Owl here, your Nor Cal USRA race reporter, just recapping what has been happening so far this season. We’re midway into the 2004 season and we’ve seen some pretty good racing so far and I expect more in the second half of the season too!

 Last month we had a record turnout of 60 racers, but as we now go into the late summer months there usually will be a drop in attendance because of racers and family taking vacations and traveling away for a much need rest from work! Can you say like Disneyland, Grand Canyon and other places like that?  

So far this season, we are averaging 45 racers per race, which is outstanding. That’s a huge increase compared to the turnouts we were getting before our current President, Rudy Garriga, retained leadership of Nor Cal USRA.

 I know that he and his fellow officers have been working hard to promote both wing and scale cars to revive the racing and interest for all of the tracks in the Nor Cal area.

 I encourage all you racers to try to make it to as many Nor Cal USRA events as possible to help promote Nor Cal USRA and maybe pick up some nice awards by the end of the year. It’s not too late to jump in there! And then the Nor Cal Newsletter is becoming one of the best in the country, if not the world! This would because of Rudy Garriga and his effort in putting out a first class newsletter. Yours truly is just an everyday race reporter.

Now back to this month race, which is being held in Santa Rosa at Nor-Cal Raceway & Collectables. Hey! We were up this way last month weren’t we? As Al Chuck was finding a parking spot and unpacking his racing gear, the Owl passed thought some of the locals set up under a tent, just outside the front door, with a barbeque being readied to cook us up a storm for lunch.

 I stepped inside to find a fast and smooth Hasse hillclimb with assorted people trying out there cars for the upcoming races for that day. Looking around I spied the neatly arranges counter with slot car parts to static cars and models. This was a very neatly kept store.

 After a while Rudy Garriga and Greg Lewis decided to get the show on the road as they called for sign up for the first race of the day, the Can-Am class. But first, they had to kick Al Chuck off the track as he seemed to have a never ending stream of car and motors he needed to test.

 We had a total of six racers in the Can-Am class with four being in the Racer class and one Amateur and one Pro.

{This month, the race report on-line will be broken up into different pages for you dial-up guys, so it won't take forever to read the newsletter!  Click on the title to read the race report for the class!-ed. by Rudy}

Click Here!--->Can-Am  --- Click Back on Browser to get back to this page

 As I stepped outside for a breath of air, after the Can-Am race, and also check on how the barbeque was doing; who would pull into the track parking area but Downtown Don Prudy, owner of the Slot Car Warehouse in Concord and the master mind of the Slot Car Warehouse franchise stores.

Along with him was Rich Dapper who would be the operating the yet to be open Slot Car Warehouse in Livermore. Remember the second Slot Car Warehouse is located in Reno Nevada with the Livermore store slated to open the first week of September of this year, just a couple of months away.

Downtown came to race with us today and also to give Rick some exposure to racing, Nor Cal USRA style.

Just about this time Greg and Rudy got sign ups underway for the Fun race, which is sponsored by Slick7.

Click Here! ---> Fun Race ---Click Back on Browser to get back to this page

Now it was lunch time and all we had to do was to step outside the front door of the track and they had barbeque hamburgers hot off the grill waiting for us.

For a small fee, you got a burger, chips, a drink and barbeque beans which hit the spot for these hungry racers.

After lunch we got back to the racing as Greg called for all Winged Flexi drivers to get their cars up to tech now! In this race, there were five Racers and two Pro’s entered.

 Now remember that there is no point’s series for the Pro’s, just Racers and Amateurs get points, but the Pro’s race for fun but they get much need practice under race conditions.

Unlike the last two races we did have the heat by heat results to help this race reporter!

Click Here! --->Wing Flexis ---Click Back on Browser to get back to this page

Greg Lewis slipped out and grabbed another burger before calling for the racers who would be in the next class, GT-12. { Rudy had eaten his burger between heats during the Wing Flexi race, and was able to get his car out and the camera for pictures for the next race!-ed Rudy}

Click Here! --->GT-12 <---Click Back on Browser to get back to this page

There was a short break as the guys were doing their last dialing in of their Cobalt 12 cars for the final race of the day. All told after they finished tech, there were a surprising thirteen Cobalt 12 racer for our final race.

I believe that’s the most we’ve had so far this season. This would mean a thirteen man round robin event with eight on and five sit outs. { C-12 started with just Rudy and 5 Al Chuck rent-a cars in the first race, this race only had 1 Al rent a car, and a bunch of new guys, so this is one of our fastest growing classes!-ed Rudy}

Click Here! --->C-12 <---Click Back on Browser to get back to this page

Well, the race prizes were handed out and everyone packed their slot car boxes up and it was still fairly early so we headed down to the Black Bear.  A family style restaurant that the locals had said served large portions of good food.{ That clinched it for Al! We ARE!!!  going THERE!!!! -ed Rudy}
 This convinced everyone {Specially AL!! -Ed Rudy} and we motored on down to the restaurant for some good eats and some heavy bench racing.

We should take time here to thank the people at Nor-Cal Raceway for having their track in top condition for us to race on and the barbeque was excellent as there were a lot of us who went back for seconds.

Next month we will be traveling to Citrus Heights to race LMP Gr10’s, Eurosports, Boxstock and G27 cars as well as the Fun race. And it’ll be glue for the Boxstock and G27 cars on their King track. So have your glue bottles and spluger ready!

{ Racing will be - Box stock and Gr-27 on the King, LMP and Fun Race on the purple angel and Eurosports on the flat track to keep the speed down and not ruin the very fast Euros- Ed Rudy }