Official Race Report - Mentor, OH - June 21-22, 2008
The Mentor race marks the halfway point for the season! Again, we had an iffy weather forecast that contributed to another low turn-out. 3 heats of 1/8, 2 heats of 200mm (condensed to one for the main) and one of GT.
The Mentor club is a very active outfit, with several members that travel the whole cuircit. Like we did at previous MWS events, we added extra qualifiers to the schedule due to the light turn-out. Unfortunately, we only got in 2 rounds on Sat. before a mother of thunderstorm cells moved through! Wind speeds in excess of 50 mph wreaked havoc on canopies and, coupled with driving rain, well…you get the picture!
We ended up running 3 more rounds on Sunday, followed by the mains. We decided to shorten the 1/8 mains to 20 minutes due to delays getting started.
In 1/8 scale, we had 28 participants, 16 of which were Masters. 1/10 had ten entrees, 4 were Masters. 1/8 GT had 7 entrants.
For 1/10 scale, Andy Power proved to be the man to beat. He turned consistant 17 lap runs in qualifying, while his closed rival could only get 16 5:12!
Qual order for 1/10 was; Andy P, Mark Rodney, Mike McBride, Eliot Hart, Kevin Roberson, Allen Denzine, Nick Altieri, Mike Parker, Darryl Williams and Karl Ennulat.
In 1/8 we had an interesting result in qualifying. This may have happened before, but this is the first time I have seen it happen… The pole was won by a ‘Masters’ participant! Eli Ezrow edged out Paul Ciccarello by less than 2 tenths to take the #1 spot on the grid! Paul of course, was TQ for the open class, while Eli takes TQ points for 1/8 Masters. For those who are unfamiliar with the way we run the Masters classes, we run them together with the open classes, but separate the results for the points. Grid positions will be mixed between the Masters and open participants and awards for the EVENT will not separate the Masters from ‘youngsters’. We do provide Top Qualifier awards for Masters, in addition to the regular classes.
Back to 1/8 qualifying; the C-Main grid was set as follows; pole was Rick Frazier then, Kevin Lie, Darryl Williams, Jerry Borrasso, Lon Burling, Wayne Smith, Chad Washburn and John Schweitzer. B-Main grid; Dennis Young on pole, Carlos LaTorre, Joe DeTomaso, Allen Denzine, Dan Louis, James Condor, Denny Kuhn, 
Marvin Davis, Bill DeBenedictis, And Gary Thomas. A-Main; Eli Ezrow on pole, Paul Ciccarello, Jason Conley, Ted Hammer, Greg Aker, Darin Thomason, Mark Unger, David Lee, Ron Trobaugh, and Lou Przybyla.
The 1/8 GT class was well represented with 7 participants in this new and growing class. After all qualifying was complete, the grid was set with Ed Holcomb winning the pole position, followed by; Lonnie Stinson, Mark Rodney, Gary Waldhelm, Matt Flake, Chad Washburn and Karl Ennulat.
After the last of Saturdays qualifying we went into the mains with the 200mm class up first. From the start, Andy Power took command and did not look back.. Meanwhile, the battle for 2nd place ensued between Mark, Mike and Elliot. I don’t have a full print out of this race, but there was some attrition. The win went to Andy and the battle for 2nd ended with Mark as the victor and 3rd went to Kevin. As the race wore on rain was threatening, but held off until the race was finished. The finish order on the Masters side was Kevin, Nick, Allen and Mike. For 200 open it was Andy, Mark, Mike, Darryl, Elliot and Karl.
A light rain caused a delay of the 1/8 start. After track was dried the C-main was under way…Of the 8 car field, 5 were Masters drivers. At the horn, Jerry got the jump on the field. It wasn’t to last long though, as pole sitter, Rick Frazier took command on lap 2. Rick held on to the lead for most of the first stint, relinquishing it to John not long before the first pit. Johns lead lasted for only 3 laps, when Rick took command once more. John held on to 2nd for a couple of laps before bad things began to happen for him.. Meanwhile, eventual winner (Lon Burling) was running consistent laps and staying out of trouble (for the most part). Chad failed to start, Kevin Lie was the first to retire with 8 laps and John managed 24 before retirement. The remaining racers managed to keep on track (or get back on track) till the 20 minute horn, with Lon in first w/54 laps, Darryl 2nd w/50, Jerry 3rd w/49, Wayne 4th w/46, Rick 5th w/41, John 6th w/24, Kevin 7th w/8 and Chad with zip..
Next up…B-main. The grid for this one; Pole-Dennis Young, 2-Carlos LaTorre, 3-Joe Detomaso, 4-Allen Denzine, 5-Dan Louis, 6-James Condor, 7-Denny Kuhn, 8-Marvin Davis, 9-Bill DeBenedictis, 10-Gary Thomas. Carlos got the best start, to lead for the first 3+ laps, polesitter Dennis tookover at that point and held on the end in a hot battle with Allen. The print-out from this event, separates Masters from open, making it hard to tell, but as I recall, there were some lead changes between Allen and Dennis. This was a very exciting race with Dennis taking the win w/63 laps in 20:12.6 to Allens 63 in 20:16.4! Carlos was only one lap down w/62 in 20:03! Next came James w/58, Marvin w/57, Denny w/54, Gary w/42, Bill w/20 and DNS for Joe and Dan.
The A-main followed with an ever increasing chance of rain. We lined-up with Eli on pole, followed by Paul, Jason, Ted, Greg, Darin, Mark, David, Ron, and Lou.
The start was a bit chaotic, as most of us did not see the flagman, our pit men could not hear and many of the cars were not on the ground at the start. Paul got the jump on Eli to come through in first with Eli not far behind and Jason right on his tail. Followed by David, Ted, Ron, Greg, Mark and Lou. The battle up front was going Pauls way with Eli putting up a good fight. Both drivers were turning high 15s and low 16s. They kept a fast pace for the first 11 minutes till it started to rain. We pulled off and waited it out. We decided to re-start 8 minutes and change on the clock. Several re-start scenarios were kicked around, and we decided to from pit lane with a board removed for a straight shot to the scoring bridge. This did not work as well as it could have, as the drivers on the right side of the stand had impaired view of their cars due to the pit men being in their line of sight. As a result David crashed at pit-out, causing some tense moments. We managed to get it done, but I am not happy with the way we did it. For those unfamiliar with MWS points scoring, we compare results from all the mains in each class, to establish points for that event. To make such a comparison, all mains must run the same length. Since we had the B and C completed, we had to run the A for 20 minutes or scrap them all and 
award according to qualifying position. I think we got lucky. When the 2-part A-main was added together, the results dove-tailed nicely with the results from the lower mains. None of the scores were close enough together, to think that anyone received incorrect points for the mains. I hope this does not come up again. I really don’t think we can come up with a plan that would make for an accurate comparison of performance between races that have been run without interruption and races that were run in two parts. Anyhow, Paul cruised to victory, with Eli in tow followed by Jason, David, Ted, Ron, Darin, Mark, Lou and Greg. With both parts combined, we had Paul w/71 20:08, Eli w/69 20:01, Jason w/68 20:09, David w/66 20:00, Darin w/65 20:15, Mark w/63 20:17, Ron w/60 20:08, Lou w/46 20:08, Ted w/33 20:29, and Greg w/7.
1/8 GT was last up. The grid; Pole-Ed Holcomb, 2-Lonnie Stinson, 3-Mark Rodney, 4-Gary Waldhelm, 5-Matt Flake, 6-Chad Washburn, 7-Karl Ennulat. The start was good for Lonnie, who took and held the lead for the first 3 laps. After a poor start, Mark worked his way through the pack to take the lead on lap 4. A few laps later Ed found his way to the front and stayed there for several laps. Mark decided he wanted it back, and took over for the rest of the race. Matt was a DNS. Chad and Karl both finished with 30 and 33 laps respectively. The 20 minute battle ended with Mark on top w/50 laps, Lonnie in 2nd w/47, 3rd was Gary w/45, Ed also w/45 for 4th, Karl in 5th, and Chad in 6th.
Thanks to the Mentor club for all their efforts! The Mentor-Willoughby area is very nice, if we could just get mother nature to cooperate when we come to town! The food at the Texas Cattle company (across from the entrance to the college property) is highly recommended!
See you all in Racine!