[ScottHalliday]

So who attended last weekends American Iron West Season Openner at California Speedway. I was supposed to attend and cover the event but unfortunately due to a family illness, I was unable to attend.

So, who attended and how was it? Somee of you guys must have been there and hopefully a few of might even have raced. How about taking a few minutes and filling in the rest of us as to how it went.

[Racercosmo]

The American Iron West season opened at Fontana with a lot of familiar faces and a few newcomers. Saturday Qualifying saw Ryan Flaherty return to competition with the AI pole in his Foxbody GT, and Guy Dreier taking the AIX pole in his 1965 very fastback. Dreier hada an engine failure early in the race, so Paul Mashouf took over the lead in his 94 Mustang GT, and held it until he was black flagged for bypassing part of the track. Bill Daffron went on to the AIX win with Neil Hershorin in 2nd, and Mashouf in 3rd.
Keith Videtto had a good start and passed for the lead which was never challenged. Ernesto Roco did a fantastic job of defending his 2nd position from Ryan Flaherty and Tim Gilpin. On the last lap, Gilpin lost control of his car and had a major accident, fortunately he was unhurt. Roco kept 2nd, while Flaherty ended up 3rd.

Videtto's reward for the win was a trip to the Brother's Performance Dyno for a compliance check. He easily made the cut with 310 rwhp to his 3280 lbs.

Sunday Qualifying put Paul Mashouf on the pole postion just ahead of Bill Daffron in AIX. Keith Videtto took the AI first spot. The AI battle was similar to the day before, as Videtto pulled out a big lead, while Roco held off the charge from Vageli Karas and Ryan Walton. Roco eventually pulled off due to an alternator failure.
Paul Mashouf and Bill Daffron had a race long duel for AIX honors. With 2 laps to go, Mashouf passed Daffron for the lead, and was attempting to use lapped traffic to his advantage. Unfortunately, he was hit by another car and spun. He recovered and went on to finish second while Daffron won again.

SATURDAY
AI
Pole Flaherty#117
Race
1st Videtto#31
2nd Roco#2
3rd Flaherty#117

AIX
Pole Drier#13x
1st Dafron#27x
2nd Hershorin#95
3rd Mashouf#49

Sunday
AI
Pole Videtto#31
1st Videtto#31
2nd Walton#54
3rd Karas/Armstrong#07

AIX
Pole Mashouf#49
1st Dafron#27x
2nd Mashouf#49
3rd Hershorin#95

[Twister]

ack!!! I missed it? damn, why was it not posted in the upcoming events in the west coast or nasa forums?

[ScottHalliday]

Sorry about that. We are behind in updating our Events Calendar this year. Will be making a real effort to get it up to speed by end of month.

It sure sounds like we missed one heck of a season openner! I wanted to go so bad but there was no way I could have made it. Am planning to make the next one for sure!

Our own AFM moderator, Toby Ball was also at the event but he was to busy at the track to take any pictures or provide us with any coverage. Toby has also been tied up since the event and has not been able to post a reply to this thread or moderate this forum. Hopefully he will find some time to drop by and pass along his two cents about the event as well. Cosmo, thanks for posting such a great and information update on Cal Speedway.

Looking forward to meeting you at the next American Iron West event!

[Racercosmo]

John W Lindsey probably would have done a better job than I, but his wife gave birth to their first child the Monday after the event.
It was a good weekend. Next race is April 3-4 at Buttonwillow Raceway Park, just West of Bakersfield at I-5.

[TobyBall]

Hey, thanks guys!

Racercosmo, your input was great, far better than mine would have been... my focus was helping other folks get out in HPDE sessions, and making a few laps myself.

Glad to hearJohn's baby arrived healthy, and Tim was unhurt (his car looked pretty bad). Although watching some of the CMC, AI, AIX, and other racing was great, the best part of getting to the NASA opener at Cal Speedway is flying through the highbanked turns 1 and 2 at over 130 mph... watching is great, doing is better!

Cheers,
Toby