Fubar, continued from page 2 year’s order of finish. After that it got interesting with Joe Parsons' DB-6 narrowly ahead of a trio of new Van Diemen RF-99s driven by Chris Winkler, Jason Byers and Tom Schwietz. Todd Bardwell had the highest placed Swift DB-1 in 7th just behind Chuck Brewer’s Citation. I spoke with Mike Kolthoff who gridded 12th in his DB-6 just beside the new Stohr driven by Mike Jaremko. Kothoff felt the pushrod DB-6 was much more responsive to chassis adjustment than the DB-1, which has a tendency to mask chassis changes due to flexing of the rocker arms. He also felt the converted FF2000 is more stable with a wheelbase almost 3 inches longer than the earliest Swift. The strong Van Diemen challenge, plus six additional DB-6s joining pole-sitter Nunes, gave ample evidence that the long reign of the DB-1 in FF is rapidly fading.
Other FF CenDiv drivers of note included Steve Forrer's totally rebuilt (after a big August crash) DB-1 in 14th, Jon Adams’ brand new Van Diemen 16th, Richard Barger (DB-1) 24th and Jim Roberts trying to come to grips with Don Lyddon’s loaner DB-1 back in 26th. Roberts’ Swift is still being repaired from the BIR flip, while Gib Gibson reports both the Lyddon Swifts are for sale as Don holds to his plan to get out of racing, at least for now.
We took a look at all the FF competitors on the grid, including the radical Stohr that was suffering from an overfilled fuel tank venting on the asphalt. The aroma was like something out of a top fuel dragster - this reinforced my suspicion that many FF competitors have been using blends far removed from pump gas. Hopefully this will change next year when a more extensive check of fuels will be implemented in club racing. I
was also struck by the number of fairly old FF drivers; the place looked ripe for recruiting by AARP as opposed to years past when the young Andrettis and Vassers made me feel like applying for Social Security. Regarding the tire wars, Nunes was playing it cagey with his Goodyear compound obliterated (they looked like 160) while LaRue was on soft 120s. Schwietz was the only front runner on Hoosiers as family/cash problems kept Bruce May home this year. Most Goodyear runners were on 160 compound as apparently Comp West got sufficient numbers shipped in from Chile. The field took to the track with the skies rapidly darkening, and what looked like heavy rain showers visible to the west, as we took position in the stands outside the carrousel. LaRue took charge early of a 7-car breakaway as Brewer’s Citation was leading (holding up) the second place group. On the third lap Parsons spun out of the lead group and Forrer out of the second group, while Texans Sauce and St. Laurent apparently came together, while 10th gridded Stan Townes parked with a mechanical. Schwietz was fading while Winkler was up to 2nd and Byers 4th at mid-race when the pace car came out and some cars were pulled out of vulnerable positions. On the restart it was clear LaRue had his hands full with Nunes who got by on the 13th lap just after Schwietz parked with engine problems and Jaremko took charge of the second group. The 5 car lead pack of Nunes, LaRue, Byers, Winkler and Bardwell looked to be driving away until the 16th lap, when a Byers’ bid for second put him into the dirt coming into the esses and he spun across the track to take out both Winkler and Bardwell. This brought out the pace car again and suddenly elevated Jaremko and the new Stohr into third. The one lap trophy dash to the finish saw Nunes pull out a one
second victory over LaRue with Jaremko another second back holding on to third over the hard charging DB-6s of Brandon Dixon and Cliff Johnson. Brewer and Kolthoff were 7th and 8th while Forrer made remarkable progress back through the field after his spin (and helped by restarts) to recover to 10th. Roberts drove a steady race to 15th for one of the best improvements in the field; he only was passed by Forrer and Parsons as they charged back from respective spins. LaRue later stated that his tires never came back after the first yellow and that was evidenced by a fairly blistered left front after the race, as even the well balanced Citation was too much for soft Goodyears. Jaremko was elated with his podium finish which will doubtless sell some Stohr cars. A couple folks from NE Division were suitably impressed with Forrer’s effort and bought his Swift on the spot shortly after the post race rain began; Steve intends to stay in FF in an as yet undecided chassis.
As the rain began pounding down I made my way to "Bucks" to meet up with Craig Taylor who had spent the entire week hawking parts and rebuilding transmissions. We had a few brews and a bite to eat while recounting old times in racing and chatting with various racing folks including most of the Texas crowd with whom Craig is more closely associated these days. Several beers had passed before Kathy Maleck finally appeared minus her luggage which didn’t make the trip on Northwest Air to Columbus. Maleck began working on several rounds of tequila while I was chatting with John and Scott Church, and before we knew it we were being ushered out into the parking lot. Fortunately John Church took the wheel of my rental car back
Fubar,
cont. on page 6
Tonneau On-Line December 1999
Page 3
Copyright 1999, Land O'Lakes Region Last revised: November 27, 1999
