Chuckwalla January 2013 Recap
At this event we found ourselves back at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway running the same Counter-Clockwise configuration as last month, giving participants of the previous event an excellent chance to size up any modifications to their car and the all important driver mod, and giving new participants a chance to turn some laps at this amazing facility! The cars were loving the cold weather, on Saturday we had a high of 53° and a low of 35°, and on Sunday a high of 52° and a low of 33°. Even though it was extremely cold during the night, that wasn’t enough to keep some of the hardcore racers of NASA AZ from camping out at the track to keep the party going all weekend, and on Saturday night the infamous Caution Tape Crew was out in full force, getting an alleged total of 9 vehicles! Needless to say there were a lot of awesome people out this weekend having a great time on and off the track, now on to the recap!
Photo Credit: Jerron Taylor
Race Group
Saturday Small Bore
The two PT cars competing for the weekend got the green flag with Big Bore, and so begun Ricky Johnson’s domination in his #00 Mini Cooper S running in PT-B taking first place overall in Small Bore. The #70 PT-C Mazda RX-8 of Dave Snyder would be passed only by the front runners of 944 Spec and Honda Challenge before the race was over.
The starting grid for Honda Challenge would be #21 Eric Dayton followed by #469 Team LBR, bringing up the rear was #95 Team FTW but they had not posted a time in qualifying. The reason Team FTW was running a little late was because Doug Evans had been on quite the adventure in the previous couple of days leading up to the event, he drove to Southern California on Wednesday to pick up a new engine for the car, and didn’t get done putting it in until the early hours of Saturday morning in Arizona! He then proceeded to load the car up and start driving to Chuckwalla, only stopping for 20 minutes at a rest stop to take a quick nap, arriving just in time for a little shakedown before the race. And to top it all off he stayed at the track the whole weekend in the freezing cold in his SUV. Now THAT’S dedication! At the drop of the green flag Robert Rose got off to a good start in his first ever appearance in a NASA race driving the Team FTW car, but mechanical difficulties slowed him down and he eventually pulled off early. Eric Dayton started putting down the laps and slowly ran away from Team LBR, finishing with a little over one minute ahead of his competitor.
We had a great turnout for 944 Spec with eight competitors taking the green flag for Saturday’s race. Young gun Tyler Palmer driving the #4 car was just flying all weekend, he walked away from the rest of the pack for the duration of the race. #313 Jim Hicks came in second place and crossed the line about 40 seconds after Tyler Palmer, with #512 Jim Richmond finishing in third another 8 seconds behind Hicks. Fourth and fifth place were very close, with #7 Darren Griffith finishing only four tenths of a second ahead of #55 Rob Giorgio. #51 Harold Dunn and #20 Rob Davis round out positions six and seven, and unfortunately #08 Dave Hauck was only able to complete 4 laps and wouldn’t be seen racing for the rest of the weekend.
Saturday Small Bore Results
PT-B
1st – Ricky Johnson
PT-C
1st – Dave Snyder
Honda Challenge H2
1st – Eric Dayton
2nd – Team LBR
3rd – Team FTW
944 Spec
1st – Tyler Palmer
2nd – Jim Hicks
3rd – Jim Richmond
Photo Credit: Aaron Hiar
Saturday Big Bore
As the cars neared the starting line to take the green flag, the fastest qualifier, Team ArizonaPain.com in their Radical SR8 was seen lurking at the back of the pack. After the green flag was dropped, the Radical cautiously moved through the field, passing everyone and catching up to Alger in his monster Dodge Viper. The Radical was able to make the pass but due to mechanical difficulties wasn’t able to put distance on Alger and made for some great racing. Alger finally got around the Radical and during that time Craig Ames in his Porsche GT3 Cup Car was able to catch them but was unable to put the moves on them. Alger was first to cross the line followed by Team ArizonaPain.com and then Craig Ames, all within 6 tenths of a second. Talk about a close finish! In SU Bob Blizzard crossed the line in second place, fourth overall with Brent Crosser only half a second behind. The rest of the racers crossed the line in a timely fashion in their respective classes.
Saturday Big Bore Results
SU
1st – Team ArizonaPain.com
2nd – Bob Blizzard
3rd – Brent Crosser
ST-1
1st – Mark Alger
ST-2
1st – Rob Capitz
ST-3
1st – Richard Koevary
GTS 5
1st – David Leyvas
GTS 4
1st – Craig Ames
GTS 3
1st – Martin Saltzman
Photo Credit: Aaron Hiar
Sunday Small Bore
Just like the Saturday race Ricky Johnson in his PT-B Mini Cooper S took the green flag and ran away from the rest of the field, only to be seen again by lap traffic. Dave Snyder in PT-C finished strong despite having alternator problems earlier in the day. He used his tow rig to charge up his battery before the race and hung in there, mixing it up with some of the leaders in Honda Challenge and 944 Spec.
In Honda Challenge, Team FTW overcame their mechanical difficulties from Saturday and was gridded in third position. Eric Dayton walked away from his fellow competitors for another win, with Team LBR finishing 35 seconds behind him and Team FTW finished in third one lap down. Hopefully this served as a good warm up and shakedown for the Honda Challenge competitors that made the trip to California before returning to Firebird, where there is sure to be more competitors and more action!
944 Spec was the strongest group once again on Sunday with 7 competitors on the starting grid. Tyler Palmer in the #4 car started from the back of the field this race, but still finished in first place, managing to pass the entire field! #7 Darren Griffith finished in second place, a nice improvement from his fourth place finish on Saturday. Jim Richmond finished in third again and Jim Hicks slipped to a fourth place finish. Rounding out the group in fifth, sixth and seventh were Rob Giorgio, Harold Dunn and Rob Davis.
Here is a great in car race video from Jim Hicks in his Spec 944 car.
Sunday Small Bore Results
PT-B
1st – Ricky Johnson
PT-C
1st – Dave Snyder
Honda Challenge H2
1st – Eric Dayton
2nd – Team LBR
3rd – Team FTW
944 Spec
1st – Tyler Palmer
2nd – Darren Griffith
3rd – Jim Richmond
Photo Credit: Aaron Hiar
Sunday Big Bore
The NASA AZ heavy hitter Team ArizonaPain.com was unfortunately down for the count and would not be seen racing on Sunday. With the Radical gone, this left Mark Alger in his Dodge Viper and Craig Ames in his Porsche GT3 Cup Car to duke it out. Alger was on pole position and was in the lead and was very careful not to leave the door open for Ames who was right on his tail. When the two made it around to small bore lap traffic, Ames had an opening after the two split a slower car coming into a corner, Alger was on the inside and had to sacrifice speed into the corner while Ames rocketed around the outside. After that, Ames was able to put some distance between the two and Alger finished second overall approximately 20 seconds after Ames took first overall. Bob Blizzard was absent for qualifying but still pushed to the front of the pack, finishing first in SU and third overall. David Leyvas finished fourth overall and first in GTS5 with Martin Daszkal right on his tail. Martin finished second in SU and 5th overall. The rest of the competitors in their respective classes trickled in, all getting first place in class and getting a step up on future competitors in the points race for 2013. The GTS series looks to be promising as there are talks of more people joining during the next round of home events at Firebird Raceway, it should make for some good racing in the near future!
Sunday Big Bore Results
SU
1st – Bob Blizzard
2nd – Martin Daszkal
3rd – Brent Crosser
ST-1
1st – Mark Alger
GTS 5
1st – David Leyvas
GTS 4
1st – Craig Ames
GTS 3
1st – Martin Saltzman
Photo Credit: Aaron Hiar
Saturday Time Trials
We had a great turnout for Time Trial for the season opener with 38 drivers up against the clock in search of some fast times. With the recent shake up with the Time Trial classing system, we had some new track records that needed to be set! TTU, TT1, TT2 and TT3 were all up for grabs. The first record that were claimed on Saturday was by Team ArizonaPain.com in TTU with their #102 Radical SR8 with a blistering time of 1:40.122 in the last session of the day. Clay Koevary also set the TT3 record in his #46 BMW E36 M3 with a time of 1:55.110. Nice job guys! Over in small bore, a battle was brewing in TTB, the local track monster David Schotz had decided to bring out their 1989 Camaro for a shakedown only to find that he finally had some competition! Ricky Johnson in his Mini Cooper S put down a 1:58.741 for the fastest time of the day with Schotz trailing by half a second. In TTD Robert Rose was on a quest for a sub two minute lap time, but wasn’t quite able to pull it off running a 2:00.770. TTC is shaping up to be a good group as well with Jeff Abrams moving up from TTD to win both days. Aaron Hiar and Dan Zimmerman were also battling all day for second in TTC, just mere tenths from each other. Aaron Hiar came out on top but wouldn’t be so lucky on Sunday when Zimmerman completed his latest round of driver mods. Time Trial participation in general has been on the rise lately making for an awesome time for everyone!
Saturday Time Trial Results
TT-U
1st – Team ArizonaPain.com – 1:40.122 – New Track Record!
2nd – Bob Blizzard – 1:53.914
3rd – Travis Barnes 1:57.830
TT-1
1st – Mark Alger – 1:51.391
2nd – Chris Willson – 1:52.202
3rd – Ken Gerhart – 1:57.792
TT-2
1st – David Stark – 2:05.096
2nd – Gabe Ortega – 2:21.817
TT-3
1st – Clay Koevary – 1:55.110 – New Track Record!
2nd – Jeremy Renshaw – 2:03.036
3rd – Adrian Little – 2:03.500
TT-B
1st – Ricky Johnson – 1:58.741
2nd – David Schotz – 1:59.227
3rd – Ian Ferguson – 2:04.506
TT-C
1st – Jeff Abrams – 2:05.863
2nd – Aaron Hiar – 2:07.443
3rd – Dan Zimmerman – 2:07.778
TT-D
1st – Robert Rose – 2:00.770
2nd – Stenos Wijaya – 2:07.892
3rd – Josh Eisele – 2:12.376
Photo Credit: Aaron Hiar
Sunday Time Trial
With the Team ArizonaPain.com Radical down with unknown mechanical issues, TT-U seemed to be all but wrapped up by Bob Blizzard in his highly modified Ford Ranger, but Travis Barnes was on a mission when he went on track for the last session of the day. Travis went an incredible four seconds faster than his previous session, even though his splitter had completely broken off earlier in the event! In TT-1, Mark Alger in that beast of a Dodge Viper secured the new track record, with Chris Willson in his Honda S2000 trailing two and a half seconds behind. Jeremy Renshaw set the fast time of the day in TT-3 in the second session, Adrian Little was chipping away time throughout the day and came in second.
Over in small bore time trials, Ricky Johnson in his TT-B Mini Cooper set the new track record, David Schotz took another crack at it in the second session which was good enough for a solid second place finsih, but was still two seconds off of Ricky. Jeff Abrams continued his TT-C dominance, and Dan Zimmerman managed to find an extra two seconds in the last session to take over the second place position from Aaron Hiar. Robert Rose in his TT-D Mazda Miata was absolutely flying this weekend, and reached his goal of a sub two minute lap, setting the new track record at 1:59.988!
Sunday Time Trial Results
TT-U
1st – Travis Barnes – 1:52.051
2nd – Bob Blizzard – 1:53.457
3rd – John Weigel – 2:01.634
TT-1
1st – Mark Alger – 1:48.766 – New Track Record!
2nd – Chris Willson – 1:51.316
3rd – Ken Gerhart – 1:57.263
TT-2
1st – David Stark – 2:02.998 – New Track Record!
TT-3
1st – Jeremy Renshaw – 1:59.122
2nd – Adrian Little – 2:00.473
3rd – John Bianchi – 2:07.038
TT-B
1st – Ricky Johnson – 1:57.131 – New Track Record!
2nd – David Schotz – 1:59.162
3rd – Joel Schotz – 2:04.094
TT-C
1st – Jeff Abrams – 2:04.856
2nd – Dan Zimmerman – 2:05.899
3rd – Aaron Hiar – 2:07.308
TT-D
1st – Robert Rose – 1:59.988 – New Track Record!
2nd – Stenos Wijaya – 2:07.034
3rd – Douglas Evans – 2:09.832
TT-E
1st – Paul Bloomberg – 2:11.497
Photo Credit: Aaron Hiar
UMS Tuning Time Attack Series
The UMS Time Attack competitors were all ready to start racking up some points in the new season, and the competition this year should be close! With a new modified season points structure, competitors that can’t make every single away event will have a much better chance at staying close in the points race, making it more fun for everyone!
To start off in TA-A, Jeff Abrams clicked off a solid 2:06.398 in his turbocharged 1993 Mazda Miata for first place. Following him on the scoreboard is the father son duo of Aaron Hiar and Todd Hiar, both driving the same naturally aspirated 1994 Mazda Miata. In TA-B, Jon Via was about two seconds slower than his Time Trial runs but was still plenty fast enough to lock down the top spot in his Honda Civic EF. Eric Malsack in his Mazdaspeed 3 and Carson Clark in his Honda S2000 were very close, with Eric coming out on top with a 2:12.461 and Carson only three tenths slower. In TA-C, Travis Barnes went out and crushed it in his 2003 Subaru WRX! He claimed the track record with a 1:52.017, beating out the previous record holder Bob Blizzard by only three THOUSANDTHS of a second! Russell “Captain JDM” Whelan came in second with a solid time of 1:58.322 in his Nissan Skyline and in third was Taylor Wilson with a 2:00.791, even though he suffered a splitter failure earlier and had his bumper fall off on the cool down lap of his time attack run. The next event at Firebird West Course should have some awesome Time Attack Action!
UMS Tuning Time Attack Series Results
TA-A
1st – Jeff Abrams – 2:06.398
2nd – Aaron Hiar – 2:07.370
3rd – Todd Hiar – 2:13.595
TA-B
1st – Jon Via – 2:07.736
2nd – Eric Malsack – 2:12.461
3rd – Carson Clark – 2:12.789
TA-C
1st – Travis Barnes – 1:52.017 – New Track Record!
2nd – Russell Whelan – 1:58.322
3rd – Taylor Wilson – 2:00.791
Photo Credit: Krystal Ann
HPDE and Friends/Family Bonus Session
The HPDE groups were in a combined format this event, with HPDE 1 and 2 running together and HPDE 3 and 4 running together. Even with the combined groups, participants enjoyed TONS of good open track thanks to Chuckwalla’s 2.68 mile length. Running the same counter clockwise configuration as last time gave everyone that came out last time and excellent measurement of how fast their driving is progressing!
We also had a special session at the end of Saturday called the Friends and Family Bonus Session. NASA AZ members could have Friends or Family take their car out for a spin on the track! What better way to let those close to you get an idea of what it feels like to be out driving on a real road course. Adina Evanson was seen out in the Team ArizonaPain.com Radical SR8 with Tage Evanson riding shotgun, putting down some good laps along with Ramin ‘TopRamn’ Shute-Mahini in Jon Via’s Honda Civic. That must have been a blast! Keith Rood the NASA AZ start/finish flagger was even hauling the mail in his Chevy Pickup Truck turning some laps with the tires howling!
A huge shoutout to all the dedicated NASA AZ staff, volunteers, and corner workers for a safe and fun filled weekend! Thanks to everyone that came all the way out to tough out the cold weather for a good time at the track! Also to Chuckwalla Valley Raceway for providing awesome facilities and an awesome track to drive on! Firebird West is only days away, be sure to get registered as quickly as possible to get some good laps in and enjoy the company of fellow gearheads and racers!
Photo Credit: Paul Kuzma
Next Event Info
Firebird Raceway West Course Jan. 26th and 27th
Event Details and Registration Info
Written by: Aaron Hiar