It’s the third weekend in February, and you are down south listening to the roar of racing engines on high banked turns, as drivers furiously compete for the race win as well as for points in the all important season championship. No, you’re not at Daytona, but in south Texas at a double National race. For several local open-wheel drivers, the event marked the beginning of a new season. For two, it was a perfect beginning, but for two others it was less than ideal. Steve Jondal and family journeyed south with F-500 in tow, and had an excellent weekend with wins from the pole both Saturday and Sunday. Steve Thomson qualified third in a tough FC field on Saturday, but quickly dispatched both cars ahead and drove away for the win. On Sunday he gridded second, but again quickly took the lead to notch his second straight win. Jim Nash put his Van Diemen 5th on the tough FF grid on Saturday, but fell out of the points during a hard fought race won by ringer Justin Pritchard in a rental Swift on Hoosier tires. On Sunday, things got worse as another car spun into Jim on the first lap and put him out of the race. Pritchard also crashed, leaving the race win to C.T. Hancock also in a DB-1. Jerry Szykulski found his new Van Diemen FF much to his			liking during Friday practice, but at the end of the day suffered serious engine problems which put him out of the weekend event. When Nash and Don Erickson were heading south in the hauler, they suffered a blown transmission. A local shop was all over the truck like the rainbow warriors and had them back on the road in minimal time, but Texas border guards will probably be stopping all northern drivers named Steve to keep the first place trophies in state. While all this was going on, I was fortunate to be at Daytona on the company payroll as NASCAR got their season underway. Everyone seemed to be griping, first about the new shock/spring restrictions. This year stronger springs were required to keep the cars from running so low that shock rubber grommets served as springs, as teams tried to get the cars as close to the track as possible to reduce undercar drag. Although drivers approved of the package in qualifying, during the race increased turbulence minimized the effect of the draft, and it took a pair of cars running together to pull off a pass. The cars didn’t seem to like to run side by side, and the field quickly strung out single file, with most of the race passes made just as the cars were getting up to speed on restarts. Chevy drivers also thought Ford had the aerodynamic edge, but the two year old Pontiac may offer the best high speed package. One week later we were at Rockingham, with the high banked mile tri-oval presenting a sharp contrast to the Daytona layout with a very abrasive surface. Tire wear was critical here, with any car on fresh  Fubar, cont. on page 4		LOL Board of Directors Regional Exceutive Greg Youngdahl Home (507) 332-0297 gregy@deskmedia.com Assistant Regional Executive Shannon Murphy Home:(612) 798-3575 blueflagger@yahoo.com Co-secretaries Steve Gingras Home: (612) 263-0739 T3sgingras@GVMF.com Norm Johnson Home: (612) 870-9503 NJohnson@EEAEngineers.com Treasurer Mark LaBarre Home: (651) 407-7293 mlabarre@telepool.com Members at Large Doug Dill Home: (612) 925-1731 dougd@edsonline.com Chad Lemmons Home: (651) 688-7976 John Niemi Home: (651) 766-8027 captmayday@aol.com LOL Web Page: http://www.scca-lol.org LOL Hotline: 612-885-6888

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Tonneau On-Line	April 2000	Page 2
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