USRA Division 3 Nostalgia Can-Am 1/24 Scale  January 13, 2007

Buena Park, CA

Story by "Gene Husting", pictures courtesy Barry Obler and Mike Steube

Team Checkpoint Steals The Show.

Steube mauls Anderson while team mate de Lespinay takes the "B" and the first Retro NASCAR contest. Mike Aguirre survives the "C" race.

Picture courtesy Barry Obler

The first 2007 USRA Division 3 Race was hosted by Buena Park Raceway's gracious hosts Chris and Lenore Gallegos, showing their usual kindness and care. The race was run the on the challenging Kingleman track. Practice by serious racers in the past weeks had shown various levels of performance, with the top times being set by the Matthes family, father and son. Bryan Warmack and Tore Anderson had also been practicing their well-sorted machinery, and the "Checkpoint Twins" Steube and de Lespinay had been struggling to bring their new chassis up to snuff. Others had been thrashing along, showing various levels of brilliance or despair. The stage was set.

That is until a controversy about a speculation about new entry fees arose without cause. This possibly slowed several racers from showing up as well as the announced earlier starting time. In fact, race time for the Retro can-Am began only an hour earlier than usual, also ending an hour earlier to the satisfaction of all.

Pre-race activity

We had the pleasure of being visited by Fred "Kenny" Larimer, a veteran of the famed Team Russkit in the 1960's. Fred, now in the public relation business, brought his well worn Team Russkit slot car box with him. The old Hoffman lost most of its original varnish due to extensive use during and after Fred quit racing, as his brother kept at it for a while. It contained a late 1968 vintage race car possibly built by Mike Morrissey as well as a few other interesting items.

Old friends Bryan Warmack and Fred "Kenny" Larimer inspect the contents of the old Hoffman box. Note the large Russkit decal, reserved to Team members. Fred was loaned a Retro Can-Am car and a controller to have a try and was back in the groove quite rapidly, proving the saying about the old bicycle. Who knows, he might come back and race with the Division 3 boys before too long...

This old racing car bears all the signs of a "Morrissey Pile" and was built in late 1968 when new technology was being invented as fast as one would barely have the time to adapt to last week's winning concept. This car features the famous "plumber's nightmare" side pans suspension arrangement.

This display of incredible painting talent was brought by Philippe for all to enjoy. The two bodies on top left are the recent creations of Joe "Noose" Neumeister, while all others are fabulous replicas by Jairus Watson of 1970's bodies originally created by Keiji Kanegawa and Earl Campbell. These were commissioned by Scott Bader for helping the restoration of glorious old pro-racing cars.

Retro NASCAR

May this writer suggest that we change the name of this new class to Retro NICECARS? Indeed this is really what they are, nice and fun while being extremely simple and seemingly bullet-proof. Only 5 entrants showed for this first race, mostly because some could not complete their cars in time while others snubbed it with a "wait and see" attitude.

Retro NASCAR nobodies pay their respects to Division 3 president Paul Sterrett and  Retro NASCAR man in charge, Jeff Easterly. Terry de los Santos is oblivious of the ceremony at hand.

The absent missed a great and fun event, where laughing was about at the same level as racing. Jeff Easterly who initiated the new class was also its master builder, providing no less than 4 of the 5 entered chassis.

The field with the thingie body clearly outlined by its driver after he was made aware of his boo-boo. Jeff Easterly's Edsel is the green thing with the # 10 over its roof. Paul's Plymouth is on green, Terry's DeSoto on blue.

Yours Truly was blessed with a brand new Easterly machine, a beautifully-built car that handled nicely and had a great motor. After a few setup touches, it handled fabulously well and dominated the event. Interestingly, it ran exactly as fast with or without a body, showing that aero was not exactly going to be a factor in this new class. But it used a body deemed to be illegal (a honest mistake that will be corrected for the next race) that DID help some when twice, it was able to get under errand cars and kept going on to an easy win over the Plymouth built and expertly driven by Paul Sterrett. Terry de los Santos also had a great car built by Jeff Easterly and only his over-enthusiastic driving kept him from challenging the two leaders. Easterly had his usual problems but was able to keep Jeff Bell at bay, this probably only because Jeff spent most of his time laughing too hard instead of concentrating on the job at hand. Or finger. Whatever.

This is a GREAT new class and this writer encourages all to participate. The cars handle great and have plenty of speed, and their strength under severe impacts put any Flexi-based cars to shame.

Sterrett, de Lespinay and de los Santos sharing the spoils of victory.

Retro NASCAR Race Results

Retro Can-Am

Qualifying

Track conditions changed continuously over the day and were somewhat loose by the time qualifying began. In spite of the new entry-fee online protest (there was no change in the entry fee process by the way...), no less than 24 entries were recorded. After agonizing over which combination of chassis and body to use, Mike Steube set a blistering time that bettered Tore Anderson's Hammer Machine by a mere 4 thousands of a second. Sterrett was third, a shade over hare-lapper Adam Kirchhoffer. Mike Boemker showed that he can run his car as well as his keyboard by being next with a very fast car. Doug Matthes edged Bryan Warmack and his son Kyle for the final "A" Race spots.

After struggling with motors all morning, Philippe de Lespinay had found a decent one, but when his time came to qualify, the motor was just slow. Too slow in fact to make it in the top race, at 3.8" and some. A vastly improved Jeff Easterly was next in the 3.8" group ahead of team mate Terry de los Santos, Yoshio Akiyama being the top 3.9" time setter. They were followed by Roger Uusitalo and Mike Brannian, with out-of-towners Jeff Bell and Steve Walker rounding the "B" race qualifiers.

Fastest of the "C" racers was Rick Salvino with Mike Aguirre and John Javier in tow, all in the 4-second bracket. Indeed, track conditions were not the best seen there, the track being quite loose. John Sinz bettered little  Brendan Aguirre, his brother Gavin (barely tall enough to see over the track) and a very enthusiastic Gibson Coutley.

Before qualifying, Paul once again outlined the Division 3 basic philosophy and financial racing conditions. This time, people did listen and when Paul registered the racers, most favored the format and signed up to the program.

Jeff Bell's "Slot Zombie" jackets were everywhere.

"C" Race:

The cars before the demolition derby. Mike Aguirre's orange Lola on orange lane sits next to the other orange Lola "Old Faithful" driven by Evan Javier to fastest lap in the race. The white and red Abarth was the lethal weapon driven by Gibson Coutley, while the yellow Lola was its punching ball for much of the race.

The race was possibly the biggest crash fest witnessed by this writer in a long time. The mix of little people, just over rug-rat age, with the regular adults provided for some serious entertainment, but made the 24-minute race last nearly a full hour long as extremely loud tracks calls were screamed from some of the younger drivers on a regular 3-second basis.

The "C" race field. L to R: miniature person Gavin Aguirre, Rick Salvino, John Javier, Evan Javier, Mike Aguirre, young  Brendan Aguirre, John Sinz and future star soprano singer Gibson Coutley.

It was hard to tell who was actually leading or losing as every racer was off track more often than on. Eventually, the Natural Order of Things prevailed and Mike Aguirre bettered Rick Salvino and John Sinz, while the three munchkins, after many attempts at taking other racers for target practice, closed the ranks. Somehow, John Javier managed to keep cool enough to place his car in fourth place while son Evan drove "Old Faithful" loaned to him by Philippe de Lespinay and got his fingers entangled long enough to set fastest lap of the race. Fun was had by the spectators, while the track marshals were certainly kept quite busy by the whole act. Apparently, all the machinery survived intact save from a few outer-skin bruises.

No, this is not a staged picture. These cars actually ended locked into each other during this uh, incident...

The survivors: John Sinz, Mike Aguirre and Rick Salvino with an unidentified munchkin. Or could it be...

"C" Race Results

*  Fastest lap

"B" Race:

Another but milder crash-filled race. While early leader Mike Brannian had a major hit that deranged 3 of his car's frame rails, Philippe de Lespinay was running the 'bad" lanes and overtook Mike in the fourth heat with his dead-slow but good-handling car. Being consistent is important if one wants to win with a slower machine but fortunately for de Lespinay, the faster cars kept crashing all over including into his own at times, fortunately causing no other damage but to make its driver sweat a bit.

Ready for take off. To the right is Mike Brannian's Ferrari, beautifully painted by Jairus Watson in the style of the 1960's pro-racing cars.

Ready for some serious flying action...

Action in the second heat: the pale blue car is that of de Lespinay after it tangled with those of Akiyama and Bell. Philippe is shaking his head in disbelief as a young marshal is learning the ropes. Yoshi and Jeff are patiently awaiting the outcome. Jeff and Terry are making another 3 laps and catch up, all smiles.   Picture courtesy Barry Obler

When the Team Checkpoint car reached the fast orange lane, it set a slightly faster and consistent pace unmatched by others, eventually overtaking the fastest car in the race, that of Yoshio Akiyama. Meanwhile Mike Brannian ran into his troubles. Steve Walker was keeping a fast pace and was only 5 laps down, anything could still happen. Meanwhile Roger Uusitalo was best of the rest and keeping as much out of trouble as he could.

In heat 6, Terry de los Santos made his move and came from 5th to 3rd as Steve Walker was in deep agony on purple. In the next heat, Steve found the black lane really tough and lost another 6 laps, while Philippe now on blue extended his lead to 10 laps over Yoshi. Jeff Bell once again had too much fun to be concentrating on his driving and after a good  start when he held 4th place, his car became the race's caboose after too many uh, off-track incidents.

Philippe's Steube car was almost identical to Mike's, but sported .032" thick pans and needed no extra lead. The Lola body was painted by Tore Anderson.

Geek du jour Philippe de Lespinay points out the checkpoint painted on his body as the true force behind the team. Yoshio finished in a solid second place, and Terry came back from the depths to grab a well-deserved third-place finish.

"B" Race Results

*  Fastest lap

"A" Race:

The start of the "A" race had lots o' Lolas, a lone Ti22 and a Ferrari.

This is it! In a few seconds, all will know where they stand. The usual battle between the two racing giants, Anderson and Steube, will resume, while Warmack is making huge progress getting closer to the front.

Everyone expected a tight contest between the three stars of Division 3, Mike Steube, Tore Anderson and Paul Sterrett, and they were rewarded with a festival of beautiful driving by all, including the rising stars Doug and Kyle Matthes and returning old glory Bryan Warmack. Mike Steube took the lead over Bryan in the first heat, with Kyle Matthes and Mike Boemker in a fight for 3rd. Anderson was 2 laps in arrear on the slower red lane, with Paul running into some bad luck and losing 6 laps on purple. It also became clear that Adam Kirchhoffer's car was having major handling woes on yellow, the car a full 7 laps down in the first heat.

Where are the cars? FLYING of course, as the marshal keep attentive to any mishap. Jeff Easterly practices his praying mantis skills while Jeff Bell checks if he still has all his fingers.

Tore took the lead in the third heat with a single lap advantage as Mike got a seriously bad break on black when he lost 2 laps in a rather clumsy marshaling effort. Bryan Warmack overtook Kyle for third with a one-lap cushion. Mike Boemker now on purple, began fading, 6 laps off the lead, while Paul Sterrett regained two.

Mike Steube put a valiant effort on yellow and reeled Anderson now in the same lap, with Anderson making small mistakes as the pressure was getting intense. Bryan was third, inches over Kyle, while father Doug was now 9 laps off the lead with Sterrett pressing him another lap behind. Boemker was falling like a stone on black, now in 7th. In the 5th heat, Steube took a decisive advantage on a lead he would never relinquish, getting a 3-lap advantage and pushing Tore to admitting defeat: "Mike, yer yankin' me man!"

Main-event action with Sterrett, Anderson, Doug Matthes, Warmack, Kirchhoffer and Kyle Matthes hacking it out. Paul appears to have some fun, but all others are concentrated as no mistake is permitted to access to top three spots. The battle between the two Matthes and Bryan Warmack lasted to the end of the final heat, Warmack bringing his beautiful car ever closer to a winning position.

Tore, now on green, set a torrid pace to keep up with Mike Steube now on purple, but the 2-lap advantage remained. Boemker and Kyle Matthes held third and fourth two laps behind Anderson, Doug Matthes another lap in arrears. Paul Sterrett was in almost as much agony on black as on purple and was now a full 11 laps behind, seriously out of contention. His car appeared to be too tight for the track conditions and just refused to negotiate the tight dead-man turns on those lanes.

Doug Matthes (foreground) next to Mike Boemker. Mike was doing real well until he hit the "dark" lanes and plunged in the order. Doug really thought to have third-place locked until the last heat where he encountered racing luck.

Behind the torrid fight for the lead, Warmack built himself a one-lap cushion over young Kyle Matthes, while Doug was another lap behind, Paul was now in a position of gaining a possible podium spot as he was now merely 3 laps behind Bryan. In heat 6, Mike kept his 3-lap advantage over Tore who never gave up, and Doug Matthes put a terrific drive on green to overtake both Warmack and his son Kyle for 3rd spot. Sterrett did not recover and was still 3 laps behind this group. The 7th heat saw Anderson regain a lap on a now careful Steube while Doug held Bryan at bay. The last heat saw Anderson risk it all but the effort was in vain as Mike put another lap on him, now flying on green. Doug ran into some trouble and Bryan took over 3rd for good, with Kyle in fifth after some rough time on the slow lanes. Paul Sterrett had a "Philippe Incident" and got severely walled in a rider situation, snapping his rear axle. Race over. Adam Kirchhoffer was able to bring his sick car ahead in the last 2 minutes of racing.

And this is how it ended, with Mike winning on this tough track again, and Anderson now with no less than three second-placing here. How frustrating is that? Fortunately, Tore will have the opportunity to equalize the score in the next Retro Can-Am race over the King.

"A" Race Results

*  Fastest lap

These three have every reason to be very pleased with their finish. While Tore did not win, he certainly never gave up. Bryan is getting faster every race and is now a serious threat to his tow childhood friends.

The winning trio: Tore's Lola on the left and Bryan's Ferrari flank Mike's winning Lola.

While Tore and Mike's cars are relatively similar, Bryan's car is a beauty of utter simplicity. Cut from a single piece of .025" brass, it is simply flexing as needed. It certainly worked on this track.

Mike Steube's winning machine had last-minute  avoirdupois added to the side pans as track conditions requires a bit more pressure on the old rubber tires. The extremely simple car ran flawlessly.     Picture courtesy Mike Steube

The fastest retro Can-Am in the West shows its clean and uncluttered lines. Its sister car driven by de Lespinay had a rock for a motor but handled just as sweetly.     Picture courtesy Mike Steube

Tore's legendary hammer is now on display on the Wall of Shame display. Don't ask!

Return to the Race Reports Page