Vintage Voice Online

September 13-14, 2009

By Brian Mertz | Photos by Gil Murrieta

Bratwurst, sauerkraut and lager, topped off with a serving of German chocolate cake, provided a fine and fitting Saturday night repast for VARA’s traditional Oktoberfest gathering at Buttonwillow Raceway. 

There were hints, however, that sushi and saki might have to be on the menu for the club’s next feature race, the Porsche-Datsun Challenge at Las Vegas. 

During a slightly steamy Central Valley weekend of great competition, exciting challenges kept drivers running on full adrenalin and spectators enthralled in all race groups.
 

Kevin Roush (914-6) threads the needle between a battalion of 2002 BMW's.

The orange and white CPGT Porsche 914-6 of Justin Desimone took firm command of the race on the opening lap after overtaking polesitter Leon Desimone’s 914-6. Meanwhile the 914-6 of Kevin Roush was making a dramatic charge, jumping to third spot at the start from tenth on the grid, then moving up to second when Shaun Modisette’s 911 retired on lap 4.

Justin Desimone seemed en route to an easy win until he charged down the front straight closely pursued by a cloud of smoke, and he retired on lap 8. Roush took the overall and CPGT wins, followed by the thundering AS BMW of Tim Arnett and David Fletcher’s CPGT 914-6.

John Plavan’s 911 was fourth overall and first in CP. Kevin McDonald’s was fifth at the stripe and tops in CS, having worked his BMW 2002 way up from last on the grid and dueling with the similar cars of Jeff Ireland, Ken Blasko and Pam Plavan along the way.

William Hartman edged his nimble DP Lotus Super 7 past the DPM Volvo P180 of Ken Rodenbush on the second lap and was never headed enroute to the checker. Rodenbush remained in hot pursuit until a miscue on lap 4 dropped him back to tenth, but he proceeded to work his way forward and made a dramatic last-lap charge to snatch second overall from the very quick DP Triumph TR6 of Ken Knight by just under 0.3 seconds.

Knight held on for third overall and second in DP, followed by the CS BMW 2002s of Michael Ward and Kyle Blasman. A fine, race-long contest of handling versus horsepower took place in mid-pack as the DP1 Super Seven of Christopher Monier dueled with the solid-axle DP Corvette of Noel Park. Park muscled past the little Lotus on lap 4 and managed to hold on until the last turn, when the big ‘Vette slid wide and Monier won a drag race to the stripe.

Group 2 belonged to the CF Crossle 32F of Tim Cox, who quickly displaced polesitter Roy Jones’ FF Winkelmann and was never challenged for the class and overall wins. Steven Luftman’s CF Crossle 32F battled up from sixth on the grid to second place, while Jones outpaced Tom Sabo’s FF Caldwell D9 for third overall and first in class.

Murray Chalmers’s Lola T200 and Si Robin’s Titan kept things interesting by swapping positions for a while in mid-race, but the Lola motored away with a 3-second advantage in lap times to give Chalmers third in FF behind Sabo.

The rapid development of several very fast Datsun Z-cars certainly has ended the traditional Porsche parade at the front end of the C Production, although the German old guard shows no signs of giving in to the Japanese challenge. Among B Sedans, Alfas are taking aim at a long-dominant Datsun.

On the opening lap Justin Desimone shouldered his CPGT 914-6 past polesitter Chris Horn’s CPM 240Z on Buttonwillow’s back straight and stayed there, holding off a last-lap challenge in which both drivers posted blistering 2:01 laps to take the win by less than a second. The CPGT Porsches of Shaun Modisette (911) and Leon Desimone (914-6) worked their way past the CP Datsuns of Bryan Lampe and Phil Mendelovitz to take third and fourth overall.

On the pole for the B Sedan group’s split start, Steve Link’s Datsun 510 took off and was never headed despite a determined challenge from the Alfa GTV of David Kohl. Link eventually caught and passed the CP 911 of John Plavan and the CPGT 914-6 of James Cullen on his way to the class win, followed by the Alfas of Kohl and Rick Clemente.

Old Barnsmell won a barnburner in the ground-pounder group, as the veteran BP Corvette of Brad Long eked out an exciting 0.5-second win over a very fast APM Corvette driven by VARA rookie Dan Richardson. 

Spectators held their collective breath at the start, as Long’s orange and black roadster went side-by-side with polesitter Richardson’s black Sting Ray through Turn One and into the Off Ramp. Although Richardson’s big-block coupe enjoyed an obvious power advantage, Long ducked past on the next lap and the pair fought nip and tuck for the entire race. Lap after lap, Long built an advantage in the corners and the black coupe simply erased it on the straights. Despite a half-second gap in fast-lap times, Long held on for the overall win while Richardson took second. 

Tim Arnett’s BMW 3.0CS came from the back of the grid of finish third and tops in AS, followed by the AS BMW CSL of Cuffy Crabbe – who, incidentally, found late speed on the final lap and set quickest lap time of the race by more than 2 seconds over Richardson’s Corvette!

Bill Modisette’s FF2000 Zetec got past Richard Wilkinson’s FSV3 Ralt RT5 on the first lap and proceeded to run away from the field thanks to a full-second advantage in lap times. The FC2 Van Diemen of Ernest Becker chased down Jim Wilson’s FF2000 Van Diemen in the final lap to claim third overall.

Meanwhile, there was lots of action a bit further back, as Paul Fruchbom (CS2 Swift DB2) fought his way through determined competitors from 11th on the grid to sixth overall and first in class. Mixing it up along the way and taking the checker right behind Fruchbom were the WSR1 Toyotas of Daniel Martinez and Wayne Blasman, who finished first and second in class.

Another split start launched tremendous contests in the Formula Vee and small-bore production classes, led by a stirring, tire-smoking, wheel-to-wheel battle between the killer Vees of Lawrence Wittemore and Kim Madrid. Wittemore’s Zink C4 ultimately prevailed over Madrid’s Caldwell D-13 as the pair claimed first and second respectively, overall and in FV1.

Jon Wong’s yellow FV Formcar followed the leaders to take third overall and the class win, while the Caldwell D-13s of J. Dale Barry and Rudy Madrid enjoyed another great duel, ultimately won by Barry by 0.2 seconds to claim fourth overall and third in FV1, with Madrid close behind to take second in FV.

Don Readinger’s Zink C4 was third in FV after an entertaining scrap with the rare FV2 Franco Ferrier of Joe Fuhring.

Among the small-bore sports racers and production cars, Gary Shuman’s FP Spitfire was simply dominant, scrambling from 25th on the grid to overtake Don Plotkin’s HMod Kangaroo on lap 7, passing many of the Vees from the front end of the split start and winding up first in group and seventh overall. Plotkin fended off a determined challenge from the FP Triumph TR3 of Daryll Clark to take second.