And here is the official report from JWL:
AI West Report
Round 2 of the American Iron West Championship Series took place at Buttonwillow Raceway Park on April 3-4, 2004. Team Daffron and Keith Videtto both came into the weekend undefeated after clean sweeps at California Speedway, but the heat was on as soon as the racers arrived for Friday testing which saw close times for most of the teams. Also notable was the arrival of 2003 CMC Champion Nick Steel along with teammate Jason Swindle in their newly classified 4th generation Unbalanced Engineering Camaro as well as the rebirth of the Maximum Motorsports “shop car” effort with Central Coast DSM legend Mike Croutcher at the controls. Other racers competing during the weekend included Ernesto Roco, Vageli Karas, Mike Armstrong, Christine Knight, Jerry Brown, Guy Dreier, Neil Hershorin, Hal Massey, and Ryan Walton.
Vageli Karas shot out to a strong start by taking the AI pole during qualifying. Guy Dreier repeated his Saturday performance from California Speedway by again taking the AIX pole. Both Keith Videtto and Team Daffron’s Ross Murray missed qualifying and had to start from the back of the pack. Saturday’s race start saw Guy Dreier run out to an early lead with Ernesto Roco glued to his tail with Karas and Croutcher in hot pursuit. A fragged third gear soon eliminated Croutcher and distributor problems hampered Roco, which let Murray and Videtto charge through the field to chase down Dreier and Karas. Murray caught and passed Dreier within a few laps and demonstrated the sort of talent that made him the 2002 AIX Champion. As the race continued, Videtto closed the gap on Karas by seconds on each lap until the two were feet apart entering the tight Star Mazda turn on the west end of the course. Karas got loose on his corner entry, which enticed Videtto into a spin that took him off course and ended his charge to the front. Karas resumed his blistering pace and took the win with Videtto in second and Roco holding on to third. In AIX, Murray earned a convincing win with Neil Hershorin in second and Guy Drier taking third after he was also felled by mechanical gremlins.
Sunday’s qualifying saw the return of the Maximum Motorsports entry after the team drove to Los Angeles to secure a spare transmission from fellow AI competitor Ryan Flaherty’s garage and thrashed through the early morning hours to reenergize their machine. However, the new
tranny was not enough to wrest the pole position away from Keith Videtto who again set the fast time for AI. Guy Dreier took the AIX pole with Bill Daffron mere fractions of a second behind him. At the race start, Daffron surged to an early lead by beating Dreier to the first turn. Dreier stayed glued to Daffron’s bumper as the racer went on and closed the distance at every opportunity. Croutcher and Videtto also had their own duel going on just behind the two AIX cars that ended when Croutcher went off course and lost crucial seconds that would place him behind Videtto as he charged toward another win. Dreier managed to close the gap and then pass Daffron to take his first win of the year with Daffron taking second and Neil Hershorin again in third. The final order in AI saw Videtto with another win with Croutcher in second and Ryan Walton in third.
The next round of the series will take the racers to Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, CA on May 1-2, 2004. Team Daffron is now under fire from the strong effort Guy Dreier has brought to the table and Keith Videtto will have to work to keep out in front of the Karas/Armstrong team as well as the strong challenges posed by Roco and Croutcher, so once again the crystal ball is cloudy and the year-end podium is wide open.
By JWL
AI Results from across the nation 
