2008 Radical West Cup - Buttonwillow Rounds 7 & 8- 25th April 2008

Race start
Race start
This was our first 3 day event of the season. We lucked out with great spring weather all weekend. That’s not easy to do at Buttonwillow.

Dave Tweedlie looked to have the field covered in SR3 with a lap 1.4 seconds quicker than his closest rival Craig Oka. On the start of the race Dyno Don was able to get by the front row to take the lead. It was short lived though as Brian Johnson re-passed going into turn 4. Craig Oka was able to get by the SR3 leader Dave and they had a great battle for several laps. Dave eventually worked his way by Craig as well as Tim. Fighting hard to keep the lead, Dave went spinning in the bus stop and handed the lead over to Tim Day. Cyrus had a great performance running in the top 3 for some time until a quick off onto the back straight. Luckily he had a great recovery. As the race came to an end, Brian Johnson started to slow.

Sunday was run on the same configuration as Saturday. An interesting twist would change the results of Sunday’s race. Buttonwillow has their own tire shop. They offered many of the drivers a discount on some old Avon’s that fit the SR3’s. Several of the drivers took the opportunity to get some cheap practice tires. Tim Day actually tried the tires in qualifying and found out they are not as quick as the Dunlop’s by at least 1 second!

Prior to the race Tim wanted to change back to his Dunlops and Dave was looking to switch to the wider SR8 wheels. After some controversy the decision was made to stick with what you qualified on. This probably hurt our championship leader the most as he was stuck to run on the Avon’s he had qualified on.

The green flag flew and it was an early start. This caught out the pole sitter Dave Tweedlie and he found himself back in 4th position before the first corner. Bob Majorino took the point for several laps until Dave was able to re take the lead. Suddenly Dave lost it going into turn 1 handing the lead back to Bob. On the final lap the leaders caught Rene going through the bus stop slowing Bob just enough for Dave to pass him around the outside going into Riverside. Dave came home with a well deserved victory. Bart Carter closed in on the tail pipe of Dyno Don by the final lap and looked to pass for the invitational victory. As they rounded the final corner Bart was right there but Don held off the charging SR8 to take the win.

Race start
The boys are bench racing
The racing seems to get better and more competitive every event. It’s great to see everyone gain the knowledge and skills to become the great series that this is. Check out what Pete Fowler said on the Radical owner’s forum…. http://socalpeeps.yuku.com/topic/1068

See you at Miller on May 3, 4.

 


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