TSRF 1/32 Scale March 11, 2006
Buena Park, CA
3rd 2006 SoCal Championship Points Race
Steube over de Lespinay, Sterrett.
The third TSR Championship Race was for 1/32 scale TSR cars. Now we had run them before, but in IROC format where everyone drove all the TSRF-supplied cars. Never did we actually race our own machines. Following the 2006 rules, each car fitted with a vacuum formed body had to weigh at least 125 grams.
Well, looks like drivers are drivers, and on the Buena Park Kingleman track, the little cars were just plain great. No one entered an injected-body car, all were a mix of the TSR Bentley and Porsche GT1-98. Tech inspection revealed various ways to install the massive amount of lead weight necessary to bring the cars to the minimum weight, but all made it. Only the 6 inner lanes were used to run the cars since some entrants had not moved the guide pin on their chassis so that the cars could negotiate the very tight Black Lane 180-degree turn at the end of the banking. This will not be the case for the next race!
As usual for a Championship race, the motors were picked by the entrants from a bag of selected motors for their consistency and amperage draw. Philippe's motor was picked by an "innocent bystander", one of the drag racers pitting next to the Tech Inspection area. Fair is fair!
All the cars were very fast and required serious driving attention on a track that does not allow any respite for the drivers.
Mike Steube showed great consistency and in spite of missing nearly an entire minute when he lost the car at a restart, won over the much faster car of Philippe de Lespinay who found the perfect handling combination on his own car.
Philippe would have won this one if it was not for being punted by the errand car of John Anderson at the beginning of the second segment, losing a cool 11 laps in the process. Despite catching up, he finished 4 laps behind Steube.
Behind those two, Paul Sterrett had an "off" day and soldiered on to third, but 12 laps behind second place.
Looks like everyone else was in a state of mortal agony as they learned their way around this track with those smaller cars. John Emmons bested all, with Sam Brown on an off day with a very good car and excellent driver James Dinwiddie besting Roger Vorba.
The next race promises to be a lot of fun as the regulars are learning to fiddle with the smaller machines.
Oh, and everyone had great fun doing so.
Concours was won by Paul Sterrett with his usual impeccably prepared car.
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The Kingleman offers fast and intense racing with no time for relaxation. The marshals are strictly there to pick up any errand car and place it back in its proper lane at the end of each racing minute. |
| The field consisted of Porsche GT1-98 and Bentley LM cars. The pink one is the winning machine of Mike Steube. |
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Stand-by drivers Sam Brown and Roger Vorba preparing themselves for battle. Sam's car was outstanding but Sam was not in his usual form and lost the battle early. Roger fared well for his first TSRF 1/32 scale race with a loaner car, which he promptly purchased after the race. |
| Anxiously awaiting the start... Scott Corwin, John Emmons, Rick Salvino, Paul Sterrett, Mike Steube, James Dinwiddie and curious onlooker. |
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The winning trio of Mike Steube, Philippe de Lespinay (hat) and Paul Sterrett with their hardware. Pink Power! |
Results:
|
Pos |
Driver |
Body type |
Laps |
Fastest lap |
|
1 |
Mike Steube |
Porsche GT1-98 |
197 | 4.937 |
|
2 |
Philippe de Lespinay |
Porsche GT1-98 |
193 | 4.827 |
|
3 |
Paul Sterrett |
Porsche GT1-98 |
181 | 4.999 |
|
4 |
John Emmons |
Porsche GT1-98 |
170 | 5.109 |
| 5 | Sam Brown | Porsche GT1-98 | 166 | 4.832 |
| 6 | James Dinwiddie | Bentley LM | 164 | 5.096 |
| 7 | Roger Vorba | Porsche GT1-98 | 150 | 5.206 |
| 8 | John Tore Anderson | Porsche GT1-98 | 125 | 4.620 * |
| 9 | Rick Salvino | Porsche GT1-98 | 116 | 5.160 |
|
10 |
Scott Corwin (DNF) |
Bentley LM |
112 | 4.999 |
* Fastest lap