November 18-19, 2009 | By Brian Mertz
VARA was blessed once again with sunny skies, mild temperatures and relatively calm breezes for its final event of the 2009 season, the annual Big Bore Bash at Willow Springs International Raceway.
FORD vs. CHEVY CHALLENGE
Thunder rolled across Willow Springs in the weekend’s feature race as Ford and Chevy racers tangled in an exciting opening race on Saturday, sandwiched between qualifying sessions.
Kirk Svalstad’s BPM Corvette romped from the pole to an easy 8-second win, giving Chevy the bragging rights. Tom Diaz drove his BP Mustang GT350 flawlessly in pursuit but couldn’t overcome a lap time disadvantage of more than a second.
Edie Arrowsmith guided her yellow Mustang from sixth on the grid to take third overall and second in BP after harassing and overtaking Brad Long’s fourth-place "Old Barnsmell" Corvette.
GROUP 1
Wayne Graham’s quick BSM Mazda RX-3 sedan ran unchallenged from the pole to the checker in Sunday’s opening race, ahead of a trio of Datsun 240Zs and a hard-charging Porsche 911.
Chris Horn’s CPM Z got past the similar car of John Wilkins and outlasted the very fast Porsche 914-6 of Justin Desimone to take second place, after the Porsche faded and retired in late laps. Horn was pursued to the stripe by the CPGT 911 of George Braithwaite, who had a fantastic start – charging from 21st to fifth place in the opening lap.
Precision driving by Steve Feig carried his diminutive ESR PBS Mk.4 forward from 16th at the start to take eighth overall against much larger displacement machines.
GROUP 2
Kim Madrid worked her way up from sixth on the grid to put on a great show in the closing laps with Bob Hatle. Their closely matched Caldwell D-13s crossed the finish just a whisker apart, Madrid winning the checker in FV1 by 0.35 seconds.
Among small-bore production cars in the split race group, Randy Wilson’s FP Morgan 4/4 won by a 2-second margin over Daryll Clark’s FP Triumph TR3. John Griffiths put on a fine show in his FP MGA, charging from 18th at the start to pass everyone in the production group and gain third overall by the final lap, but sadly his car didn’t make it to the finish.
GROUP 3
Frank Cervetto’s ex-Trans Am APX Camaro took the overall win by a narrow 0.15 seconds after a race-long contest with the Roush Mustang of Kenneth Davis. Third and fourth went to a pair of veteran NASCARs, Dick Young’s Ford Taurus edging Dan Verstuyft’s Chevy Lumina by just over a second after a fine race.
GROUP 4
Joe Harding grabbed the lead on the opening lap in the wings-and-slicks group and his Ralt RT-3 stayed out front, despite pursuit by Richard Wilkinson’s Ralt RT-5 and the VanDiemen of Alan Bryan. Fourth across the line was the Fiore Indycar of David Morrison.
GROUP 5
The CF Crossle 35F of Bradley Newman was the class of the Formula/Club Ford field, posting a decisive 35-second win over the FF3 Swift of Larry Bangert. But the real contest was a bit further back. The CF Crossles of Steve Luftman and Michael Vandenhurst, Tom Sabo’s FF Caldwell and Roy Jones' FF Winkelmann put on a great show, finishing in that order with less than a second separating all four cars.
GROUP 6
A bright setting sun demanded some guesswork in Turn 2 and Turn 9, as 34 drivers of mid-bore production cars fought for position in the weekend’s final race. Peter Giacobbi's DP Alfa Giulietta took the flag-to-flag win, chased by the CS BMW 2002s of Craig Hickox and Chris Blasman. Hardest charger in the group was Josh Rodenbush, who wheeled his DP Volvo P1800S from 23rd on the grid to fifth overall – not quite able to catch the DP Triumph Spitfire of Gary Shuman.
