3D Solves the Twilight Zone
by Paul Bredenberg

 On Saturday, June 19, the CARC loaded their trailers with hot race cars and headed out for the wide open spaces of Colorado National Speedway in Erie, Colorado. Thirteen cars made the scene, including Rich Bubak (#20), daughter Jaime Bubak (#12), Joe James, Jr. (#54), Gary Land (#55), Scott Rhoades (#17), Chad Guilford (#24), Frank Denning III (#09), Bryan Gossel (#34), Joe St. Peter (#87), Cory Gordon (#21), Carl Vair (#45), and with a repaired car, Chet Graham (#33) along with CARC debutante Wayne Muhler (#9), subbing for his son, Cris. Wayne has been racing at CNS off and on since 1964, but this was to be his first mod coupe race, and as such was classified a "rookie", having to start all events at the rear of the field. The day started out hot and sunny, but by late afternoon it was clouding over and with a gentle breeze blowing, was very pleasant. Rain didn't look like it had much of an opportunity to appear. With this being the longest daylight event of the season, I figured we would finish our Main Event with the sun still shining. I was almost correct!
 Our first problem developed in the hot lap session, when Carl Vair's car quit running and instead started puking oil out of the bell housing. After removing the valve covers and finding damaged pushrods and rockers, Carl found that he couldn't remove the distributor, so an immediate diagnosis of a broken camshaft was made. I concurred, which I'm sure gave Carl all sorts of peace and confidence. He headed over to the grandstand side, where his family was waiting to watch him race. An offshoot of all this is that it left the CARC with only 12 cars to race. Track policy is to allow smaller classes with less than 14 cars a Main Event ONLY, and we fell into that category, so there were to be no heat races. Grumblings were heard from the CARC pits, but there was nothing we could do about it. Quick rumors of us losing future race meets in 2010 at CNS were quickly dashed by track manager Scott Backman. Following the general pit meeting, the Club held its own meeting to discuss the car count issue. It was decided not to make any knee-jerk irrational reactions, but rather stick to the rules as printed. There are some cars being prepared and finished at this time that should make up the difference. If you are one of the others who are in the late stages of car preparation and need ANYTHING, be it parts, advice, technical help, welding, etc., PLEASE contact Gary Land (see phone number in the Contact CARC section). Anybody in the Club who has what you need will be more than glad to assist. We are a friendly, helpful bunch!
 It was great to see Chet Graham back with a new front frame area and nice shiny chrome headers! Chet said that the car wasn't where they wanted it to be, but at least he'd be collecting some points. Scott Rhoades had decided earlier in the week not to come, but in unloading the car this week, they found a broken panhard bar snap-ring that was allowing the bar to move around and adjust the rear end alignment while driving. A 59-cent repair was all that was needed to return to the track. Chad Guilford felt that his car was strong and was looking forward to the evening's race since he had done well in hot laps, which were admittedly about 5 hours earlier!
 The Main Event was scheduled for 25 laps, and it would turn out to be one of the wildest Main Events in recent CARC memory! The CNS grandstands were packed with a typical Father's Day crowd and empty seats were at a premium. The first main, for the Figure 8 cars, was started and finished in the daylight. Ours was second, and the cars rolled out of the pits into bright sunshine, with a few light clouds around. Once again, the light breeze made it quite pleasant. Green flag would fly just about 8:00pm. The lineup was: 12,55,21,54,24,17,09,34,20,87,9,33. Graham chose to start at the rear since he wasn't sure how well or how long the car would run.
 At the green, Gary Land shot off the outside of the front row into the early lead. It was obvious that Gossel wasn't going to pussyfoot around, and started charging the third outside for the first two laps. He gained at least a few positions. Cory Gordon got around Jaime Bubak and immediately spun his car entering turn 4. There seemed to be some disagreement as to what happened, but the end result was that Jaime lost her front bumper and there was a lot of incidental contact down the field from there. Gossel had a "pucker moment" as Jaime headed for the outside to clear Gordon, and that's where Bryan was. The brakes thankfully worked! I noticed some smoke from the 24 car during the yellow laps, but there didn't seem to be any problem. During the yellow laps, Denning pulled his car up to the pit exit at turn 4 and a loose gas cap was tightened. After what seemed like 10 laps of yellow to set the field, our first restart was under way! James and Land led the front row and both streaked away at the line. Guilford went into the pits shortly afterward. Denning was suddenly looking like a challenger but was a little way back from the lead two. Gossel was making ground up on the outside. Jaime wasn't looking as fast as she has lately, and it looked like Muhler was enjoying his first mod coupe race. Then on lap seven, as he was chasing James, it looked like Gary Land threw the anchor out on the 55 coupe. He came almost to a dead stop as Denning was closing fast on him. What 3D didn't know was that Gary's car had lost ignition and died. Gary was frantically trying to pop the car into neutral as he headed for the pit entrance at turn 2, and got a push from Frankie as he hit the back of the yellow car. There was no mechanical damage to either car, but Frank's front bumper now had a bend in it to balance out the back one, which was bent down on the left side after the lap 2 contretemps. Land's rear bumper got major modification. After straightening out the car (and probably cleaning out his shorts), Frankie set out after JJJ. Just as Frankie was closing the gap on James, the orange #54 car rolled to a slow, quiet stop on the turn 1 apron on lap 11. I found out later that he, too, had an ignition failure and there was no fire in the hole! Frankie blazed into the lead. This brought out our next yellow.
 Before the yellow, Gossel looked to be slowly reeling in the purple 09 car, and now they would be side-by-side for the restart. I guessed that 3D would choose the outside lane. I know how much Frankie prefers the outside lane at CNS. He did so. Guildford came back onto the track during this yellow period. There were now 10 cars left running. At the restart, Denning STREAKED away from the field. Nearing lap 14, Rich Bubak was suddenly a force as he was pulling up on Gossel's rear bumper. But just then, Cory Gordon spun again, this time in turn 1. The sun was starting to set as the field bunched up again for the restart. I could have left on the shades, but removed them for the rest of the race. Gordon was sent to the rear as Graham pulled the 33 car into the pits. I went for a hunch that Denning would again choose the outside lane. Yup. At this point, Scott Rhoades in the 17 car was penalized four positions for jumping inside of Jaime Bubak on the prior restart. He had gotten a REALLY GOOD RUN at the exit of turn 4, and it was either "pass her on the inside or hit her back end", and Scott chose the former, incurring the penalty. I suspected that Scotty wouldn't be pleased with this decision.
 After Graham's departure, there were nine cars left. With the green flag waving, Gossel got the jump on Denning this time and pulled a few car lengths ahead from the inside lane. Bubak started looking inside of Frankie, too, but Frankie would have none of THAT nonsense and pulled ahead of the 20 car, seeking the 34. In two laps, he had caught Gossel and made quick work of him, regaining the point position. Meanwhile, back in the pack, Rhoades was on an absolute tear! It was AWESOME to see him racing hard and racing aggressively, and while I knew he was upset, his car control was superb and he forced his way around most of the cars ahead of him. He displaced three cars in four laps! Maybe if he could race mad all the time. . . . It was a beautiful thing to watch and took me back to Fritz Wilson's glory days. Bubak got inside of Gossel on lap 19 to take over second place. Rhoades and Muhler spent the next lap or two contesting fourth place. Great fun! Just when it looked like we'd have a calm finish, Gordon spun once more at the turn 1 apron on lap 20, which brought out the next caution. Gordon pulled the car off the track and headed for the pits. I think he and Dennis will have to look at the loose condition before our next race. Cory can do the job, as he proved last year at Pueblo, but there's something diabolical in this car's suspension. We'll send the Gremlin police over to the Gordon garage this week.
 With eight cars remaining, we restarted the race again, with Denning leading a perfect restart. He got the power down just right after they crossed the start line and headed off into the distance. It was obvious that Bubak didn't quite have enough for the purple car this night. On lap 23, when we thought we might actually finish this race, Joe St. Peter got into the marbles between turns one and two and skidded up to the wall and gently (well, it looked gentle to me) brushed the wall with the right front at the pit entrance and crawled to a halt on the exit of turn 2. The yellow flew, this time, mercifully for the final time of the evening. Joe restarted the car and drove it quickly around to catch the field, feeling for suspension or steering damage. He was satisfied that he could finish the final two laps. I noticed that Chad Guilford was electing to restart from the rear each time. On this final restart, it was obvious that Rhoades was hungry for third place, and as Denning leapt into the lead again, Rhoades successfully claimed third behind Rich Bubak. Final finishing order was: 09-20-17-9-34-12-87-24-21-33-54-55. Jaime Bubak was awarded the 44th Auto Service "Lucky Dog" Award for the night.
 In Victory Circle, Frankie jokingly mentioned that Gary Land had really just wanted to get off the track. Then with sincerity, he thanked the Waltmeyers for giving him the opportunity to race, and thanked his sponsors and crew. He was more humble than he had a right to be. Once again, it was a super driving exhibition by one of the best in the club. He really seems unstoppable at CNS, even though this was his first Main Event win of the season. We've had five races and five different Main Event winners! Denning was happy and satisfied to leave the track with a small point advantage over Land, who just can't seem to catch a break so far this year.
 In the pits afterward, I caught up with JSP, who said that the incident on lap two had knocked the toe out of adjustment and he had been fighting it since that time. When he got into the marbles, the car simply wanted to keep going straight, and "that wasn't a good thing"! It looks like he escaped, although with a bent right front spindle. Graham's race came to a halt when he was eyeing a temperature gauge that was creeping dangerously close to 250 degrees Farenheit, and decided it was wise to park it and do some radiator work before the next race meet. It was also really good to see and speak with his "better other" Cheryl, who had been visiting her sister in Texas when Chet got crunched. Guilford's #24 had run over Jaime Bubak's front bumper during the lap two incident and punctured the right front tire. He told me it wasn't a good idea to drive a car that kept wanting to turn into the wall. That's why he went into the pits, and since he was already a few laps down, it didn't make any sense to try to drive too hard. It also looked like his toe was knocked out of alignment. Muhler, who really enjoyed his first race with the CARC, also mentioned that his toe was knocked out of adjustment early. Seemed like a recurring theme tonight. . .  Rich Bubak seemed happy with his second place with a clean race for Jim Thorne. I love seeing Rich afterwards when he's smiling. Makes me feel like God's in His heaven. Bryan Gossel seemed like one of the happiest; I think he's just really enjoying his mod coupe racing. His only complaint is that of needing "about 50 more horsepower"!
 It was a BEAUTIFUL night, with splashes of color in the skies at sunset. It was also SO good to use the sweatshirt as padding between my backside and the hard CNS pit stands, instead of bundling up in three layers. Wow, what a gorgeous evening! I had spent quite a while listening to some stories from CARC lifetime member Clarence Krieger.
 So we head to our next race meet July 3rd at CNS. This night reminded me of the evil night of August 4, 2004 at Pueblo. The CARC came to the track with 10 cars, and only 5 started the Main Event due to incidents. I was the only one who didn't finish the Main, with my worst crash. It was a moon-less night and we hadn't raced in 6 weeks due to rainouts. Tonight felt similar, and the race from the Twilight Zone went to Frank Denning III, who earned every inch of it!