Harvey West scores double win at
CBIR May 20-21by Jason DeGoode
Basso Presto club members joined Harvey and Sharon West for two days of racing excitement. The group get-together was planned because several club members had not been to that track before and thought it would be fun to go as a group. And fun it was. With near perfect weather both days and lots of racing excitement, how could we go wrong? Driver Harvey West competes in the A-Sedan class with a Ford Mustang. Car owner Sharon West is a real hands-on car owner monitoring lap times and the intervals to the other competitors. She then relays this information to Harvey so he is aware at all times of his track position. On Saturday, Harvey went out for practice and discovered that one of his competitors had improved his Firebird quite a bit over the winter. Although Harvey was still leading him by a little over a second during practice, it left little room for error. The race on Saturday was quite exciting. His competition was a Firebird and two Camaros, so Harvey would be in charge of the Ford camp this weekend. On the first lap, a couple of cars from another class got into each other in turn three right behind Harvey and sent all the following cars scrambling for an open area to squeeze through. This gave Harvey a little breathing room and he proceeded to his first win of the weekend. Saturday Night we all went out to dinner in nearby Baxter for an evening of good food and post race cheer. The race was closer on Sunday
but the result was still the same. However Harvey was one competitor short because one of the Camaros couldn’t start the race because engine parts and oil weren’t where they are supposed to be, but were spread out on the track during practice.
Harvey’s average speed was nearly 93 MPH. Now that's hauling the mail!
Everyone had a great time, Harvey and Sharon were happy to have the extra help and everyone enjoyed a lot of racing excitement.There’s another event at CBIR coming up September 2-4, and it’s not too far a drive from anywhere in Minnesota and well worth the drive. This should be a super event with even more cars. See you there.
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Larry Connor was walking away in his pro FA car, until parking after a half dozen laps leaving Brian French an easy overall win. Several laps into the contest, 5th FC qualifier Mark Defer got together with another car in turn 5 and slid to a stop on track at the exit. The "professional" wrecker crew proceeded to trundle out and hook up to the car nearest the track edge and slowly remove it while leaving the other car right in the middle (it could have been quickly dragged off) setting up all kinds of near misses despite a waving yellow. We figured the only way they could have made things worse was rotate the second car broadside and leave it at the turn exit. The track was finally cleared as Thomson and Rubenzer continued running 1-2. At mid race Weitzenhof lost a half dozen spots and was trying to make it up when another car chopped him at 5 with resulting wheel
to wheel contact. The perpetrator continued straight off the escape road with Dave chasing him and we all anticipated another round of Weitzenhof fisticuffs, but the other car beat a hasty retreat up the hill. Thomson prevailed on the last lap for his second straight Sprints victory, as Leslie and the overjoyed crew celebrated. Gerry Kraut drove a flawless race to 4th in FC, with John Miller barely missing the top ten (11th). I didn’t have a chance to talk to Steve Beck, but he was obviously having as many problems as we were, and qualified at the back of the fifty car FC field. This was Steve’s first race since rebuilding the car over the winter, and he must have had things figured out by the race improving over 20 positions to 27th just in front of Herb Miller. This netted Steve the race "Hard Charger" award and was by far the best improvement by any driver during the weekend.
We headed back to the paddock to conclude our packing, and by mid-point of the big GT race we were headed for the exit. Former open wheel driver Cliff Ebben won overall while Simon Gregg drove the Derhaag Motorsports Camaro to second in GT-1 and overall. Jon Brakke won GT-3, Harvey West was 9th in AS, but Doug Sherwood was a DNF in GT-3. With our hasty departure we of course missed the weekend finale with almost 70 SRFs taking the green flag as the Sprints largest race group. LOL’s Scott Goolsby gridded on the outside of the second row while Gerry Kraut was 7th; Gary Jensen and Justin Elder 28th and 29th; Reid Johnson 41st; Eric Wheeler 62nd and Tim Gray 66th. Of course the race did not turn out this way as there was one red flag incident and any number of other accidents ranging from fender to frame bending. After
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Tonneau On-Line August 2000
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Copyright 2000, Land O'Lakes Region Last revised: March 13, 2003
