July 26, 27 & 28
The most exciting event of the summer~
1/10th Scale Radio Controlled Auto Racing
July 26, 27 & 28
The most exciting event of the summer~
The Summer Sizzler "Superspeedway Championship" brought 3 exciting days of high speed racing to the Encino Velodrome in Southern California.
After a brief delay on Friday for final track clean-up (A new apron had been poured in concrete just one day prior to the event) the event got underway with individual 4 lap qualifying. This qualifying session was set up by class and was used similar to NASCAR's Daytona 500 to determine the main event Pole Sitter.
Each driver had one 4 lap attempt to run as fast as he could with-in the classes rules. Some drivers took a chance and really geared their cars to the moon looking for 4 very fast laps, where others just used close to race set up ratios and went for a consistant run. All the racers seemed to enjoy this format, look for it to be used more in the future.
Regular 4 minute qualifying got underway Friday afternoon with 3 rounds being run, one of which was run under the lights to add some extra excitement. Night racing under the velodrome lights is awesome, the track is usually a little cooler and speeds are fast.
Inbetween qualifying on friday a special 50 lap (No pit stop) stock enduro race was held. Some said there would be no way a car could run 50 laps on a velodrome, others were excited to give it a try. Donn Natale took the victory in this first run turning in a 43 lap attempt.
Saturday saw another 4 rounds of qualifying along with 2 more 50 lap enduro attempts. In the second enduro it was Uncle Buck VanPatten who was the first to actually claim a true 50 lap victory. VanPatten turning his 50 laps in with a time of just 13:25.54 minutes beating second place Charlie Roark by 4 laps.
The third 50 lap enduro attempt had velodrome rookie Heather Kilber in her first ever velodrome run outlasting Jason Hastings. Kilber ran a 46 lap run in 17 minutes to Jason's 45 lap run in 13 minutes.
One last round of qualifying was held on Sunday just prior to the main events giving racers 8 rounds of qualifying to get it right. So it was now time for the triple "A" mains.
The MAIN format was slightly changed from what most racers are use to when running triple "A's". At this event ALL 3 mains would count in determining the overall champions. This meant drivers had to be consistant in all 3 runs.
In sportsman stock Brian Bond was clearly the dominate driver in the mains, winning all 3 of his mains and taking the overall Stock Championship.
Sportsman Modified had 3 different "A" main winners, Chris Pane took the first one with Donn Natale winning the Second. A strong running Mark Dunn took the third main win with the overall championship for the weekend going to Kevin Kilber based on his consistancy in his 3 runs.
19t Spec. Mod looked like it was going to be all Ricky Gray in the mains. Gray won the first two "A's" but suffered a broken front end in the third and limped his car to a seventh place finish. The overall championship was awarded to Roland Chavarry who had finished 2nd, 2nd and 5th leaving him in a point tie w/ Gray. Top qualifying spot was determined to be a tie breaker, being announce before the mains began.
Expert Modified driver Bill Mac set a new track record this weekend running the tracks first 25 lap run. Mac won one of the "A's with Gary Hamilton and Roger Pane winning the other 2. Mac also won the overall based on his finishes.
Although the turnout for this years event wasn't the biggest in history, it was a great event and all drivers got more than plenty of track time.
We hope to be able to continue this event in the future and with the new "WOOD" surface coming to this track the racing should prove to be AWESOME.
Thanks again to all the event sponsors:
Roland's R/C Services, Jake's Performance Hobbies, Kimbrough Products, Slixx Graphics, Team Associated, Bulit Motorsports, BSR Racing, Dynamite,and to all those who helped out in making this a great event
Tom, TJ, Matt, Kristen, Maria, Roger, Buck, Brian, The Velodrome Association and Steve Colman.
<RESULTS>
SUMMER SIZZLER "Speedway Championship" - JULY 28, 2002 -- Sportsman Stock - A MAIN -- pos car laps time name id avg.mph 1 3 19 4:04.17 Brian Bond 16 50.93 2 0 18 4:07.64 Steven Jacquez 4 47.57 3 5 7 1:54.13 Charles Roark 9 40.14 -- 4 --- DNS --- Richard Downings 8 -- 1 --- DNS --- Buck VanPatten 13 -- 2 --- DNS --- Matt Kendall 7 SUMMER SIZZLER "Speedway Championship" - JULY 28, 2002 -- Sport Mod - A MAIN -- pos car laps time name id avg.mph 1 7 21 4:02.28 Mark Dunn 10 56.73 2 0 21 4:04.40 Steven Jacquez 5 56.24 3 1 21 4:08.60 Donn Natale 14 55.29 4 2 21 4:11.92 Ed Turney 34 54.56 5 3 17 4:08.81 Vince Guzman 29 44.72 6 6 16 4:04.37 Kevin Kilber 35 42.85 7 4 11 2:53.50 Chris Pane 18 41.49 8 9 2 0:48.25 Dennis Brown 15 27.13 9 8 1 0:20.48 TJ Kendall 1 31.95 -- 5 --- DNS --- Tom Kendall 6 SUMMER SIZZLER "Speedway Championship" - JULY 28, 2002 -- 19t Spec Mod - A MAIN -- pos car laps time name id avg.mph 1 5 22 4:11.72 Jason Hastings 32 57.20 2 3 21 4:03.62 Frank Killam 26 56.42 3 8 21 4:05.43 Dave Werner 11 56.00 4 4 21 4:06.01 Scot Petitclerc 30 55.87 5 1 21 4:12.88 Roland Chavarry 27 54.35 6 9 20 4:09.40 Chris Newman 25 52.48 7 2 17 4:12.83 Ricky Gray 20 44.01 8 6 1 4:18.76 Larry Ruby 2 2.52 -- 7 --- DNS --- Buck Van Patten 12 -- 0 --- DNS --- Bill Mac 24 SUMMER SIZZLER "Speedway Championship" - JULY 28, 2002 -- Expert Mod - A MAIN -- pos car laps time name id avg.mph 1 1 24 4:04.32 Gary Hamilton 3 64.29 2 4 24 4:04.73 Roger Pane 17 64.18 3 6 24 4:05.76 Erik Steenhoven 21 63.91 4 2 24 4:11.37 Bill Mac 23 62.49 5 3 23 4:02.52 Jason Ertrachter 19 62.07 6 5 15 2:39.59 Mike Dyer 28 61.51 -- 9 --- DNS --- Ted McDonald 31 Results by AUTOSCORE (S/N 022)