Drivers School / Regional at Holtville

copyright 1995 John Dillon
     
Bob Swenson came to Holtville to celebrate Leo Baker's 50th birthday for the
Drivers School / Regional of Oct 28-29, 1995.  "This is truly one of the really
great places to have fun and go racing.  People are so friendly down here," said
Swenson.  

One class defined the Holtville weekend - Spec RX7.  For the first time these
specially prepared Mazdas fielded so many cars that they earned the right to
their own race group, and a better pair of races wasn't seen all weekend.  The
group raced in a fifteen car train and no one wanted to be the caboose.  Ah, but
engineer-wanna-be's?--there were fifteen of those guys.  

Speaking of wanna-be's, Ken Tooker bought an RX7 to campaign a year ago, but
never quite completed the package.  Enter Steve Coe, who bought the past SSC
champ's rotarymobile... and in his first two races after a long hiatus, managed
to overtake a highly competitive field for twin victories.  Ken noted ruefully,
"Why is it my cars always go faster when someone else is driving?!"

The last SRX7 lap proved particularly exciting, with three cars trying to
squeeze into the last corner.  Quipped one corner worker, "Three [cars] into
[turn] 6 does not equal two!"  A little contact was the inevitable result, with
John Penteler Molnar's car bouncing into the air.  Chuck Knox observed, "I was
working the Response 6 position.  On the last lap the 61 car got so much air I
could've walked under it; there was only one wheel on the ground."  He said the
drivers couldn't find their braking mark because the clangor cone had been taken
out earlier in the race.  Brett Nason summarized it for the workers:  "We all
enjoyed _that_ race."

SR driver Rick Hagen, a cheerful lad, watched longingly when the SRX7's went out
for their race.  "I feel like an orphan child in my Spec Racer, watching the
future of club racing go on course.  Denver promised us Spec Racer guys an
equitable, competitive class, but look what they did to it--they've abandoned us
and killed our class.  Spec RX7's are the way to go."

In Solo I, Paul Davis set the fast time of day with his Chevy Z-28 running a
1:09.853.  The next six cars ran in the 1:12's, with the top five being Mazdas
(a Miata in the middle, the rest Spec RX7's.)  Ernie Hernandez was the fastest
of these with a 1:12.010, followed by Dan Cadenhead (1:12.055), the Miata of Dan
Gollnick (1:12.198), Dave Varco (1:12.297), and Melissa Clark (1:12.676).  Neil
Westfall's Mustang SVO ran a 1:12.932, while car 99 (no name shown) posted the
final time of 1:17.162.

The west coast drivers have been slow to adopt the Spec Racer Fords, but fully
half the eight SR entries featured Ford power.  In the morning race, Javier
Sardina (SRF) squeaked by Bernie Weber (SRF) and Rick Hagen (SR) for the win,
beating "classmate" Weber by 0.797 seconds.  He'd led the early laps, but Weber
took the point on lap 8, before dropping to third on lap 11, reclaiming the
penultimate position on the last lap by virtue of traffic.  Hagen and Dave Rice
swapped the class lead for much of the race, both finishing ahead of Ernie
Becker, the third SRF.  (Becker spun just past the halfway point, but lost no
position.)  Completing the order in the morning race were Drew Maloney (SRF),
Bill Holland, and Adam Gelbart.

The afternoon race shuffled the finishing order quite a bit...   Hagen (San
Diego's chief instructor for Saturday's driving school) put every wheel perfect
all race, finishing ahead of Rice by over a second and Ford winner Weber for
almost 7 seconds.  Initially Hagen ran fourth behind Weber, Sardina, and Becker,
but when Drew Maloney spun, Weber and Javier Sardina spun too in avoidance.  By
the halfway mark Hagen held a comfortable lead, all the way to the checker, Rice
riding his coat tails the whole way.  Becker had more control problems, looping
the car in turn 3 and again in 5 before finishing sixth overall.

Bob Hatle led the first lap of the morning race, but pitted on lap two with fuel
problems.  Steve Jepsen (SF) took the lead for the rest of the distance.  Roland
Johnson (CF) got around Jeff Nadler (FF, who spun away the position) on the
fourth lap to finish behind Jepsen, with Nadler third overall, just ahead of
Sandra Popescu.  Greg Gayheart won in S2000, while Dietmar Bauerle earned the FV
win over Danny Turcutto.  

In the afternoon race, Hatle got his Mazda sorted out.  Though he started on the
last row, he seized the lead at the halfway point and never looked back.  This
time Nadler drove a masterful race and stayed ahead of those "other flavors of
Fords" of Jepsen and Johnson.

Group 5 brought out a mixed bag of fendered cars, with the EP Elva of Roger
Karlson winning the morning 12-lapper, while Mike Henderson's GT3 Mazda RX3 took
overall honors in the afternoon, both times finishing ahead of Ken Leslie's ITGT
Camaro.  Jerry Jones and Bob Lawrence split ITS wins, while Bill Hagerty took
twin SSC victories and Tim Toth ran for twin RS wins.  Kathy Rice, Diana
Holland, Steve Jacko and Richard Gray won twice in FP, ITA, ITB and GT2,
respectively.  Said Jacko, "it was a great weekend--all I had to do was shut the
hood and go racing."

Carol Roach summarized the delightful weekend, saying "Holtville is proof
positive you can do it right and still have a good time."