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2023 Tribute to Le Mans

Bringing the Heat

It’s become quite the running joke about Joe Wiederholt, our Motorsports Director, bringing a heat wave to the track, but it happened again with a nearly 30 degree increase over the prior weekend at Willow Springs, making it seem more like some August weekend at ACS than Oktoberfest at Willow! By Friday afternoon, the temps were pushing mid-90s as a sign of things to come for the weekend. It wouldn’t be so hot though, that track records weren’t challenged or broken, but more about that later... However, a combination of heat, hard racing, and perhaps not enough cure time on the new surface created a few worsening rough patches on the track throughout the weekend. Some people had issues with the bumps into Turn 1, but generally, the rough patches at the turn in for Turn 3 and on the entry line for Turn 5 seemed more problematic and appeared to worsen a bit with each session.

Saturday Cup Races

This being Tribute to Le Mans weekend, the Orange and Red Cup Races were held earlier in the day, but that meant the Tribute itself would get the green flag pretty much at peak hea t. Shortly after the drivers’ meeting we were treated to Dwain Dement taking off into the infield with Beck on his cart to chase away a pack of wild dogs. Fortunately, the dogs cooperated and left us to our fun without any delay. On to the race action...

In the Red Cup qualifying, Duane Selby set a new GT3 class track record with a blazing lap of 1:21.789! Mike Monsalve took the overall win as well as the top step of GT1 by 0.904s ahead of Eric Olberz who set the fast lap of the race at 1:19.501. Jimmy Lorimer took third place in GT1.

Razvan Sporea won GT2 followed by Travis McElvaney and Tom Mueller. The growing GT3 class, no w just second in number behind the massive BSR class, was typically competitive with battles across the field of ten. Eban Benade nipped Duane Selby for the win with Brett Gaviglio taking third. Darin Moore won the battle of the Club Sports at seventh in class. In GT4, Jim Salzer took the win with Jim Steadman in second and me, Chet Kolley, in third.

In the Orange Cup Race, the incredibly competitive BSR class did not disappoint once again. The top two of Mark Polunin and Chris MacDuff took the checker just as they qualified with Ry an Moore taking the third spot on the podium. Riley Giacomazzi moved up an incredible 16 places to just miss the podium in fourth. At the finish there were 18 BSR’s still on the lead lap. What a class! Aspasia Zouras took the win in GT5 followed by Don Kravig and Neal Rouzier. Ted Frech took the checker in GT7 followed

Photos: Luis Vivar

Tribute to Le Mans

By the time cars were gridding up for the start of the Tribute to Le Mans, the air temperature was in the low 90s. Nine teams and three ‘iron men’ were entered in this year’s endurance classic. Teams of three drivers who are driving their own cars compete over 2.5 hours in a handicapped race in which teams are assessed a hold time depending upon the class of the cars in the team. The higher the class, the longer the hold time between stints.

This Tribute race was interesting and fun to watch as the low handicap team of Alex and Paul FIlsinger and Chris MacDuff (Filsinger/Filsinger/MacDuff) had the lead for a

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good part of the race with high handicap teams of John Momeyer, Chris Walsh, and Duane Selby (Momeyer/Walsh/Selby) and Dwain Dement, Jim Salzer, and Eben Benade (Dement/Salzer/Benade) chasing. As the clock ticked down, the drama increased as the handicap system brought the top several teams into tight competition. An interesting twist was that Jim Salzer’s car suffered from a leak in its PDK cooler tha t caused him to retire early, which forced Eben Benade to start the team’s final stint early. Jim got flagged for fluid coming from his car. He radioed to the crew who verified that something was leaking. When a BSR trailing Jim into Turn 1 almost lost it in the slippery surface, Jim had to come in. He couldn’t have stayed out much longer due to rapidly elevating temps.

So Eben went out early, and he was able to chase down Chris MacDuff and take first for Dement/Salzer/Benade with a little over a third of the race left. But would he have enough fuel to finish, and what about the handicap now that Eben in a GT3 car was effectively taking Jim’s GT4 place? And could Duane Selby catch up with him before he also ran low on fuel or simply ran out of time?

As the laps clicked by Eban slowed down to conserve fuel, since a stop would put them out of the race for the win and possibly off the podium. Duane was catching Eban, but at some point, he too had to conserve fuel. At the timed end of the race, Eban was just over a half a lap ahead of Duane, but a correction to the hold time due to Eban’s extended stint put Duane ahead by 36 seconds! Everyone seemed comfortable with a fair decision that was within the spirit of the rules and sportsmanship of our Club. What an exciting finish to another great Tribute. The final results were Momeyer/Walsh/Selby in first, Dement/Salzer/Benade in second, and Filsinger/Filsinger/MacDuff in third.

Another part of Tribute story is the ‘ironmen’ who drive the Tribute solo. This year we had 3 racers take this unique challenge with Andrew Weyman coming out on top. This was Andrew’s sixth Tribute with two prior podium finishes. This year he ‘just decided to try it’ solo. His primary preparation was mental – envisioning himself taking the checker, and not giving up until that happened. The solo drivers are required to take a pit stop and to fuel. He also needed to bleed some air from his tires to reduce the pressure. The fueling took longer than the required hold time, and that was Andrew’s only stop. The only hitch along the way was that the mouthpiece came disconnected from his drink tube during the race, and for a few laps until he was able to gather it up, the disconnected tube would spray water + electrolytes all over him and the car whenever he broke hard or turned. All in all, a hugely rewarding experience as he completed that drive to the checker that he had visualized!

Photos: Luis Vivar

2023 Tribute to Le Mans

Sunday Cup Races

Sunday brought a bunch of happy but tired faces to the grid. The Tribute was a blast, but that on top of the normal races took a lot out of cars and people, and an extended party into Saturday night at Dwain’s place and then the paddock put the finishing touches on long, hard, fabulous day.

Loren Beggs took the overall win in the Red Cup Race in his fabulous 992 as well as the GT1 top step and the fastest race lap of the weekend at 1:19.326. Loren started on pole alongside Mike Monsalve, who took the lead on the first lap and held it thru three laps. Loren got past Mike on the fourth lap and held the lead for the duration. Mike finished second and Eric Olberz took the third spot. All three turned times ~1:20 throughout the race. Razvan Sporea had a repeat win in GT2 with Travis McElvany second and John Heldman in third. The GT4 guys had quite a competitive race; they were close throughout the race while mixing with GT2 and GT3 cars and finished within 2.177s first to third with Jim Salzer taking another win followed by Jim Steadman and Chet Kolley. Jim and Chet passed each other 3 times on the last two hard fought laps

Once again, the Orange Cup Race was a hard-fought battle with 13 cars on the lead lap at the checker and the top 3 separated by 3 seconds. As on Saturday, Mark Polunin took the top step on the podium with Ryan Moore and Chris MacDuff s witching places with Ryan second and Chris third, who also had fastest lap at 1:33.308. GT5 was a repeat of Saturday with Aspasia Zouras, Don Kravig, and Neal Rouzier finishing first thru third respectively. In GT7, Ted Frech took the win followed by Rand y Bergum in second and Glenwood Gum in third.

Looking forward to our next race in the desert of Chuckwalla Valley. I wonder what the weather will bring...

Photos: Luis Vivar