June 30, 2002
Magnaflow Vintage 2.5 Challenge
WOW…Fontana was awesome. We sent the press release out to everyone that spoke to the racing action but there was more than just racing. We had a lot of cars and drivers that were new to the series and once again found a great deal of spectator interest in our small sedans. While the crowd was not as large as the speedway had estimated, word is that this great event will be on next year’s calendar and we look forward to being a part of it again. We want to welcome the following new drivers to our series:
Craig Hauenstein
Jon Norman
Peter Dragus
Rug Cunningham
Mickey Cohen
Mark Crawford
Paul Davis
Simon Horton
Glen Gurriell
Alan Deszcz
Neil LynchWe hope to see you at future events.
While we try to look forward as much as possible we cannot help but reflect on what a success the first Southern California Historic weekend was. As with any first time event there will be some fine-tuning for next year's event, but all things considered it was a great weekend.
The 35 car field is the largest 2.5 "legal" field ever assembled and from the feedback we got, everyone enjoyed the event and will be back next year!
Many of us will be leaving soon for Seattle and the Pacific Northwest Historics. With the incredible Fontana event now history we can look forward to another great weekend of vintage racing in one of the premier vintage events in the country. It’s going to be a busy weekend with “after race” activities each day. We expect another large field for this event with a number of VSRG "regulars" making the trip will join with fellow racers from Pacific Northwest region. The long range weather forecast calls for partly sunny days with highs in the upper 70's and not a hint of rain! It should be another great 2.5 weekend! Here is a rundown of what you can expect:
Friday
8:35 – Mandatory Drivers Meeting
10:05 – Practice
2:25 – Qualifying
evening - VSRG donation presentation at Children’s Hospital followed by the “Kick off “ party at Shirly/Whitten/Watjen car collection in Bellevue.Saturday
8:30 – Mandatory Drivers Meeting
9:05 – Practice
1:10 – Race #1
evening – Salmon BBQ at the track.Sunday
9:25 – Practice
1:25 – Final RaceFor those that are new to this track you should know that pit space is very limited. SOVREN has pre-assigned pit locations and the VSRG group will all pit together near the track. Please be aware that you may not be able to park your trailer with your car, especially if you are using an open trailer.
As with Fontana, we will have a VSRG booth in the pits where we will be selling our line of merchandise. All of the proceeds will go to Children's Hospital. We have a few of the Trans-AM book available and should have a good supply of the new Alfa and 510 T-shirts and we have restocked on the Magnaflow "flame" shirts that proved to be so popular at Fontana.
Horst Kewch will be on hand to personalize a book or T-shirt for you! Once again VSRG will have Horst join us for a weekend. We had hoped to have John Morton again as well but he has a prior engagement.
This could well be the very best event of the year.
Looking beyond Seattle we set our sights toward Laguna Seca in September, we have been advised by HMSA that there will be no limit on the number of 2.5 entries this year. As many of you will recall, last year we could only accept 25 cars however this year we can accept everyone that wants to enter. We are still limited to a maximum run group size of 25 but if we have more than 25 they will be placed into a second 2.5 group. The second 2.5 group may be mixed with another class but if we have 40 (or more) entries there will be two 2.5 groups! In essence we will have an “A” and “B” main. Initial group placement will be based on points standing and participation however we will have a “bump” method that might allow the fastest qualifiers in the “B” group to move to the “A” group for the final race.
Entry forms should be in the mail in a few weeks. We provided HMSA with the addresses of about 100 members that live in the Western states and that have either raced or indicated they might race. Be sure to put "2.5 Challenge" as the class you are entering! We will let everyone know when the entry forms are in the mail and if you do not receive one we will provide you information on how to obtain one.
Speaking of next year, we have already begun work on the 2003 schedule . While nothing is firm as of yet, we have already been asked to participate in a number of events next year. In the last few days we have been advised that a new spectator event at PIR is in the works for January 2003. As most of you know there is a lot of "car" stuff going on in Phoenix every January with the big Barrett-Jackson auction and many other smaller events held around the same time. We have been told that a big spectator vintage race is now in the works and VSRG has already been asked to participate.
We have also been invited to participate in races at Sears Point and Portland next year. You might recall that we had tried for a Sears Point date this year but that fell through. However our discussions for 2003 are with a different organization and we feel that it is very likely we will be part of a large event at Sears Point as well as Portland next year.
This is on top of the Fontana event. 2003 is shaping up to be a great year. We will keep you posted.
From the early days of VSRG and the Magnaflow Vintage 2.5 Challenge it has been our plan to make this into a national series. In the first couple of years we have focused our effort on organizing the west coast series but once again the opportunity to spread the series to the East has arisen.
As many of you are aware, HSR and HSR-West are working on a “Runoff” for the 2003 season. This idea of a “National Runoff” has always been part of our plan for the series and by working with these groups we think it might become a reality sooner than we expected.
Frankly the biggest stumbling block to a nationwide Vintage 2.5 Challenge and subsequent runoff has been that organizations in various parts of the country have allowed cars to be prepared far in excess of what is allowed under VSRG’s “period correct” rules. This has lead to difficulty in putting together full 2.5 fields of legal cars for many organizations and, at first, seemed to be a roadblock to establishing a runoff.
I guess the popular and over used term is “thinking out of the box” but we did a little of than and have devised what we feel to be a workable method to allow racers to earn “2.5 National Runoff Points”, even when there is not a designated 2.5 field at a vintage event. While we have not worked out all of the details, there are a few points that we know will be part of the “national” points system and any attempt at a runoff.
Note this only applies to those that do not live in reasonable proximity to where an existing VSRG series is in existence (only the West coast for now).
First and foremost the cars that are used to earn runoff points must meet the VSRG rules, no exceptions. This is the total responsibility of the driver and acceptance of an entry into the runoffs is dependent on the car meeting the rules and having met the rules in every race that points are claimed for.
To earn points you only need to race with the vintage groups you normally race with and maintain a simple VSRG supplied log of the events. In addition you will need to keep copies of the official results of each of those events. You will also need to have your car weighed (with fuel & driver in the car) at some point during the year and the weight recorded on the log.
Once all logs are submitted, VSRG will assign points by region and select a number of drivers based on the level of participation of the region (i.e., if the region had 10% of the total logs/entries submitted, then the region would get 10% of the allocated spots in the runoff). Invitations would then be sent to qualifying drivers.
Earning national points and an invitation to the runoffs will depend in some cases on the “honor system” however at the runoffs cars will be inspected for compliance as well as the normal safety inspection. Any car not meeting the rules will not be allowed to run with the 2.5 group (and most likely will not be allowed in any other runoff group). Of course we would provide every assistance and opportunity to aid anyone that needs minor last minute fixes to meet the rules (such as weight addition).
Only vintage races will count meaning you raced in a group that consisted of vintage racecars only (or was predominated by vintage racecars).
At this point we have no indication of when or where the proposed runoff will take place however we plan to work with the organizations to do everything we can to ensure that the Magnaflow Vintage 2.5 Challenge group is included. We will keep you posted on the progress of this exciting development.
While on this subject, we have had a number of members inquire as to when there might be VSRG races in other areas of the country. We have always planned on having the series move to other areas of the country by developing “Regions”.
To do this we will need one or more individuals to take over an area of the country as a “Regional Director”. In addition to a RD, each region will need one or two more individuals to assist the RD as we have found the level of effort required can often be more than one person is willing to take on, especially during the first year.
VSRG stands ready to assist anyone that wants to step forward and develop a regional series of the 2.5 Challenge in your area for 2003. Please drop us a line today if you are interested in exploring this.
See you at the races soon!