Race report Buttonwillow

[Tony G]

It was a hot and wild weekend for the 4th West Coast CMC race at Buttonwillow. It was an average sized field with 16 CMC cars doing battle. New driver Doug Clements showed up for his first CMC weekend and proved to have a great attitude. Gary Brantley’s goal for the weekend was to complete his provisional license for CMC. Peter Hopeland arrived in his new 05’ CMC-2 Mustang and proved to be a outstanding driver. Belinda Endress was also in attendance in her first CMC outing as the driver of the #37 Team Gecko Trans-Am.

 

When Saturdays qualifying was over, Brady Flaherty set the fastest lap in Kirk Theis’ new 3rd gen Camaro with a 2:13.4, but was later sent to the back of the field for not reporting to impound after qualifying. So the pole position was awarded to Belinda Endress, followed by Team Flashover, and Nick Steel. The majority of the CMC competitors were only a couple of seconds apart. This just proves the close competitiveness of CMC.

 

Saturday’s race started with CMC doing a standing start. Everybody got a great start and the battle was on. Team Flashover took a quick lead and tried hard to keep it. Belinda, Nick Steel, and Tony Guaglione stayed right next to each other for the entire race, as it was like a moving connected freight train and all crossed the finish line only a few car lengths apart. The final result had Scott Dragoun driving the Team Flashover Camaro to a victory, followed by Belinda Endress and Nick Steel and Tony. Peter Hopeland started in the back of the CMC grid and ended up passing all 15 other cars to take a win in CMC-2. The top two cars and a randomly selected car were sent to the dyno after the race. Team Flashover, Team Gecko, and the randomly selected car was Ed Hamilton’s Mustang. All cars proved to be legal.

 

After the race, the CMC’ers congregated at the Willow Ranch BBQ for some great food and some bench racing. Pat Stone tried to insight a food fight by throwing French fries all over the place. The Margetta brothers attempted to consume a side of beef while cattle rancher Carson Scheller encouraged the mass consumption of eggs in an attempt to rid the world of poultry.

 

CMC attempted the traditional Inverted Race/ Qualifying session on Sunday. However it was cut short by some major chaos with the FFR start which included one driving over the top of another. The session was ultimately red flagged and canceled, due to the lengthy clean up. Fortunately no one was hurt in a wreck that featured the airborne FFR car mounting one of it competitors. The grid for Sunday’s main race was determined by the fastest times from Saturday’s race. The top three positions were taken by Team Flashover, Belinda Endress, and Tony Guaglione.

 

The race started with AI and CMC having a standing start. It proved to be exciting as an AI car stalled on the start and could not get restarted. AI, CMC, and FFR drivers did an excellent job avoiding him. Tony Guaglione jumped into an early lead and was followed by Team Flashover, Belinda Endress, Nick Steel and Pat Stone. After waiting for a chance, Team Flashover took the lead in turn one with a great pass. Tony, Belinda, Pat and Nick swapped position around with Pat climbing to third before suffering an off road excursion. A short way behind the lead pack, Brad Simpson and Kevin Margetta continued a weekend long battle. Brady Flaherty made a charge through the field and was on his was to the front before having to leave early due to a serious mechanical failure. Rick Santos left early due to brake issues and Charles Weeks was meatballed for dumping fuel on left turns. Team Flashover ended up winning the race, followed by Tony, Nick, Belinda and Pat. Peter Hopeland started with the AI field and stayed with most of the AI field for the race showing that the A/I cars and a CMC 2 cars can have quite the battle.

 

It was a great CMC weekend with Gary Brantley finishing his provisional license and Doug Clements doing a great job in his fist CMC weekend. Good Job guys. The next West Coast CMC race is at Infineon on June 30th with CMC in the NASCAR garages with a 20+ car CMC field.

See you all there!

[Richard Pryor1548534703]

It sounds like an outrageous CMC weekend. I can't wait to join the circus at Sears Point in a few weeks. We'll be bringing two cars. Dave Schotz (who I'm trying to turn from the dark side of the force...SCCA's T2...to CMC for next year) will be driving our new build, old car...a 1982 carbed Camaro...I'd forgotten what a carb looked like after all these years of TPI...Dave is a clean racer (maybe because he's always leading the races) and a fun guy..perfect CMC material...he's tired of racing two or three other T2 guys in SCCA...20+ CMC cars is going to blow his mind. The second member is Bill Graham. Bill has been racing motorcycles for decades and finally realized, in his old age, that cars with roll cages make far superior vehicles for track fun. He just bought Ken Gronberg's Firebird and will be making his CMC debut at Sears. Bill has his own custom exhaust shop in Seaside so if you need any race or performance exhaust work he's the guy to contact at Matt's Mufflers. He ought to come in handy at the race weekends too with his welding knowledge..just in case. If we can line up another trailer and tow vehicle we'll be bringing up the CMC-2 Camaro we tested at Sears last year for yours truly. Hey, Pat...have any extra trailer space in your hauler?...looking forward to the weekend...and yes, Tony, I'm bringing the pink slip to the #27 Camaro...I'm looking forward to Dave showing you the rear of the Camaro...RP

[Tony G]

I have a great idea.

Mike Plum will run CMC for Team Hi Line, and I'll run in CMC2 in my car,so you and I can run against each other...sound good.

Tony

[Richard Pryor1548534703]

You're on...as long as we can get a third trailer and tow vehicle...the car is fresh from clinching the SCCA T2 SoPac Divisional Championship for Dave Schotz and ready to go even faster in CMC-2 (even with the restrictor)...I'll even bring a set of Hoosier A6's for your Mustang and I'll use the Toyos just to even things up...RP

[Al F.]

Congrats on the dual wins Scott!! Sounds like a great weekend. Good to see Kevin wasnt involved in that whole FFR being mounted fiasco! What'd you break Brady??

[gold chains and oakleys]

Maybe a better question is what I didn't break..

 

What I did break:

 

1. Wheel Bearings

2. (2) Power Steering Pumps

3. (4) Spark Plug Wires

4. Mass Air Sensor

5. Went through 3 quarts of oil

6. Tony said I broke the track record in warm up on sunday..

 

I was in Kirks new (old) car for its first day on the track...All I have to say is the 3rd gen is far better than the 4th gen..those times were with 213 HP, 277TQ, 100lbs over and an open rear end, no corner weighing, and the same shocks/springs from my OLD car..

 

This car is going to be very good when it gets sorted out..

[Tony G]

It really sucked watching Brady parked right next to me fighting the car problems the whole weekend,but no doubt you were super fast when it ran...I mean scary fast.

Remember it was the first time out for the car,so it will get fixed.

Get your 4th gen over to my house so I can put that shock in there and lets go racing!

Tony Guaglione

[Richard Pryor1548534703]

Brady...yes, just wait untill it gets sorted...the almost well kept secret in CMC is that the 3rd gens are the superior car under the rules...see you at Sears..in another 3rd gen (and hopefully we won't have too many sorting problems its first time out)..rp

[GT4Point6]

Sat race vid clips, three total put together.

 

The start

SU car Spin out

Brady

 

Brady was way faster in the corners but his car was only running on 7 cylinders so I killed him on the straights. I let him go since he was better in the turns. He gave me back the position later since he was only running 7/8ths on the engine. That car does run great with 7 or 8 cylinders!

 

1.7 mb or so, DUW

 

http://www.margetta-racing.com/video/bwfun1.wmv

 

More to follow with the Sunday race and some crazy Viper madness passing Brad and I.

 

Sorry for the crappy video, Pinnacle Studio decided it doesn't want to work any more so I used Win Mov Maker.

Edited June 15, 2007 by Guest

[GT4Point6]

More video

 

Start on Sunday with LOTS OF SPIN

 

Safe passes after Majic Mountain

 

I let Brad go to follow his line. It turns out we were within 3/10ths of each each other most of the race. Then the crazy Viper pass after Majic Mountain.

 

http://www.margetta-racing.com/video/bwfun2.wmv

[Lady in Nomex]

Very cool Kevin - you are a good sport to other to boot! Awesome driving dude!

[bsim]

Here's my perspective of the things in Kevin's video.

 

I think it was one of those nice, non-eventful weekends. Went out, raced, loaded the car up. Woohoo!

[doug1548534725]

http://www.bsimconsulting.com/Racing/bw2.asf

 

edit: nevermind, works now.

[Al F.]

You'd think of all people Kirk would know not to let you borrow their car!! haha Now, Kirk's old car was actually your old blue car which was actually Ben's old orange car. Is this the same car?

 

That is no secret...just ask the guy that won both races in a carbed 3rd gen how to do it! I think its might be time to change the name of the shop to NOT 7's Only!