With the Dan Loeffer Memorial and other races, the last few months were fun for HO racing in Phoenix. Some racers have been showing real speed indicating the 1998 SuperStock championship is anything but a sure thing. Dave, Mike and Eric especially have been showing flashes of competitiveness. Eric’s new LifeLike gave Paul a real side-by-side duel recently. Some have suggested that the 1998 champion will be driving a LifeLike but the Tyco crowd will have something to say about that. With all the ballots in the series counted F1/Indycar style bodies won. The voting was interesting with FIA GTs coming in 2nd and WSC/GTPs in 3rd. So get started on those open wheel, rear engine babies for the 98 season. This one should even be better with even more prizes and awards! It’s a “can’t miss!”
The 4 Hour GT Endurance was fun with 3 teams showing up to battle for the win. We had endurance races years ago, most at 2 hours, so this was going to be a long, hard fought race. Team Allied Signal/Right Stuff decided to attempt what most said can’t be done, race a LifeLike for 4 hours. A test session showed that over a 20 minute segment the car didn’t slow. But some said 20 minutes is a lot different than 4 hours! Could the car last?
At the start Team Zanies took the lead on fast red with Allied 12 laps behind. Team Banta began a struggle for 3 1/2 hours till they decided to change a motor and put speed into the car. With a fast motor they would have been in it but fell quite a bit behind. In the 2nd heat Allied took over on fast blue to build up a lead of over 70 laps after 3 hours. Their Rathwell bodied Porsche 911 GT1 was running flawlessly averaging over 14 laps a minute. At the start of the final hour things looked set for a surprize LifeLike win but it isn’t over till the checkered flag falls. With 45 minutes left the car suddenly stopped. Team Zanies had kept close enough that any slip allowed them to get the lead. While Allied struggled with motor changes to get the speed back, Zanies extended the lead to over 50 laps. Team Banta now had a very fast car finally running with the others. Even with a slower motor Allied’s Dave was able to get back 18 laps until time ran out. So Zane, Mike and David brought their Tyco home for a deserved win. It was a fun, interesting race with another one planned for May 22nd. A challenge will be issued to the California SCHOR group to send over a team to see if they can make it.
Included is the 1997 Race Schedule for your consideration. I think it is a good one and of special interest is the AFX Magna Traction Can-Am race to be held Febuary 26th at Dave Maves’ new track. Dave is a bigtime fan of Can-Am Series of the mid, late 1960s and I can think of no better way to christen his track than with a race like this. Also note the SCHOR Annual SpringNationals that is the AHORA yearly trek in Marty’s party mobile plus another 4 Hour FIA GT Enduro. To avoid the signup confusion of the last Enduro this one will be a pre-entry event. Teams must signup early and there will be awards for the winning team.
Good Luck and Have Fun!