Bubak Doubles Down!
by Paul Bredenberg

The Labor Day weekend was celebrated by the CARC by making the journey north to Cheyenne's Big Country Speedway. A cloudless sky greeted us as we unpacked for the evening with temps in the mid-70s and a pretty stiff southerly breeze. All in all, a perfect day. The new item in the pits was Carl Vair's new #45 Chevy coupe sporting Carl's traditional white-on-red livery. He was pleased with its first contact with the speedway, although the car came through tech inspection underweight, so he would collect no points for the evening. He said he "did a lot of work" on the car. An understatement, indeed!

First up was qualifying and Gary Land (#55) set the pace with a 12.549 followed closely by Jaime Bubak's (#12) 12.666, Cris Muhler's (#95) 12.949 and Vair's 13.062. Rich Bubak (#20) led the rest with a 13.083, Chad Guilford's (#24) 13.245, Chet Graham in #33 with a 13.390, Theron "Frosty" Bredeson in with a 13.699, Jim Bredeson's #71 with a 13.873 and Dean Carr's #18 filling out the field with a 13.998. 1.4 Seconds covered the entire field! Not too shabby, guys!

First up was the trophy dash for the fastest four cars: Vair, Muhler, Jaime and Land (in that order). At the green, Vair leapt into the lead and Muhler was obviously off the mark and fell back. Not much excitement as Vair brought the red car home for its maiden victory in its maiden race. Well done, Carl! He was pleased with the result.

Next was the slow heat for Jim Bredeson, Frosty, Graham, and Guilford. Carr was scheduled to start from the pole but a mysterious vibration was felt in the Chevy V-8 towards the end of practice and Dean decided not to risk further damage before the main event, so he kept the car parked. Jim jumped into the first lead and looked pretty good at the beginning. Chet Graham charged inside of Jim in turn three and went into the lead. Meanwhile, Frosty dropped back quickly and spun the car entering turn three on lap two. This was to be an eventful spot for both Bredesons during the evening's events. This brought out a yellow and a restart. Chet's #33 was looking pretty smooth and continued to keep the lead and on the restarted second lap, Jim duplicated his brother's pirouette, albeit accompanied with massive amounts of tire smoke. Much more dramatic - good job, Jim! Now that the Bredesons were done taking turns bringing out yellows, the field was reset and restarted again. Graham led but Guilford pulled outside of him on lap three and into the lead, stretching out a lead he was not to lose. Jim looked a little squirrelly and unsteady and Frosty was just rolling along at the back. The remainder of the ten laps was pretty much a hot lap session for Guilford as he motored serenely around and took the victory with a comfortable lead over Graham, who looked as smooth as Chad did. Final order was Guilford, Graham, Jim and Frosty.

Next up was the fast heat with Rich on the pole next to Vair and followed by Muhler and Jaime in the second row and Land alone in the third. Rich took advantage of his pole position and charged into the lead at the first of the ten laps and Muhler had a pucker moment at turn three when he had to dirt track it to keep it from taking out Jaime and Gary. Masterfully controlled, he straightened it out quickly, but dropped back with an obvious handling problem. Jaime and Land both passed Vair on lap four, and then Gary pulled inside of Jaime on lap six, moving into second place. Gary set about reducing the deficit to Rich, but even with Rich working around a loose condition off the turns, Gary could only pull up on Rich's rear bumper as time ran out. Final order was Rich, Land, Jaime, Vair, and Muhler.

Speaking with Cris afterwards, I found out that he was running on tires that were one race meet too old. They were going to switch the right front with the right rear and hope for the best in the main. He wasn't expecting too much in the way of final results. Sammy Gallo III was in the pits with his Dad, Kevin, intending to run Jim Bredeson's #71 for the evening with the CARC (Jim would race with the High Plains Modifieds, who were also in attendance) but after twelve eventful laps, he felt that the car was just too tight for his pleasure and decided not to make his debut until next season. I understand that he's leading GAM rookies at CNS this year, anyway. The two of them went from coupe to coupe, studying chassis construction and figuring out which cars to emulate. Land felt confident about his chances in the main as the car was fast and stable. Guilford looked relaxed and commented that he probably had too much horsepower for this little track and Rich Bubak concurred with that assessment; saying that his car was in the same ballpark. Handling is the premium at BCS. Frosty seemed off the pace and uncomfortable with the tight surrounds of the 1/5 mile oval, while his brother was looking forward to just being out on the track. I told Chet that I was anticipating his charging off the pole position and leading the whole race, and he just laughed that little laugh of his and shook his head. Then he told me he hoped I would be able to write that. Jaime liked her chances but really doesn't feel comfortable on the smaller tracks. Her main objective was to bring it home in one piece and finish ahead of Land if possible. The points battle for the championship has been knotted tighter than a hangman's noose, if you haven't noticed. The top three cars (Land and the two Bubaks) arrived within 10 points of each other.

As the main event lined up, it was starting to feel pretty cool and us older types donned sweatshirts, jackets, or both. The younger people were still enjoying cooler weather after the stretch of hot 90+ days we've had in August. The wind picked up, still out of the south, but there were still no clouds in the sky. The bright sunshine greeting the drivers in the face entering turn three would be a problem for the starting portion of the race. The field lined up fully inverted with the exception of Carr, who chose to start from the rear and take a few careful laps, and Frosty, who also opted to start from the rear so as to not cause problems for those behind. I noted that Rich Bubak would be starting from a prime starting position on the outside of row two behind Graham, who was sharing the front row with Jim Bredeson.

At the start, Graham pounced into the lead and Guilford alllll-most lost it when he punched the #24 too hard coming out of turn four to take the flag. He backed off and corrected the car, losing a little ground in the process. Rich and Muhler followed Chet to the front with Land right behind. Gary looked like he smelled blood and was charging hard. Rich pulled outside of Graham on turn three of lap three and headed into the lead as they started lap four. Sorry, Chet, I couldn't report the way I wanted to. . .   On lap five, both Muhler and Land went past Graham while Jaime was looking for a way past as well. Next began the Longest Lap; lap six. Jaime overdid it coming out of turn four and spun the #12 coupe, bringing out a yellow. After resetting the field and restarting, Jim Bredeson repeated his maneuver of the heat race in turn three, looping the gold sedan and bringing out another yellow. A second restart was in the offing and the field was able to complete lap six, but entering turn three on lap seven, Land, who had making a run on Muhler down the backstretch, tried unsuccessfully to slow down sufficiently to avoid contact with the yellow #95 machine. His right front tire smacked the left rear of Cris' car and swooped to the high outside as a result. Muhler had his hands full for a few seconds, reclaiming his straight forward position from about a 45 degree angle in the middle of the turn. Good thing Cris has the feel for car control that he does! Up top, however, Gary's right front tire was now still rolling but the inside of the tire was pointing at the car's firewall. An EXTREME toe in problem here was the consequence of a broken steering arm, and after a lap around the track with smoke pouring from the tire, he had to head to the pits to see if a quick repair was possible. It was not, and Gary would be credited with ninth position.

The restart was yellow-flagged, probably because the field was too strung out. Once the green flew, so did Rich, as with an open track he had no competition. Jaime, back in the pack, was stuck behind Vair a little too long and couldn't seem to find her way past. I could see that Graham's car was now pushing pretty badly and he had dropped back while having to work hard to maintain. Up front, Rich was looking smooth and pulling out a big lead over Muhler. Once past Vair, Jaime struggled to get around Graham, which she finally did on the outside on lap seventeen. As the laps ran out, Rich simply powered away and wanted a piece of that Sam Gallo Memorial Trophy. He claimed his second main event on the trot. Cheyenne has always been good to Rich. He was masterful here in the early 2000's, swapping main event victories with Bruce Rhoades. I recall Rich arriving later than everybody else, just in time for the final warmup session, unloading and setting tire pressures and going out to take fast time. Amazing to watch. A good, clean driver, Rich claimed the hardware for the evening, along with the attendant points. Final order was Rich, Muhler, Guilford, Vair, Jaime, Graham, Jim Bredeson, and Frosty, with Land and Carr credited with ninth and tenth respectively.

In the pits afterwards, an entire line of Rich's crew were there to direct him towards the tech area (remember last year?) and the car passed with flying colors. Chet told me that after lap five, it "got fun" with the handling deteriorating. Muhler was very pleased with the result, as he figured he wouldn't have been in the running before the race started. Frosty questioned whether or not he's cut out for this racing game. I can't answer that for you, Frosty. Are you having fun or aren't you? Jaime was happy to have picked up a few points on Gary, as over the first few events (including qualifying) Gary had added just a meager few points to his lead over her, just to see them evaporate in a few seconds' time. Gary still leads but by only two points over Jaime and Rich is now just one point behind his daughter. It's a CARC season for the record books at this point of the summer! We still have four race meets scheduled, all at Colorado National Speedway. I'm not sure how many will come off because of weather potential in October, so each and every race and position will be critical for the three of them. Also of interest is the Rookie of the Year position, currently held by Frosty, and it looks like it's pretty much unassailable at this point of the year. He's done it with sheer consistency and keeping the car out of trouble. That speaks well for you, Frosty. Don't let the low points get you down. Vair's new mount sported a fresh rubber mark and minor dent on the left rear panel, courtesy of Jaime Bubak. Battle scars are okay, Carl! Dean Carr was philosophical but somewhat frustrated since he has spent a LOT of time with that engine. By the way, the Carl's Corner Lucky Dog award was awarded to Gary Land.

Our next stop, as mentioned previously, will be CNS on the upcoming Saturday night, September 10th. Come out and see how the points battle heats up as we head into the final leg of this very exciting CARC racing season!