LAND ROPES ANOTHER VICTORY!
by Paul Bredenberg

The trailers of the CARC unloaded in the Colorado National Speedway pits on September 24 to continue the hard-fought and close-knit points battle nearing the end of the 2011 racing season. A beautiful warm day greeted the competitors, making for near perfect racing conditions. It was partly cloudy, or hazy, with a warm breeze out of the north.

As I arrived just before the first heat was called to staging, I was confronted with Theron Bredeson's black #61 coupe with blue masking tape number 20 adorning the sides and back, sitting next to Jaime Bubak's #12 at the south end of the Erie pits, right by the pit entrance. Theron greeted me and told me how Rich Bubak's #20 Vicky had had the flexplate/clutch assembly blow apart during hot laps earlier, and Jim Bredeson called Theron to bring out the car for Rich to substitute in. In a sportsman movement, Theron did just that, so Rich only had two hot laps in the car before the first heat, in which he was scheduled to run. Upon inspection of the 20 machine, the bell housing had a 10" gap blown out at the top. Gary Land (#55) had been following Rich and told me that he had to avoid a myriad of falling and bouncing pieces down the back stretch.

The first 10-lap heat rolled out after the first couple of races with Sammy Gallo III (who is battling for the Rookie of the Year honors in the GAM field) on the pole and the 95 GAM next to him. The rest of the field was CARC mods with Eric "Blackie" Blackard (#46) sharing row two with Jaime Bubak, row three consisting of Chad Guilford's #24 and Gary Land, and the final row with Jim Bredeson (#71) next to Rich Bubak. At the green, it took a couple of laps for the two GAMs on the front row to sort out the order with the 95 pulling into the lead and Jaime slotting in right behind him. It looked like Rich was just "feeling out" the new mount and he ran towards the back. On lap three, Land dropped inside of Blackard and headed out after Jaime, who was dropping back from Finley in the 95 GAM. Jim Bredeson seemed to be enjoying a trouble-free ride for a change and the feel of his car's new wing, late of Gary Land's sprint car. On lap nine, Jaime got real loose and had to back off to straighten the car out and Gary ran right up to her rear bumper, but to no avail, as the final lap finished with Finley taking the overall victory and Jaime claiming the CARC victory followed by Land, Guilford, Blackard, Gallo's GAM, Bubak and Bredeson. After crossing the finish line, Gary hit the back of Jaime's car pretty hard, in what looked to be a retalitory move. In speaking with Gary afterwards, however, he meekly admitted that he mistook the checkers for the white flag, and thought there was one more lap to go. Whew! Gary, I think we need to get you back into those glasses that were awarded to you earlier this season. . . .

Rich told me that there was an upsetting vibration he could feel in the car and wasn't sure if it was from the driveline or the engine. He assured me that he probably wouldn't finish the main because it was causing his carpel tunnel some pain. On a brighter note, it was good to see Mr. and Mrs. Matt Devich in the stands. Matt informed me that starting production of his new car early was imperative, since warm enough days in Hartsel to paint the car in winter are few and far between. My guess is he doesn't have a heated garage. . . . Rich, meanwhile, was a trifle upset at having to straighten out Jaime's rear bumper until Gary came around to explain. Ah, you can't beat the camaraderie of the auto racing game. . .

The second heat rolled out after 6:00 for 10 laps with only two mod coupes in the field: Cris Muhler's #95 coupe and Don Hoselton's #2, down from Grand Junction again to compete with the beautiful candy apple red machine. Don wasn't too confident in the car's handling but still enjoys just running. With six GAMs making up the rest of the field, Cris and Don were assured of first and second in CARC points, but the lineup for the main event is decided by heat finishes, so both had something to race for; especially Muhler, who goes like a CANNON around the 3/8 CNS oval! Hoselton started from the inside of row two and Muhler drew the back row inside. On the first lap, coming out of turn two, Hoselton was seriously dirt-trackin' it with the left front tire about six feet in the air. Well, it wasn't that much really, but it sure looked like it from my perspective! He found a better line as the race progressed. Meanwhile, Muhler had moved up to fourth by lap three and into second on lap five and was simply charging around the GAMs in the way. He had five more laps in which to overtake the #77 GAM who had established a healthful lead but Muhler was not to be denied, eating up the advantage and smoothly moving into the lead to start lap seven. He held and stretched out the lead to the end, ending with a big lead and looking like he was on rails.

During the intermission between heats and mains, I spoke with Gary Land who told me that everybody was most probably running for second behind Muhler, who simply had too much for the rest of the field. I concurred. Chatting with Eric Blackard, he "wished that the season was longer - I'm just having too much fun" racing the mod coupe. He said he learned a lot this year and I predicted to him that he'd be a top five runner next season; he sure hoped so. We both agreed that the CARC should have more wingless nights, as he felt that his best performance of the year was that wingless night. We both agreed that they should all be wingless nights, but I suspect we wouldn't get a consensus of the others. Rich Bubak's aim was to "just finish", which was Land's goal as well. Jaime hoped to finish ahead of Land, tightening up the points battle just a little bit more.

A Bob Ross sunset greeting us in the stands as we awaited the main event; lots of pastel blues and pinks streaked across the Rocky Mountain sky as the sun was already dipped below the horizon. Seems not that long ago that we were finishing our main event in daylight. . . . Now it's dark in the pits grandstands as the sun sets closer to 7:00pm than 9:00pm. The mod coupes rolled out after a very entertaining F8 race punctuated by massive amounts of car-to-car contact and another victory by Smokin' Joe Martinez. The #1 GAM sat on the pole next to Land, the 77 GAM shared row two with Jaime, the two 95's shared the third row with Muhler on the inside and Finley's GAM on the outside, Guilford was inside of row four next to the 44 GAM, Blackard was on row five with the #4 GAM outside, Gallo and the #3 GAM came next, Rich was inside of the #2 GAM on row seven and the final row was made up of Bredeson and Hoselton. Twenty-five laps of unpredictable possibilities awaited.

At the green, Land and the #1 GAM battled furiously for the point and before either could establish an advantage, a yellow flag came out for debris on turn two and on the backstretch. Jaime had gotten a bad start and had dropped back to sixth overall. Muhler, conversely, had moved up to fourth overall. On the restart, Land worked past the GAM and moved into open space but Muhler was coming up strong. Rich, uncomfortable with the car and the vibration (which Rich figured to be an internal engine imbalance) gave up the unequal struggle and headed for the pits. That broken flexplate just may have dealt a death blow to Rich's championship chances. Coming out of turn four on lap five, Muhler burst through into second place behind Land, who had built himself a useful lead. Muhler was about to start visibly closing the gap. A little further back, Blackard and the #44 GAM had developed into an entertaining side-by-side duel that was to last most of the race. Neither could gain an advantage, and every time Blackard started to gain a little momentum, it was broken by the traffic of a lapped car that the 44 used as a pick. . At half distance (lap 12), Muhler had clawed his way to just a couple of car lengths back of Land and it was obvious that Gary's prediction would come true. At lap fourteen, Muhler was right behind Land and looking for the best way past. On lap sixteen, Muhler almost put it sideways and lost some ground, which took him a few laps to recover. His car was definitely the fastest on the track. Blackard came out of turn four about this time, and quickly looped and straightened out the green machine. He admitted later that it was some sort of brain fade.

On lap twenty, with five to go, we learned anew that racing is a game of inches. Barrelling into turn three and looking to move outside of the #55, Muhler's left front climbed Land's right rear tire, bounced once and careened into the wall right in the middle of the north turn. The car hit the right front hard and also clonked the right rear against the CNS cement. Things happen quickly at these speeds. For those who don't know, our fastest cars are touching 140 mph on the back stretch at CNS! The forlorn 95 was towed off the track, and as the flatbed went past my vantage point, I could see that the right front tire was folded up to the firewall area. Extensive damage was obvious, but Cris is a fabricator by trade, and I know he'll do everything he can to be ready for the October 8th show, if it don't snow!

This left Land in the lead with Jaime, Guilford, Blackard, Bredeson, and Hoselton still running for the CARC. There were three GAMs separating Gary from Jaime, so it didn't look like Jaime was going to pull of the victory this evening. However, she was sharing the third row with Guilford and the battle for CARC second place could be a good one. With the drop of the green, Gary shot into the lead and Guilford got pinned behind the GAM in front of him, so Jaime had a clear shot at second place. That's how they finished, with the CARC final placings recorded as 55-12-24-46-71-2, with Muhler credited with seventh and Rich with eighth. Afterwards, Muhler carried a forced smile and promised the car would be back out on the 8th, faster than before, which will be bad news for the others in the field. His quote? "That was fun!" Don Hoselton told me how tired he was, having to fight a recalcitrant mod coupe that didn't want to turn correctly and said that it was a lot of work to be having fun. I was pleased to meet his wife, Sharon, who accompanied him to Denver to see him race.

It was an entertaining and exciting race meet highlighted by a close battle between two first-class drivers that should have wound up better than it did, but that's racing! Get ready for another ding-dong of a race meet on October 8 at CNS and BRING YOUR JACKETS; racing will start two hours earlier.