still playing with toy cars ...
The
first of our three qualifying heats drew enough participants
for two concurrent races. One group raced the French Grand Prix
at Vitesse Jean-Behra. The other raced the South African Grand
Prix at Kyalami.
With low bidding among the ten drivers on Vitesse Jean-Behra,
the pole went for a mere five wear to Kevin Brownwell. However,
Kevin was unable to parlay his early position into a points bearing
finish and ended seventh. In what became a pattern for this weekend,
Scott Cornett came from the middle of the pack, conserved wear,
and made a late rush to win
the race. Lane Newbury made an even bigger late rush coming from
seventh on the grid to finish second. Kevin Keller and the younger
Jim Fleckenstein both managed to more or less hold their positions
off the grid to finish third and fourth respectfully.
On Kyalami, Terry Schulz won the pole with a bid of ten wear
and managed to hold onto fourth through the course of the race.
The fourth row was the lucky row this time. Lance Ribeiro made
the big move and finished first. Row-mate, Derek Landel took
third. Dan McGowan managed to hold his second row start position
to finish second. Jeff Cornett also held his third row start
position to finish fifth.
The
second qualifying heat drew 11 drivers to the Portuguese Grand
Prix of Estoril. Chris Hancock out-bid the field with ten wear
for the pole, but did not finish the race. The back of the pack
ruled this heat. Scott Cornett came from the last spot on the
grid to win. Daren Morley moved up from the eighth spot to grab
second place. Gerald Lientz moved up from tenth on the grid to
finish third. Jim Fleckenstein the younger moved up from ninth
to round out the top four.
The final qualifying heat drew the most participants of any
heat this weekend. Eleven drivers took to the fast and wide Monza
while 11 more spent the afternoon on the narrow, twisting Hungaroring.
The Hungarian Grand Prix saw low bidding again. Doug Schulz
gained the pole with a 6 bid but still needed some help at the
end to become the only pole sitter to win a race the entire weekend.
Terry Schulz made the more traditional move this weekend, up
from ninth on the grid to finish 2nd. Don Tatum moved up from
sixth to grab third. Stephen Munchak made a rush from the last
spot on the grid to finish fourth. Earlier qualifying heat winners
Scott Cornett and Lance Ribeiro had a chance to finish 1-2 but
took each other out in the last corner of the race.
The
final qualifying race of the weekend ran on the wide-open Italian
Grand Prix at Monza. Very low wear bidding saw Chris Hancock
grab the pole with a 5 bid, but he would crash later as the last
of five drivers that failed to finish the race. John Setear won
this heat from the 9th spot on the grid. Gerald Lientz held his
fourth position on the grid to finish second. Jason O'Donnell
and Dennis Nicholson moved up five positions to finish third
and fifth respectively. Joseph Betz held his fifth spot on the
grid to finish fourth.
The finals once again pitted the drivers against the grueling
Schenley Park Grand Prix. After a modified wear bid, Doug Schulz
held the pole. However, Doug fell back into the pack on the long
opening straight and ended the race 12th on a day when only two
of 14 cars crashed out of the race. Terry Schulz opened the race
on the inside of row 2 and quickly sprinted to the lead. Terry
spent the majority of the race trying to run away and hide from
the field.
He largely succeeded until he spun in the first corner of
the Serpentine on the last lap allowing Jeff Cornett to complete
an incredible run from last on the starting grid to 1st. Scott
Cornett then passed both Terry and his father in the same corner.
Jason O'Donnell recovered from his own spin entering the Serpentine
to pull even with Terry for third.
Scott exits the Serpentine ahead of his father and enters
the final corner of the race in position for the win. Jeff enters
the last corner of the race settling for second.
In the second corner of the Serpentine, Jason pulls inside
of Terry to gain the advantage entering the final corner. Then
Terry
out-accelerates Jason heading into the final corner to gain the
racing line forcing Jason outside in the corner. Lance Ribeiro
pulls into the corner just behind Jason.
Scott crossed the line first, having started the race 4th
on the grid. Jeff finishes second. Terry exits the final corner
of the race on the inside of the track with Jason right next
to him. Lance and Dan McGowan lurk behind them.
Jason initially wins the drag race for third, but loses control
of his car in the process and spins off the track as he crosses
the line allowing Terry to cross the line in third. Also finishing
ahead of Jason are Lance in fourth and Dan in fifth.
Congratulations to everyone on another exciting weekend of
racing! See you all next year.
More details on Speed Circuit racing as practised at
WBC at http://www.lucidphoenix.com/sc/wbc/
|