Report by “Gene Husting”, photos by “Al Hall”… yeah right.

Team
Checkpoint’s ace Mike Steube was again in remarkable form, nearly winning all 3
races in the D3 event. After stomping all over his opponents with his 1/32 scale
TSRF car, he distanced himself from both his teammates in the F1 race and missed
the win in the Retro Pro class by mere feet. How’s that for a day at the races?

NOTE: PICTURES WILL BE POSTED ASAP!

TSRF32 Race

This
was a mere formality for Mike Steube who drove his Dokktorr’s prepped Porsche
rocket ship to a 10 laps advantage over his new teammate Paul Sterrett and the
other team Checkpoint member, the Dokktoor hisself. Roger Uusitalo had a very
fast car and drove it prudently to 4th spot, while Team Rolling Hills Keith
Tanaka still has trouble with the little cars but finished ahead of Lee Hines in
even more trouble and John Javier in a lot more trouble.

1	Mike Steube	Porsche GT1-98	4.8899″
2	Paul Sterrett	Courage C60	4.8797″
3	Philippe de Lespinay	Courage C60	4.9880″
4	Roger Uusitalo	Porsche GT1-98	5.3165″
5	Keith Tanaka	Bentley Speed 8	5.2108″
6	Lee Hines	Porsche GT1-98	5.3279″
7	John Javier	Bentley Speed 8	5.8196″

Retro F1
Race

Mike’s new car was just a shade better, even than Paul Sterrett’s “Super Lotus”
or his own former race winner now driven by Philippe de Lespinay. Paul kept
Mike busy the whole race, driving superbly. At the end, only one lap separated
the two cars, leaving everyone else in the dust. Mike was just a shade faster
and incredibly consistent on every lane, just piling the laps with that
fantastic car. Jeff Easterly had his best race result, nearly embarrassing the
Dokk and nearly taking him out of the podium. John Javier also had his best race
so far, edging terry de los Santos by less than a few feet. Way to go John!
Keith Tanaka is getting better and better and lee Hines is still re-learning the
old trade.

Retro F1
Race Results

1	Mike Steube	Lancer Lotus 49B	323	4.058″
2	Paul Sterrett	Lancer Lotus 56	322	4.116″
3	Philippe de Lespinay	Lancer Cooper-Maserati	304	4.121″
4	Jeff Easterly	Lancer Ferrari	300	4.230″
5	John Javier	Lancer Ferrari	290	4.328″
6	Terry de los Santos	Lancer Honda	290	4.116″
7	Keith Tanaka	Lancer Ferrari	276	4.449″
8	Lee Hines	Lancer Cooper-Maserati	261	4.562″

Retro Pro
Qualifying

The
Dokktor gathered a single “hare lap” to edge his team mate Mike Steube by a mere
1/100th of a second for top spot. Mike in turn edged young Kyle Matthes, Mike
Boemker and Adam Kirchhoffer by 2/100ths! Dennis Hill got one together another
3/100th behind, with Allen Low another 1/100th in arrears with possibly the
fastest car there. Tight enough for you? This is very encouraging as far as the
new Pro-Slot motors being quite even, if one ignores what happened a couple
weeks earlier in New Jersey.

Retro Pro Qualifying Order:

Pos

Driver

Body type

Lap time

1	Philippe de Lespinay	MAC Porsche 917PA	3.5353″
2	Mike Steube	MAC Porsche 917-30	3.5414″
3	Kyle Matthes	MAC Gulf-Mirage	3.5615″
4	Mike Boemker	MAC Porsche 917-30	3.5645″
5	Adam Kirchhoffer	MAC Porsche 917-30	3.5677″
6	Dennis Hill	MAC Porsche 917-30	3.5993″
7	Allen Low	MAC Porsche 917-30	3.6016″
8	Paul Sterrett	MAC Porsche 917-30	3.6755″
9	Doug Matthes	MAC Gulf-Mirage	3.6948″
10	Jeff Easterly	MAC Porsche 917-30	3.8780″
11	Craig Williamson	MAC FIAT-Abarth	4.0413″

* Fastest lap

Retro Pro
Semi Race

The
Semi was handily won by Paul Sterrett over Doug Matthes, both moving to the main
event. Allen Low had the rocket but had a tough time being consistent, possibly
due to a fast controller not allowing him enough control. Jeff Easterly is
getting used to the new class and Craig Williamson had the wrong body for the
track, his car being a handful.

“C” RACE
Semi Main RESULTS

Pos

Driver

Body type

Laps

Fastest lap

1	Paul Sterrett	MAC Porsche 917-30	327	3.7297″
2	Doug Matthes	MAC Porsche 917-30	323	3.7892″
3	Allen Low	MAC Gulf-Mirage	319	3.6792″ *
4	Jeff Easterly	MAC Porsche 917-30	318	3.9492″
5	Craig Williamson	MAC FIAT-Abarth	312	4.0080″

* Fastest lap

Retro Pro
Main Race

The
Main event began with Mike Steube running his inline, Adam Kirchhofer with his
Maxwell sidewinder and Doug Matthes also with an inline locking horns in a tough
battle, while others were already in deep hurt. Multiple pile ups and hesitant
marshaling meant that there were a few innocent if vocal, victims. At the end of
the first Heat, Mike was barely ahead of Adam and Doug, with his son Kyle, Paul
and Philippe already in trouble. Heat 2 and Adam put two laps on Mike, Paul now
only one lap behind. Philippe came back to reduce his deficit after his car
spending time on the floor to four laps, as Mike Boemker and Dennis Hill were in
deep agony with handling problems.

Mike
Steube took over by one in Heat 3, Paul now in the same lap as Adam! Philippe
regained another lap, now only three down. In Heat 5, Mike kept one ahead of
Adam, with Paul having an unfortunate accident that took his car out of
contention. Then Mike Boemker also had a severe wall blast, and he was out for
good with a car in multiple bits.

Adam
took over again by less than a lap in Heat 5, with Philippe regaining another
lap, the pair of Matthes father and son now solidly in 4th and 5th spots. Dennis
Hill was struggling to keep up after a long pit stop.

In
heat 6, Adam gained a lap on Mike as a minor shunt bent the motor (!) and Mikes
car lost power. Philippe decided that there was no point in trying to gain
another spot as the pair upfront was able to sustain a faster pace than he
could, So came cruise time. The Matthes were unable to catch either, but raced
between themselves with Kyle quite faster with his Lowe chassis. Mike regained
the lead briefly in Heat 8, only to lose it again and chase Adam all the way to
the wire, their cars separated by a mere few feet. What a race it was, and Adam
drove beautifully.

Dennis Hill consoled himself with the fastest lap, bettering the fastest
qualifying lap.

Pos

Driver

Body type

Laps

Fastest lap

1	Adam Kirchhoffer	MAC Porsche 917-30	367	3.5117″
2	Mike Steube	MAC Porsche 917-30	367	3.5658″
3	Philippe de Lespinay	MAC Porsche 917PA	356	3.5198″
4	Kyle Matthes	MAC Porsche 917PA	334	3.5697″
5	Doug Matthes	MAC Gulf-Mirage	310	3.7379″
6	Dennis Hill **	MAC Porsche 917-30	193	3.5077″ *
7	Paul Sterrett **	MAC Porsche 917-30	154	3.6798″
8	Mike Boemker **	MAC Porsche 917-30	144	3.6176″

* Fastest lap

** DNF

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 7:24 pm and is filed under Vintage Slot Car News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.