The 2002 Race Retrospective
Well, using my usual excuse, which is the fact that I was traveling, I arrived Sunday morning for the race. The cars were all there, some of them more beautiful than ever. I entered pretty much the same cars I did last year, with some exceptions: I entered two wood experiments and my specially-made Mini-Cooper.
First of all, I liked the new format. The qualifying of all cars took very little time. The driver would do a couple of laps until he felt comfortable with the car, then he announced to be ready and would do 2 timed laps. I haven't raced the cars because I had cars in every category. But I practiced with almost all of them. The Concours was also simple and fast. Took less than 1 hour.
Class A (Sports Cars)
The Class A was interesting, because most of the cars, to my surprise, had no traction. Even my cars, which employ Indy-Grips, had no traction, it was like driving on snow. My cars in that class were really disappointing. Others had no grip either. The lotus 30 had several problems with contact. By far the ones that won 1, 2 and 3 were the best. Russell's TI-22 had a lot better grip in this track than on Buena Park's. His car had the pole, and given the new format, cars had to be fast out-the-box to get good qualifying. I love this format. The old one (1-minute) did not award the fast, easy to drive cars on qualifying.
Class B (Formula Cars)
That was a blast. The only modern car on the field, the Brabham, qualified on top, but kept losing its wheels. The six-wheeler Indy car was nearly impossible to drive. After me and Paul Sterrett sanded the tires between heats, it became a little better. But what a beauty! In the end the little F1 Cooper won the race, closely followed by the Bugatti. Jim Cunningham's Cooper actually lost the class win due to handicap points, but his Bugatti won the class instead. Jim was truly in a class of his own. Congratulations Jim!
Class D (Mini-Cooper)
By far the best to watch. My mini took the pole and the race with relative ease. The blue STP seemed to be the fastest on the straight line, but a little tricky to turn. It was a great fun to watch! My mini had a loose body (by design), so it "tilted" on the turns—drivers were having a blast watching it!
We had a technical glitch where the cars were too small to trip the optical lap counter. Our solution? We attached little paper stickers that extended out of the sides, making them look like tiny car-airplanes with side wings. Laps were then counted properly, and I don't think the "wings" influenced the handling at all. I loved this class.
Class E (Magnet Class)
That was funny. The Riggen track has a lot more magnet attraction than other tracks in my opinion. Most cars were severely stuck to the track. Even cars that successfully ran previous Marconi races had trouble, like Kathryn's Porsche 908. My Fly Porsche placed first, but I suspect Jim McLaughin's SCX Audi will take the class win after Concours grades and qualifying are factored in.
My "secret bomb"—a wooden car—turned out to be a disappointment. Its contact braids wore very quickly. During practice, I did a 3.9 lap with it; it was literally a speed demon, the fastest for sure. But excess practice killed it. During qualifying there was a lot of "arcing" under the braids, and during the race they almost disappeared. Next time, no more thin vintage braids!
Essentially, easy to drive and reliable won the race. All the speed-demons didn't do well. Larry Shepard didn't quite get the magnet setup right this year, and Russell Sheldon was unfortunately unable to attend due to health, though his car still did well. And Rocky Russo... well, he chickened out! He could have entered his cars from last year; I can guarantee you the Lotus 19 would have won.
Can't wait for next year.
— Luiz