Race Report

[Butch Kummer]

Although Cuervo is (still) not ready to go, Allan Kosloski and I went ahead and made the trip from ATL to Barber Motorsports Park to promote the V8 Road Racing Series Powered by WCIParts.com and see some of our buddies. This was our first series visit to Birmingham and I wasn't sure what kind of turnout we'd have, but it ends up we have seven members running this weekend (of 16 in the run group) and we generated additional interest for 2018 as well.

This event is a combined effort between the Tennessee Valley and Alabama SCCA regions, and they run a fairly unique format that seems to work well. They cannot run a test day on Friday because another group has a permanent conflicting event that runs until 5:00 Friday afternoon, so TVR and AR offer a combination Time Trial and Club Racing event. The TT is split into three groups, each of which get two 15-minute sessions before any qualifying starts on Saturday morning, so anyone that want the extra track time that a test day affords can sign up for the TT sessions as well. It is an innovative solution that certainly seems to work for the club racers, it eliminates the necessity for a three-day weekend, plus it also introduces the Time Trial community to club racing.

So after all the TT and qualifying sessions on Saturday our V8 racers lined up thusly:
. 1st ASR (1st OA) - Jacek Mucha, Swift 016: 1.27.259
. 1st GTA (2nd OA) - Bobby Reuse, Camaro: 1.37.322
. 2nd GTA (3rd OA) - Roger Reuse, Camaro:  1.38.077
. 1st GT2 (6th OA) - Mike Attaway, Maiibu: 1.41.270
. 3rd GTA (9th OA) - Steve Magowen, Camaro: 1.43.766
. 1st T1 (10th OA) - Chip Bozeman, Mustang: 1.47.682
. 2nd GT2 (12th OA) - Jim Matheson, Monte Carlo: 1.49.664

At the green flag for Saturday's 9-lap (or 20-minute) race Jacek pretty much disappeared as expected while Steve Magowen passed about three cars going into Turn 1, but the best race of the day was developing between the Reuse brothers. The two were never more than half a second apart with Bobby leading Roger for the first four laps, then Roger made a pretty bold move into the Museum turn to pass his brother and take the GTA lead. It's extremely difficult to pass at Barber due to the relatively short straights, but again the two were never separated by more than half a second. Things had pretty much settled down for the rest of the field, so all eyes in the tower were focused on the two WCIParts.com Camaros.

After getting the while flag to start lap 9, Bobby made a VERY aggressive move into Turn 5 (the "Spider Turn" for those who've been to Barber) and briefly passed Roger, but then Bobby pushed wide mid-corner and Roger got back under him exiting the corner. After the race Roger said he saw Bobby coming and waved "bye-bye" to him as he sailed past under braking! 

Bobby didn't give up, though, and rejoined the battle very quickly. Roger got a bit loose as the pair exited Turn 16 - the left-hander onto the front straight - heading to checkered flag and Bobby pulled alongside in a drag race to the finish line. Those of us in the tower would have leaned out the window if we could have, but Bobby ended up beating his brother to the stripe by maybe four (4) inches. On the official results Roger set a new class record of 1:36.251 but Bobby got the win by 0.023 seconds!!!

In Impound there were lots of handshakes all around and good cheer, and after things settled down the final order was:
. 1st ASR (1st OA) - Jacek Mucha, Swift 016: 1.31.280
. 1st GTA (2nd OA) - Bobby Reuse, Camaro: 1.36.415
. 2nd GTA (3rd OA) - Roger Reuse, Camaro: 1.36.251
. 1st GT2 (6th OA) - Mike Attaway, Malibu: 1.42.886
. 3rd GTA (7th OA) - Steve Magowen, Camaro: 1.42.481
. 2nd GT2 (8th OA) - Jim Matheson, Monte Carlo: 1.48.320
. 1st T1 (13th OA) - Chip Bozeman, Mustang: 1.45.968

Even with power steering issues Chip had moved up well during the race before a broken exhaust (same thing happened at Charlotte) melted a CV boot and made the handling VERY unpredictable. The WCIParts.com crew also found that Roger had broken a weld on the mount for the right rear lower control arm, which in turn made his car handle like a pulp wood truck - at least that's his story and he's sticking to it! 

All in all a pretty good day of racing with more to come today...

[millstreet]

we need pictures, or better yet, maybe a link to the Reuse brothers video cache (they posted a great group of videos from COTA on their Facebook page)

Andy

[Butch Kummer]

Allan has pictures (on a camera - y'all remember those?) that he'll download and post when we get home. I'll pass your other suggestion along to the Bro's. 

[Butch Kummer]

Sunday Update (on Monday):

Although not quite the dramatic finish as Saturday, Sunday's 15-lap feature race was still an excellent show.

The broken exhaust and power steering issues put Chip Bozeman's Mustang in the trailer so we were down to six V8RRS by WCIParts.com drivers in the show. I stopped to talk with Jim Matheson and he was struggling to get comfortable in his car since it was set up for a driver (BJ Holley) who likes to sit closer to the wheel than Jim does. As a result Jim's knuckles were hitting his thighs so he was very much in a "just get it to the finish" mode for the weekend.

Additional drama was added when Jacek Mucha started from the back because he missed the morning qualifying session - unlike many other weekends we run, at Barber one's qualifying times are NOT cumulative over the weekend. I missed that in the Supps as well, but it was not a factor as Jacek was the fastest car on the track by more than ten seconds.

With Jacek at the back the Reuse brothers were side-by-side on the front row, and at the green Roger took a lead over Bobby that he would not relinquish the rest of the race. Jacek worked his way through the field and took the overall lead at the end of lap four while Roger maintained about a half second lead over Bobby. A bit further back Steve Magowen had gotten a good start and passed Mike Attaway into Turn 1, then Mike got back by two laps later when Steve pushed wide in Turns 3 & 4. Both pairs (Roger/Bobby and Mike/Steve) remained close until about lap 10 when Roger used traffic to his advantage and pulled about a 1.5 second gap over Bobby. From there everyone maintained station until the checkers, and the biggest question was whether or not Jacek would lap the entire field after starting from the back. It ends up he was about a foot short of passing Roger a second time as they came under the starter's stand on lap 15!

Official results:
. 1st ASR (1st OA) - Jacek Mucha, Swift 016: 1.25.316
. 1st GTA (2nd OA) - Bobby Reuse, Camaro: 1.36.798
. 2nd GTA (3rd OA) - Roger Reuse, Camaro: 1.36.916
. 1st GT2 (6th OA) - Mike Attaway, Malibu: 1.42.178
. 3rd GTA (7th OA) - Steve Magowen, Camaro: 1.42.387
. 2nd GT2 (11th OA) - Jim Matheson, Monte Carlo: 1.47.295
. DNS T1 - Chip Bozeman, Mustang: broken exhaust

See y'all at the track...

[Allan K]

Andy,
When you get a moment, can you call me at 678 491 5528?   Have great photo's but due to the size allowed to post, it's a challenge for even 1 photo.   Appreciate your assistance.  Allan

[millstreet]

Allen's pictures;


ASR (and Overall) winner, Jacek Mucha


GT2 winner, Mike Attaway


Sat GTA winner (by 4"), Bobby Reuse


Potential T1 member, Rob Leopard


Roger & Bobby Reuse discussing whether or not they're really related? 


Potential GT2 member, Barry Bell


Sat T1 winner, Chip Bozeman


Charter OFC Members, Mike Attaway & Steve Magowen


Bobby Reuse


Jim Matheson


Steve Magowen


Roger Reuse


Sun GTA winner, Roger Reuse

Andy

[Butch Kummer]

Added captions to Andy's posting of Allan's photos...

[millstreet]

Allen's action photos;


Coming to the green for Saturday's race


Action at the "Spider" hairpin (there's a huge spider sculpture overlooking the corner)


Bobby Reuse exiting the Spider hairpin


Bobby leading Roger early on Saturday (the finish was MUCH closer!)

Andy