This weekend VARA held its annual High Desert Challenge race at Willow Springs Int’l Raceway. The club had about 110 entrants that ran in five Groups, and while the skies were clear, the winds blew hard and cold on Saturday. Luckily Sunday was warm and calm, and the lap times improved across the board. Instead of the usual Two-hour Twilight Enduro, this year the club ran a Relay Race. Three teams of five cars competed against each other, with each car racing two laps. The ‘baton’ was a waving flag as one team member entered the hot pit signaling the release of the next team member. While the team’s composition was designed so that each team would have the same overall time, the finish wasn’t as close as expected. Personally I suspect some sandbagging and judge tampering ;-) The usual Saturday night camraderie followed as we made our trailer into a make-shift potluck dining hall to stay out of the cold. Happy to have my wife Kathy and dog Gracie along for the weekend.
The Wagon’s new owner competed in his rookie race weekend, earning his rookie stripes quite well. His lap times fell every session, he held his line when being passed, and suprised a few regulars with some good moves on the track. Congrats to Team Villata, and I’m happy to see the wagon went to the right home. The Crossle didn’t have quite as successful of a weekend. We ran fine until the Sunday’s points race, where during a good battle with Roy Jones in his Winkelmann, I started losing oil pressure and pulled off the track. Probably lost a crankshaft bearing or two, we’ll find out this week.
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