For immediate release
June 23, 2002
Kevin McKee Wins
Magnaflow Vintage 2.5 Challenge Race
at the Southern California Historic Sportcar Festival
Fontana CA .- Kevin McKee drove his 1967 Alfa Romeo GTV to a near perfect race to win the Magnaflow Vintage 2.5 Challenge race at California Historic Sportscar Festival at the California Speedway. In what organizers say was the largest field ever assembled of “period correct” 2.5 Challenge eligible cars, thirty five of the small bore sedans took the track in the third round of the popular vintage series. It was the first time at the new 2.8-mile track for all participants. The field included Jon Norman’s return to the 2.5 Challenge in his newly restored Trans-Am Alfa along with several other original cars.
McKee lead from flag to flag and earned not only his second win of the season but a 75lb. “trophy” from VSRG Chief Steward Fred Schueddekopp. In the first action Schueddekopp has taken to keep the competition close in the series, McKee will be required to carry the additional weight for the remainder of the season. Schueddekopp indicated he will make more changes to the front runners if needed. It is clear that VSRG is serious about not letting any one driver dominate the series.
As often occurs in the 2.5, there were a number of tight battles throughout the field. One of the most exciting was Jeff Hecox and Jon Norman’s battle for second spot which came down to a last lap race to see who could reenter the track first. Norman had been on Hecox’s bumper the entire race but said when he saw the white flag he knew it was “now or never”. Coming off the banking on the back stretch Norman tried a late brake maneuver, when Hecox saw how deep Norman was willing to go he followed with his own late braking. Neither could make the tight left hander and both spun off the track. Then the race to see who could gather it back up and get back on the track fastest was on; it had the crowd going wild. Norman was able to restart quicker and took second place with Hecox in third. In the post race interview Norman said he hadn’t had this much fun racing in years.
Other notable drives were Jim McAdory’s first top ten finish in the series. McAdory has been struggling with a rash of mechanical failures in the early part of the season but it now looks as if his Datsun 510 is on it’s way to the front with a strong performance at Fontana. Peter Dragus in the Bill Johnston Trans-AM 510 had led the pack of Chris Welch (BMW) and McAdory in a nose to tail battle for most of the race. Just beyond the halfway point a slight miscue by Welch sent him into the dirt at the turn 10 chicane and McAdory slipped by. McAdory then worked his way up to the rear of Dragus and made a classic late braking move in turn 9 to slip under the historic 510 racecar.
There were a number of cars in the group that had competed at the old Riverside Raceway. Paul Davis returned to vintage racing after a two year absence driving an original IMSA Baby Grand/Champion Spark Plug series Datsun 510. Due to a late start in qualifying, Paul started only a few cars from the end of the pack in Sunday’s race but pushed the fast little sedan steadily through the field to a solid 12th position and was moving up quickly on the lead pack when the checkered flag fell. Bill Johnson brought out his completely original 1.6 liter 2.5 Challenge Datsun 510 which qualified 9th in the capable hands of Peter Dragus and finished in 12th in Sunday’s final race. What is remarkable about this car is that it had been in storage for over 10 years and with relatively little work returned to racing at the front of the pack. The car is an BRE “Customer” car and had raced for many years in Southern California races to include many at the old Riverside facility as well as Trans-AM races. Other original Trans-AM 2.5 Challenge cars on hand for the weekend were the Hyde Park BMW’s fielded by Rug Cunningham, the Pepsi Alfa of Shelly Zide and the Meskauskas Datsun 510 of Steve Link.
In other sedan racing at the event, Jeff Hecox, a regular 2.5 Challenge front runner, also won a special race made up of Vintage BMW 2002’s and 1600’s. Jeff’s win is quite remarkable in that his car met the legal weight limit and the rules for the 2.5 Challenge while many in the field were hundreds of pounds lighter. Jeff led flag-to-flag but a brief moment of excitement occurred on the white flag lap when Jeff went wide in the onerous turn 9 and into the dirt. Jeff showed his “off road” skills and managed to not only hold on but smoothly returned to the track still in the lead.
Sunny skies and somewhat milder than normal conditions greeted over 280 racers at the immaculate California Speedway in Fontana, California. The 2.5 drivers found the 2.88 mile course to be the perfect venue for showcasing the handling and power of the popular sedans. Overall the drivers rated the course as fast even though the infield section of the course was chock full of challenging turns and chicanes. All drivers reported that they felt this was a course that demanded good brakes as well handling and power. While the high-banked turns 1 and 2 of the super speedway looked inviting, drivers of the small sedans quickly found the fast line was to stay completely off the banking as long as possible.
The Magnaflow Vintage 2.5 Challenge moves to the beautiful Pacific Northwest where the series will be the featured race of the Pacific Northwest Historics held July 5-7 at the Pacific Raceway in Kent, Washington. The popular vintage race series was developed by the Vintage Sedan Racers Group (VSRG) of Vista, CA. Complete information on the VSRG and the Magnaflow Vintage 2.5 Challenge can be found at VSRG’s web site located at www.bsedan.com .