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Four in a Row for Troy
By Gerald Laurie (from SRL)

A very large and appreciative crowd watched Troy Regier win his fourth Supermodified Racing League feature in a row Saturday Night at El Cajon Speedway in Southern California. This was Regier's twelfth SRL win of the season with one race left in the 18 event schedule. Although the car count was down from the last several shows, The locals enjoyed the fast company presented by the 10 Supermodifieds and the Baisch Brothers Sprinter (Their big block Super is still suffering engine woes).

The show started with Colorado's Scott Schmidt having to go to the back-up car after a bout with the wall during the last practice session. Ken Hamilton in Son Davey's Supermodifed experienced a pronounced miss in the engine during the practice and the TRG crew rushed to change the magneto before the qualifying session.

Troy Regier was the third car on the clock and put up a very good time of 14.137 seconds on the nearly flat 3/8 oval. Mike Baisch in the Sprinter came out next and posted a very good 14.477. However, Eric Silsby eclipsed Regier's time with a lap of 14.089 to steal fast time from Troy. After Silsby and Regier, the remaining qualifiers posted times as follow: Scott Schmidt, 14.404; Mike Baisch, 14.477; Ken Hamilton (still with a sour engine), 14.485; Jim Birges, 14.737; Harry Stone, 15.040; Roger Galleano, 15.219; Bill Wilker, 15.308; Ron Burger, 15.823; and West Evans, 15.931.

The SRL lined up the eleven qualifiers in two 10 lap heat races. The first of these featured a line-up of Ron Burger and Roger Galleano on the front row with Jim Birges, Mike Baisch, and Troy Regier rounding out the field. At the start, Galleano jumped past Burger at the line and the entire outside line blew past with Birges stuck behind Burger. The first lap had Galleano leading, followed by Baisch, Regier, Birges, and Burger. Lap two saw Regier accomplish an outside pass on Baisch in turn two. He then pulled inside Galleano coming off four and took the lead in turn one of the third lap. Lap five saw Birges make a couple of nifty moves to go from fourth to second followed by Galleano, Baisch, and Burger. Baisch got around Galleano on lap seven and that set the final order. With a non-stop Green, White, Checkered run, the finish showed Regier as the winner, followed by Birges, Baisch, Galleano, and Burger.

The second heat lined up with West Evans on the pole, followed by Bill Wilker, Harry Stone, Ken Hamilton, Scott Schmidt, and Eric Silsby. Again, the start saw the entire outside line advance on the first lap as it ended with Wilker leading Hamilton, Silsby, Evans and Stone. Lap two saw Stone move to fourth and Schmidt to fifth as Evans dropped back. On lap three, Silsby advanced from third to first with an outside pass of Hamilton in turn two and an inside move on Wilker when he pushed high in four. Hamilton disposed of Wilker for second during lap four and that was the extent of the passing. Final order was Silsby, Hamilton, Wilker, Stone, Schmidt and Burger. Once again, it was a caution free race.

With fast qualifier Eric Silsby drawing position six for the invert, the SRL 40 Lap Main Event lined up Jim Birges on the pole flanked by Ken Hamilton on the front row. The second row held Mike Baisch and Scott Schmidt. The fast guys were in row three with Regier inside of Silsby. The remainder of the field consisted of Stone, Galleano, Wilker, Burger, and Evans. Birges and Hamilton went nose to nose into one on the start with Birges pulling into the lead on the back straight as Hamilton was down on power. Schmidt and Silsby got around Baisch, and Regier was relegated to sixth at the end of lap one. Silsby passed Schmidt and Regier disposed of Baisch's Sprint Car on lap two. The order after lap three remained Birges, Hamilton, Silsby, Schmidt and Regier. The yellow came out on lap four as Silsby's right front wing transformed into track debris after contacting Hamilton's rear nerf bar. Meanwhile Regier had passed Schmidt for fourth. Regier was able to pass Silsby on the restart as Eric was tentative about the handling with the loss of the front downforce.

Through lap seven, the order remained Birges, Hamilton, Regier, Silsby, and Schmidt. Regier passed Hamilton on lap eight and set out after Birges who had pulled out a good lead after the restart. Troy took the lead on lap eleven and Silsby passed Hamilton on lap thirteen. At this juncture the order was Regier, Birges, Silsby, Hamilton, and Schmidt, as the leaders were getting into very heavy lapped traffic. Regier lapped fifth place runner Scott Schmidt on lap 28 and fifth place Hamilton five laps later.

Meanwhile, Birges's lead over Sislby accordioned in and out as they lapped cars with Birges pulling out on a clear track and Silsby reeling him in in traffic. On lap thirty-five, Birges caught Wilker and Schmidt running side by side (Wilker on the inside) just as Silsby caught Birges. Birges chose to follow Schmidt who should have been the faster of the two, leaving the inside to Silsby. The four ran in a tight formation until Scott pushed coming off of turn four on lap 36, allowing Wilker to clear him momentarily and Silsby to squirt by going inside of Birges and outside Wilker. Birges was then hung up behind Schmidt and could not pass to pursue the fast disappearing Silsby.

That ended the passing with Troy Regier winning his twelfth event of the year followed to the podium by Eric Silsby and Jim Birges. Ken Hamilton and Scott Schmidt rounded out the top five, both one lap down. The remaining finishers were Baisch, Stone, Burger, Galleano, Wilker, and Evans. Even with the lap four yellow, the 40 laps had taken less than thirteen minutes from Green to Checkered. It was another good, safe race with everyone loading up whole racecars to head home for a good two week rest before the finale at Madera.

By Gerald Laurie

EL CAJON, CA (10/13/01). Through nine visits of the supermodifieds to Cajon Speedway, no driver had managed to win more than one main event. That all ended Saturday night. And it only made sense that four time champion Troy Regier became the first two-time winner for the “fastest short track cars in the country” on the “fastest 3/8 mile paved oval on the west coast.”

Regier outdistanced the 11 car field in the Sid’s Auto Body Supermodified Racing League event. Such was Regier’s domination that only three cars were on the lead lap at the conclusion of the 40-lapper, which was only slowed one time. Fast qualifier Eric Silsby ran second. He was over a quarter lap back at the stripe. Early leader Jim Birges took third. Kenny Hamilton was fourth. Scott Schmidt, who tagged the third turn wall in his Ford powered machine in hot laps, drove his backup car with a Chevy powerplant to fifth place; both Hamilton and Schmidt were one-lap in arrears. All eleven starters were running when the checkered fell.

Regier and Silsby started in the third row of the Supermodified feature. Silsby had been the fastest qualifier with Regier just a tick slower for number two. Each came from last to first to win their heat race by nearly a half a lap. In fact Silsby went from third to first in the second heat with first a great move on the high side around Hamilton and then dipping low under Bill Wilker in turn two on lap 3. The main event figured to be settled between the two – whoever got through traffic first would come home in front. But it didn’t work quite that way. Regier had other plans.

Front row starters Birges and Hamilton paced the field through the first four rounds of the main event. Silsby got the jump on Regier and was third after two laps while Regier was stuck back to fifth. The fifth lap brought the only caution flag of the event. Silsby lost his right front wing after bumping Hamilton while trying to gain the second position. That may have cost him a the victory.

When the race resumed, Regier went on the prowl. He drove hard into turn three and powered past Silsby on the high side into third. On lap 8 he made a similar move to take second from Hamilton. Birges managed to hold Regier at bay for only two more circuits. On the eleventh round, Regier dove low into the first turn and powered off turn two in front. Once in the number one position, Regier went unchallenged.

His only close call came about lap 33 when he had to maneuver through five cars he was lapping. He had put fifth place Schmidt down one lap on lap 29 and Hamilton was included in the lap 33 pack. But Regier made short-order of those rivals and cruised to the stripe. After ceding the top spot to Regier, Birges had his hands full with Silsby. Silsby finally slipped past into second when they came up to lap the five cars on lap 35.

It marked Regier’s 12^th win of the season in 17 starts. Previous victories came at Las Vegas, Nevada, Madera, California (3 times), Boise, Idaho, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Dodge City, Kansas, Salt Lake City, Utah, Tracy, California (2 times), and Wenatchee, Washington. He was only denied visits to victory lane in Carson City, Nevada, Twin Falls, Idaho, one of two nights in Boise, Idaho, and at Richland, Washington.

“It’s unbelievable,” Regier said of 2001 season. “And my car owner (Dave Biswell) is having a birthday today and he said I had to win tonight (Dave was 56 years young). I said it will be tough – there’s a lot of fast guys here tonight. This one is for him. A big thanks to them. They’ve been great car owners. And also to my crew. They work hard to make this thing fast.”

“I thought it was pretty much over then (when Silsby got the jump on the green),” Regier continued. “But we had forty laps and things just worked out. Everyone was running good.”

“Sometimes you just have to go in there and have faith that the thing will hold,” Regier replied when asked about his daring pass of Silsby on the high side. .”Sometimes you don’t know. It’s kind of fun doing it. These cars are awesome to drive.”

“I got in there ahead of them and thought I had them covered,” Silsby said of Regiers’s pass. “All of a sudden he came around the outside of me. The car was still pretty good (after losing the wing) but not enough to catch Troy. We’ll keep chasing him as long as he’s around.”

By Gerald Laurie

Special to Supermodified Racing League

The Supermodified Racing League returned to Altamont Speedway with 17 racecars and a determination to put on a great show. They did put on a great show. Unfortunately, only the diehard open wheel fans were left to see it. Altamont Raceway Park managed once again to turn a race meet into a marathon.

Pit Gates opened at 8:00 AM with practice scheduled for an hour later. I left the track at 1:20 AM the next morning, twenty minutes after the Supermodified Main was over and all the crews were still loading up. There is no excuse for dragging out any racing program this long. The Program included 7 races for the Race Sponsor's Customers and Sales Reps in Altamont's ubiquitous rent-a-racers, Dashes, B-Mains, and 100 Lap Main Events for two Stock Car Divisions, 2 Heats and the 30 Lap Supermodified Main, and qualifications for all but the rent-a-racers.

Stock Car Yellow and Red Flag Fever did not speed up the program a bit. By the time the SRL 30 Lapper began at 47 minutes after midnight, everyone who came for the sponsor's involvement, most of the Stock Car fans, and anyone who had brought a pre-teen child to the show had departed for home and bed. This kept a lot of casual fans from even seeing the Supers in the best race of the day. The Supers practiced at 10:00 AM (temperature 70 and light wind), qualified at 2:30 PM (temperature 80 and winds light), started heat races at 7:00 PM (temperature 65 and wind 15 knots), and finally got to run the main at 12:47AM (temperature 55 and winds 25 knots and gusting).

Try setting up a racecar for that. In reality, it took longer to push off the cars and run enough laps to get heat into the engines and tires than it did to run the main. As if you can't tell, I'm still angry about the imposition on the teams, the fans, and myself. I love motorsports, but this type of track situation is inexcusable and if a spectator made this his first show, we (meaning all of motorsports) have lost him forever.

Enough of my tirade. The Supermodified Racing League brought cars from California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado to Altamont Raceway Park including the Baisch Brothers Winged Sprinter (Their Supermodified was still suffering engine problems from the last show, so they brought the Sprinter to race and garner as many points as possible). Incidentally, this particular 360 Sprinter has always been competitive in this company, so the Bros. weren't at that much of a disadvantage.

All 17 cars took their two timed laps. At the conclusion, it was no surprise that Troy Regier was fastest in the Biswell Motorsports Hyder. Top 5 qualifiers were Regier(10) at 15.379, Eric Silsby(98) at 15.398, Ken Hamilton(1) at 15.805, Tony Pierce(70) at 15.905, Rick Veenstra(91) at 15.915. Positions 6 through 10 were filled by Bob Bigioni(96) at 16.032, Darren Rusconi(66) at 16.061, Mike Baisch(25) at 16.110, Rich Castor, Jr.(2) at 16.216, Scott Schmidt(17) at 16.305, and Ira Castor(22) at 16.360.

The first heat race line-up had Ron Burger(89) and Bill Wilker(71) on the front row followed to the line by Dale Lamborn(48), Schmidt(17), Baisch(25), Bigioni(96), Pierce(70) and Silsby(98). At the Green, Wilker jumped into the lead from the outside in turn one to lead Burger, Lamborn, Schmidt and Bigioni back to the stripe. On lap two, Lamborn moved to second with Bigioni going to third, Burger dropping to fourth, and Silsby moving into the top five. Lap three saw Bigioni move past both Lamborn and Wilker with Burger still in fourth ahead of Silsby.

On lap four, Wilker dropped off the pace and headed to the pits with a leaking power steering line moving Lamborn to second. Baisch got around Silsby and Burger to third when Silsby got hung up behind the slowing Burger. Lap five saw Silsby return the favor moving to third followed by Baisch and Burger.The order remained Bigioni, Lamborne, Silsby, Baisch and Burger until Pierce moved past Burger into the top five on the ninth circuit. On the final lap, Lamborn went high in turn two dropping all the way to sixth with engine problems. The finish was Bigioni, Silsby, Baisch, Pierce, Schmidt Lamborn and Burger with Wilker in the pits.

The posted line-up for heat two was Kevin Woodward(86), Harry Stone(40), Jim Birges(32), Ira Castor(22), Rich Castor(2), Rusconi(66), Veenstra(91), Hamilton(1) and Regier(10). During warm up laps, Harry Stone pulled to the infield with engine woes and Woodward decided to be a wise rookie and start in the last row to work on his handling problems. This moved everyone up with Castor and Birges up front at the start. Birges stormed away at the green and led the first lap with the Colorado Castor Clan (Ira ahead of Rich) close behind, Regier moved from eighth to fourth on the first circuit and Rusconi filled out the top five.

Regier jumped to second on lap two and lit out after Birges who had a good 15 car length lead. Regier caught up with Birges in turn four of lap five and blew by into the lead in turn one. That was the extent of the passing with the ten lapper ending with Regier out front followed by Birges, Ira Castor, Rich Castor, Darren Rusconi, Veenstra and Hamilton.

When main event time finally rolled around (each of the stock car 100 lappers took over and hour and half to complete), the temperature had dropped into the fifties and the Supermodifieds had been sitting five hours since their heat races. Lane Saxton (flagman) gave the cars a long pre race caution to warm up the fluids.

Many of the cars were popping on start up as raw fuel ran into exhaust systems until the engines warmed enough to burn the excess. The collectors and mufflers on many of the cars were glowing cherry red until the engines leaned out and the remaining fuel was burned out of the exhaust systems.

Main Event Starting Positions were as follows: Row one, Mike Baisch and Darren Rusconi; Row two, Bob Bigioni and Rick Veenstra; Row three, Tony Pierce and Ken Hamilton; Row four, Eric Silsby and Troy Regier; Row five, Rich Castor,Jr. and Scott Schmidt; Row six, Ira Castor and Jim Birges; Row seven, Bill Wilker and Ron Burger; and Row eight, Kevin Woodward. Harry Stone and Dale Lamborn were scratched due to earlier engine problems.

At the start, the first five moved out in order but Regier moved from eight to sixth on lap one. A shuffle on lap 3 let Hamilton up into fourth with Regier moving to fifth and Veenstra dropping to sixth. Order was Baisch, Rusconi, Bigioni, Hamilton, Regier and Veenstra. By the end of 7 laps Regier had taken fourth from Hamilton and Rusconi got by Baisch for the lead at the line. Baisch washed up high lap eight letting Bigioni, Regier, and Hamilton around. Baisch dropped out of the top five when Veenstra moved around on lap 10. Running order at 1/3 distance was Rusconi, Bigioni, Regier, Hamilton, and Veenstra. The order remained static through nineteen except Baisch repassed Veenstra on lap twelve. Regier blew by Rusconi in lapped traffic on lap 20 and Veenstra and Baisch traded places at the same time.

Regier then began to check out and moved smartly through traffic. By lap 25, he had caught a group that consisted of Baisch in sixth, Schmidt, Pierce and Birges who were all desperately trying to stay on the lead lap. Baisch fell victim to even slower traffic as Schmidt and Birges got by on lap 28 with Regier then lapping the Sprint car and Tony Pierce. On the white flag lap, Birges went hard into three on the outside of Schmidt for a clean pass into sixth place when Schmidt contacted him in turn four. Birges spun into the dirt, losing a lap but managing to keep the engine running and crossing the start finish line only to have the rear radius rod (broken in the previous contact) allow the rear end to shift giving a big wiggle at the finish line.

Tony Pierce than took evasive action into the infield and contacted the wall on the infield ¼ mile track. However, the checkers had already flown, and Troy Regier had just completed a 30 lap main on a ½ mile track in 9 minutes and change. Finish order was Regier, Rusconi, Bigioni, Hamilton, Veenstra, and Schmidt on the lead lap. Baisch, Pierce, Rich Castor, and Birges rounded out the top ten. Regier averaged just over 16 seconds a lap in a race that had a lot of passing, some great driving and even a little drama at the end. Incidentally, there was not a single yellow flag thrown for the Supermods all day and night. An overall professional display. We'll see ya all from El Cajon next weekend.

More racing at DCRP will continue this weekend as the modifieds, ARTS Heartland trucks, hornets and stocks will compete on the tracks.