Round 8 — Miller Motorsports Park

It was obvious when we rolled into Miller Motorsports Park that we were going to have a great weekend. Larry Miller, owner of the facility has spent a rumored 120 million US dollars and it looked to us that he spent it in all the right places. The only trouble we had all weekend was the weather. In the middle of the Rocky Mountains, weather seems to change by the minute. In the end we only missed 2 sessions because of rain and got a total of 4 ½ hours of track time in over the 4 day event.

Our last event at California Speedway was a track everyone knew. Now again, the drivers were back to learning a new track. Everyone seems to be getting pretty good at this as we are now passed mid - season and have visited all the unfamiliar tracks on the schedule.

HSR held a 1 hour Enduro at the kart track Thursday evening. The Radical boys dominated by getting pole position and winning the race, beating out all the "seasoned" historic drivers. Let's go do that again!!!

Friday evening's event was a car show on Main Street in Tooele. Everyone drove their Radicals on the streets into downtown (with a police escort). Speeds were reportedly kept well under 100 mph!! Speed Channel covered the event, interviewing Dyno Don about the Radical series and they got plenty of footage (of the bikini girls)???

Saturday morning was qualifying. 25 minutes to put in your best lap possible. Here's how it ended up:

The 1 hour enduro originally scheduled for Sunday morning got moved up to Saturday afternoon. At the start of the race a sudden rain shower made things very interesting. Around the back side of the track it was nearly flooded. As the green flag flew the rain stopped, but with everyone out on slicks you had to be very careful not to hydroplane. By the time the first car pitted for the mandatory 5 minute pitstop, the track had a dry line and the racing was intense.

Don Simons and Tim Day checked out on the rest of the field. Cyrus, Craig, Matt & Dave all battled it out for the runner up in SR3. With 1 lap to go Dave spun out in turn one so Craig gladly took the spot to finish third. Dave recovered to forth.

Dyno Don won overall beating out all the big V8's and the Porsches that pitted in the first 5 minutes of the race while it was raining. Great job Don!!!

As they left the grid for the main event Steve Nicklin had trouble getting his car started and had to start from the pit lane. Dyno Don got a great start to lead the field into turn 1. Tim Day pressured Don until the Chevron B-19 of Ed Swart got in the mix and passed Tim. Dave Tweedlie ran a solid second on his own with Cyrus, Bob & Craig running nose to tail most of the race.

Matt Maddox, our points leader had his second bad weekend in a row. As he rounded turn 3 something in the engine let go putting him out of the race. Matt's misfortune has made a 3 way battle for the points lead.

Dyno Don Simons had a rock star weekend bringing home all the trophies. Don won the Invitational class and finished second overall in the run group. Tim Day slipped past the Chevron of Ed Swart on the final corner to finish third overall.

The podium celebration put on by HSR was first class. With trophy girls and champagne, to being interviewed by Speed Channel, they were treated like royalty. Great job boys, what a great weekend.

Thanks again to everyone at Miller Motorsports Park and HSR for putting on a first class event. Jolene came through again with awesome food for everyone. What would we do without her???

Come join us at our next event at Willow Springs Raceway on September 1, 2. We have also added a test day at Willow on Friday August 31.

See you there!!!

Jeff Shafer

Radical Ventures, Inc.

©Crago Racing 1991 — 2007
14926 Calvert Street Van Nuys, CA 91411 — (818) 780-9144 cragojeff@aol.com