Laps for Laguna, Rounds 5 & 6
The back half of the season began early last month as Crossflow Cup racers from all up and down the West Coast funneled into the paddock. Two cars short of 40 were set to take the track, and after a 6 week break the racers were itching to get back in the fight. We had a handful of folks making their debut appearances as well. Jamie Moore was out for his first Crossflow run in Martin Lauber's Titan, Matt Kelly brought out his beautiful and freshly restored LeGrand, John Acampora brought his Crossle 16 to the fight, Edd Ozard was debuting the new-to-him but ex-Jim Lynn Crossle 35, Bob Kozinski was making a second attempt at a first weekend in his lovely green Hawke, and Ed Abate (while technically not a Crossflow rookie) graced the field with his sinister black ADF.
Qualifying 1:
As per usual, our racers were lined up early for pregrid as the field of 38 strong sat waiting the 1 minute board under beautiful sunny skies. The traditional full course yellow out lap kept them bunched together and when the green waved, the guys got to work.
Our resident lap record holder and Club Ford points leader Adam White struck first, taking overall pole on only his second lap with a 1:35.539. Danny Baker ended up slotting in P2 overall and Historic Ford pole and, foreshadowing the rest of the weekend Oliver Ramleth and Mark Smith were right behind him. Baker had handling woes surprise him as he ripped around on his 4th circuit of the 2.238 mile rollercoaster, causing him to park his venerable Lotus 61 a few minutes before the close of the session. James Hakewill showed he was coming to grips with his new Titan quickly with a 9th place quali effort (5th in HF), and Jamie Moore showed he wasn't just there to toe the water with a strong 12th place starting spot (6th in HF). Our great new friend from the great white north, Glenn Woloski had a solid quali session, laying down his best lap on lap 5 to line up on the outside of row 9, and our lone Caldwell supporter Tom Blackmon continued to improve with a 1:47.7 to put him on the 15th row, starting in 30th.
Race 1:
Excitement in the in-between time, the gang at Competition Touring Cars diagnosed Baker's handling issue to be a cracked suspension pickup point. Fortunately (perhaps a sign from the heavens), Andrew Wait's Titan was waiting in the paddock. Apparently our 2023 HF point champ wanted to keep folks worried that he MIGHT just show up to surprise us all. A clever ruse perhaps, but one that was to benefit one D. Baker. Phone calls were made, a deal was struck. And when all was said and done, Danny was not just going to be wearing Andrew's helmet this weekend. He would however, be giving up his front row starting spot, moving young Oliver Ramleth up to row one for the first time in his Crossflow career.
The first of two really nice starts of the weekend sent the pack over the hill 4 wide and into turn 2. A spot of excitement on the opening lap that saw John Plavan's Crossle spinning split the grid into "those that went the right way, and those that didn't." Tom Minnich was one of the unfortunate ones who "didn't" and the close of lap one found him back 6 spots from where he started, with much hay to be made. Slugging it out with Mace Gjerman and Marty Benck, Tom managed to get back a couple of his lost spots by the checker.
Up front, Adam White was attempting to break free from the brawl. But Kelly Heil showed dogged determination in hanging on, and managed to take the point for two of the 11 laps. Just past half distance, and back in front, White was able to put his head down to pull out a 3 second gap with a quartet of 1:36 laps. Heil showed some pace though and the weekend looked to have promise. In the end, White was unassailed in his 4th victory of the season, with Heil and Ramleth behind him. Ramleth's 3rd place overall was HF class honors (his first Crossflow Cup win!), trailed by Mark Smith who was struggling with a surprising and sudden lack of pace when he needed it most. Hakewill showed his qualifying run was no fluke, and brought his Titan home 6th overall (4th in HF), and Oliver Abate (a leading contender for this years Rookie of the Year honors) continued to turn heads this year, with another really strong run to finish in the top 10 (6th in HF). Ed, the more senior member of Team Abate, brought his ADF home in 30th spot (14th in CF).
Edd Ozard, struggling with a misfire that forced him to qualify further back than he would have normally been, moved forward in wholesale fashion and ended up in the 22nd spot. But the Racer's Safety Source Hard Charger was none other than Danny Baker, who gained a monster 26 spots on his run to 12th place (7th in HF). Danny qualified himself for the Top Gun Shootout with this run and if last year's Shootout is anything to judge, the other competitors should hope he draws a back grid position to start!
Top Left : Saturday Masters Podium - Neil Porter P1, Tom Minnich P2, Marty Benck P3
Top Mid Left: Hard Charger and Top Gun Qualifier, Danny Baker!
Top Mid Right: HF Podium - Oliver Ramleth P1, Mark Smith P2, Greg Hoff P3
Top Right: Adam White P1, Kelly Heil P2, Brian Forster P3
Qualifying 2:
Sunday morning dawned cool and wet, the possibility of a damp session was looking very likely as car covers came off. However as nervous as the wagging tongues in the paddock were, it was all for naught as the track dried out just in time for cars to roll out. John Fosse spent a few hours digging into Mark Smith's lack of pace in Saturday's race, and found the secondary in the carb was only halfway opening so their hopes were renewed for a good qualifying session.
Although the track had a dry line, the track continued to improve as the session went on, culminating with Adam White laying down a heater of a 1:35.1 on lap 7 to take overall pole by a massive 2 second margin over 2nd place CF Kelly Heil. But the real battle was looking like it was going to be for the top spot in Historic Ford, as the Titian Titan Trio (that's three reddish Titan's for those of you without a thesaurus next to you on the couch) of Danny Baker, Mark Smith and Oliver Ramleth qualified right on top of one another, with 4th place HF qualifier James Hakewill (in a fourth shade-of-red Titan) lining up behind 3rd place CF qualifier John Plavan in 6th. Oli Abate had a fantastic session with a career best 8th overall (6th in HF) to line him up outside row 4 in his one-of-four March 729. John Ostlund was coming to grips with his Crossle will roll off inside row 8, one spot ahead of Neil Porter. Ben Zlotkin was steadily improving in his Merlyn with a 21st spot (10th in HF) Fred Greis has contiued his march forward on the grid with a 29th starting spot, and Alex Dodd would roll off on the 11th row (11th in HF too!)
Race 2:
The pace car held the field tightly together as they left the grid, and this resulted in one of the best starts in Crossflow Cup history. Laguna Seca is difficult place to achieve good quality starts, because the nature of the last corner being so slow and tight means that a natural accordion happens as any grid runs two-by-two through it. So it is a rare thing indeed when over 14 of the 19 rows of cars are lined up like little soldiers for the starter to turn them loose. And loose they were turned.
Kelly Heil jumped out to an early lead, putting his orange Lola on the point as the pack moved into the Andretti Hairpin at the start of lap 1, and tried his level best to make hay while the sun was shining. Eeking out a lead is a tall order these days in Crossflow though, and he relinquished the point to Adam White midway through lap 2, and White set sail. The Jellyman had settled into second, but on lap 6 he had an innocuous spin up in the corkscrew, which left him stranded on the kerbing and brought out the familiar full course yellows.
At the restart, Oliver Ramleth got the jump and moved into the overall lead for a beat, hoping to distance the fellow Titan team from himself, but it was not to be. White resumed his lead and set fastest race lap in the process. Neil Porter was on the move forward though and didn't need a FCY to help his cause, gaining 8 of his eventual 10 spots in the first 6 laps before the yellow. Ben Zlotkin and Glenn Woloski also moved forward throughout the fight, picking up 6 and 5 spots respectively. Oliver Abate was proving he belonged inside the top 10, comfortably running the whole race distance there, until a booboo on the last lap dropped him back to the 16th spot (7th in class). And in a rough case of like father like son, Ed dropped 10 spots with an off course excursion in turn 10 on the last lap, ending what was an otherwise very strong first weekend for his resurrected ADF. Paul Kitchen also had an eventful race, falling from inside the top 15 to 35th, before hustling back to 26th overall at the flag (15th in HF).
The battle that had everyone on the edge of their seat though, involved the aforementioned gaggle of red Titans. Looking more like a World of Outlaws battle at Eldora than a FF race, the trio of Ramleth, Smith, and Baker showed what frontline Crossflow Cup racing was all about. Hammer and tongs from the drop of the green, and at the finish, a scant 12 hundredths of a second covered ALL THREE CARS. Well done gentlemen!
Tom Minnich came home 10th overall (5th in CF and 1st in Masters), Fred Greis had a stellar run to 20th (11th in HF), Alex Dodd finished his first Crossflow weekend of 2024 with a fine 21st (12th in HF), and the Racer's Safety Source Hard Charger was Rob Thull. Taking his Crossle 11 spots forward to end up in the 24th spot at the close of the battle (10th in CF), Rob had a really strong run. Congrats Rob!
Top Left: Sunday Masters Podium: Tom Minnich P1, Mace Gjerman P2, Marty Benck (Seth) P3
Top Mid Left: Sunday HF Podium: Oliver Ramleth P1, Danny Baker P2, Mark Smith P3
Top Mid Right: Sunday CF Podium: Adam White P1, John Plavan Jr P2, Neil Porter P3
Top Right: Prize Table!
Elkhart Lake Info
We are a couple weeks out from the Weathertech International Challenge at Road America. For those of you going, I promised I'd share gear ratios to get you started. This is for a 9:31 ring and pinion:
1st: 19/32
2nd: 21/29
3rd: 24/28
4th: 25/26 (or 26/26 if your car is good in a straight line)
If you have never been, Road America is not like any circuit on the west coast. A "good" lap is going to take around 2 and a half minutes. So with a warm up lap taking 3+ minutes, that means most sessions you might only get 5 laps for a whole qualifying session. Races are usually 8-10 laps. That is not a lot of bites at the apple. Make notes, pay attention to your surroundings, and do some exploring in between your sessions. You might learn as much from standing on the inside of the carousel for one session of spectating that you might get all weekend of driving though it. The place is massive, and you cannot understand it until you get to know the landscape.
Other Items of Interest:
-Wisconsin is in the midst of a very wet summer, so be prepared for rain at some point in the week! Possibly the whole weekend.
-Make sure you have something solid to strap your canopy down to.
-If you make it into the area on Monday night (July 8), head over to Laack's Hall in Johnsonville for the Pretzel Bender at midnight
-Plan on going into Elkhart on Friday night for the racecar parade and car show! While you are there, have a beer (or several) at the world famous Siebkins Tavern
-At some point in the weekend, drive the old circuit in your street car. Info HERE
-Make sure to have an Egger one morning from the Gear Box (the North end of the paddock)
-Antoinette's in Turn 3 (by the Corvette Corral) has excellent broasted chicken (a Wisconsin specialty)
-A double brat and cheese curds at some point in the weekend (possibly several throughout the weekend) is key to a memorable weekend
-The full list of all the track concessions are HERE. Done properly, a race weekend at Road America requires removing ballast as the weekend goes along.
Off Track Dining Establishments:
-PJ's at The Depot in Plymouth (the spaetzle here is killer)
-Lake Street Cafe in Elkhart (great wood fired pizza)
-Off the Rail for a great cup of joe and breakfast sandwich in the morning (great pastries too!)
-Schwarz's Supper Club in St. Anna/New Holstein (a Wisconsin Supper Club is a thing of joy and beauty. Order extra cheese curds)
-Gessert's Ice Cream for your sweet tooth (fantastic ice cream and sweets of all sorts)
Top Gun Shootout Qualifiers to this point in the season:
Kelly Heil
Glenn Woloski
Adam White
Mitch Roth
Mark Smith
Caleb Hamm
Danny Baker
Rob Thull