It was a wet weekend as it usually is in May in Topeka Kansas; but that didn’t stop the wonderful race weekend put on by the Kansas City Region SCCA. Dad (Ron) decided not to compete in the Regional race on Saturday, so I got in the driver’s seat during practice to brush up on my racing line for a track configuration I had not run in over a year.

Saturday went well with minor adjustments being made to prepare for the race on Sunday. Before cashing it in for the night, we all watched the weather hoping for good news for Sunday’s race. It came! The weatherman predicted that it would be partly cloudy, but that it was not expected to rain until Sunday evening. Great news eh? Well the weatherman was surprisingly wrong again! The rain came just seven hours later in the form of cats and dogs. It rained from five o’clock to ten thirty in the morning straight. Needless to say, morning qualifying did not go as planned.

A driver’s meeting was held at ten o’clock to discuss the situation. It was decided that the race would go on, but not without some stipulations. First, the back section of the track was going to be cut off due to water which meant that instead of going through turns six through eight, you would bypass that section and go straight to 7A which connects back with the track after turn eight headed toward the chicane. Then, the qualifying sessions were going to be cut to fifteen minutes and races to ten laps. More than a few teams packed up and left the track.

The rain was subsiding but the track was still very wet and the temperature had dropped into the low 50's. Only one Atlantic and a handful of Continentals and S2's decided to go out for qualifying, so we would start at the back of the pack with the rest of the non-qualifiers. As the day went on, the wind picked up, helping to dry the track but leaving puddles and water streaming across many areas around the course. As we took the front straight-away on the pace lap, before the green flag could fly, one car spun into the wall on the very slick pavement (rubber from dragsters and water don't mix). Two laps were run under yellow to clear the debris which meant it was going to be an eight-lap sprint to the finish.

What excitement! With three Atlantics starting at the very back, you can imagine what turn one looked like. All three barreled into the turn, already in the forth through sixth positions, in hot pursuit of the other Atlantic that had taken the pole. I was positioned directly behind Jim Wright going into turn 7A when he was held up by a slower vehicle just enough that I could make the pass coming out and going into the chicane. As I came out of the chicane, I found myself facing a small puddle of water; but it was too late. The car spun immediately when my left rear tire (the loaded one for that corner) hit the water. I did a complete 360, and watched Jim Wright in my mirrors the whole time! He did a great job of avoiding me, and I continued immediately losing only about ten seconds.

The rest is history really. Seven laps just weren’t enough to catch up to the great battle going on up front with the other Atlantics. I was gaining fast, but not fast enough. The battle ended with David VandeBerg winning with Bernie Sunier right on his tail. Jim Wright was just a second or two behind them, and I finished about five seconds behind Jim. It was some consolation to capture the fastest lap time of 1:27.06. Jim was second fastest at 1:28.30 and Bernie a 1:29.39. It was a lot of fun; it’s just too bad it had to be so short. My thanks to the volunteers of the race as it was their decision to go racing and we all had fun because of it. See you at the next event!