OWH's "Almost Live" USRA Div 1 Nats Coverage

**Bobhardt** · 08-04-2002, 11:07 PM

Way to go Beuf! Two time Group 7 Pro champion and getting 1100 laps in what sounded like a crashfest on top of it.

**John Emmons** · 08-05-2002, 01:44 AM

This had to be one of the best races of the day, at least for the two racers trying to make the move up, P.A. Watson and Mikael Silen. They were both battling the entire race, P.A. had taken an early lead with Mikael playing catch up. Only in the last 30 seconds of the last heat was Mikael able to squeak past Mr. Watson to make the move up. P.A. drove what had to be a heart-breaking heat only to have 2 mishaps near the end. Mikael was able to hang on to make the move up with a one lap lead. All of it took place in less than 30 seconds. Simply great racing.

So much of the competition came down to these smaller battles away from the race leaders. Lots of folks in attendance attested to the fact that the semi's and the quarter finals were often harder to win than the main, Beuf might dispute that but the semi's were sure fun to watch.

Congrats to all the participants and to the winners. You guys, and gals, showed some amazing abilities out there. I only wish the rest of the world could get a glimpse of this stuff.

We need more mainstream media coverage. I can't imagine that anyone could watch a race like the one above without getting excited by it. Thanks guys.

John Emmons

**dretceterini** · 08-05-2002, 09:48 AM

to watch on saturday and suday; but wifie stuff....some of you know how that goes...

Stu

**oldweirdherald** · 08-05-2002, 09:58 AM

All the Nats photos are now posted online in the 2002 Nats Photo Gallery. Not all are captioned yet, and some are out of order, but they are all uploaded. I'm on a very slow connection now at my motel room, using a phone card with not much time left on it...

Check out the 2002 USRA Div 1 Nats Photo Gallery!
NATS PHOTO GALLERY - CLICK HERE

Complete lap charts to all the races will be posted online soon, as I'll have to finish those pages and upload them when I get home. A big thanks to Chris Radisich for the use of his cool SRT to HTML program, and his help in saving and converting all the race data!

I haven't had a chance to sleep yet, but what a Nats!! I'm bushed - but at the same time don't want it to be over.

All the friends, the fun, the competition, the equipment, and just the excitement of the whole event... are hard to describe, and harder to say goodbye to.

I want to thank Buena Park Raceway owners Chris & Lenore Gallegos for being such excellent hosts, and friends, and putting on one heckuva show for all of us "Grownups who play with toy cars". They made me feel like family, and went out of their way to make sure everyone had a great time.

Bill Vanderziel did a fantastic job of race directing, always keeping the races rolling and on schedule, and making fair and unbiased calls to keep the races under control.

A big special thanks to all of the help I recieved, to make OWH's "Almost Live" coverage happen. Thanks for the computer help from Philippe DeLespinay, Mike Del Monico, Chris Radisich, Jeremy Marquette, and Keith "bOkeifus" Bauer. Also a BIG thanks to Keith Bauer for all the help with typing race results and captions, which he helped with whenever he wasn't busy racing or pitting.

Thanks also to John & Linda Ford of Scale Auto Racing News, and to Paul Meiers of Slot Car Bulletin for their help and cooperative efforts in covering this event. Be sure to get their magazines for full race reports in the upcoming issues. SARN will also be offering video tapes of the 2002 Nats soon, and have the 2000 Nats available now.

Be sure to also check out the Nats coverage on the IMCA Slotracing web site online by JP Van Rossem. JP used the postings and photos here, and presented it in a nice narative format, along with lap results and photos from OWH.

IMCA Slotracing Nats Coverage

Thanks also to Eric "Slotracer152" Chillingworth for helping at the keyboard during Keith's race, and running numbers during the Pro race, as well as Chris Petrella, Scott Fisher, and several others who helped read me numbers while I jotted down heat totals.

Thanks also to Philippe for the ride from LAX, and a thanks to all the serious "Speed Crazed Moron" racers who bought orange "Riggen" rubber tires. Being a pack-rat finally paid off for once, and that darned rubber I've been using for knee pads while turn marshalling for 30 years, helped finance my trip to the Nats, and helped me buy this faster laptop I'm using now!

And finally, a thanks to all my friends and fellow racers at the Nats, and all my online friends and fellow racers at home reading this. It's great to be able to share this weird hobby / sport that I love so much with such great friends and fellow racers.

Next year - Gaithersburg MD!!! Nats or Bust!!!

**dretceterini** · 08-05-2002, 10:08 AM

Stu

**Z and m racing** · 08-05-2002, 02:37 PM

What does sarn mean?

Zach Holley

**Electric Dreams** · 08-05-2002, 07:25 PM

SARN = Scale Auto Racing News (which oddly includes a lot of non-scale cars, commonly called "scale" or "wiong-cars" by the USRA, which lost its reading glasses sometimes around 1971).

SARN is published by John Ford in Texas, where they actually apply the law of the land and execute murderers (not him!).

**Slotracer152** · 08-06-2002, 12:03 AM

Well I had a blast...I would like to thank Chris and Lenore...you guys have a beautiful place and I hope to make it out there again

Les and Larry...thanks for putting up with my mess at the hotel and helping me durring the races

Paul...thanks for some good laughs

I hope to see most of you guys in Tulsa in October

otherwise...I'll see you in Maryland

**Slapshot** · 08-06-2002, 05:16 PM

Paul don't keep the world in suspense:

Did you hitchhike back or did Philippe or someone give you a ride back to the airport.

And when you arrived at the airport were you greeted by California’s Finest again.

Congrad's on the Great coverage.

Raymond

**Slotracer152** · 08-15-2002, 02:47 PM

have you posted the heat by heat break downs of the Gnats races yet?

**oldweirdherald** · 08-15-2002, 03:08 PM

Chris Radisich converted all the race data to HTML pronto, and I got almost done with getting them posted, then got sidetracked on other fires to put out.

I still need to do a bit of manual editing on races where the race computer got restarted, and on races with ties to reshuffle, and then I should be able to get them all posted.

The 2002 USRA Div 1 Nats Page is at:
2002 USRA Div 1 Nats

...where I will add links to each race class title as soon as I get them posted.

**Zippity** · 08-15-2002, 04:45 PM

Do you have any photos posted of the Nat's hosts?

Ron

**MSWISS** · 08-20-2002, 03:28 PM

I was viewer #20,000(and 19,999)What did i win?

**glueside** · 08-20-2002, 03:43 PM

You win the Bucky Beaver award Wally!!!

**oldweirdherald** · 08-20-2002, 11:01 PM

and...

You won the Geezer race, Mikey! What more could you ever want or need?!? (besides also winning the Pro 27 race?)

Definately a popular item was this year's Nats coverage, and next year we have plans in the works to do even better!

Mike Delmonico is already doing his homework on setting up real LIVE online coverage of next year's Nats, and if all goes as planned, we may even have live lap counter views as well as webcam views!

Note to Zippity - our humble hosts Chris & Lenore Gallegos were quite camera shy, so I respectfully refrained from sneaking a shot of them. I do believe there is a photo of Chris G. giving either Swiss or Beuf a big hug after their win (I forget which, and am too lazy to look now), but Lenore was pretty crafty about always staying behind me whenever I had my camera. I believe John Ford did get a good shot of our hosts, however, so you'll have to wait for the next issue of Scale Auto Racing News or the SARN Nats Video for that one.