I volunteered to work the event Fri/Sat and helped out event chair Dave Bouzaglou (TRE) and the Black Flag official Frank Martinez. Now I know how much friggen work goes on behind the scenes at one of these big multi-day events. Wow, I didn't even drive, but I'm beat! Two full days of walking around Willow Springs in 100+ heat...schlepping stuff from point A to point B most of the time...really catches up with you.

The field was pretty thin, only 16-17 cars starting and 11 finishing. They actually filled-out the grid with a "mini-enduro" in the first hour, to make it look better (Speed Channel was taping; first airing is 7/5).

The race itself was a good one, with battles and passing going on all the way up to the end. The frontrunners were turning laps in the low-mid 1:20's throughout the race, which is very quick, especially in the DARK...

Ultimately Brent Martini and Cort Wagner held off Doug Baron and Loren Beggs to take the win. (I already can't remember who placed 3rd but I'll check.)

My pics are here:

http://www.nosubstitute.org/events/Tribute31May03/

I shot a few snippets of video that I might post later too (I haven't looked at it yet).

Oh yeah...there were NO 914's in the main event. I was ashamed. The big turbo cars, and the factory GT3 and Cup-car variants are now dominating the top 3 or 4 classes completely.

Two 914 guys who made a half-vast effort were a couple of POC "black sheep" who both had mechanical issues all weekend. John Flynn and Chris Aber-Rooney were blowing smoke, struggling with farged up clutches or trannies, and so forth. Flynn's kill switch didn't pass tech and he refused to fix it, last I heard. Chris made the mini-enduro start but pull off early, blowing smoke from somewhere.

Sergio Nardi's black Motec 914-6 was about the only decent run by the 914 crowd; I'm pretty sure that car made the mini enduro but don't know who was driving.

Thanks for the pics. I been there and I know that this place can get hot.

I have to say that this new Ferrari realy look ugly. Is it better in person ?

Are you kidding???? I've seen the "Enzo" in person, and it's the THE most beautiful car I've ever seen, bar none! What's not to love?

I saw only pictures of it but it look like a kit-car. I think they are trying to duplucate the look of a Formula 1 too much. There are too many angles.

Great pics Chris, as usual. Thanks for putting them up.

The Grand Am event this coming weekend killed it for our group. We thought about running both events but didnt want to kill ourselves in 100 degree heat and then do it again 4 days later. Not worth it. Our guy has already proven he can kick everybodies ass in POC..so not much left to prove with POC.


B

Have I said publicly.. that I want a Carrera cup powered Boxster ??


B

Brad...you do know that guys like Kevin Buckler and Johannes van Overbeek were driving in the race, eh? (Actually I think Buckler may not have driven; the Hergesheimer car had tons of problems.) Guys like Jerry Woods and Dennis Aase were there running their crews.

There are not that many drivers/teams who can pull off 150+ laps in the 1:20-1:30 range at Willow, with half of those being in the dark.

My hat is off to anybody who can...

BTW I think the "Enzo" is one of THE ugliest cars I've ever seen. Seriously. I just kept thinking...Batmobile. I can't say I liked the Saleen much either, in the looks department. The 917 was the one car that consistently had a crowd around it.

Unless Buckler had his cars there (highly unlikey) I wouldnt have been worried. I have seen enough of the POC races. The GT3RS of Blake Rosser has cleaned house at every event we take it too. Ask JohnW. He knows the guy's at MoM very well. The Grand Am event coming up will help us decide where Blake fits in best. It could be very humbling.. or it could be another POC race where he is 5 car lengths ahead by turn 6.

I do agree that driving at night is tough.. but Blake ran the Tribute last year before purchasing the GT3RS and had Randy Pobst in the wings to co-drive the Tribute if we ran it this year. Instead the decision was to made to have Randy co-drive the Grand Am event instead.

Honestly.. Buckler is not that fast. Cort Wagner is faster at most venues... he just doesnt have a full time ride. In my honest opinion.. Randy Pobts is better/faster/more experience with pro racing than Overbeek. (Overbeek is a 914 guy BTW).

B

Don't like the enzo? Don't like the Saleen? c'mon

Chris; I see you got a pic of Marty's sign on his trailer. He's been lowering his requirements a little at a time.
Who was driving the bright orange #222 car? IMO that was the fastest car in the Tribute until it broke. Bob clocked it at 140 with the radar gun and he was picking it up about the first third of the straight. We figure he was close to 160 before lifting at the other end.

I didn't catch who was driving the 222 Jerry Woods car; its closing speeds on the straight were impressive though. Several of the turbo cars were over 160mph between start-finish and turn 1.

Remind me to hit Curvie with my flashlight when I see him next.... SIZE YOUR PICS DOWN !!

I hate logging into my admin account and shrinking pics for people.


B

Red arrow is Craig Watkins (Smart Camber)

Blue arrow is Rich Walton (Jerry Woods)

Driver of the Turbo car is a Jerry Woods customer named.. Stovanich (cant spell is name worth a damn)

If the car held together.. they should have won it overall. He wins 98% of the PCA club racing he enters.

B

How about the pic:


B

Uhhh....

My impression, when seeing one in person at the LA auto show, was: "Wow. Talk about not photographing well! It looks absolutely awful in all the pics I've seen--but in person, it improves all the way to 'just OK'!"

--DD

haha, i like the "Isetta" the most!!!
haven't seen one of those on the road for ages. (not here in the US anyways).

those are cool cars that only a German could make, talk about Ugly. Weren't they 2 cycle too?
Geoff

yepp, one Cylinder, 2 stroke BMW motorcycle engine ...

here's a nice web-page (in english).
technical specs on the bottom ...

Someone's Isetta

and yes, the only way in and out is through the front

car #222 is Bob Stefanowicz (sp?). I think it's like a '69 tub with the obvious 993 body. Super short wheel base and 700hp, scary.....

Terrance

I must say that the GT2 is the sexiest car out of the supercars that were there


It has THE best curves and styling, the others are big and bulky while the GT2 is light and nimble. I agree on the Enzo, do any of you think it looks like a rat or ferret from the front and it doesn't seem all that proportional (the F50 was WAY better than this). Not a huge Ferrari fan at ALL, some are nice but I would rather have a Porsche than a Ferrari anyday. Nice pics

GT2

V12 Vanquish
Diablo GT
S7 (for being American)

Enzo

See.. Terrance cant spell it either...LOL


B

I, personally, like the Enzo. Don't be too critical on the looks of the car, remember what people said of our "ugly ducklings" when they were new. And, most of us weren't converts until we actually drove one.

This is why I like it:

1. WOW! its an effin' Formula 1 car with a body!
2. Looks like a Daytona prototype (don't it?)
3. Wow! its a FORMULA CAR WITH A BODY!

ok, enough, but it's BAD!

Amen, brother!

...Or an Italian. The design is Italian, and I think they were made very briefly by the Italian company Isetta, who licensed the design to BMW. BMW were doing just about anything they could to stay afloat at that point, and the Isetta was one of the results of that.

--DD

> I volunteered to work the event Fri/Sat and helped out event chair Dave Bouzaglou (TRE) and the Black Flag official Frank Martinez.

..you were there Chris? I thought you weren't going to make it.
I was also there, what an event. Awesome!!!


> Wow, I didn't even drive, but I'm beat! Two full days of walking around Willow Springs in 100+ heat...schlepping stuff from point A to point B most of the time...
really catches up with you.

..yep, and someone told me it wasn't nearly as hot as they thought it was
going to be!


> Ultimately Brent Martini and Cort Wagner held off Doug Baron and Loren Beggs to take the win. (I already can't remember who placed 3rd but I'll check.)

..Vision Motorsports car #276?

Your pics look alot like the 96 I took, except mine are on film, not Digital.

During the sat nite race, I asked one of the spotters for Vision how much
horsepower their 911 had.
"700 with the twin turbos".

So, in other words, 10x the amount my little 914 has huh? LOL

Yep, you're right...it was Dwain Dement (Vision) and his team in 3rd.

Probably the reason I forgot is that Dwain was a dick when I went over to tech their fuel cells, rigs, fire eqpt, and cutoff switches...he was stressing big time cuz they had multiple cars at the event and I think they were all f'ed up at the moment.

Brad would probably like him...he has a multi-colored mohawk and had cheerleaders (in costume) in his pits...

I dunno about 700hp but the turbo cars are clearly waaaay fast. The top few teams blew more on tires during that one weekend than most of us originally paid for our 914's. POC has a large proportion of members who are not "financially challenged", which is blatantly obvious when you see the big rigs in the paddock and the real time Motec data acq setups, stacks of new 18" slicks, etc. Must be nice. I am waiting for the day when a driver shows up in his helicoptor and lands on top of the car hauler

Sorry we couldn't hook up. In the earlier posts I said I wouldn't be there *driving* but I had known for months that I would be there watching/working.

Ha ha.. one of the drivers of the "Radicals" flys by helicopter in and out of events..

Sounds like fun. I'm surprised the Vision guy's kept any of the cars together. They asked for our help at Buttonwillow back a few races ago.. on their 944 Turbo beast.. we walked over and gracefully said.. we could'nt help them. What a Kludge...but I guess not everybody can buy a Carrera Cup car or GT3R/RS.

I cant wait for Fontana...



B

Well, it's definitely getting to the point where it's "stupid" to not buy a factory car, if you are building a track car in the >$50K territory. You can buy 964 and 993 Cup cars for suprisingly little now, and there are more and more GT3-based cars showing up at club events. They even come out to the "short track" series now, with big rig 3-4 car haulers, catered lunches and all.

Steve Alarcon's 993 Cup car (the green striped one) is still for sale; he has already dropped the asking price 20-30K and no bites yet. It could probably be had for $65K, maybe less. I also saw a 95 GT2 recently for under $100K, including a bunch of spares.

If my business keeps up and the race bug doesn't go away, then a factory car is where I will hope to go next. It will be a few years, but that's OK. Maybe by then I can get a GT3RS for $50K.

Re. the Vision cars...they basically *couldn't* keep 'em together...I think they had 9 cars at the event and only 1 made the grid, just barely. As late as the night before I saw engines out and shit scattered all over the place. The water pumper (944) cars never moved the 2 days I was there.

Looks like Chris and I will be in used Carrera cup cars buy 2005. LOL

I dont know how Vision stays in business... I know the guy's are "great"..but the customers have to get pissed off big time. Pay to go to track.. pay to enter...pay crew...

We had *their* customers coming over to our rig and asking us for help (right in front of them) how F-'d up is that ?? The customers would ask us to come over and work on the cars in the Vision area.

They would come over... because they saw us eating ice cream and sucking on creamsicles ...and winning >>LOL


B

Oh.. Chris et al,

How the the HELL do you "get" all your Vision customers to paint there cars those godawful blue and gold colors ?? I have no idea how they pull that one off.. we sit back and laugh at it..


B

I asked the g/f of the 3rd place Vision team about the Boxster that never moved.
She was the one jumping Up & Down after being sprayed with the
champagne.


She said the car hadn't moved all weekend.

"Sorry we couldn't hook up. In the earlier posts I said I wouldn't be there *driving* but I had known for months that I would be there watching/working"

I could've swore You had said you weren't going to be there after all, no big
deal of course.
I really want to get an up close look at your 914, especially the 7x16 w/o flares!


Will you be at Fontana this w/e?