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The Livonianappolis 500

May 24, 2008

A Race Report





So how did you spend your Memorial Day Weekend? A few hamburgers or
hot dogs, maybe an adult beverage or two, perhaps your local pool
opened this past weekend or you just worked on the lawn ….

….. Well a few of us "Slot-Heads" spent it in a more traditional
way by driving in a 500 mile Indy race. That's right, we open
wheeled it through some high banks and down the front stretch
fighting for every inch against our competitors in these open
cockpit roadsters, of course our rides were a bit smaller than the
ones many of you watched on Sunday afternoon.

I had first heard about the Livonianappolis 500 while attending
MOPAR Mountain's vintage NASCAR race last Labor Day. A young man
named Austin Lesterhuis from upstate New York had mentioned that he
and his father Jan hosted a vintage Tjet race of their own every
Memorial Day only they ran Indy cars, needless to say he had my
attention.

Although I had put the event somewhere in the dark corners of my
somewhat Miller Lite soaked brain, it was a posting a few months
back by Austin on the VHORS group that brought it off the shelf.
Soon there was another post with a few rules clarifications that
thanked fellow racer Roger Corrie for his help and the race became
a "had to be there" event for me. Roger is not only the one who
reintroduced me, through his Mail-In races, to the Indy class but
also his castings of the classic vintage roadsters made it one of my
favorites.

Upon arriving in the foothills of New York I met up with Roger at
the hotel, he had offered to split a room which would not only help
offset the high gas prices the traveling HO racer must pay to
satisfy his need for speed, but I also had a great opportunity to
pick the Guru's head about these finicky toys of yesterday. To say
that Mr. Corrie was pumped about this race would be the
understatement of the year, he had his castings spread from one end
of the room to the other accompanied by his Dyno, which was set-up
on the desk and books that showed every Indy roadster from the
1950's and 60's along with sheets he put together with the top three
finishers from the glory years of Indy and decals from all his
sources to match them … get the picture! It was like I was rooming
with A.J. Foyt.

I listened intently as Roger went threw page after page, matched
the decals to the photo, then to the body or how he could adapt the
body he had already cast to another which may have a subtle change
or two almost exactly the same way the 1:1 mechanics did it back in
the day as they looked for one aero advantage or another.

We arrived at the Livonian Super Speedway about 4:00pm and after
Jan and his son Austin took us on a tour of their impressive
collection of Slot cars, Hot Wheels and Matchbox which included many
of my favorites and a factory painted black Aurora Mustang that
Austin took extreme pride pointing out, we went to work.

Roger and I had probably 10 chassis between us and as we put them
on the track, one after one they would "crawl" around at a most
disappointing and need I say embarrassing speed. Work, would be a
weak word for what we would go through for the next 6-½ hours. Pick-
up's tweaked and re-tweaked, on and off, then a flurry of tire
changes, spring adjustments, brush tensions were changed, then
changed back … "what worked for you, OK, I'll try that, Let's see if
this works, Damn, let's change that back then try …. Again you get
the picture.

It was 10:30pm before it all came together and everyone of the
racers who were in attendance from out of town went through the same
to one degree or another. Only one traveler unloaded fast and
that was Matt Patrick from Maine, he placed his bright red STP Lotus
on the track, ran a 3.5 and placed it back in the box, not funny
Matt, not funny at all. We had worked all day and evening to hit
that mark. After some of Jan's Home-Made Chili it was
back to the hotel for some well needed shut-eye, both Roger and
myself were brain dead by this point and what we had we felt good
enough about, but …

.. The next morning that would change. We arrived about 8:15am and
the New England racers were already there. Jim Hoar and Bruce Gordon
had made some improvement in their times but were still working
feverishly trying to get to the much needed 3.5. I took my car out
of the box, ran a 3.5, then a 3.4 and against my normal mode of
operation where I mind screw the set-up enough to make my car
slower, I put it up until qualifying. Roger continued to work on his
cars until he finally got one down to the 3.4 mark and like me he
felt that was as good as it's going to get. Then, let me say that
again, THEN, in walked the locals !

Dave Failing put his car on the track and ran a 3.4 .. 3.4 … 3.3 …
3.3 .. 3.2, then Austin who matched him a few times as did Jamison
Helt who followed Austin.

"Oh Crap !! and Oh Well", it was time for qualifying and all we
could hope for now is that they couldn't keep them in the slot for
the lengthy 32-minute race which could take it's toll on a racer who
lost concentration.

One after one we qualified and much like Indy, we took a warm up
lap then took our best lap of the following three using that effort
to set the field. We were to run a round-robin with the slowest
rotating in first and continuing through the pole sitter.

After we had all qualified, one thing was certain, the field would
be tight and competitive. All of us were in the 3.7 to 3.5 range
with Dave Failing taking the poll, followed by Jamison Helt, Matt
Patrick and Austin Lesterhuis. After watching practice hour after
hour I believe any of us could have picked the exact order of the
top 4 as they had the strong motors all morning, but could they keep
it together in the race.

When the green flag dropped John Manzek, Bruce Gordon, Jim Hoar and
Jan Lesterhuis went toe to toe for the 8 minutes each heat would
provide and it didn't take long to see what may have been the
Achilles' heel for many today, the dreaded tire/wheel separation.
First to feel the pain was Jim Hoar who despite a car that he could
get down to the 3.5 range with, it took all the driving skill he had
to keep it there and the constant battle between chassis and driver
finally took it's toll as his right rear tire rolled down the back
stretch 6 feet in front of his Indy racer, Jim was quickly down 2
laps and Bruce had laid down the gauntlet with 119 laps in the first
heat.

Next in was Dave Howarth in his sharp commemorative Livonianappolis
racer and despite the same fate as Jim he ran a 121 and he was
flying. Up next Doyle Racing and after my nerves calmed I got into a
grove and ran a 129. The following heats would take it toll on Dave
as he lost tire after tire until he finally pulled the Acme Bullet
behind the wall and re-sealed the bead on those Penn Valleys with
the help of some super glue, but the damage was done and what may
have been the fastest driver of the day was reduced to just trying
to make a good run.

Roger Corrie, who had rotated in after me had a quick ride but also
had a tire issue which forced him to push an already edgy car
leading to a few wall encounters. When running, especially on clean
rubber, this was another car that could have placed on the podium
but in a race where any mistake, no matter how small could put you
down a half a lap, Roger's proved too costly and he would end up 5th
at the checkered flag.

After Roger, the fast four began their runs and first in was Austin
who set the high of the day with 135 in his first heat. After Austin
came Matt Patrick, then Jamison Helt and Dave Failing. The tempo of
the race was now blistering and the accidents began to happen. Hard
encounters with the wall took Jamison out of contention. Wheel to
wheel between Austin and Dave caused one or both to tumble down the
back stretch more than once and in the middle of it was Matt Patrick
who was just trying to score laps and was beginning to see his cars
speed begin the wane. I will say there was no shortage of corner
marshals as everyone loves to see these cars come out or into the
corners and back out again.

Despite Dave Failing having lap totals 130 or above on three of his
heats, Austin would match his totals or surpass them. Both racers
got a "freebie" or two as the lap counter had final call in this
race. If another car crossed over in another lane, that's just the
way it was, but even with those unearned laps taken into account,
Austin Lesterhuis was still the Champion of the 2008 Livonianappolis
by less than 5 feet after 32 minutes of competition … What a Race"

The Tower scored the final field at:

Driver Laps

Austin Lesterhuis 528.8

Dave Failing 526.6

Matt Patrick 511.8

Bill Kurtz 506.6

Roger Corrie 487.6

Bruce Gordon 487.2

Dave Howarth 482.3

John Manzek 479.1

Jim Hoar 477.3

Jan Lesterhuis 476.1

Jamison Helt 471.3



I would like to Thank the Lesterhuis household for hosting what
just maybe the most enjoyable race I have ever attended. It was a
great day of competition with racers who put fun in front on all
else and represented the Hobby as it should be.

We will return to Livonia next Spring and the local slotters are
here-by put on notice … "2009 will be a whole new page" at the
Livonia Super Speedway !
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