June, 2003

Vintage 2.5 Challenge

The Portland Historics are just a few days away and as it now stands there will be a large turnout of 2.5 cars (at least 30 at last count) with a good sized contingent of Southern California racers making the long tow to Portland.  Our group has been elevated to the featured group from a “co-feature” status so the 2.5 cars are to be the “stars” of the event.

John Morton will be joining us for his first full 2.5 race since the original series and we have heard that Peter Brock will also be attending.  John will be driving the immaculate Datsun 510 of Don Halliday.  This is the same car that was driven by Tom Neely at our season opener this year and as anyone that was there will remember, it is a rocket ship!  In the hands of Morton we could well see a new track record for our class at Portland.

With a great turnout of cars and John Morton’s return to the 2.5, this will be a great weekend. If you are anywhere near Portland and love to see great racing, this will be the “don’t miss” vintage race of the year.

Fontana was awesome.   The revised track layout without last year’s turn one chicane was welcomed by everyone although many of us found a need for different gearing and car setups to handle the long, high speed section.  More than one driver reported that their gear charts indicated top speeds of just over 140 mph!  We saw gearing combinations that ranged from direct drive transmissions mated to 3:90 rear ends all the way to overdrive transmissions to 4:62.  The race report will be posted in the next few days but the podium welcomed Steve Link back in the top spot for his second win this year and Richard Beard and Chris Kattchee rounding out the top three spots.  Beard is odds on favorite for this year’s rookie of the year prize with his second podium in three starts!

The Kattchee brothers podium finish had to be especially sweet considering that they trashed their motor at Thunderhill just three weeks earlier.  Their car didn’t make it through the first warm-up session of the weekend but during our short break between Thunderhill and Fontana they put together a winning package and came back strong with a great drive and a really fast, well prepared car.

As always, Ed and Sally Swart of HSR-West put together another great event.  As one new member told us, “these folks really make a driver feel welcome, why would anyone race with any other group?”.  Well said.

With the completion of the Portland race we will take a short break before our next race in mid-September at Buttonwillow.  There have been reports once again that we are to be racing in early August however these reports are not correct.

During the Drivers meeting at Fontana Ed Swart announced that next years opening race for HSR-West will be at PIR once again.  This will be a spectator event in and in addition to the race the Kruse Car Auction as well as an “Indy Car Reunion” will be held the same weekend at the track!  With our season finishing earlier this year and the PIR event moved to the third week of January we had a lot of our members expressing interest in this being our season opener for 2004.  We will keep you posted.

Another hot topic at the last few events has been the prospect of moving to a “spec” tire next year.  In general there seems to be a great deal of support for the idea but there are few details that we still need to work on.  The most likely scenario would be the use of the Kuhmo Victoracer 700 series tire with minimum/maximum sizes designated for the commonly used wheel sizes. 

One misconception is that we would be getting a special “deal” on the specified tires.  While we would attempt to find that ‘smokin’ deal, this is not for certain. 

 

The aim of the spec tire is primarily to reduce the cost of racing for many of our drivers.  A side benefit to using the Kuhmo is that it is not quite as fast as the more expensive Hoosier that is now considered mandatory to run at the front.  This would have the effect of bringing the pack closer together and more fun for everyone.  We would expect the see the current front runners still at the front but some of us would get a closer look at their taillights!