Thanks Howie for letting a bunch of hoodlums run wild in your shop today. Thankfully the temps were high enough to keep us pretty lazy and mellow.
For the unfamiliar, this is what Rapid Raceway looks like, with our host in the white shirt on the right (and Trans Am cars at the start line):
We started with a field of 8 racers who braved the heat today. First up were the new class of Trans Am cars run in an IROC format.
Our fleet consisted of the four cars from the two Oregon teams which were entered in last year's Tacoma 24h. The cars are only now just about to be commercially released, but the ones from the fall classic seemed to run out extremely well at Rapid Raceway. With great looking bodywork and simple aluminum podded chassis, they were well matched with each other and the voltage (13v) suited the pink motors well. The end results were:
1 - Bill "How'd I get here" Bostic - 152.1 laps
2 - Monte "Big Smooth" Saager - 150.1
3 - Rico - 143.2
4 - Howie - 141.2
5 - Chris - 140.2
6 - Mitch - 138
7 - Al - 131
8 - Jimmy - 100
The Trans Am's in motion:
Blurring through the corner and onto the straight, 3 cars wide, Rico with his hand over his heart, cringing in fear of the mess he may have to marshall:
Next up were our ever so popular Group C cars. For this we run box stock in either anglewinder or inline configuration. It was weird having sufficient lane spacing to not be bouncing them off each other and the 13v sure made them quick.
One heat's starting grid:
The crowd thinned by one for Gp C as Howie had somewhere else he had to be. In the end, it was:
1 - Monte 138 + a little more than Rico
2 - Rico 138 + not quite as much as Monte
3 - Chris 132
4 - Tie for Mitch and Bill at 121 and I can't remember who was further around the track
5 - See above
6 - Al - 118
7 - Jimmy - 99
Artsy Gp C in-motion blurry shots, starting with Rico dusting off Bill (as his destroyed pinion wakes the dead!):
Monte's black and red blur lurks in the shadow beneath the bridge while Rico's red-taped Omron streaks through the frame:
Mitch's Lowenbrau does a fly-by:
Bill's Bud car does some streaking of its own:
Next up were the BRM Classics - the 917 and the 512. There is a modest population of these among the NASTE regulars and we are nearing critical mass to work these into our normal rotation. Just need a few more people to take the plunge and run them with us. They do make a gorgeous starting field though:
We were whittled down to 5 and a half racers for this race as Jimmy needed to step away before the green dropped and Rico was on borrowed time and bailed after heat 2. There were good battles throughout the field but in the end, Monte wasn't able to three-peat. Bill stood at the top of the podium, followed by me and then Mitch:
1 - Bill - 144
2 - Chris - 139
3 - Mitch - 132
4 - Al - 127
5 - Monte - 126
6 - Rico - 63
More artsy shots...
Monte's shaken, not stirred Martini & Rossi 917 getting the taillight treatment from Bill's Gulf Oil entry:
Mitch's borrowed entry in its familiar Scuderia Kouba livery:
The last event of the day was the GT/BRM Open race, where you could run anything you had the heart to build up with BRM parts. It made for an, ummm, eclectic starting field, as evidenced with this photo:
This represents literally one car from each BRM class... We were down to just four racers at this point as Bill thought it more sporting to run the show and marshal than actually compete. Monte was clearly the man to beat, running the field into the ground with his purple TA Camaro which was straight from the T24 last year. By this time the track was super tacky and his sponge tires and purple motor were a lethal combination. The rest of us took knives to his gunfight, and we all were searching through pit boxes between heats. After eventually migrating to a Tacoma-spec Gp C car (black motor, weight kit, foam tires), I was able to reel him back in and finally get a lap on him by the end of the fourth heat. It was a fairly epic battle (in my head at least) and quite a fun time.
In the end, the finishing order was:
1 - Chris 154
2 - Monte 153
3 - Al 143
4 - Mitch 132
All of this brings us full circle. One more thanks goes out to Howie for lending us the facility for the day. It's nice to have a different track to play on from time to time. And the day couldn't be complete without the fine folks at BRM producing the robust and gorgeous models which also run so well. We race them every Odd Thursday, and they are a blast!
Chris
More pics here: https://goo.gl/photos/Lta7B5FRQ8kSc2S39
