A Wild and Wooly Finish!
by Paul Bredenberg

The CARC mod coupes finished the 2011 season in an unforgettable finale at Colorado National Speedway on October 22. It was one of those nights where nothing expected happened. We had the largest field of the year appear thanks to the addition of some of the High Plains Modifieds including Dean Carr's #18, Drew Utecht's #07, and Greg McLaughlin's #38. We also welcomed back Dave Johnson with his beautiful #29 coupe, who was testing the car out for a full-scale return for the 2012 season. Carl Vair also showed up with his new #45 coupe although the car was admittedly underweight. More on that story later. We had hoped to see Cris Muhler bring out his repaired #95 but he had to spend the entire week at the hospital with his mother who had serious medical problems. We understand and pray for her complete recovery, Cris!

Due to a family commitment, I wasn't able to get to CNS until 3:30pm, after the first heat had run because of the earlier start (a wise choice by CNS management, by the way). I missed a lot! In one of the practice sessions, Jim Bredeson had the throttle stick wide open on his #71 Vicky and met the turn three wall in a very hard introduction. The car was massively hurt, and I'm pretty sure that a new frame will be needed on it for next season. Nothing on the right side looked untouched. Then Gary Land, in search of his fourth cARC championship title, had a valve spring or valve break on the engine of his #55. As the crew was loading the car to take home to replace the engine, Gary decided instead to call Joe St. Peter to see if his #87 coupe was available to borrow for the evening. St. Peter obliged and brought the car out as a replacement and pink #55s were taped to the side of the car over blue masking tape. Greg McLaughlin was at the track largely as a tribute to his late father, CARC legend Larry. "Mac #38" stickers were available for all who wanted one and black ribbons were adorning all the mod coupes' right rear C pillars. Greg also carried some of Larry's ashes in the car for the evening. I also noticed Rich Bubak wearing a Bryan Gossel racing suit, courtesy of Jake, who recently got the suit from Bryan. Jaime Bubak was upbeat and felt good about her chances for wrestling the title away from Gary's clutches, although she knew it would take a string of good luck and hard driving to do so. Both have been very consistent this year.

As Johnny Nash once said, it was a bright bright sun-shiney day. Beautiful weather with temps in the mid-70's greeted the very sparse crowd. The first heat found Carr and McLaughlin on the front row with Rich (#20) sharing the second with the #1 GAM. Two GAMs were on row three, four, and five with Utecht and Darren Robertson (#09) making up the final row. CARC finish was Rich winning ahead of Robertson with Utecht, McLaughlin and Carr behind. By the way, the HPM guys, Johnson and Vair were running for no points.

The second heat was lined up with Eric Blackard (#46) on the pole next to Vair, Land and Jaime next to each other on row two, the #95 GAM was inside of row three next to Don Hoselton's #2 Vicky, the fourth row was made up of two GAMs and the final row included Johnson and Theron Bredeson's #61, who figured out that the vibration felt by Rich Bubak when he borrowed the car last race meet was a flywheel issue and intended to run a few laps in each race. At the green, Blackard charged into the lead closely followed by Vair but it was obvious that the #95 GAM (who had reportedly installed a 700hp engine the car for tonight) was moving quickly up the field. Bredeson dropped out on lap four. I expected to see Johnson charge around the outside but he was content to run at the back, not taking any chances with the car. Vair moved inside of Blackie on lap five and into first CARC position behind Finley in the 95 car. Jaime briefly looked inside of Blackard but lost ground until she tried again on the final lap, just easing past the 46 car as they came to the flag. Final CARC order was 45-12-46-55-29-2-61 but Vair's finish was not considered official since the car was underweight by about 50 pounds.

During the break, Vair was told he would have to add 50 pounds to the car in order to run the main event, a decision that confused Carl. Apparently, he had discussed running this week with an unnamed Board member and was told to bring the car knowing that it was underweight, to help the car count. This Board member felt bad afterward for making the decision to allow Carl to run, as it caused some real consternation for Carl and for the Club. Carl's car was fast and pretty and did help fill out the field. CARC coupes outnumbered the GAMs this night. Anyway, Carl rounded up a 50 lb block of lead and strapped it to the right center frame rail of the car for the main. After an agonizingly elongated intermission, the Mod main event was the first to be run and the field streamed out of the pits. I figured the race would finish in daylight and was still in my long sleeve T-shirt. The sun was blinding us in the pit stands but was southward enough as to not cause a problem for the drivers. The #1 and #95 GAMs were on the front row, Rich and Carl on the second with #11 GaM sharing row three with Jaime. The #4 GAM shared row four with Blackard and Roberson shared row five with Land. Sammy Gallo's #02 GAM and the #52 were next up with Hoselton and Bredeson in the next row, followed by Utecht and Carr, with McLaughlin alone at the back. Greg paced the field for the first parade lap in honor of his Dad before taking his place at the back of the field.

Now began one of the strangest main events I've ever witnessed as a CARC spectator. At the green, the two fast GAMs took off but Rich and Carl stayed close, battling for position. before much settling down happened, Robertson took the 09 for a slow spin in front of the bulk of the field and cars took evasive action every way they could. No tow trucks were needed but after the dust settled, Hoselton was facing the wrong way and up against the turn four wall with the left rear. He drove the car away from the wall and felt it out, feeling all was well. Robertson was sent to the back for creating the yellow with an unassisted spin.
Then the field received another green on the restart and on lap five (the very next lap), Rich Bubak's #20 drifted up and punched itself into the turn one wall pretty hard. Something broke in the suspension or steering, and Rich had to go along for the ride. This brought out another yellow. Then on the next restart, one of the GAMs smacked Blackard's left rear as the field came out of turn two. In a cloud of tire smoke, Blackie took a 180 degree spin but straightened out the car and headed down the backstretch. A yellow came out for what I thought was the 46 incident, but later I learned that it was for the 38 of McLaughlin, which I didn't see. After about 20 yellow flag laps (!) the field was reset with Blackard being sent to the rear! I was totally confused. McLaughlin pulled the yellow 38 off the track during the yellow.

Finally the field was reset and headed for the green again, and on turn two, Finley had something go wrong and the yellow 95 GAM plowed into the turn two wall HARD, sending the entire group of cars behind him searching for a safe way past. More evasive action than I've seen in years took place down the backstretch, and several GAMs were towed off; no CARC cars were hurt. This brought out a red flag situation and it was good to see Finley out of the car on his own power. On the ensuing restart, Vair was the leading mod coupe but Jaime was looking to get past, hoping to finish five CARC positions ahead of Land and snatch the championship from him. Bredeson pulled off on lap eight feeling lucky to have made it that far with no damage to the car. As the faster cars came up to lap Hoselton, he stayed way to the outside, having told track officials that would be his plan for the main. On lap twelve, Blackard looked inside of Land and got past, and then Vair and Jaime had some tight moments getting through lapped traffic. Jaime was staying close to Carl hoping for a break, but the one she got wasn't the one she had hoped for. Suddenly on lap nineteen, the pulled the car slowly to the outside and crept into the pits. The championship was now in Gary Land's hands. What a race of attrition! Vair was on a rail (running behind the #1 GAM for the overall victory) but Robertson had slowly and carefully moved up the field after his lap three excursion. The final laps mercifully ran off without further incident and Vair led the mod coupes home followed by Robertson, Blackard, Land, Carr, Utecht, with Jaime classified next, Hoselton, Bredeson, Rich, Johnson, and McLaughlin. Land crept across the line, out of gas!

A tip of the sportsman's cap to Joe St. Peter who allowed Gary to run his car. Gary said "The way the night began, I thought we were done. If we had to take the car home and replace the engine, I would have lost because Jaime would have picked up 19 points for the heat race that I would have missed." Jaime said disconsolately, "Something exploded and when I got on it it wouldn't go". As we left, they still hadn't determined what happened. Rich said, "The car wouldn't turn and I have no idea what broke". Hoselton, meanwhile, had black vinyl material stuffed between his left rear wheel and tire, remnants of the CNS sticker from the turn four wall. The wheel was also slightly bent; I was surprised he finished! At tech, Vair's car was scaled and turned out to be eight pounds underweight, even after the addition of the 50-pound lead block. He had to be disqualified (even after re-weighing the car three times), so the victory was instead awarded to Robertson who drove a smooth and fast race to the front. I had talked to Renee Waltmeyer before the race and she wasn't sure what is to come of the team next season. Darren really enjoyed racing the coupes as it's "the most fun he's had in years".

So we close the books on the 2011 racing season, and I daresay that it was one of the most competitive I can remember. Gary Land was the class of the field overall but Cris Muhler raised some cause for concern for next year. When he's on, he's really hard to beat, and a real joy to interview. I know the Bubak clan will be in concert for Jake's sprint car career but we'll see them from time to time. I don't know if Rich will return in the 20 car; if not, I hope Jim Thorne finds another good shoe to put in it. New cars and drivers are in the works and I'm looking forward to seeing Sammy Gallo III in a mod coupe. Clarence Krieger was looking for a coupe earlier this year; I don't know what his plans are, either. I spoke with Jeff Anderson about my former mount that is now in his possession and he couldn't commit to how much racing Mike will do in the mod coupe next year, but there will be some. Dave Johnson is planning on running extensively with us at CNS and there might be more. We'll just have to wait and see; but in the meantime, congratulations to Gary Land and his hard-working team for the title. Congrats also to the rest of the entire CARC family for another successful racing season.