October 22, 2024
Portland, Oregon
West Coast International Sprite-Midget Challenge Race 3
*for release seven weeks ago…HAH*
The West Coast Sprite-Midget Challenge wrapped up a fabulous 2024 season with a race at Portland International Raceway on August, 2024.
Once again, we did a Le Mans-style start, and as usual, it was a hit!
The Heacock Harrier Jet (aka Thomas Heacock) carried on the fine Heacock progeny tradition of crossing the track surface at the speed of sound. A small sonic boom was reported by track staff!
As such, Greg Heacock got away first, from seventh starting position, to take the early lead in the race.. Closely followed by Geoff Tupholme, Stephen Newby, Bill O’Kell, Dave Sweet, Paul Quackenbush, Brian Volkert, Loren Campbell and Rich Newman. Newman and Campbell, who started from the pole, both experienced balky cars.
The Le Mans-Style start. Big thank-you to Sue Quackenbush for recording it!
The foursome of Quackenbush, O’Kell, Tupholme and Newby chased Heacock down and passed him by the end of the first lap. The quartet of leaders then ran nose to tail for the first 8 laps of the race, swapping positions on each lap.
On the last lap of the race, the order was Quackenbush, O’Kell, Tupholme and Newby. Newby went for the big pass on Tupholme, under braking, entering turn 10. While drawing alongside Tupholme, Newby’s gearbox expired, relegating him to 4th place. Quackenbush went on to win the race over O’Kell. His margin of victory was .05 seconds. Shows what Old Age (er, Deep Experience) and Treachery can accomplish!
Full finishing order:
- Paul Quackenbush
- Bill O’Kell
- Geoff Tupholme
- Stephen Newby
- Dave Sweet
- Loren Campbell
- Brian Volkert
- Greg Heacock
- Rich Newman
Thank you to Stephen Newby for the race summary!
Paul locks'em up going hard to keep Bill at bay. 2024 CRC.
Footnote: The editor apologizes to all for the late, late report on this race. In seven weeks in August and September he raced four weekends in three state and two countries, towing the car nearly 5000 miles in the process. He’s only just now fully recovered from that deep overdose of racing fun.