JJJ Juices Up The Joint!
By Paul Bredenberg

The CARC mod coupes returned to Colorado National Speedway for the latest race meet on Saturday, June 5th. It began as a hot and sunny day with temperatures pushing the 100 degree mark. Eleven cars showed up, but only 10 drivers represented the Club. Jaime Bubak was off playing softball with her competitve-league, fast-pitch team in the playoffs. As a double elimination system, if Jaime's team won the early afternoon game, she would arrive at the track for the Main Event, but if they lost, she would have to play a second game and miss the races. It's her last year with the team, so she wanted to make the best of it.
The others who came to play cars included Joe St. Peter (#87), Gary Land (#55), Frank Denning III (#09), Joe James Jr. (#54), chet Graham (#33), Bryan Gossel (#34), Carl Vair (#45), Rich Bubak (#20), Scott Rhoades (#17), and a welcome back to Chad Guilford (#24), whose left leg has healed enough to drive. As recently as two weeks ago, Chad was seen sporting a walking cast and talking positively about driving soon. Looks like everything fell into place! He told me that once he found that he could push in the clutch, he'd be good to go.

When I arrived shortly after the last practice session, there was the typical tinkering going on. Handling seemed to be the problem with most teams, as usual. Joe St. Peter told me that things got going well once he had made his customary unplanned excursion into the infield. He fortunately missed the tractor tires! Rich Bubak seemed pretty pleased in the Jim Thorne-owned #20 Vickie and Gary Land has been perplexed lately with his car starting out gangbusters and then going loose.

Qualifying at CNS is done only by pill draw, so lineups for the heats are established accordingly. The first heat, starting shortly after 5:00, had a lineup of 20, 34, 87, 55, and 54. Jaime (#12) was to be in that heat, but hadn't arrived yet. With only 5 cars taking the flag, the heat was run for six laps. At the green, Rich jumped into the early lead and Gossel found the #34 with a mind of its own. It seemed to be just flat; and later Bryan would tell me that he wasn't sure if it was engine or handling related. Regardless, he dropped to the back of the pack very quickly. Gary Land claimed second place on lap two and set off on the seemingly hopeless task of running down Bubak. Joe James found the handling to his liking and moved up on Land. The car was looking good. The laps ran out with Bubak taking the win followed by Land, who was in turn closely followed by James, JSP, and Gossel bringing up the rear. 20-55-54-87-34

The second heat contained the remainder of the field. Graham was on the pole, followed by Denning, Rhoades, Guilford, and Vair. Dark clouds were now overhead, but there didn't seem to be any real threat of rain. At the drop of the green flag, Denning charged into a quick, large lead. 3D really loves it at CNS and knows how to set the car up for the larger track. He can also make better use of his horsepower advantage. He sailed off into the distance. Rhoades, after a "pucker factor" moment, found the car unmanageable and decided to "run hot laps the rest of the way". But they weren't very hot! Meanwhie, Graham and Guilford made the race entertaining as they fought tooth and nail for second place for a few laps. I noticed Chet seemed to be losing most of his time exiting the turns. Vair quietly moved up to take third, but the car didn't sound too good. Winner: Denning with a 1/4 lap lead. 09-24-45-33-17. Guilford looked pretty solid.

Between the heats and the Main, Vair discovered a broken rocker arm. Engine man Bruce ("The Moose") Yackey was present for the late model races, and scared up a replacement part for Vair. The car was fixed in time for the Main. Seen in the pits was our old friend, Bobby Zike, who crews his son's superstock. I also spotted former Powder Puffer, Dottie Threlkeld. I spoke to Paul Deines, who would love to race mod coupes again. JJJ told me that he was happy with the car and expects to find more speed later on. The sun broke through the clouds just in time for our Main Event, and it was nice to not have to bundle up to watch our final race of the evening. The changing conditions made car setup an "iffy" proposition. I thought Denning would be the one to beat. Once he gets himself on the outside lane, he's really hard to beat.

The Main lined up in this order: 54, 24, 55, 09, 20, 45, 87, 33, 17, 34. Jaime Bubak didn't make it to the track, so we have to assume her team lost the first game. Our loss, for sure! We were headed for an interesting 25 laps! JJJ, from the pole, jumped into the first lead. Gossel bobbled badly in turn four of the second lap and headed to the back of the pack. The car looked really squirrelly. Rhoades' #17, despite corrective measures, was pretty bad for the Main. Just WAY too loose! On lap three, Land got into second and set out after James. It looked like Gary could pull him in, and we had plenty of time left to go. Denning got boxed in for the first few laps, but charged into third on lap 4. I noticed Bubak moving up with the 20 car. Vair looked smooth and strong, too. Somewhere around lap five or six, the field broke into two distinct sections: the top six and the trailing four. The top six were in single file, and the final four were battling for position like gangbusters! It was fun to watch!

Land was starting to catch JJJ and was looking strong. The two were opening a gap to Denning by lap 10. On lap 11, Land was visibly looking for a way around James, who was driving defensively, but cleanly. It seemed inevitable that Gary would pass the 54 car. Then, at half distance, Joe started pulling away again. Gary's lap times looked to be dropping. The final four were still battling and JSP pulled ahead of Graham, who was driving as hard as I've seen him drive this year. Gossel was still fighting an unpredictable car and Rhoades was flogging the 17 car as hard as he wanted to without hurting himself. JJJ was definitely the class of the field up to this point.

As I started to look up from taking some notes, a puff of dust caught my eye right in front of me on the backstretch. I realized somebody had scuffed the wall, and looked up to see Chet Graham's #33 hit the turn three wall HARD with the right front. Pieces flew as did the red flag. It was lap 19. Chet extricated himself from the car and accepted the ride to the pits in the track ambulance, so that he could be checked out. Scott Rhoades, who had a front-row seat for the incident, told us that he asked his crew chief "Please tell me he's okay" before the race was stopped. Chet was okay, but the pearl and orange coupe looked pretty forlorn as it was carried off on the flatbed wrecker. It was sporting some major toe-in! The consensus in the pits afterwards was that Gossel and Graham just "ran out of room" as they battled each other for position. Chet was fairly upbeat after being released from the ambulance. Funny, too, I had never noticed the "Briggs and Stratton" on Chet's valve covers before this. . .

The stoppage to clear the track meant that the field was bunched up now, and the 2-by-2 restart was lined up with JJJ on the outside, as he had the choice on lanes. Land, next to James, leaped into the lead, but the field was yellow-flagged as officials agreed that Land had jumped the start. He admitted as much to me later. So on the second restart, the orange #54 re-established itself back at the front. Land tried his hardest, but a couple of laps later almost lost the car between turns three and four and Denning was through like a flash and opened the 09 car up, charging after James. Frankie was catching him by leaps and bounds! Gary also let Guilford through. On the last two laps, Frankie tried everything he knew to get past James, but being the wily veteran he is, Joe was able to deflect 3D's advances. Frankie's final lap was fabulous to watch, as he tried Banzai moves, coming out of turn two, and finally out of four, where he got inside of the 54 and tried to outdrag him to the line. The two sets of front wheels were less than three feet apart as they got the checkers. It was an exciting finish and two great drivers showed their best stuff for the CNS crowd! Final finishing order was 54-09-24-55-20-45-87-34-17-33.

After the race, Gary Land discovered why the car kept going loose, and has promised to have that corrected by the next event. He should be a force to deal with. Scott Rhoades, who was awarded the "Lucky Dog" award from 44th Auto Service, wants another chance to do it right, and we're looking forward to having Jaime Bubak back. Vair seemed his happy old self, and JSP enjoyed the evening. It looks like Graham's car will need a new front stub on it, and definitely new headers! AND a new front axle. But we were all pleased that Chet was okay. Next race meet is at CNS on June 19, which will give us the longest daylight event of the season. I really enjoyed the beautiful sunset right after our event was over. Joe James was content and showed great sportsmanship after winning his first CARC Main Event in over 35 years. Come on out and watch the fun on the 19th!