USRA NATS G27: "GUGU" BERNARDINO WINS

Chile's Ricardo Garri 2nd, ahead of King  Paul "Beuf" Pedersen!!!

Twenty-five racers entered the 2006 USRA G27 Nats for Pros. Except for two Brazilians, one Slovak and one racer from Chile: all Americans. Here too the USRA Nats seem having lost their former attraction on foreign racers. The days that we saw contingents from Japan, Austria, Germany or Finland at the start seem so far away. Chicagoland Raceway is not so attractive for non-Americans as initially was believed: it's a Blue King like so many others in the States. Main favourites were Paul "Beuf" Persen (USA), the 3rd of the G27 Worlds and winner of the ESROC G27 Vlado Okali (SVK) and new world record holder Benny Justice (USA). Among the dangerous outsiders we found Boyt Johnson (USA), "Gugu" Bernar-dino (BR) and the Brown Bros (USA) - no longer seen in competition since two ...decades!  It was a bit of a surprise that Mike Swiss didn't enter the race and that G27 world record holder Marcelo "Bambi" Serra (1"7216) were missing at the start. [At any rate with Chickey, Mario Schöne, Petr Krcil, Josef Korec, Vladimir Horky and so many others missing, at no moment the atmosphere was as excellent as at past year's USRA Nats].
At the Qualifications Boyt Johnson immediately underlines his ambitions by realising the pole position in a sharp 1"751, ahead of Vlado Okali in 1"763 and Kent Nigro in 1"774.
The Quarter Finals are full of surprises since we loose immediately our two top qualifiers, Boyt Johnson and Vlado Okali. Among the other victims we find Larry Blanton (what a poor 2006 for Larry!) and former world record holder Ron Herrera. Ron's car was even not ready for the qualifications, so that he started without ambitions.
Less surprises at the Semis where only Connie Aloise and former world record holder Marcio Paschoalin were expected to perform better. Roger Schmitt and Roman Kormeluk (better known as Roman K) did better than what was expected and could qualify for the Main.
Other finalists were "Beuf" Pedersen, "Gugu" Bernardino, Benny Justice, Jim "Spove" Sproviero, Chris Brown and the very promising Ricardo Garri from Chile. 

During the two first segments we had four racers pulling away from the rest of the field: "Gugu" Bernardino, "Beuf" Pedersen, Ricardo Garri and the surprising Roger Schmitt. After the third segment "Gugu", Garri and Schmitt were all three in the same lap, with "Beuf" unexpectedly already 18 laps behind, just as Benny Justice. During the fourth segment we lost Roger Schmitt among the leaders: the loss of a body pin (twice!) cost him 20 laps. At mid-race "Gugu" was leading, one lap ahead over Ricardo Garri. Meanwhile "Beuf" could come back in third position at 11 laps. For Benny Justice the race was over and the next segment he withdrew. Up from now "Gugu" could increase his advance over Garri and "Beuf" segment by segment. Differences were 3 and 16 laps after segment 5, 8 and 48 laps after segment 6 (where "Beuf" crashed badly in the donut), 9 and 52 laps after segment 7, and eventually 7 and 46 laps at the finish. "Gugu" Bernardino was as convincing as winner as Ricardo Garri was as runner-up. At no moment "Beuf" gave the impression to be able to do his G27 win of last year over. This time "Gugu" and Garri were stronger! [JPVR]

1175 LAPS: NEW WR FOR GUGU BERNARDINO

January 16, 2006 - The 1145 laps realised by Les Wright (USA) at last year's Brazilian Nats are already history. On January 7, at the Mid-Atlantic USRA G7 Race on "The Track" in Gaithersburg, MD, Brazil's Luis "Gugu" Bernardino improved the 40 minutes WR for G7 cars by winning the race with 1175 laps. Two other racers - Benny Justice (USA) and Mike "Erkle" Tylinski (USA) - did at the same meeting also better than the 1145 laps realised by Les Wright at the 2005 Brazilian Nats. Les Wright himself was also one of the entrants, but came this time no further than 1036 laps. In wing car racing 2006 seems to become a new year of several world records. 1"399 and 1250 laps seems possible before the end of the year. At the same meeting we noted another rain of world records in several other classes. Meanwhile G7 wing car racing is as well as dead. Number of entries at international meetings drops from year to year, and only the good old specialists continue. Newcomers disappear as soon as they showed. Where is Greg Mills (CDN), where Erik Kimmel (CZ), where Antti Immonen (SF), where Gert Fransen (B)? G7 racing is actually such a matter for specialists that newcomers have no more place in this discipline. Proposals of Paul Pfeiffer (USA) to switch to a cheaper formula were not followed by the top-racers. But those top-racers seem now killing the F1 of slot-racing. [JPVR]

New WR holder "Gugu" Bernardino together with Joe SSS Salzman at the 2005 USRA Nats. With 1175 laps for 40 minutes Gugu pulverized the old record of Les Wright at the 2005 Brazilian Nats.

P-A WATSON IS THE BEST ALL-TIME G7 RACER

Racers on a yellow field are eligible for a next Ultimate G7 Race!

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35th USRA G7 PRO NATS AT BUENA PARK (USA) (AUG 21)

"BEUF" WINS HIS 4TH USRA NATS

Mario Schöne, on his way to victory, stopped by bent chassis

August 22 - Despite a rain of world records the 2005 Buena Park USRA Nats was a minor event. And the USRA G7 Pro race was a minor race of that minor event. I remember the 2002 USRA Nats at the same track, when six of the eight finalists at the G7 Pro race completed more than 1000 laps. Now, three years later, despite all progress, the 2002 winner - Paul "Beuf" Pedersen, wins again, however 50 laps down to what he did in 2002. Forrest Watchers, second in 2002, finishes now 184 laps down to his 2002 total. Vlado Okali, third in 2002, finishes now 392 laps down to his 2002 total. And Mario Schöne, fifth in 2002, now third, is 41 laps slower. The main final ended in a complete anti-climax. Until the sixth segment it was a thrilling race, since the difference between "Beuf" and Mario Schöne was only one lap. With Mario finishing on yellow and orange, and "Beuf" finishing on green and blue, everything let expect that Mario should be the winner. He was leading the race from the second segment until mid-race. Then a smoked motor brought him three laps down to "Beuf" at the fifth segment, one lap after the sixth segment. Early during that sixth segment "Beuf" had to come into the pits and Schöne was again leader. But then, all things went wrong for MSP. A bent chassis made him dropping from first to fifth place. The last segment was full of drama. Several cars were totally up. Serra dropped from second to fifth, Krcil from third to sixth. That brought Benny Justice in second position at the finish. 
Apart from the poor number of achieved laps by all finalists, the main event suffered from a qualitatively low entry field. Paul Ciccarello didn't show (just as last year), reigning world champion Josef Korec didn't show either, just as Vladimir Horky, all the Swedes, all the Finns, etc. Other ansents were Greg Mills (CDN), Carlos Aloise (USA), Michael Silen (S), Rande Marshall (USA), Jim "Spove" Sproviero (USA), etc. So one should try to be objective. Telling that the 2005 USRA Nats were a minor race as compared to Port Jeff 2004 (especially the Worlds) is a hard truth! 

Of course there were also several positive points at the 2005 USRA Nats. Despite a total lack of criticism (the rain of world records thanks to the Gugu miracle tyres) the covering by OWH was excellent. One could follow the race at the OWH forum nearly on-line. Positive too was that all great starts of pre-1970 racing were all there: among them also the two most famous: Mike Steube, John Cukras. But also such other former glories as Joel Montague (the first wing car world champion in history), Martin Gramann (the first European winner at the USRA G7), Fred Hood, Al Chuck (he entered even competition), Gil Gulderson, Bob Johannis, Matt Azarra, Monty Ohren, etc. That atmosphere of friendship among new and old racers is so typical for the USRA Nats. In Europe it hardly exists. Once they stopped racing they never come back: I mean Sergio Maresca, Ian Jensen, Dave Harvey, Steve Walker, Norbert Amand, Achim Burgmann, etc.
Positive too was the good race direction and the fact that Chris Radisich did - for the first time since years - the always forgotten "mid-race" control. One of the victims of it was among others P-A Watson.
Concerning the "miracle tyres" it should be easy if USRA and ESROC added in the rules that qualification tyres, costing more than $ 15.00 US can only be allowed at the qualifications, and never more than two pairs per racer. Tyres exceeding a cost of $ 15.00 US should be marked with a spot of not removable ink before the start of the race. If not all racers have access to the expensive qualification tyres, their use should be forbidden. This is a very simple use, prohibiting that racers with restricted financial means have smaller chances than others who can buy the expensive tyres. It's worth to think on it. [JPVR] 
Coloured pics courtesey to Paul Kassens, black & white pics courtesey to Jean P. Roos.

Mike Steube and John Cukras in 1969, the pre-USRA Nats period

Mike Steube and John Cukras anno 2005 at Buena Park

August 22 - The main final started and "Beuf" took immediately the lead. At the end of the first segment (141 laps) he has an advance of one lap over Mario Schöne. Forrest Watschers, on red, is third at 8 laps. Jose Mario Serra and Benny Justice follow already at 12 laps. Okali comes 14 laps short. Petr Krcil and P-A Watson (only 83 laps on black) are already out for victory. Secretly I hoped that the great P-A could cause a stir by winning his fifth USRA Nats. I don't know why he lost 58 laps during the first segment. Only a miracle can bring him back on front of the race. But miracles are consumed after all that WRs thanks to "miracle" tyres.
Drama for Forrest Watchers at the second segment. He lost his motor and had gear problems. He drops to the last place, 108 laps behind the leader. That leader is Mario Schöne who did 140 laps on red. But if one sees that "Beuf" made 136 laps on black, it's obvious that not Schöne but "Beuf" himself is on his way to victory lane. Serra follows pretty well and is 12 laps down from the pace. Benny Justice 13. Very good race for P-A Watson on yellow, but he's always 53 laps down to the leader. Okali had a difficult run on orange and is now passed by Krcil. It seems that only the 4 first have still a chance to win.
Watson is doing it great. With 143 laps on orange he was once more the fastest and moves up into sixth position. Schöne increases his lead, turning for the third consecutive time 140 laps. Since "Beuf" made only 130 on yellow, the German leads now by 13 laps. Benny Justice follows on 16 laps. Poor race on black for Serra: 117 laps. Krcil too is too slow: 123 laps on purple. For Okali (motor out) the game is over. Idem dito for Watchers, having had tyre problems in the third segment.
At mid-race Mario Schöne is still leader. A smoked motor, however, made him loose 17 laps. Although not very fast on orange (133 laps), "Beuf" follows now at three little laps from Schöne. Problems with a smoked motor too for Benny Justice who is now 20 laps down. Serra could reduce his arrears by 7 laps and follows now at 33 laps. But again the fastest is P-A Watson: 140 laps on yellow. He is now fifth, 33 laps down to the lead (after the first segment it was 58). Can he do the miracle? Let's pray to all the Gods of the world that P-A can make it! After such a long career he deserves it.

Fifth segment. Before the start Chris Radisich does a clearance check-up. Speed goes seriously down now. With 130 laps on white (10 less than what Schöne did on white) "Beuf" is the fastest. He takes over the lead from Schöne, now following at 3 laps. The chase of P-A Watson has stopped.
For the sixth and seventh segment I quote CruzinBob from the OWH. He writes: "6th segment - Petr doesn't start. CRASHES, Beuf to the pits! TRACK TRACK TRACK...Beuf back in...(Andy just informed me that JPVR has just gone to the doktor for carpel tunnel index finger). PA is REALLY crankin' on green 1.858! He and MSP lead heat. Petr also crankin' 1.859 orange...CHOKES OUT THE WINDOW!" P-A lost a braid and looses time with a bent body during the sixth segment.
I quote Bruzin again:"7th heat - pre heat report finds Beuf up by one over MSP, Beuf on Green, MSP on Yellow...know what that means! Beuf finishes on Blue, MSP Orange! Early in heat Beuf comes off in donut and Skinner ALMOST puts him in wrong lane...Beuf's a little excited, loses about 4. MSP trouble, loses pin & a bunch of laps...here comes Jose Mario only 10 back of MSP! MSP in pits, Jose takes 2nd 30 back of Beuf! Sad time for MSP, moves to 5th. Benny takes 3rd w/Peter right behind. Forrest sets high heat on orange 147!" End of quotation. For Schöne, on his way to beat "Beuf", the game is at once over: a bent chassis.
The last segment is one full of chaos. Vlado Okali starts no more. Jose Mario Serra (BR) looses not only his second place, he drops from the podium to fifth place. In the early stage of the segment he's passed by Benny Justice. Then his motor gets out. Gear must be changed. When he rejoins the race he is also passed by Mario Schöne, moving up into third position, and by P-A Watson, taking the fourth place, one lap ahead over poor Serra. Petr Krcil, having still hope on a podium place with one segment to go, moves effectively in third position with still three minutes to go. Then he is at once victim of all kinds of gear problems and drops in the standings from third into sixth position. 
The race thus ends as a complete anti-climax. With two segments to go "Beuf" had only one lap over Schöne and 32 over Benny Justice. Ten minutes later he has an advance of 59 laps over his runner-up Justice and 83 over the very unlucky Mario Schöne, who seemed on his way to beat "Beuf". End of a minor race at a minor USRA Nats

August 22 - At Semi B things went exactly as I predicted in my article below. "Beuf" was the fastest with 647 laps, followed by Benny Justice with 611 laps, by Mario "MSP" Schöne with 584 laps and by Petr Krcil with 563 laps. Bob Everett, Reggie Coram, Frank Sarkela and Tim Tyler are eliminated. Of the four moving to the main "Beuf" goes to his 13th main at the USRA G7 Pro Nats (he won 3 times and reached 5 times the top-3); Mario Schöne goes to his 10th main (he won once and reached 4 times the podium); for Benny Justice, in great progress since he won last year the Campeonato Brasileiro, it is his first main; Petr Krcil, only involved since two years in G7 racing, makes also his first main at the USRA G7 Pro Nats. The four finalists are among the 11 (Curnutte didn't start) potential finalists I predicted below, before the start of the race.
At Semi A we lost a jurassic monument in wing car racing: Mike Swiss. He made 12 times the main at the USRA G7 Pro Nats, reached 8 times the podium and won twice. The 4 finalists making the move are, again, 4 among the 11 I predicted before the race. That illustrates how predictable this year's USRA Nats are. Before the race I selected 11 racers, making a forecast that 8 of them should reach the main. Well, all 8 can be found among the 11! Winner of Semi A with 615 laps was Forrest Watchers. He reaches his 5th USRA main and finished once as runner-up at the podium. Second place went to Jose Mario Serra from Brazil. It's his first USRA main, but he finished already once as runner-up at the G7 Worlds. Third was P-A Watson: another monument in American slot-racing. It is his 17th main (!!!). He reached 8 times the podium and won 4 times the USRA G7 Nats. Fourth was Vlado Okali. He makes his 5th USRA main and reached once the podium.
That means that the 3 Europeans reached all 3 the main, together with 1 Brazilian and 4 Americans. My prognosis for the main is: 1. "Beuf", 2. Forrest Watchers, 3. Vlado Okali, 4. Petr Krcil, 5. Mario Schöne, 6. Benny Justice, 7. P-A Watson, 8. Jose Mario Serra. Wait and see.

QUARTERS: "GUGU," LES WRIGHT  & "TORRE" ARE ALREADY OUT

August 21 - The Quarter Finals are over. Biggest surprise is that we lost "Gugu" Bernardino, the man who dominated with his "miracle" tyres the event until now. Also his country mate Emerson Fischler, still 6th after the qualifications, has been eliminated. Les Wright is no longer the top racer he was: just as at last year's USRA Nats and at the Ultimate G7 race he went out after the quarters. More predictable was the elimination of Jim Swofford, Tommy Flythe, Gary Puetz, Randy Thompson, Al Chuck, Mike Graversen and Gil Gundersen. Our hope that good old "Torre" Andersson should make the move to the semis was vain: after 61 laps he retired. Jeff Mack, a former winner of the G7 Semi-Pro at the USRA Nats failed to convince. From the 20 Americans 10 were elimated. From the 3 Brazilians only Jose Mario Serra is left (as 16th and last qualified racer). In the Semis we'll find 10 Americans, 1 German, 1 Czech, 1 Slovak, 1 Kiwi and 1 inhabitant of Sint-Maarten.
Fastest man at the Quarters was TQ-er Forrest Watchers with 431 laps, that is 5 more than "Beuf". Frank Sarkela is surprisingly 3rd, ahead of Petr Krcil, Vlado Okali and Mike Swiss. The 7th place of Tim Tyler (NZ) is quite a surprise. It gives full evidence that he made a tremendous pro-gress since the Ultimate G7 race. Benny Justice, Mario Schöne and Jose Mario Serra reached each the semis, but with a low number of laps.
If one looks at the composition of the semis it will extremely difficult for several racers to reach the main. In Semi B "Beuf", Krcil, Schöne and Justice seem the logical four who'll made the main. Here Tyler, Sarkela, Everett and Coram seem condemned to fail. Of those four only Coram (in 1989) and Everett (in 1999) reached earlier once the main at the USRA G7 Pro Nats.
In Semi A Watchers, Okali, Swiss and P-A Watson seem certitudes. Here Serra will have it extremely difficult to make the move. For Van Wagnen, Blanton and Skinner the main looks impossible. None of them ever reached earlier the main. So I predict a main with "Beuf", Schöne, Krcil, Okali, Swiss, Watchers, Justice and Watson or Serra. [JPVR]

QUALIFICATIONS: WR FOR FORREST WATCHERS 1"5010

August 21 - We note 29 entrants at the 35th USRA G7 Pro Nats. The majority of them are Americans 20 racers. Brazil has 3 racers. Slovakia, New Zealand, Czechia, Germany, Sint-Maarten and Sweden (if we may consider John Torre still as a Swede) have 1 racer. For the first time in 10 years there are only 3 (or 4) European racers at the start. Richard Curnutte didn't start among the pros.
After the first round of the qualifications Ron van Wagnen (USA) scored the best time with 1"5418, ahead of "Gugu" (BR) with 1"5518, Skinner (USA) with 1"6049, "Beuf" (USA) with exactly the same time and P-A Watson (USA) with 1"6057. So the big news is that ... no WR was set after the first qualification round. Gugu has only 24 seconds left to set the new WR in his bye round. Others like "Beuf", P-A Watson, Petr Krcil, Forrest Watchers, Benny Justice, Mike Swiss and Jim Swoford have more than 60 secs over to realise a time under 1"5. At the start we find no less than 7 former world record holders: Mike Swiss, Gary Puetz, P-A Watson, Benny Justice, Mario Schöne, "Beuf" and John "Torre" Andersson. It should be a miracle if none of them should go under 1"5 with the new qualification miracle tyres of "Gugu".
Early in the bye round Forrest Watchers improved the G7 WR, realising 1"5010. He won the $ 500 US offered by Adam Friedman to the first G7 racer beating Gugu's former WR of 1"503. Nobody can understand that of all other racers none was able to do better. It seems as if Gugu's miracle tires are less miraculous than generally was expected.
13 racers improved at the "bye" round their times of the first round. "Beuf" has now the third best time in 1"5460, Mario Schöne the fourth best time with 1"5491 and "Gugu", who could improve his time only by 0.0006", drops to the fifth place. Disappointing were the times of Benny Justice (three months ago still the G7 world record holder), of Mike Swiss (only 1"7420), of Jose Mario Serra, of Les Wright. Former world record holder Gary Puetz, having won concourse, realised the one but last time. Tommy Flutyn could not make one clear lap. [JPVR]