SEASON KICK-OFF
FEBRUARY 6-7
by Lynn Mills
Photos by Bruce MillerVARA found the sunny calm between relentless El Nino winter storms for its season opener at Willow Springs, February 6 & 7. It was one of those rare weekends when the desert was green, the wind was calm, and the elusive, almost-mythical springs of Willow were full and brimming.
Race Group 1 didn't discriminate between fendered and non-fendered cars -- it consisted of all the really fast, noisy cars of A, B, C Production, Formula A, and A & B Super Sports. Saturday's front row saw Dave Kopf's Chevron B16 and Brian Blain's Lola T163, but it was Joel Matta's Ralt RT1 that snared the lead at the drop of the green. Matta was never challenged for the rest of the race. Behind him, Kopf struggled to catch Blain, but after a few aps, the leaders pretty much strung out.
Meanwhile, in B roduction, Jim Bouzaglou, normally a Porsche driver and mechanic, traded in his Teutonic tin for some Detroit Iron and got way out in front in his GT350. That left Larrys Harvey (Ford Falcon) and Pond (GT350) to duel for 2nd place B Production honors. They were joined by Stan Siegel's Formula A Lola 332, which made for some breathtaking challenges in Turn 1 between the three of them.
Mid-pack, the C-Produciton Lotus Super 7s of David Yoshimura and Michael Kennedy and the B Production Mustangs of Steve Sailor and Jon Long were having their own battle. On Lap 5, with the four bunched up on the Hammerhead, first Yoshimura was successful, but Kennedy overcooked it coming down the hill and spun in Turn 5. He lost a lot of time trying to restart his car (he had to push it to get it going) and eventually rejoined the race in his rightful place behind Yoshimura, but two laps down. Meanwhile, both Sailor and Long came in prematurely with mechanical problems.
Back i the pack, two rookies -- Victor Avila (gold Lotus 26R, which according to him was raced by the great Jim Clark) and Dave Adams (Mustang) -- had a really thrilling David/Goliath race. The little Lotus tried every opportunity to slip around the Mustang, which had the horses to hold him off successfully.
Group 2 was dubbed the "Pretty Car Race", kind of a protective class for the tonier and/or rarer cars: Said Marouf's Alfa TZ2, Mike "Mr. Moly" Leicester's Dailu Mk II (aka the Widowmaker), Monique Leicester's Devin Ryan Special, Pancho Kohner's Cooper MG, John Delane's Lotus 18 Formula Jr., Bim Shook's PBS GT, the two Mercedes Benz 300Sl of Ted Strischer and Steve Marx, Joe DiLoretto's Buick-powered Dolphin, and the Lotus 23's of Larry Lim, John Klug, and Bill Steagall. It was good to welcome Steagall (editor of the Lotus 23 newsletter from his sailboat in La Pax) back in harness after three tough back surgeries.
At the green, first into Turn 1 was the Dolphin, while unfortunately, first into the pits was Kohner's Cooper MG. Larry Harvey, racing his Formula A Lola T142 (which he couldn't run in Group 1 because he ran his B Prod Falcon in that group), took the lead on Lap 3 and never gave it up. Behind him battled two specials, DiLoreto's Dolphin and Leicester's Widowmaker. That Widowmaker has the best sound coming down the straight, but try as he might, Leicester couldn't beat DiLoreto, until the Dolphin went belly up and came in on Lap 8.
Meanwhile, Leicester's wife, a veteran ice racer from Canado, drove the newly restored Devin Ryan Special. Mrs. Moly had a nice mix with the Stroscher and Marx's Mercedes for the first few laps until the Mercedes duo pulled away. Marx got by Strosche in lap 8 and went on to finish 7th. While most of the other cars strung out towards the end, the Lotus 23s of Lim and Klug went at it hard until the last lap or so when Klug pulled away and caught Leicester's Widowmaker to finish 2nd overall.
Next up was F Production and Formula C. Ron Hlavka's MGB flat-out dominated, turning lap times a full four seconds faster than anyone else out there. But the best race was behind him in a pack led by Ken Rodenbush's Volvo, followed by Dick Hughes Alfa Guilietta, Bill Burroughs' Triumph TR4A, and the Triumph Spitfires of Nigel Olsson and Cris Vandagriff (VARA's new Chief Driving Instructor). The racing between these six was tight and terrific. When the Spitfires of Olsson and Vandagriff weren't swapping places, they were side by side, and since the cars are twins, it was hard to tell from a distance which one was in front of the other, but the order was always changing.
Towards the end of the contest, the pack spread out a bit, but Hughes and Rodenbush were still duking it out for 2nd. On Lap 6, Hughes got Rodenbush coming off the Turn 6 Launching Pad, but Rodenbush tenaciously stayed on Hughes' rear end all the way through Turns 8 and 9, and got him back in Turn 1. Hughes held relentlessly onto Rodenbush's tailpipe, even through lapped traffic, but couldn't get around him and had to settle for 3rd. Later Burroughs' TR4 triumphed over Olsson's and Vandagriff's earlier Spitfires in the battle of the Triumphs for 4th overall.
The racing in the Formula Ford group was also tight. The Lola T202's of David Stillwell and Fred Yoshimura shared the front row but not for long. By Lap 2, Yosh's Team Orgeron teammate, Robert Clarke in his Lola 202, moved into 2nd place and into the lead in the next lap. Although Stillwell hung tight onto Clarke (in fact, their lap times were identical -- 1:32.854), he had to settle for runner-up position. Yohsimura held firmly onto 3rd, while behind him, Randy Phelan's Lotus was ensconced in 4th. Behind them, the Lotus 51 of Linda Lee got ahead of Degnan for good. Randy Wilson made a good start (4th place after one lap) but faded with mechanical problems.
The last race, D and E Production featured a hot battle for 5th and 6th overall between Eric Allard (E Prod Mini Cooper) and Ray de Silva (D Prod Alfa GTV). The two swapped places, drafted each other, out-braked and out-faked each other over and over again, just like those NASCAR boys -- afterward, a worn-out, sweaty Allard said it was the best race he'd ever had, and he's had a number of good ones.
On Sunday, Joel Matta in his Formula A Ralt was again king of Group 1. Dave Kopf's Chevron beat Brian Blain's Lola T163 into Turn 1 and held onto 2nd place overall for several laps until Blain outdeeped him going into Turn 1. Jim Bouzaglou was the fastest of the Shelbys, to begin and finish an uncontested 4th overall, 1st in B Produciton.
Behind him, Larry Harvey (Falcon) and Larry Pond (GT350) picked up where they left off Saturday, with Harvey trying really hard to get Pond but coming up short each time. Adding to his frustrations, Harvey was nipped by Stan Siegel's Formula A Lola on the last lap to displace him for 6th overall. Starting from the back of the pack, Larry Hart (after borrowing Mike Kennedy's spare tranny for his Lotus Elan Coupe) deftly worked his way up through traffic to snare 1st in C Production by the end of the first lap. Behind him, Mike Kennedy and David Yoshimura's Super 7s resumed tehir battle from the day before, with Yoshimura holding off Kennedy, to take 2nd in C Production, 9th overall.
Again, the race to watch was Victor Avila (Lotus 26R) and Dave Adams (Mustang). Avila followed Adams as close as a hangnail (other than the times they were door handle to door handle down the front straight). Avila passed Adams mid-race but was unable to make it stick. Then, with two laps to go, the Lotus finally eked past the Mustang in Turn 8. A frustrated Adams took a valiant last shot at Avila but lost it in Turn 9, and Avila was home free and 14th overall (5th in C Production).
On Sunday, Group 3 was mainly a time trial, albeit a very handsome one, with only the Benzs of Ted Stroscher and Steve Marx doing any place swapping. Stoscher's margin of victory was less than a half second over Marx. Larry Harvey's Lola was the overall winner once again. Second place finisher, Mike Leicester put his Widowmaker ahead of John Klug's Lotus 23 on the first lap, and he never looked back.
In F Production on Sunday, Ron Hlavka again shot into the lead and stayed there. Behind him snarled a pack made up of Ken Rodenbush's Volvo, Bill Burroughs' TR4, Dick Hughes' Alfa and rookie Allen Corbett in buddy Jeff Ireland's BMW. On Lap 2, Burroughs edged past Rodenbush on the inside in Turn 1 and held 2nd place for the rest of the race. First Hughes, then Corbett passed the Volvo. Cris Vandagriff's Spitfire sheared a stub axle, sending him backwards into a bluff and altogether runing his weekend. Luckily, only the car was hurt. There was also good racing back in the pack between the Sprites of Bill Barham and Olivier Sermet. It looked like anyone's race, until Sermet was forced to drop back on the last lap to avoid a spinning competitor, enabling Barham and rookie Jim Roth's Elva Courier to outfinish them.
The Formula Fords featured good raing again on Sunday. It was teammate Fred Yoshimura who gave Robert Clarke a run for his money, while David Stillwell had trouble with his car and never did better than 3rd. Yoshimura stayed with Clarke for half the race, until he missed a shift coming down the Hammerhead and lost touch with him. Behind them, the rest of the Fords had an exciting battle. In 4th place, Jim Degnan was the leader of the rowdy pack consisting of Jim Phelan, Chris Ronson, Linda Lee, Carl Thompson, Jeff Robin, and Mike Fazzi. Those five swapped places and mixed it up througout the race just inches from Degnan's tailpipe, but unflappable, he managed to hold them off. Phelan managed to pull off 5th, followed by Ronson and Lee.
Things changed Sunday in E/D Production. Second place finisher (1st in DP1) Stan Rinne packed up early to get home to Alameda before the approaching storm hit. Dan Verstuyft took the early lead, while Rex Chalmers nipped at his heels. Chalmers drew on all his past SCCA experience, but Verstuyft, a wily old SCCA vet himself, managed to keep the frustrated Alfa driver at bay. De Silva's Alfa was cozy in 3rd place, while Howard Matloff (Alfa) moved up from 10th to 4th place with the race's hottes lap time of 1:42:7. Right behind him, Peter Giacobbi turned a lap time just two hundredth's shy of that. Starting 20th was Tom Ohmer (Porsche 356B), who carved his way through traffic with surgical precision. He worked his way up to 8th, challenging Don Queen's Morgan SS for the last three laps, but Queen held firmly to 7th place overall.
Sunday afternoon, the hardier stuck around for the "Austrailian Pursuit" race. The idea is to grid the cars from the slowest to the fastest (giving the faster ones a time handicap) so that theoretically all the cars should cross the finishe line at the same time. It didn't work out that way but was fun for the participants and spectators anyhow.
The grid included everything: formula cars, sports racers, and production cars. First out was Randy Wilson's Formula Vee, then one by one, and sometimes two, three, and five at a time, the cars were flagged out with a roaring standing start. Over six minutes after the first car went out, the fastest car, David Kopf's Chevron B16, was sent out. Suffering from tortoise and the hare syndrome, Kopf, (by far, his was the fastest car out there) figured he could still win even with a driver's change, and came in mid-race to put hot-shoe Ed Swart behind the wheel. The plan didn't work, though. Joel Matta's Shelby GT350 was the winner, followed by Robert Clarke's Formula ford, and Bill Steagalls Lotus 23. In a race where little cars can finish ahead of some of the bigger cars, F Production's Dick Hughes (Alfa) and Nigel Olsson's Spitfire rounded out the top five.
All in all, the weekend was a great kick-off to VARA's '93 season. This year, in an effort to encourage more authentically prepared cars, VARA has created a separate group within each class for them. It's slowly catching on which gives those cars in this less populous group a decided advantage in the points championship. It will be interesting to see how the new system works out.
A big thank you to Michael Kennedy for generously offering me his Super Lotus 7 -- now I realize why he goes so fast. It's fast, it's graceful (it almost feels like the car itself is curving when it takes the turns), and it was touch to pry me out of it.