May 22 Race Meet at CNS
 
Second Week Showdown at CNS by Paul Bredenberg

 The CARC was finally able to make its first appearance at Colorado National Speedway in Erie, Colorado on May 22, 2010. The rains and the snows thankfully decided it was time to allow some racing to take place. Fourteen CARC Mod Coupes arrived at CNS and hit the fast track to mix it up. Included were: Frank Denning III in #09, Jamie Bubak in #12, Scott Rhoades in #17, Rich Bubak's debut appearance in #20, Cory Gordon (#21), Chet Graham (#33), Bryan Gossel (#34), Carl Vair (#45), Joe James, Jr. (#54), Gary Land (#55), JD Gresham (#75), Matt Devich (#80), Joe St. Peter (#87), and the first appearance for CNS veteran (but CARC rookie) Chris Muhler in the #95. Qualifying at CNS is done by pill draw (ball call) and the Main Event field is set by finishing order of heats. The first CARC heat was the first race of the evening.
 The lineup slated for the first heat was set: #21, #33, #09, #45, #17, #34, and #75. Ten laps of scheduled heat race mayhem ensued. The day started out hot, sunny and pretty windy, with sporadic gusts coming out of the west-southwest. At the drop of the green flag, Chet Graham fought hard to stay with front row partner, Cory Gordon. It's been a while since I've seen Chet give up ground so grudgingly. He was driving the wheels off the pretty #33, only to slowly drop back by a lane by lap three. As the field passed the apex of the northern turn complex, Cory Gordon's #21 had the back end kick out and a spin followed. Cars next to and behind the red car headed for evasive action any way they could. Graham was slightly behind and outside of the spinning Vickie and moved farther outside to avoid contact. Behind him, JD Gresham had decided to take the same action with the Bredeson's black coupe and headed outside of Chet. There just wasn't enough room. The left front of the black car just slightly brushed the right rear of Graham's coupe and the tire, wheel, brake assembly, and spindle separated from the front axle assembly, sending the black car into the turn four wall, just by the pit exit. Both front tires bounded further up the track and bounced off the main stretch wall, as JD crunched the wall hard. An extensive cleanup ensued. No other major damage was reported, other than Carl Vair's car, which, under hard braking, had the front suspension arms bend as the front axle tried to turn itself under the vehicle. This wasn't looking good. . .  Scott Rhoades stopped along the backstretch to have his crew chief check for damage. Everything looked okay. After the cleanup, the field was reset and restarted. Frankie Denning (3D) streaked away at the green and never looked back, winning the heat by about 1/4 lap over second placed Gossel, Graham, Rhoades, and Gordon.
 Bryan Gossel had already had a day. The car had its "I don't wanna start or run right" gremlin reappear. This was the same defect that made itself be shown at Pueblo's opener. The team tried replacing each and every ignition part only to have the problem recur. As a last ditch effort, they disconnected the tachometer, and the car started running right. This was thankfully in practice. There must either be a short in the tach, or the wiring to it. But Bryan's adventures for the night were not over. In the heat, the car was amazingly fast for the first four laps or so. He tore through the back of the pack (rookies start heats in the rear) and I thought he might have something for Denning, but the car lost its poop and he dropped back into a distant second. Meanwhile, Gresham, who is getting over his bout with pneumonia, was understandably . . . uh. . . disappointed and unhappy about the results of the race. He doesn't agree with the theory of starting rookies at the rear (JD is definitely no rookie to racing, just to the Mod Coupes). I'm sure he was a little calmer after the adrenaline wore off. He stated that the car should be repaired in just this next week's time, even though he thought it might need a front clip. It certainly needs a front axle and some headers.
 So on to the second heat. The remaining cars (#87, #12, #55, #20, #54, #95, #80 in that order) made up the field. Joe St. Peter, who was on cloud 9 in Pueblo with his first Main Event win under his belt, took the early lead, but it was clear that his car was no match for a couple of other faster cars at CNS. Jamie Bubak's #12 was painfully loose and she dropped down the field like a lead ball into a glass of water. Gary Land grabbed the lead on lap two and headed away. On lap 3, Chris Muhler broke around the group and into second place, and set off after the #55 car. At first, the charge looked futile, but after just a couple of laps, we could see that Chris was catching Gary. I noticed Chris' car could dive noticeably deeper into the turns than Gary's car, and by lap 9, Chris was looking for a way around. Coming out of turn 4 heading for the checkered flag, Chris dove inside of Gary, but Gary held him off to the line. Gary recorded the heat win with Muhler a VERY close second followed home by JJJ, Rich Bubak, JSP, Jamie, and Matt Devich, who enjoyed the fact that the car finished. He has big plans to reassess the ride height and suspension settings of the car before the next CNS race on June 6. Matt told me that he won't be at Cheyenne on May 30.
 Between the heats and the Main, there was a lot of activity in the pits. Gordon's crew were looking for the handling solution to the spins, Vair was reinstalling his front axle, having to straighten the left front tie rod as best as possible since nobody in the club brought a spare with them, Gossel's team was going through the carb and engine looking for the "Eureka" moment (which never came), and most of the others were just tinkering with the basics. Friends spotted in the pits included Gary Huibregtse (pronounced "Hewbrix"), who's the President of the Colorado Vintage Oval Racers Club. Gary's not hard to spot; he's the tallest person I know who doesn't wear a basketball jersey. . .  Also Billy Kolb, Kevin Tierney, Lifetime CARC member Clarence Krieger, who owns Chris Leaf's #07 protruck, and Ira Castor, who's viewpoint of events is always entertaining to hear. Lot of experience in that group.
 During the intermission, the wind shifted to come out of the north and the temperature dropped about 15 degrees in less than FIVE MINUTES! I didn't know what that could do to some people's setups, but we were about to find out. The field rolled out of the pits and fell into formation in the following order: 54, 33, 95, 34, 55, 09, 17, 20, 21, 87, 45, 80, and 12. Jamie was supposed to line up elsewhere, but the 12 car refused to fire in the staging area. Rich told me later that it must have flooded badly, and Jamie had to get somebody's attention and a push start to get out on the track, which she did right after the field got the "one to go to green" signal from the flagstand. She roared out of the pits and tried to catch up with the rear of the field before the start. She was entering turn 3 when the flag flew, so she was already down about 1/4 lap. Due to problems with the car not running right, she missed out on the hot lap sessions, and she told me that "it feels like I haven't driven in about four years". I understand. A bad start, but the finish wasn't that bad.
 Joe James took the early lead but gave it up to Muhler by lap 2. The yellow car was simply on a rail, and Chris was having the most fun he's had racing in a long time. There was a lot of jostling in traffic further back, but no contact. People were trying as many different lines through the turns as there were cars. Muhler started pulling away, almost effortlessly. On lap 7, Jamie spun her black coupe and brought out the first yellow flag. On the ensuing 2-by-2 restart, Chris chose the outside lane with Gary Land right behind him. Nobody seemed to have anything for the 95 car, and he took off by himself again. Graham and JSP were having a spirited battle, which Jamie joined as she worked her way back into contention. Then on lap 12, it all came apart. I looked up to see Gordon and Vair tangled up together in turn 1; Cory's car was facing the wrong way and Vair's #45 was dumping liquid on the track. In interviewing both drivers after the race, they had slightly differing viewpoints of what happened, but the end result was that Vair's car was towed off the track and while Gordon's car was probably okay to continue, the right rear tire was scrubbing against the bent kickbar, and Cory and Dennis decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and pulled the car into the pits before the tire got blown. Scott Rhoades brought #17 into the pits but was back onto the track before the track was cleaned up. After what seemed like 30 laps of yellow flag circulating, the track was cleared for racing.
 Muhler stormed off again followed by Land, and it was obvious that Gossel's Gremlin had reappeared. The car was visibly down on power and 3D took advantage by moving into 3rd. Sometime over the next few laps, Gossel came roaring out of turn four with a car that had suddenly taken an aversion to turn left! Bryan yanked the wheel as hard as he could to make the car move towards the infield, and a shocked Rich Bubak found the back end of the 34 with the front nerfer of his #20. After a short excursion along the south turn's apron, Rich emerged back on to the track on the backstretch, no worse for wear (other than a front bumper that pointed east when the car was going south). Upon getting punched, Gossel's car broke a front suspension mount and the left front of the car bottomed out heading for the infield by turn 1. A shower of sparks escorted the car off onto the apron. That could have been real nasty! Rhoades' #17 rolled silently into the infield shortly thereafter. It turned out to be a badly blown Chevrolet V-8, which poked at least five "venting holes" into the oil pan. Scotty wasn't happy with the car after the race. . . .
 There was no other unexpected activity, although with a handful of laps remaining, Denning had broken out and flogged the purple 09 car in pursuit of Muhler. Frankie was gaining visibly on Chris, but I think Muhler was stroking the car for a few laps to save the tires just in case he would need them for another restart. The laps ran off with 3D still a safe distance behind. Final finishing order was: Muhler-Denning-Land-James-St. Peter-Jamie-Rich-Graham-Devich-Gossel-Gordon-Vair-Rhoades.
 It had been an exciting evening of racing. Chris Muhler won his very first CARC Mod Coupe Main Event, and in victory circle he thanked car owner Bill Dody, who had put him in the car because he thought Chris "needed some fun" in racing again. Chris started out in fendered cars, which moved him up to open-wheelers. He did well in Grand American Modifieds and has raced almost all the classes at CNS. He told me he loves open-wheeled cars, and that the CARC was a good bunch of guys who have been supportive and friendly. Over the PA in victory cirle, he said that the CARC drivers are "are good racers and really good guys"! Two races this season, and two first-time Main Event winners! Winner of the "Lucky Dog" award by 44th Avenue Service was JD Gresham.
 As I watched some of the cars fly by, I wondered to myself how many laps JJJ has run around this track. Afterward, I wanted to interview Chet Graham but as he sat in his car, he was trying to figure out his new radio system. I left him alone until later. He was deeply absorbed in thought. Mike Fetters had told me about some of the changes that Muhler has put into the #95, which was Mike's car last year. With no changes to the engine, only the chassis, the car has gone from top 10 to top cat! I also wonder why CNS doesn't employ the red flag more often, as opposed to the 30 laps of yellow. I think the guys use half of their fuel load on yellows. Maybe they don't want the engines to cool off, and it gives the fans something to watch while the track is cleaned. JJJ had a real blast with the car and thinks there's more speed to get out of it, once he's more comfortable with it. I also think that more cars will have to find just a little more speed if Chris Muhler isn't going to win all the CNS Main Events this year. That car was a ROCKET! I know he hit the setup just right! But it was good to welcome another CARC winner into the Club's record book.
 Our next event will be next SUNDAY at Cheyenne's Big Country Speedway. Check our gallery for recent pictures; more will be added this week! See you at Cheyenne!