Last Weekend at the Track: The Sportscar “Enduro” Recap – featuring “Track Eye”™ video!

Despite being interrupted by a malfunctioning track timer, the Sports Car 10-Lap “Enduro” was salvaged by the dedication and skill of Drag City’s track maintenance crew, who worked diligently around the clock for days to fix the problem. Though some of the audience and some revenue was definitely lost, the drivers were asked to return once the problem was resolved, and all but a few did, leaving the field well-defined to finish the race. The 3^rd and final heats held some definite surprises!

The idea was to run the fastest time possible for 10 laps-that’s a lot on a track the size of DC Mk IV!-with a “3 Strikes” rule in effect for all laps. The “sudden death” final lap was dispensed with, but with only 3 chances and 10 laps to traverse, the amount of skill needed was extreme, pushing the drivers to find the perfect balance between speed and stability. As if all this weren’t challenging enough, the race featured a “cold start” which puts the cars through even more punishment as they struggle to come up to both speed and temperature on the first lap.

For the first time, the official video of the event contains footage from the “Track Eye”™ camera. Don’t get too excited, race fans; the quality leaves much to be desired. But, this is a first effort, and plans are in the works to obtain better hardware in the near future: the “Track Eye II” is not far behind!

Although some of the finalists were a surprise, the winner was not: the tournament trophy went to none other than Sherman “Throttlestop” Steele in the #18 Cheetah, the car aptly named “King Of The Hill.” With its immensely powerful 427 Chevy under the hood, this car is almost unbeatable, and although new challengers emerged to make a valiant try at the trophy, “Throttletop” prevailed again, beating out Leonardo “Leadfoot” Leoni in the #22 Maserati 3500GT named “Matador”, this cars’ best showing ever. We look forward to more performances like this from Mr. Leoni! 3^rd place went to Jim “Velocity” Van Buren in the #76 Ford GT 40 “Crusader.” This was also Van Buren’s best showing ever, proving that the tuning and testing his team has been doing on their car has paid real dividends.

The Low E.T. trophy of the tournament went deservedly to Warwick “Wolf” Wagner in the #11 Porsche 904 named “Ragnar,” who set a new 10 lap record, an astonishing 1.12.416, the fastest time yet recorded for a 10-lap run at DC IV in any capacity, whether racing or qualifying. Wagner set this record during the first elimination run but was unable to duplicate the performance, leading to his elimination in the subsequent heat. Even so, future racers vying to take that trophy now have a high bar to clear!

There were thrills and chills, but there were also spills; Roddy “Rodeo” Randall driving the #67 Corvette “Road Wrecker” -another 427 powered car-was DQ’d for wreckless driving after he rear-ended “Ace,” the #29 Cobra of Kevin “Hybrid” Hughes, in the straightaway in front of pit row in Heat 2, while Warren “Wheelie” Winwood, normally a careful and respectful driver, was docked a second off his time in Heat 3 for an unsafe manuver when he hit “Cold War,” the #24 Chaparral of Peter “Prototype” Pasternak, who crashed right in front of him. Though Winwood was not the cause of the wreck, Winwood’s McLaren, dubbed “Archer,” hit Pasternak’s Chaparral 2B as it bounced across the track in front of him, but then uncharacteristically continued at full speed to win the heat.

The most serious incident of the race was the crash of the #58 Cobra 427SC, “Grim Reaper,” which jumped the track on the top level of the corkscrew and landed near the Mooneyes kiosk; driver Ivan “Iceheart” Singleton was rushed to the nearby emergency room with injuries that turned out to be non-life threatening, but both he and his car will be out for the rest of the season.

All of the above incidents were captured in the official video of the event!

Don’t stay away, race fans! There’s always more excitement ahead at Drag City!