June 26, 2010 - This is the fourth of five IOC-events for Retro cars. The previous races were the Check Cup at Bueno Park (won by Duran Trujillo), the R4 at Colom-bus (won by Chris Radisich) and the Retro Worlds (won by "Piki" van Rossem). After the Palooza at Beach Wood only one important Retro race remains: the famous Sano. The Palooza was announced by "Noose" as "The Biggest Retro Event of the East". However, attendance was low: only 91 entries for five races, an average of only 18 entrants per race. That should be not a disaster if the quality of the entrance was high. This was certainly not the case: at the Check Point there were 6 pros among the entrants, at the R4 there were 5 pros, at the Worlds 18 pros, at the Palazoo only 3: Chris Radisich (IOC #25), Howie Ursaner (IOC #27) and Jay Kisling (#77). There was no Dave Fiedler (IOC #56), no Ron Hershman (#57), no Bryan Warmack (#85), no Mike Stahl (#95), no Doug Matthes (#127), etc. 
In fact all Retro racing in the States is highly exaggerated. There is no Retro racing from East to West and except for Dave Fiedler, Howie Ursaner and Chris Radisich no racers move from coast to coast. There are not 200 retro racers in the States and the majority is older than 50 years. So Retro racing seems no export product, and popularity outside the States is restricted to a handful clubs in Australia and in England. That can be deplored, because the formula allows close racing, just as in model car racing, and the cost of RTR cars is not 30 percent of an average model car.  To promote the formula of IRRA Retro racing it could be interesting to organise next year a European Championship Retro Racing, e.g. at the Brühl Blue King. Moreover RTR retro cars should appear on the e-commerce sites in Germany and Spain. Retro racing can model car racers let decide to enter soon or late ISRA style scale racing with ES24 and G12 cars.
In the States races on flat tracks are not popular. Most American retro racing goes on Blue King tracks. At the Palooza Retro a new Gary Gerding King was used. One aspect of American racing can probably never be sold to Europeans: i.e. the strange format where the qualifications decide upon the composition of the heats, but where one makes no overall classification on base of achieved laps. Only the two first of a heat are qualified for a higher heat, and the six first of the qualifica-tions will always be among the top-8 of the final result. 
The Palooza Retro event started with two races for jail-door chassis. Here attendance was extremely low: 13 in GT and 11 in Sports. Chris Radisich won once and finished once as runner-up. Jay Kisling won once and finished once third. Other podium places went to Howie Ursaner and Mike Katz. Then followed the more serious races. Matt Bruce TQ-ed in CANAM and won the race, six laps ahead over Howie Ursaner. In GT Coupe Howie Ursaner took revenge by TQ-ing and winning the race. Joe "Noose" Neumeister - the eternal concourse winner - was a surprising runner-up, followed by Jay Kisling. At the F1 race Jay Kisling was fastest, despite a TQ for runner-up Roger Ruggieri. On the combined standings Jay Kisling scored most points, followed by Radisich, Ursaner & Bruce. [JPVR]

11. Larry Mattingly (4)

May 31, 2010 - Strong venue at the 6th NEC for North-European scale racers. Indeed 42 racers were present at this year's NEC. Sweden was present with 8 racers, among them Mikael Landrud (IOC #31), Christer Helgesson and Lars Harrysson. Finland had Marko Pirinen, Olli Kantamaa and Veli-Matti Kantamaa at the start. Estonia was present with Kaiar Tammeleht, Einari Viira and Ants Volmerson. Ukraine showed with no less than nine racers, among them Ihor Kuropiy and Konstantin Odnenko. Lithuania came with five racers, among them Arunas Leonavicius and Simas Nemira. Latvia had 14 racers at the start with Janis Rage-Ragis, Raivis Jansons, Janis Sneiders, Edijs Zaks, Uge Viksne and Nabokins as best known (but no Podosinoviks, who seems having stopped active racing). Track was a 40 metre wooden !-laner with good power (13 V, 200 VA). 

Raivis Jansons (ES32), Arunas Leonavicius (F1-32) and Peteris Taurins (ES24) were the winners. Janis Sneiiders, once the revelation at the 2007 ISRA Worlds seems completely back and scored a second place, a fifth and a sixth. Best racer of the meeting was Raivis Jansons, winning the victor ludorum ranking. The IOC-list has been updated and Peteris Taurins is now the third Latvian racer joining the elite of official pro-racers. It's hard to understand why we saw the Latvian racers not once in model car racing. I think we should do an effort and prepare them a very competitive car for the upcoming EEC 2010 PRO I hope that Janis Rage-Ragis and Peteris Taurins will accept our offer. To help them over the bridge IMCA will pay them a 500 euro travelling incentives. Time has come that Latvia should be also involved in hard body model car racing. [JPVR]

ES24

Victor Ludorum

36 entrants

37 entrants

42 entrants

May 13, 2010 - The British National Championships for 1/32rd cars are the oldest Nats in history. They exist since 1964. If you are not a Britton you cannot understand. Drivers are divided over three classes: the Premiers (let's say the pros), the Main Grades (let's say the semi-pros) and the Intermediates (let's say the amateurs). The former Clubman grade doesn't exist any longer. Cars are the Grand Prix (132 F1), Saloon, and Sports/GT (ES32). There exists also a production class, but that race will only be contested in July. Qualifications decide which 24 cars can contest the 3 semi-finals for Grand Prix and Saloon, and the 8 fastest move to the main, where there are no lane changes. Contrarily to the rest of Europe Britons don't race over a certain limited time, but when a limited number of laps (e.g. 80) is achieved power goes off. In Sport/GT qualifications go over all 8 lanes and the 8 best move up to the main, contested following the European formula on limited time per lane.
At the 2010 Nats 20 Premier racers showed plus 32 Main grade racers. They race all together but there exists an apart championship for Main grade racers. Among them we find such old glories as Dave Harvey, Ian Baker, Trevor Crout, Ian Fitzpatrick, Ralph Parker, Chris Frost, etc. (BTW, Frost's excellent web site seems to be closed). This year a new Main grade racer, Martin Ellis, caused a stir by finishing as runner up with the Grand Prix cars and as fifth overall in the victor ludorum ranking.

But what a strange Nats it were this year? For the first time since 1964 George Kimber was not at the start, and the Godfather of British racing, Charlie Gooding, reached only once the main final. Nevertheless he finished still in the top-10 of the victor ludorum ranking. Strange too was the fact that the two of the three best actual British racers, Brian Saunders and Graeme Stephenson, failed to win one of the three races but that they won, tied, the 2010 Victor Ludorum. [Tie could have been broken by comparing the qualification ranking: here Graeme won 111 points, Brian 107, at least on applying the 50-40-35-32-30-28-26-24-22-20-18-16-14-12-11, etc to 1 point's system for the 25 first.]

LEFT: Graeme Stephenson congratulates James Cleave with his win in Saloon. RIGHT: Rob Lees, in white shirt, congratulates Graham Woodward with his second consecutive win in Sports/GT. Here the record of Steve Walker, who won from 1977 to 1981 five consecutive times the Sports/GT championship, is not directly in dager. Although Graeme Stephenson and Brian Saunders qualified for the three mains, they failed to win, finishing once as runner-up and once as third. Both had bad luck in one of their three mains, where they finished eighth. Nevertheless they won, tied, the 2010 Victor Ludorum of the BSCRA Nats.

Grand Prix went surprisingly to Ross Grogan, having had all problems of the world to hold that damned Main grader Martin Ellis off. Of course Ellis caused a stir by reaching the main, and by letting such toppers as Brian Saunders (third), Charlie Gooding and Graeme Stephenson all behind. Stephenson, this year still third at the IMCA 1/32nd Worlds, was eliminated after 57 laps by technical woes. James Cleave made a horrible semi, where he too was eliminated by technical problems after 31 laps.
At Saloon James Cleave could take revenge by beating in that order Brian Saunders and Graeme Stephenson. Here Mark Harwood finished again fifth, just as in Grand Prix, whilst Shepherd, still fourth in Grand Prix, was now seventh. And again devil Martin Ellis reached the main, finishing now sixth overall. Charlie Gooding and Steve Sargent, still finalists in Grand Prix, missed in Saloon the move. Greg Harwood, who missed the main in Grand Prix, was now among the top-8, but unfortunately he was eliminated after 59 laps.
At Sports/GT Graham Woodward, Ian Fisher and Richard Mack, having missed twice the main in Grand Prix and Saloon, could qualify for the main, contrarily to James Cleave, Charlie Gooding and Paul Shepherd. For Brian Saunders, Graeme Stephenson and Mark Harwood it was already their third main final. Brian Saunders, unfortunately, was already out after 43 laps. A merciless struggle for the first place went among Graeme Stephen-son and Graham Woodward.  At the finish both were still on the same lap, but Graham finished 30 sections ahead over Graeme. Richard Mack came home as third. By finishing sixth in Sports/GT, after two fifth places, Mark Harwood ended as third in the Victor Ludorum ranking. Of the Premier racers Neil Grogan was the lonely one, reaching not once the semis. The Nats were contested on a brand new wooden 8-laner. [JPVR]

VICTOR LUDORUM RANKING

James Ceave

ES24

Victor Ludorum

ES24 (IOC-RACE LEV 2)

ES32 (IOC-RACE LEV 3)

132F1 (IOC-RACE LEV 3)

124 GROUP 12 (IOC-RACE LEV 3)

0.5

MICHAEL LANDRUD & JAROSLAV RECEK ARE THE WINNERS

April 8, 2010 - The former Swedish Masters are now "Scandinavian Masters". For the first time in seven years Brian Saunders came not on the start. G12 was dominated by Michael Landrud, letting Antónin Vojtik and Jaroslav Recek behind. Landrud was again fastest at the qualifications for ES24, but the race was eventually won by Jaroslav Recek, ahead over James Cleave and Anders Gustafson. Matti Fyhr, Vladimir Horky, Petr Krcil and Josef Korec didn't show.

April 8, 2010 - The Retro Worlds were the last event of the 2010 IMCA Nats. After four days of racing everybody was tired and the track was very dusty, especially on lanes red and white. It was convened with the Jeugdhuis officials that the race should be over before midnight. Prior to the race their was a two hours free practice. Everybody expected that Dave Fiedler (USA), Chris Radisich (NZ) and Howie Ursaner (USA) should be the three going to the podium at the end of the meeting. Howie, however, seemed to be in an off-day. He tried no less than three motors, but failed to realise sharp times during free practice. Fiedler and Radisich were the fastest racers at free practice. They realised times around 6"55. Compared with the model cars that seemed to be not fast enough. Fastest lap realised by a model car was a 7"17 by Sven Manti. Indeed the PS4000-IMCA motors lacked speed and it should have been wiser to do a handout of three Falcon motors per racer which should have been at the same cost of one ProSlot motor. We had four retro cars available made by Bryan Warmack. One went to Michael Niemas (D) and a second to "Piki". Normally I was supposed to drive the third car, but after my attack of hyperglycemia from one day earlier, I was not in condition to race. A fourth car was held apart for the case that NDW should enter. However he was not interested. So I proposed the car to Mike Stahl (USA), who was not intended to start, especially as he entered never before a retro race (just as all Europeans, except the Britons). A concourse was planned, but we were so short in time, that we had to drop it. There was little chance that someone else than Joe "Noose" Neumeister should have won that concourse. At the end of practice Chris Radisich, racing a splendid retro car of R-Geo (Rick Bernardo), had realised the fastest time in 6"49. The Bryan Warmack cars were seriously slower during the first hour, so Niemas and "Piki" went to see Paul Gawronski, asking him what went wrong. He shortened the braids and oiled the front and rear axle and at once their times came back with two tenths of a second.

Technical inspection was done by Dave Fiedler. All cars were regular, except the one of Kai Kivekäs using the wrong body and the wrong motor. He was given 15 minutes to make his car regular. What happened. It was decided to race without consis, semis and main, but over 8 x 4 minutes. The qualifications should decide upon the composition of the heats. One racer, Thomas von Wendt (D), preferred to retire, so that we had 25 starters (there were only 28 cars available). Order of the qualifications was that of the second round of the Gianotti trophy, with the three Checas (E), Hubert Jacob (F), Gerry de Roeck (B), Jens Gerlach (D) and Mario Kreim (D) having no retro car. Howie Ursaner disappointed with a slow 6"781, condemning him to the C-heat. With still 11 racers to go Chris Radisich realised the sharpest time in 6"551, letting Dave "Sano" Fiedler (6"575) behind. Then came Andrew Aysley (GB), taking provisionally the pole in 6"505. That time was improved by Kai Kivekäs (SF) in 6"457.

At a given moment, during Kai's trial, the lap counter blocked. Kai was convinced that this was as he realised some 6"3s, and that 6"3 was the limit of the lap counter. Of course this was not so, the lap counter's limit is 2 seconds, and only laps under the 2 seconds are not registered. Immediately after it was up to "Piki" to qualify: he realised in his last lap a sharp 6"402, a time who should no more be improved by the remaining drivers. When all racers had finished their qualification run, it appeared that Dave Fiedler was the first to miss the A heat. That was also the case for "Gugu" Bernardino (BR), for Herman James (USA), for Tracy Chin (USA), for Michael Niemas (D), for Björn van Campenhout (B), for Fola Osu (NIG) and for Graeme Stephenson (GB), who had all to start in heat B. Among the racers selected for heat A we found two Americans (Mike Stahl - splendid during the whole meeting - and of course Paul Gawronski), two Belgians ("Piki" and Gilles Dohogne), one Finn (Kai Kivekäs), one Briton (Andrew Aynsley), one Kiwi (Chris Radisich) and surprisingly only one German (Ralph Seif).

Heat C was completely dominated by Dirk Baele (B) and Marcel Oosterling (NL). Long time the raced nose to tail, but during the two last segments Baele could pull away, taking more than two laps over Oosterling. Behind them Howie Ursaner (USA), Terry Schmid (USA) - both real legends in the history of slot-racing - and Chris Dillon (NZ) were fighting side by side for the third place. Eventually Schmid won that combat, two sections ahead over Howie, six sections over Dillon. Ralph Kose (D) and George Kimber (GB) disappointed.
Pace of heat B was considerably higher than at the previous heat. Having started on the slow and dusty red lane Dave "Sano" Fiedler lost five laps on Michael Niemas at his first run. After two segments he was not only headed by Niemas, but also by Herman James. In the three following segments Fiedler seemed on his way to close the gap with Niemas. At mid-race he had already passed Herman James, and he was three and a half laps down to the German. Everybody expected that he should catch Niemas, but the German lost only one lap on red (instead of five for Fiedler).

Instead of narrowing the gap, Fiedler lost more and more field during the four last segments. On the two fastest lanes (purple and black) Fiedler was each time a full lap slower than Niemas. So, after 8 segments, the gap was up to six laps. A half lap further we found Herman James in third place.
Heat A started with "Piki" on the ultra slow red lane. Mike Stahl took immediately the lead, followed by Chris Radisich, Paul Gawronski and Kai Kivekäs. "Piki" lost only two laps on red and could maintain the difference with Stahl under the two laps during the two following runs. Meanwhile Radisich and Kivekäs tried, at no avail, to pass Stahl. He maintained a full lap over both. When "Piki" went to blue, where he realised continuously laps under 6"60. At mid-race, and still to do the three fast lanes (purple, black, yellow) Stahl was still leading, but the gap with "Piki" was less than one complete lap. He had already passed Kivekäs and Radisich, and was now in second position. Once on purple "Piki" came on the lead. On black he clocked even a 6"381, the fastest lap of the race. Stahl followed already at a full lap, Radisich at two laps. Everybody expected that Radisich should pass Stahl in the two remaining segments, but it did not happen. Being sure that he could no more be caught by Stahl, "Piki" slowed the space, taking no longer the risks he took at the former segments. In the background Ralph Seif struggled continuously with grip problems, making him loose more than fifteen laps on the leaders. Towards the end everyone expected that Chris Radisich should still catch Mike Stahl, but it didn't happen. "Piki" won the race with one and a half lap over Stahl who demonstrated once more he's a hell of a driver. Big deception for Chris Radisich when he heard that he achieved seven track sections less than Michael Niemas in the previous heat. He missed the podium he deserved. So the three cars of Bryan Warmack realised the three first places. For "Piki" it was already the tenth world championship he won, the third at the 2010 IMCA Worlds (1/32nd Sprint, Endurance Worlds and now the Retro Worlds). Having finished also second at the 1/24th Sprint Worlds for pros, he was undoubtedly the most successful racer of the meeting, followed by Paul Gawronski (2 wins at the Gianotti Trophy). Next IMCA meeting will be the EEC 2010 organised by Hubert Jacob in September and October. [JPVR]