race record
 

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