Magic City RC of Billings, Montana hosted it's 19^th Annual Magic City Carpet Classic over the weekend of February 27 - March 1, 2009. This event has become a "must race" gathering for many racers due to the known level of competition and a reputation for putting on a well-run event. This year's Classic drew racers from 7 western states and Canada to the carpet to see who the kings were.

One of the most subscribed classes for this event was the Vintage Trans Am class...second only in terms of entries to 1/12 Stock. This isn't hard to understand since a) Vintage Trans Am is just about the most fun you can have with your clothes on, and b) Magic City is one of the clubs that "invented" the Vintage Trans Am concept so there are several die-hard Trans Am racers here. Mix in some traveling racers and you have a sure-fire recipe for fun and excitement. Entries in Vintage Trans Am grew by half this year...to eighteen from last year's twelve! Just as last years event, too, the heats had everyone in the building on their feet. During the main the pits were cleared as everyone wanted to see the spectacle of 15 cars on the track at once dicing it up for eight minutes to decide a champion.

The classic has LOTS of open practice time prior to and during the race so entrants are able to get their cars honed to the finest edge they can find. There were twelve hours of scheduled open practice on Friday, two hours Saturday morning before heats began and  six more after the heats were completed. Finally there were two more hours available on Sunday before the last chance qualifier so everybody had a chance to get their TA cars for any change in track condition over the course of the weekend. The grip definitely came up a bit as the weekend progressed and required drivers to make setup adjustments if they wanted to be running at the front of the pack. Grip never gets particularly "high" here, though, so traction rolling and the like are (thankfully) never a real problem.

The track itself is somewhat older Ozite carpet which proves to give a reasonably consistent grip level from start to finish when we hold bigger events. Part of the reason for this consistency is that the carpet is VERY "stable"-not much fuzz at all and the knap is nicely laid over. The layout 62' X 90' with a full-length straightaway that connected led to a full-width straight (breath the throttle to turn in and continue to hold 'er open) but an infield that combined a sweeping "corkscrew" section followed by a seemingly never ending series of 180's connected by VERY short chutes that put a premium on quick-transitioning cars and low-end acceleration with cars able to put the power down efficiently. This truly mixed layout was VERY difficult to setup for...in fact this combination of tight and open required drivers to make compromises more so than any layout any of us had ever experienced. Do you gear up for ultimate straightaway speed and give up time in that never ending pinball section or do you gear for snap in the switchbacks and give up some straightline speed? Drivers went back and forth with this and it turns out there wasn't any single "best answer" to the question.

Since ROAR have gone to 6-minute heats for 1/10 classes in 2009 Magic City followed suit, we would hold four 6-minute qualifiers (three Saturday, one Sunday) that really proved this would be a tightly bunched field. The field was broken in half for qualifying rounds. The main was a hotly contested 8-minute orgy of rubbing sheet metal (well...rubbing lexan anyway) and loud laughter and hoots from both drivers and everybody watching. To up the ante even further the top fifteen cars were lined up for the main in inverted order of qualifying-the slowest qualifier was gridded on the pole position followed by the second slowest and so on down to the fastest qualifier who found himself gridded last.

The first round of qualifying saw MCRC's own Shawn Kiely put his Big Fin Graphics sponsored Dan Gurney AAR replica '70 Barracuda on the pole with a time of 19 laps in 6:14...a full four seconds ahead of regular MCRC competitor Bryan Grummett's Bud Moore tribute '66 Mustang.  Third place was held by fellow club racers Neil LaPalm (Camaro) followed closely by Stephen Mehelich (Camaro) in fourth. The first "guest" racer was Great Falls, Montana's own Aaron Violett with his Purple People Eater '66 Mustang chased by Glasgow, Montana's Evan Billingsley and his Stormer supported '66 Mustang. Defending 2-time Vintage Trans Am champion Justin Poulson (Camaro), Brian James (Barracuda), Mike Tompkins (Camaro) and Josh Watts (Mustang) rounded out the top ten at this early stage in the event. Shawn and Bryan both led their respective qualifying heats from start to finish with the real action going on behind them. Mike Tompkins did a great job latching on to Bryan and pulling away from the pack in second place until an unforced error (followed by two more on the same lap as he lost focus) cost him several positions putting him in a hole from which he was never able to recover. Neil, Aaron and Brian were all poised to take advantage of Mike's misfortune and improve their result. The second heat was a bit tighter of a contest that saw Evan Billingsley parked on Shawn's bumper, but instead of pulling away they found themselves closely tailed by Rick Keiser and defending champ Justin Poulson. Rick blinked first in this round and found himself falling off the back of the pack (and then out with a mechanical failure), then Evan made a mistake at the twelve lap mark which allowed Justin by. Four laps later, though Justin zigged when he should have zagged which allowed Stephen to sneak by and snag second place in the heat.

The second round saw a lot more "action" than the first as everybody was seeking advantage now that they had "one in the books". Shawn, ultimately, came out of the round with his Barracuda still on the pole having improved his time by twelve seconds but he now saw Justin, frustrated by his first round performance, storm his way up from seventh position after the first round to put his Camaro solidly into second at the end of round two. There's probably a reason Justin is the two time defending (and MCRC's only) Vintage Trans Am champion...the boy is FAST when he needs to be. He had some tough breaks in traffic but drove a determined heat to find himself only two seconds behind the leading pace. Bryan missed the second round and found himself demoted from a strong second qualifying position down to fifth. Stephen (Camaro) and Aaron (Mustang) both took advantage of this situation and drove past him into third and fourth respectively placing the top five drivers all on the same lap. The other big mover in the top ten was Josh Watts who pedaled his Mustang HARD and improved from tenth qualifier to sixth where he was now followed by Neil, Mike, Evan and Brian. All ten of these drivers improved their time in round two (though most not by much), and all the top ten from the first round defended their top ten status in round two.

Round three proved even wilder than round two did, due in equal part to Vintage Trans Am being the last classes run at the end of a LONG day of racing. As in round two, all the top ten managed to remain in the top ten, but only four of them improved their times. This round saw Shawn and Justin take their battle a bit further as both drivers dipped into the twenty lap range with Shawn's 'Cuda now a scant second ahead of Justin's Camaro. Aaron improved by six seconds and nudged his Mustang past Stephen's Camaro into the third qualifying position. Evan was the only other driver to improve, but his improvement was sufficient to claw his Mustang up to fifth qualifying position from ninth. The rest of the order remained the same with Bryan missing the bell for this heat as well.

Sunday morning means Last Chance Qualifier for our Vintage Trans Am racers, and the pressure was ON. Unfortunately that pressure caused people to try setup changes and on-track moves that they'd have been better off not to have tried. This round saw Justin put his Camaro ahead of Shawn's 'Cuda, but the combination of overly aggressive driving and similarly aggressive traffic found both of our top drivers in the nineteen lap range again. No improvement. Aaron didn't improve either, though he managed to keep his Mustang in third qualifying position against a newly energized Bryan who re-entered the fray and drove the wheels off his Mustang to finish the LCQ only seven tenths of a second adrift in fourth. The only other driver to improve his time Sunday morning was Brian James (twas the morning of the Bryan/Brians I guess) who BARELY missed his first nineteen lap heat but still managed to push his 'Cuda to seventh position on the back of his 19/6:00.1 time. The only good news out of this round for everyone else was that no one outside the top ten managed to improve their times either.

Sunday afternoon had finally arrived...time to see who was the fastest Vintage Trans Am racer in the land. Drivers were lined up on the track in staggered order with ten feet between rows of cars. The inverted order meant that our top two qualifying drivers weren't even on the main straight-they'd be starting the race having to negotiate the last turn of the track side-by-side! The cars were set, the driver's introduced over the PA, and it was time to wait for the tone.

And they were off. Rookie driver Christian Gardner driving in his first ever big race had his Go-Green '70 Barracuda on the pole and made FULL use of that advantage off the start. He disappeared around the first turn with Chuck Kohut's and Jerry Gardner's Camaros hot on his heels...JUST in time to miss the carnage that was wrought in their wake. The fourth car to the turn apexed just a BIT early and caromed back out into traffic...and no one was spared. The corner marshals were right there and quickly got everyone going again, but the lead trio now had a significant advantage. Our top five qualifiers found themselves finishing the first lap in slightly different order, but they were in tenth through thirteenth positions so they were pretty much on par with expectations other than the large gap to the lead trio. But the "sharks" were on the move. At the end of lap two top qualifier Shawn had his 'Cuda moved up to tenth position and right on Justin's Camaro bumper. Third qualifier Aaron found himself and his Mustang up to eighth place right behind fifth qualifier Stephen's Camaro. Fourth qualifier Bryan had a rough second lap and found himself mired in fourteenth position and trying to pick his Mustang's way through an aggressive pack to find his way back with his peers.

The next few laps saw our best qualifying drivers each picking off an average of a car a lap. Christian put in the drive of his life and held his lead until a minor error on the tenth lap saw him lose a mere three seconds on the track but three full positions with them. Now he found himself among traffic which, combined with his relative lack of race experience, saw him fall steadily in the order from that point to a eighth place finish. In doing so he held out better than either of his early breakaway partners and more than one observer rated his the drive of the race. Kudos to young Mr. Gardner for keeping his head when the pressure was on!

The end of lap ten saw our top five qualifiers, the sharks, continuing to work their way to the front. By now Aaron had moved his Mustang up to third position and was challenging Neil's Camaro for second. Shawn had managed to move his 'Cuda around Justin's Camaro and found himself in a strong fifth place with Justin right on his tail in sixth. Bryan had managed to push his Mustang through the marauding pack to seventh but he was now a fair ways behind the rest of the sharks. Stephen, though, was the Great White among mud sharks...he'd found his way to first place and was setting sail with his Camaro!!

The next ten laps saw Stephen bobble once and lose the lead but reclaim it after only three laps in second place. The rest of the sharks continued to steadily filter to the front of the pack as expected but not without some excitement as they guided their cars among fourteen others that were all driving hard and giving few (if any) breaks to anyone. As the twenty-first lap went down in the books the top four positions where held by four of the sharks from the back of the pack with fifth held by a resurgent ninth qualifier Neil. Poor Bryan was still getting beaten up by the pack and had struggled his way back up to ninth. And it was in these positions they finished the twenty-fourth and final lap.

The finishing order was:

1^st    Place  Stephen Mehelich             '68 Camaro (HPI)                   Losi XXX-S

2^nd   Place  Shawn Kiely                     '70 Barracuda (HPI)               X-ray T2 007

3^rd   Place  Justin Poulson                    '68 Camaro (HPI)                   X-ray T2 007

The dust had finally settled and to the victors would go the spoils...or at least the very nice custom made etched glass trophies. Everyone laughed with each other when all was said and done, but the underlying buzz was "wait until next year". Who can wait? There are new scores to be settled now and rivalries to renew...and only 52 weeks until Magic City celebrates it's TWENTIETH Annual Classic.

See you there!

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