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| Opening Night on May 15 at I-25! |
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OPENING NIGHT HIJINX by Paul Bredenberg An even 10 cars made the trek down to Pueblo's I-25 Speedway for what turned out to be the season opener for the CARC on May 15th. Changeable weather made for a tense but interesting evening of racing for the mod coupes. On hand for the festivities were Frankie Denning III (#09), Scott Rhoades (#17), Chet Graham (#33), Matt Devich (#80), Joe St. Peter (#87), Carl Vair (#45), Gary Land (#55), Cory Gordon (#21), JD Gresham (#75), and the latest addition to the CARC family, Bryan Gossel with his #34 Vicky. Practice and qualifying came off without a hitch, and nobody seemed to be in any serious mechanical trouble. Claiming the fastest qualifying position was returning Champion, Gary Land, with a 12.59. Next came 3D (12.669), Gresham (12.752), Gordon (12.814), Gossel (12.834), Rhoades (12.838), St. Peter (12.921), Vair (13.251), Graham (13.411), and Devich filling out the field at a 14.891. All cars were sporting a black stripe through their numbers in honor of our great, late friend, Warren Rhoades. The fastest four were chosen to represent the club in the first trophy dash of the season. That meant that Cory Gordon headed the grid with Gresham, Denning, and Land following. Gordon jumped into the early lead, and while Land took up the chase, Cory was able to hold off the charging yellow coupe for the entire race. Looks like Dennis Gordon found the handle on the red Vicky in the off-week since hot laps! A warm reception greeted Cory in winner's circle, and in the pits afterward. It was great to see him hoisting the beautiful trophy aloft! Next, following a very brief hailshower and with all sorts of clouds circling overhead, the gleaming mod coupes took to the track for the first heat races of the season. The slow heat was up first, with Chet Graham on the pole, Vair outside, followed by St. Peter, Rhoades and Devich (rookies are required to start their first heats from the rear of the field - not that Matt is by any stretch a rookie - more on that later). The wind, which was making it feel much colder than it really was, curiously stopped for the heats. Graham's pearl and orange #33 jumped into the early lead while Vair got off to an uncharacteristically poor start. Looked like either the tires spun or the engine just didn't want to pull. He fell down the field quickly. On lap 2, Joe St. Peter's dark blue #87 coupe pulled alongside Graham and set off into the distance. With rain spotting the track, JSP got held up a few laps later as he looked to put a lap on Matt Devich's car #80. Matt wasn't sure which lane to surrender to the charging coupe, and as a result, Scott Rhoades' black #17 coupe caught up but didn't have enough oomph to make the pass. They would be close later in the evening. Final finish showed an order of St. Peter (87), Rhoades (17), Graham (33), an atypical Vair (45) and Devich (80) bringing up the rear. The fast heat was run immediately afterward in identical conditions. Gordon started from the pole with Denning, Land, Gresham, and Gossel filling out the grid. As the green flag waved, Gordon jumped out to a quick lead, and Land found his way through the light traffic quickly. The two broke away from the rest in a spirited battle! Bryan Gossel looked to be adapting to his new ride quickly and was moving pretty well. On lap seven, Land pulled up alongside Gordon's car and the two ran door- handle-to-door-handle for a lap or so, until Land got the advantage. On the last lap, Gordon spun and stalled his car in turn two and the rest of the field, minus Gresham who had dropped out a lap earlier, passed him. Final finishing order was: Land (55), Denning (09), Gossel (34), Gordon (21), and a DNF for Gresham, who was classified 5th). I checked with JD in the pits after the race and asked what trouble had befallen him. He explained that he has been nursing a case of PNEUMONIA, and just "wore out". I'm amazed he even showed up, let alone drove! Now, THAT'S a dedicated racer! Matt Devich needed fuel (I don't understand why nobody in Fairplay has Sunoco racing fuel. . . ) and the track was out, so I volunteered to drive up the road to the Pinon Truck Stop to get him some Premium Unleaded for the Main. Just a mile and a half up the road, and you can see the sign for the truck stop from the speedway, it was pouring like the devil! As I drove back, the rain stopped just a half mile from the track. Funny state we live in. We watched rain spots come and go all night, and as I sat waiting for the Main Event to start, I was appreciating the calm and quiet as the intermission ran out. With the lights of Pueblo blinking south of the track, I had time to notice that I-25 had a decent crowd for the unstable weather conditions. There was a very ugly black cloud to the south and just before nightfall, we watched a real nasty weather cell just to the east of us. We could see that it was raining hard there, but the beautiful rainbow told me that God (who is a racing fan) wanted the CARC to run its Main Event. The wind had completely stopped and it was warmer than it had been for the heat races. During the breaks, most of the crews had been tinkering with their cars. Vair's team threw just about everything but the kitchen sink at the car, hoping for the best in the Main. Carl was totally lost in the heat race, with virtually no handling on the car. 3D was offering logical advice for Graham's crew, which they followed. We'll never know if it would have worked. Gossel's team was cleaning out the fuel filter. Rhoades' team changed spring settings and rear panhard bar adjustments in the hopes of making it "just that much faster" for the final. Gordon's crew didn't have to do much other than check stagger. Matt Devich was just happy to be there. I am impressed that he would make the 4 hour trip to run for not much prize money. He told me the car was working like his used to at Englewood in the '60s (I told you he is no rookie), with the left front lifting off the ground out of the turns. We swapped Sammy Sauer stories for awhile. Anyway, at about 8:15pm, the sound of race motors split the calm, and the full field of CARC mod coupes rolled out of staging onto the track. Well, almost all of them. Chet Graham was being pushed out of the pits and took one full lap in front of the 4-wheeler. The engine on the gorgeous car was deathly silent. I found out later that Chet's battery decided to take a nap. Chet was a DNS, and I don't think he was too happy about it. Simultaneously, Bryan Gossel's white #34 rolled to a stop between turns 3 and 4. His engine was making no noise, either. It turned out to be some sort of ignition failure - no spark. I asked him if he'd tried turning the ignition switch on, and he assured me with as much humor as he could muster that he had. That left us with eight starters. At the green, Carl Vair got another bad start that looked as bad as that in the heat. He left those behind him fending for a way around the red coupe. JSP shot into the early lead with Scott Rhoades right behind. They began what would be a race-long battle for the lead. Behind them, the field strung out quickly, and I was watching to see how long it would take Gary Land to dispatch Cory Gordon and haul after the leaders. A strange thing happened: Cory held Gary off! Lap after lap, Gary was throwing everything he had at Cory, but Cory was able to deflect Gary's lunges at every turn. Good stuff! Vair's night needed to come to a merciful end. I don't think he was comfortable or happy all night. He almost had himself an off-track excursion in the heat race! I'm sure they will figure it out by next week at CNS. He's a smart guy. Meanwhile, St. Peter and Rhoades were putting on a real race display. Joe made his car juuuusssst a little wider at times, and the engine pulled out of the corners well. Rhoades, like Land with Gordon, was throwing all his tricks at JSP, who calmly kept leading despite the black #17 weaving all over behind him. At about 1/2 distance, Rhoades suddenly lost about 4 car lengths to JSP and we weren't sure why. After a few more laps, however, Scott got right back on the rear bumper of the 87 car. That's how it finished out, with Joe St. Peter taking the checkered flag with not a whole lot of distance between him and the 17. Actually, except for those few laps in the middle of the race, it looked like the two of them were roped together! Final finishing order was a smilin' Joe St. Peter followed by Rhoades, Denning, Gordon, Land, Vair, Gresham, and Devich. In the pits at tech inspection, it was revealed that when Rhoades lost those few lengths, it was because the upper right axle link bracket broke off the frame and the axle could move around a little bit. Scott felt the steering get heavy, and adjusted his driving style to counteract the breakage. Amazing! He finished second with some inspiring driving. Vair was happy to escape the night in one piece. Denning was happy with the third place; I think he prefers CNS to the smaller tracks. He had an uneventful race and ran by himself most of the way. He drove his typical clean and smooth race. He will be a factor in the battle for the championship again this year. Gordon was happy in that he was able to hold off Land. I spoke to Gary later, and he admitted that he didn't have enough for Cory this night, and was resigned to finish where he could. I reminded him that Don Wilson had taught me "if you have a 5th place car, take 5th"! I wanted to talk to JD in the pits. I was approaching his car as he bailed out of the top, walked a few feet, bent over at the waist and started coughing like a misfiring Model T. I thought it best to let him deal with it by himself. . . Still in awe of his dedication! Devich is happy just to be racing! All in all, it was a great opening night for the CARC. We bemoaned the dearth of portapotties, trash cans and racing fuel, but overall were very pleased with the I-25 management. The races came off without a hitch (or a yellow flag for us), and what we saw on May 15 portends a very competitive racing season. Come out to CNS next week on the 22nd - God tells me He's ready for the race season to really get going now! |