First, thanks to HMSA as the host club. Chris, Dave and the entire crew managed to deal with our rocky start during morning warm up and a black flag on lap one of Qualifying. Things settled down for Race #1. We saw Danny Baker in his green Lotus 61 take his familiar place on pole at a 1:37.956. Mark Smith in his Titan turned a 1:39.155 and Greg Hoff in his Titan turned a 1:39.479. Oliver Abate in his March 729 pulled a 1:39.670 for his best ever qualifying position. The first Club Ford on the grid was another familiar face Kelly Heil at 1:39.703 with Brian Swanson at 1:40.246 and John Plavan rounding out the Club Ford qualifiers with a 1:40.414.
Sunday morning Race #1 kicked off the season with a controlled and clean start. Thank you to the front row. Pole sitter Danny Baker brought it home in P1 setting a fastest lap of 1:36.421. Danny took the checkered flag 20 seconds in front of the next car, Kelly Heil who landed the top step of the Club Ford podium. Mark Smith was second in Historic Ford. Rounding out Historic Ford was Oliver Abate making his first appearance on the podium. The Club Ford podium saw Brian Swanson in 2nd and John Plavan in 3rd. The Masters podium was Gregg Hoff, Alex Dodd and Dan Wise taking home the wine. Top Gun qualifier stickers went to Danny Baker, for both Pole Position and the Overall Win, with Paul Kitchen qualifying as the Hard Charger award.
Race #1 - Historic Ford Podium: DannyBaker (P1), Mark Smith (P2), Oliver Abate (P3)
Race #1 - Club Ford Podium: Kelly Heil (P1), Brian Swanson (P2), John Plan (P3)
Race #1 - Masters Podium: Gregg Hoff (P1), Alex Dodd (P2), Dan Wise (P3)
The Sunday afternoon race was a little confused before it even started. We had asked the organizers to grid us based on lap time from the morning race as if it was a qualifying rather than gridding in finishing order. Unfortunately that request hadn’t trickled down to the overworked grid marshal but thanks to the quick thinking and hard work of Brent Katshua and his crew we got it mostly straightened out. The start of race two was not as smooth as race one. There was minor car contact just past the bridge. Spinning cars and tire smoke caused the pack to scatter and one car came to rest in the tire wall on the outside of turn one. Black flag again. Once again, we need to emphasize the importance of safety on starts. The race results were very similar to the morning race with Danny Baker 10 seconds in front of top Club Ford finisher Kelly Heil. Mark Smith again on the second step of the Historic podium with Jamie More in 3rd. Brian Swanson again was second in Club Ford followed Skip Streets, making his return to the Crossflow Cup. The Master podium stayed the same with Greg Hoff on the top step, Alex Dodd in 2nd and Mike Wirrick rounding it off. Top gun saw Danny Baker with Pole and the win. The Hard Charger was a 7 way tie of drivers with a 4 place improvement. Jamie More was the first across the line so he qualifies for the Top Gun shoot out.
Race #2 Historic Ford Podium: Danny Baker (P1), Mark Smith (P2), Jamie Moore (P3)
Race #2 Club Ford Podium: Kelly Heil (P1), Brian Swanson (P2), Skip Streets (P3)
Race #2 Masters Podium: Gregg Hoff (P1), Alex Dodd (P2), Dan Wise (P3)
Our Race #2 winners were treated to bottles of 2017 Twisting Turns Cabernet Sauvignon, with the Crossflow Cup logo, donated by the Kitchen family. We are lucky to have this very limited bottling for our 2025 race awards. Check out www.sonomaviewvineyard.com for more info on the wine. Once again, Brian Forster has graciously donated the winner’s medallions.
The weather was great. We got to bench race and catch up Saturday at the social hour. Thanks to Brent Katusha for letting us invade your space. We had 6 new drivers running with us this weekend. It was Chris Cook’s very first race ever and he brought it home in 19th overall on Sunday afternoon. Congratulations Chris! It is always great to welcome new competitors into our series. I do hope our rough start to the weekend won’t scare them away.
The Big Raffle
We have a great group of generous sponsors that donated to our raffle. Every driver had their name in the hat. With the support of Kelly Heil’s young crew member, the raffle went off without a hitch.
Our Lucky winners were:
Steve Jeffords Old School Gasket set
Micheal McDermott Scott Young Enterprises
Fred Greis Jay Ivey Engines
Eric Jones Dezzani Digital Art
Mark Keller Krauss Racing
Skip Streets Roger Kraus Racing
We were excited to announce not just one, but two Entry Fee Rebates for our Grand Prize. Reaching behind his back, the aforementioned future racer picked father and son winners, Ed Abate and Oliver Abate. Ed’s smile lit up the paddock.
| Race #1 - HF Results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position in Class | Position Overall | Driver | Additional Points | Total Points |
| 1 | 1 | Danny Baker | Green Flag & Pole Position | 17 |
| 2 | 3 | Mark Smith | Green Flag | 15 |
| 3 | 4 | Oliver Abate | Green Flag | 14 |
| 4 | 6 | Greg Hoff | Green Flag | 13 |
| 5 | 7 | Tim Monahan | Green Flag | 12 |
| 6 | 8 | Jamie Moore | Green Flag | 11 |
| 7 | 10 | Alex Dodd | Green Flag | 10 |
| 8 | 11 | Brian Forster | Green Flag | 9 |
| 9 | 12 | Steve Jeffords | Green Flag | 8 |
| 10 | 14 | Jay Streets | Green Flag | 7 |
| 11 | 15 | Paul Kitchen | Green Flag & Hard Charger | 7 |
| 12 | 16 | Ben Zlotkin | Green Flag | 5 |
| 13 | 18 | Jack Wilson | Green Flag | 4 |
| 14 | 19 | Eric Jones | Green Flag | 3 |
| 15 | 20 | Mike Wirrick | Green Flag | 2 |
| 16 | 21 | Frederick Greis | Green Flag | 1 |
| 17 | 26 | Robert Kozinski | Green Flag | 1 |
| 18 | 27 | David Sandlin | Green Flag | 1 |
| Race #1 - CF Results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position in Class | Position Overall | Driver | Additional Points | Total Points |
| 1 | 2 | Kelly Heil | Green Flag | 16 |
| 2 | 5 | Brian Swanson | Green Flag | 15 |
| 3 | 9 | John Jr. Plavan | Green Flag | 14 |
| 4 | 13 | Skip Streets | Green Flag | 13 |
| 5 | 17 | Dan Wise | Green Flag | 12 |
| 6 | 22 | Ed Abate | Green Flag | 11 |
| 7 | 23 | Mark Keller | Green Flag | 10 |
| 8 | 24 | Christopher Cook | Green Flag | 9 |
| 9 | 25 | Alan Dezzani | Green Flag | 8 |
| Race #2 - HF Results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position in Class | Position Overall | Driver | Additional Points | Total Points |
| 1 | 1 | Danny Baker | Green Flag & Pole Position | 17 |
| 2 | 3 | Mark Smith | Green Flag | 15 |
| 3 | 4 | Jamie Moore | Green Flag & Hard Charger | 15 |
| 4 | 6 | Greg Hoff | Green Flag | 13 |
| 5 | 7 | Tim Monahan | Green Flag | 12 |
| 6 | 8 | Oliver Abate | Green Flag | 11 |
| 7 | 10 | Jay Streets | Green Flag | 10 |
| 8 | 11 | Brian Forster | Green Flag | 9 |
| 9 | 12 | Alex Dodd | Green Flag | 8 |
| 10 | 13 | Steve Jeffords | Green Flag | 7 |
| 11 | 14 | Eric Jones | Green Flag | 6 |
| 12 | 15 | Jack Wilson | Green Flag | 5 |
| 13 | 16 | Mike Wirrick | Green Flag | 4 |
| 14 | 20 | Frederick Greis | Green Flag | 3 |
| 15 | 23 | Robert Kozinski | Green Flag | 2 |
| 16 | 24 | David Sandlin | Green Flag | 1 |
| 17 | 25 | Ben Zlotkin | Green Flag | 1 |
| 18 | 27 | Paul Kitchen | Green Flag | 1 |
| Race #2 - CF Results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position in Class | Position Overall | Driver | Additional Points | Total Points |
| 1 | 2 | Kelly Heil | Green Flag | 16 |
| 2 | 5 | Brian Swanson | Green Flag | 15 |
| 3 | 9 | Skip Streets | Green Flag | 14 |
| 4 | 17 | Dan Wise | Green Flag | 13 |
| 5 | 18 | Christopher Cook | Green Flag | 12 |
| 6 | 19 | Mark Keller | Green Flag | 11 |
| 7 | 21 | Ed Abate | Green Flag | 10 |
| 8 | 22 | Alan Dezzani | Green Flag | 9 |
| 9 | 26 | John Jr. Plavan | Green Flag | 8 |