NASA's American Iron Racing - News - WEST-CMC: 2005 Round 5

-Newcomers Dave Dunlap, John Alameida, Kevin Margetta, Scott Margetta, Bjork Rueter

-Fantastic BBQ compliments of Sam Stowell/crew and Tony/Susan Guaglione

The Camaro-Mustang Challenge rolled into Infineon raceway August 6-7 after a two month hiatus. Many still remember vividly the spectacular crash of Tony Guaglione in his #55 Mustang when CMC last visited Infineon back in April. The crash destroyed the car and left Tony sore for weeks. In typical Tony form, he found a suitable donor car that same weekend and began rebuilding almost immediately. Fellow CMC competitors John Stahlman and Roger Lundergard took the old cage out of the destroyed car and installed it in the new car in record time. After switching out the running gear and checking everything for soundness, Tony was ready to paint the “new” #55 in the same paint scheme as the destroyed car. The result was nothing short of fantastic and everyone was glad to see the red, white and black #55 back on track

Friday Practice:

Longtime CMC competitor Julie Bergman wins the Hard Luck award after she elected to break in a new engine in her Firebird only to suffer catastrophic engine failure most likely due to a bearing problem. She was on the phone right away with the engine builder and plans to be back in action soon!

CMC once again proved to be the largest run group of the weekend on this, the largest NASA Norcal event ever at Infineon. Tony Guaglione made his first laps in the “new” #55 without any glitches. Newcomer John Barker was not so fortunate however as he was collected by a SU class Porsche as he was setting up for the famous Carousel turn. John would continue after making repairs to his ultra clean Camaro. Also, new to CMC was Dave Dunlap driving the #12 Mustang for the first time.

Race #1 was a standing start in front of AI/X, FFR and SU. Just after the start, Keith Drake and Jeff Bernard made contact forcing Mike Plum and Tony Guaglione to make evasive maneuvers. This seemed to be a harbinger of things to come; soon the attrition would begin. Ed Hamilton had a big shunt coming over the rise into the Carousel and went hard into the tire barrier. Ed was okay and with the help of his crew, did an outstanding job of repairing the car for Sunday’s race. Steve Sparklin would retire with clutch issues. Kirk Theis spun but was able to continue as was the case with Brett Sciuto. Brett went off in Turn 8 in what looked like a huge crash from all the dust and dirt but he was able to quickly get going again. Tony Guaglione retired early voluntarily after feeling ill about halfway through the race. Mike Plum, Brady Flaherty, Addison Lee and Mike Donahoe were all sent to the rear of the field for passing under the yellow. In addition, Addison Lee was sent to the back of the finishing order for “avoidable” contact and placed on probation.

Race #1 Results:

Saturdays’ huge BBQ was sponsored by NASA/Sam Stowell/Tony Guaglione and provided all CMC competitors and crews a chance to relax and enjoy bench racing with their fellow competitors. Keith Drake added 15lbs of tri tip steak and CMC fed well over 100 people.

This is now a CMC tradition that will carry on for years to come.

Sunday provided another opportunity for CMC to put on a great show. In Race #2 the starting order would be inverted from Saturday’s finishing order. In this rolling start it was clear that James Griffith didn’t like being behind anybody, no matter how briefly. James, showing his speed and some would say aggression, bumped and banged his way through the field. James would later be penalized for multiple contacts and aggressive driving and sent to the back of the finishing order in addition to being placed on probation. The race also featured a first for CMC: a professional announcer. Thanks to Brady Flaherty’s friend Todd, who does some announcing for local sports cable programming, the race was called with help of Al Fernandez and Tony Guaglione. It was a treat just to hear Todd rib his buddy Brady about his pink car numbers! And Brady seemed to appreciate it as he waved (or at least, it looked like a wave) to the starting tower.

Results Race #2:

Race #3 of the weekend had CMC competitors launching from a standing start and marked the return of Ed Hamilton. Ed and his crew did an amazing job putting his Mustang back together with spare body parts and lots of bright red racer’s tape! These guys just never quit and show real CMC spirit. Late in the race, Nick Steel would make a late breaking maneuver on race leader Keith Drake going into Turn 7 that came up a little short on traction. Nick spun Keith and though both cars were able to continue, Keith lost valuable track position. James Griffith took immediate advantage and tried to put pressure on the new leader, Nick Steel. It was a drag race to the finish with Nick looking like the race winner despite a squealing front tire due to his contact with Drake, but James never wavered and held his foot to the floor from Turn 11 to the finish edging out Steel for the win. A very consistent Mike Donahoe showed his mastery of this track with another Top 5 finish. Nick Steel would be relegated to last place, however, for his contact with Drake and placed on probation.

Race # 3 Results:

The weekend’s racing enabled another point’s drop (the 3^rd this year) which changed the Championship chase slightly. James Griffith continues to dominate but the season still has two more events to go promising a good battle all the way to the finish.

Season Points Standings Top 10:

CMC will have a bye for the month of September and returns in October to Buttonwillow Raceway for Round 6. See you at the races!