2003 Race reports

The Formula Indy Racing Assoc. held it's second race of the 2003 season at Columbus 151 speedway on Friday May 9th. The afternoon was sunny and in the low 70s, the track was a little damp from the early morning rains.
It was nice to see some new old faces out with us again, in the persons of Jeff Steenbergen and his father Leon. They had a little time off from campaigning their late model and so they brought out their new #62 Predator. Leon Steenbergen is the owner of Vari-Tech, the manufacturer of the Predator Chassis and Jeff was the runner-up in FIRA Pro division in the 2000 points championship. Although the car had some "new car" teething problems, they said they would be back when time allowed. Keith Howard's 23 car had an ignition problem and had to withdraw before time trials.

The first out to qualify was #38 Vern Brown and he immediately showed everyone that his time spent practicing at 151 was well spent, posting a new Formula Indy track record at 151of 13.438, Second fast was #6 Eric Ritchey at 14.310.

The ten lap heat race saw #9 Anthony Wallace jump into the lead from the outside poll position with #6 Eric Ritchey, #62 Jeff Steenbergen following. As they go into the back stretch the 62 loses power and the 1 car dives inside to avoid him and catches Jeff's left rear tire. No harm, no fowl, and no yellow. It's now the 9-6- 1 & 38.
On the Third lap Reitz took the two position from Ritchey, and Vern Brown started closing in and then taking over third just before the start finish line. Now it's 9-1-38.
On lap four the 1 and 38 have closed on the 9, out of turn four they are 3 wide down the chute with Anthony on the outside, Vern on the bottom and Wally the meat in the middle.
Into turn one 38 takes the lead. The 1 car holds the 9on the high side and pulls into second down the back stretch, now its 38-1-9 with the #6 coming. It remains this way with Vern checking out until the white flag when #6 takes over the third position from the #9 car.
At the checkered it's Vern Brown's #38 first followed by #1 Wally Reitz and #6 Eric Ritchey.

The 15 lap feature has Vern on the poll starting straight up, the Steenbergen #62 choosing to start in the rear do to his difficulties earlier.
As the pack takes the green the four lead cars look like they are locked together. Down the back straight and out of turn four the 38 has a wheel in front of the 6 who is on the outside, with the 1 following 38 and 9 following the 6.
Second lap and Vern has the lead with the 1 car taking the two spot from the 6 followed by the 9-12.
As the race continues Brown, Reitz and Ritchey brake away from the rest of the field. On the sixth go round the lapping begins. By lap eleven the two lead cars have lapped the fourth place car and at the finish of lap fifteen it's again 38-1-6 with the rest of the field one lap down.
And the #38 of Vern Brown has swept the nights events.

The 20 lap feature. Neal rolles the dice, a 4.
This has the 10 car starting on the second row outside.
Starting from the outside pole Vern's 38 takes the lead followed by the 10 and the 9 of Anthony Wallace. On the second lap the #1 car takes over the three spot from Anthony with Vern still holding Neal off.
On lap four as the leaders are coming up on back of the pack Neal finds an opening, and takes the one position from Vern in the backstretch.
Then as they cross the start/finish line the 10 dives low to pass a slower car and Vern who is right on him has to checkup and dive down to clear, he touches the 10s rear wheel putting him sideways and up against the wall and yellow is out.

Vern’s car is all right but he is now 13^th of 13 cars.
On to the restart of lap five the 10 is out front with the 1 & 9 cars following at a respectful distance. It continues this way with Neal lengthening his lead over the 1and 9 until lap seventeen when Vern almost completes his come back moving into the two spot ahead of the 1 & 9.
Lap eighteen sees the 23 car of Keith Howard brake a suspension member which brings out another yellow, closes up the pack and negates Neal’s lead.
On the restart of lap eighteen the #9 of Anthony takes the three position from the #1 car while Vern attempts to run down the #10 car.
But again, like the Dash in reverse, it’s Neal Gillentine scoring the first win of the season with Vern Brown in second and Anthony Wallace third.
Oh yea, and the #31 of Ken Losch Jr. (having New car Gremlins) losing a wheel. Just to put the cap on the night.
Thanks guys for a lot of fun.

Vern Brown has an up and down weekend
and Neal Gillentine comes out to play on Saturday.

Friday, June 13th Columbus 151 speedway hosted FIRA for the second time this season and it started innocently enough.

Time trials went smoothly with #99 Jim Bass again turning in the fast time of the day for the second week in a row with a 13.644, just nudging out the point leader Vern Brown by 27/100 of a second. Third went to #1 Wally Reitz with a time of 13.715.

As evening approached and a full moon was rising the Late models where on the track for qualifying, when the bottom fell out of the schedule. One Late model, on the clock, into turn one, at full throttle, without the drivers foot on it! Throttles stuck and he is straight into the reinforced concrete retaining wall. Thanks to a well constructed car he was able to walk away, apparently without injury. The same could not be said for about 12 foot of the wall, without the catch fence and a gap about four feet wide it did not look good for the evenings programs to continue.
151s track crew went to work and with a lot of sweat, ingenuity, two tow trucks, a tractor, a Ford explorer and some Oversize construction equipment tires for reinforcement they were able to straighten and support the wall and get on with the nights racing.
The track officials wisely decided to forgo the heats and finish qualifying and go right to the Feature events with FIRA's 20 lap main up first.

With Jim Bass rolling a one and starting on the poll with Vern Brown on the outside.
At the green it's #99 and 38 side by side with the #1 and #9 of Anthony Wallace looking for an opening.
Down the backstretch on lap two and it's three wide with the #1 down low, 99 in the middle and 38 on the outside, into turn three and the opening closes with Jim and Wally making contact. This puts the #1 car out for the night with no steering.
The cars regrouped and from there it was a dice between Anthony and Vern for the win with Vern snatching another win at 151 with Anthony taking runner up and Jim Bass working his way up from the back to score a third.
#3 Chris Julian took all, in the Pro-Am Division.

Saturday, June 14th about 90 miles south of Columbus, WI. in Loves Park IL. at Rockford Speedway, It's 9:30am, about six hours before the pit gate opens.
There sits one hauler at the pit entrance, the #1 car with Barb and Wally Reitz, thrashing away trying to get the car back together for the nights events. After four and a half hours and a visit to every hardware chain store on Perry Vale Rd. they think they may have it together. Only the nights events will tell.

At 5pm practice is opened for the 1st of 2 warm ups for the Formula Indy racing assoc . Twelve cars are in attendance. They roll out with the #1 car out first, it turns, it goes straight so far so good for Barb and Wally, The 38 of Vern Brown seems to be having some engine problems?
Second and last warm-up and the fans are entertained by display put on by the #10 Neal Gillentine and Wally's #1 car as they play a game of "pass me if you can!"
The 38 cars problem have become terminal and he will not be able to make the show.

Qualifying begins with #10 showing everyone what kind of power can be had from a Polaris 600 twin, turning in a blistering 13.402 and besting his previous FIRA track record set on May 3rd of 13.406!
Second went to #9, Anthony Wallace with a 14 seconds flat and third to #99, Jim Bass at 14.294.

First up for FIRA, the trophy dash, six laps, six fastest inverted.
The #31 of Kenny Losch setting the pace.
At the green it's the #6 of Eric Ritchey out front and followed closely by the 99 Jim Bass. By the fourth lap the 10 of Neal Gillentine has moved into 3rd.
5th lap/white flag and the 10s in second. Last lap and off of four and Neal takes the lead and the checkered flag for the win followed by Eric Ritchey and Jim Bass taking 3rd.

Next up the "B" heat.
The presidential Limo #23 driven by Keith Howard worked up to the front and away he went, scoring his first win for 2003 with his 750 four stroker just hummin away. Second went to Mike Nelson's new #41 car on it's maiden voyage,and third to #12 Don Fort.

The 10 lap "A" heat has Kenny Losch Jr. setting the pace again, This time Kenny ain't waiten.
When the green flies so does Kenny followed by the #1 car Wally Reitz and the 10 and 6 dicing for 3rd.
For three laps Kenny holds off the #1 car, then on lap four Wally finally gains the upper hand and moves into the lead, in the mean time Neal has taken over the three spot and is on the move!
Lap six and Neal has moved up behind Wally for second. By lap seven the #1 car has grown to about 20ft. wide and is doing everything legal to hold off the charging 10 car.
Last lap and Neal makes one more valiant effort to take the lead but Wally's got the preferred line and takes the win, Neal settles for second and Jim Bass in the 99 takes third.

The Twenty lap feature was a barn (read tire) burner.(see picture at the end)
At the start, it's #9 Anthony Wallace out front from the outside poll, followed by the 1 and 10 car. For the first five laps Anthony is able to keep some good distance between himself and the pursuing 1 & 10 cars. Lap six and yellow flag when the 23 of Keith Howard, the "B" heat winner brakes a suspension joint and stalls on the back stretch closing up the field and negating Anthony's lead.
Restart and this time Wally isn't letting the 9 car get to far out front. Lap nine and into the fourth corner and Anthony gets a little to high leaving an opening for the #1 car and as they cross the line it's the 1, 9 and 10 in that order. Lap ten and Neal has taken over second from Anthony and they are starting to pass the back of the pack.
By the thirteenth lap Wally, in the lead and Neal right on him, have pulled a good 10-12 car length lead on the rest of the field.
Lap fourteen and Neal takes the point. Neal's got the hammer down but Wally hasn't given up yet and the pace they are setting has distanced them from the rest of the pack. Wally tries but can not close on the flying 10 car who is pulling away more and more on every lap.
At the checkered it's Neal Gillentine scoring his second win at Rockford this year with Wally Reitz taking runner up and scoring high enough to take over the Championship points lead from the broken 38 car of Vern Brown who had to be a spectator for this event.
A well deserved third went #9 Anthony Wallace with #6 Eric Ritchey, #99 Jim Bass and #31 Kenny Losch Jr. rounding out the top six.

LOVES PARK, IL - Saturday, June 28, 2003 - No practice or qualifying because of rain

Vern Brown dominated the fifteen lap FIRA feature over veteran driver Wally Reitz. With Neal Gillentine finishing in third

Trophy Dash - 1. Keith Howard, Franklin Park 2. Don Fort, Delavan, WI
3. Grant Greenfield, Waupun, WI

Heat One - 1. Neal Gillentine, Sugar Grove 2. Anthony Wallace, West Chicago 3. Howard

Heat Two - 1. Eric Ritchey, Delavan, WI 2. Vern Brown, Waunakee, WI 3. Wally Reitz, Plainfield

The VvV show Or Veteran Versus Veteran
Time Trials	Heat	Feature
1 #1 Wally Reitz 16.918 2 #38 Vern Brown 17.074 3 #12 Don Fort 17.210 4 #6 Eric Ritchey 17.281 5 #37 Grant Greenfield 17.608 6 #99 Jim Bass 17.635 7 #48 Kurt Williams 18.629 8 #88 Doug Farrell 19.386 9 #19 Dick Heath 19.970 10 * #3 Chris Julian 19.993 * PRO-AM	1 #1 Wally Reitz 2 #38 Vern Brown 3 #12 Don Fort 4 #37 Grant Greenfield 5 #99 Jim Bass 6 #6 Eric Ritchey 7 #88 Doug Farrell 8 #19 Dick Heath 9 #48 Kurt Williams 10 #3 Chris Julian*	1 #1 Wally Reitz 2 #38 Vern Brown 3 #12 Don Fort 4 #99 Jim Bass 5 #37 Grant Greenfield 6 #88 Doug Farrell 7 #48 Kurt Williams 8 #3 Chris Julian*

Reitz Scores Clean Sweeps at LGR!
(Excerpt from Lake Geneva Reports) By Dale R. Erdmann

August 2, 2003; Lake Geneva, WI. - With 70 % chance of rain and without a cloud in the sky race fans were treated to a great night of racing action Friday night at Lake Geneva Raceway.

The 10 lap heat race was under Vern Brown's control from the 5th to the 9th lap with Wally in second, White flag and THEN..... YELLOW? Eric Ritchy had lost steering and headed off toward the Moto Cross track. The restart, two laps green, white, checkered. With the field closed up, Wally gets the jump on Vern ! taking over the lead, Vern tries valiantly to regain the lead but Wally holds on to take the win.

The Formula Indy feature was Wally Reitz and Vern Brown, veteran vs. veteran show. As they diced back and forth for the entire race. Brown may have led only lap five, but Reitz never had a chance to breath. Dan Fort was next as Jim Bass and Grant Greenfield were the only cars not lapped, finishing fourth and fifth.

Vern Brown undoubtedly had the fastest FIRA Indy machine, and used it to his advantage en route to a clean sweep. Eric Ritchey took the early lead over rookie Don Fort in the heat race. Wally Reitz moved up quickly through the field, and went three-wide with Brown and Fort on lap seven. Brown won by just inches over Ritchey at the checkered. In feature action, first time competitor on 2003 Tom Palma took Fort around, sending both to the rear on the first lap. Reitz cascaded through the dirt in turn one on lap four, but continued forward to take third at the line. After lapping nearly half the field, Brown took the victory, while Ritchey, Reitz, and Grant Greenfield of Waupun followed behind.

FIRA
Quick Time: Vern Brown, Waunakee 13.229 secs (New Track Record)
Heat: Brown,
Feature: Brown; Eric Ritchey, Elkhorn; Wally Reitz, Plainfield, Ill.; Don Fort, Delavan; Tom Palma, Delavan

FIRA Scoring
Times: #38 13.229 (Record) Heat: 38 Vern Brown          Feature: 38 Vern Brown
              #1  13.511                              6 Eric Ritchey                           6 Eric Ritchey
             #37 13.823                              1 Wally Reitz                            1 Wally Reitz
             #12 13.830                            12 Don Fort                              37 Grant Greenfield
Thanks to Jim Bass for acting as FIRA Race Director after his engine went Bye-Bye in practice.

LOVES PARK, IL-AUGUST 20, 2003 The first events were halted for an hour and fifteen minute rain delay and caused the heat events for the night to be cancelled. But racing continued and all feature events were completed.

The Formula Indy Racing Association (FIRA) twelve lap feature was another fast and furious fight to the finish. Vern Brown held on ahead of Wally Reitz for the win with Eric Ritchey in third.

Formula Indy Racing Assn, Qualifying:
1. Vernon Brown, Waunakee, WI, 14.546 2. Eric Ritchey, Delavan, WI, 14.672 3. Wally Retiz, Plainfield, 14.774

Advance Auto Parts Trophy Dash:
1. Tom Palma, Delavan, WI 2. Don Fort, Delavan, WI 3. John Zeilinga, West Chicago
15 lap Feature:
1. Brown 2. Reitz 3. Ritchey 4. Palma 5. Grant Greenfield, Waupun, WI

Neal, Kenny, Anthony & Wally all WINNERS
Lake Geneva Speedway
August 22nd 2003.

Time Trials:
Neal Gillentine tops the 15 car field with a blistering 16.3, more than a half second faster than runner up Wally Reitz's 16.9.

Directors choice Trophy Dash;
Well Kenny Losch Jr. retained his record of at least one win scored in every one of the 15years that he has been a member of FIRA.
Note to: Kenny, believe me everyone in FIRA knew you where there that night.

"B" Heat:
Anthony Wallace was able to sort through his earlier mechanical gremlins and put together a dominant win in the first heat run.

"A" Heat;
Wally Reitz was able to gain a little ground on current point leader Vern Brown by capturing the win in there Heat race, but Vern was right on him the whole way.

Feature Event;
With Grant Greenfield setting the pace and Wally on the outside front row it was a dash for turn one at the green.
Wally gets the lead, but Vern is right there again. Seconds later Vern's driving around Wally to take P1.
Soon it's Quick timer Neal Gillentine powering around both front runners to set off into the distance leaving Wally to try and catch Vern for the two spot.
It looked like Vern has got just enough of a lead to hold on to second.
And then, in turn three, Vern suddenly finds his car trying to mount a slower car. This gives Wally just the edge he needed to take over second.
Vern was able to cool down his ardent stead but there wasn't enough of the twenty laps remaining for a challenge on Wally. So at the checkered it ended with Neal taking the win ,Wally in 2 & Vern "Downtown" Brown in 3rd.

The Trophy Dash WINNER: #31 Ken Losch Jr
Note; # 88 Doug Farrell, suffered mechanical failure during Time Trials.
Repairs were completed in time to run the "B" heat And Feature events

August 30th, 2003: It was a beautiful fall day, the track should be fast and no rain in sight.
Rockford had filled some irregularities in the track surface, but the weather didn't cooperate. The patching had not cured completely and the surface was loose and slick and the track had to be dusted off after each event.
For Wally Reitz, 25 points behind the point leader Vern Brown it was an all or nothing day.

Time Trials:
Vern Brown set fast time with a 14.222 followed by Eric Rithchey's 14.822 for second and Don Fort's 14.919. Wally was back in 9th at 15.360. Oh well.

Directors choice Trophy Dash;
Grant Greenfield put his #37 car out front and led flag to flag.
Second went to Tom Palma, third to Don Fort.

"B" Heat:
Grant again took the lead and looked like a sure winner.
Then on the last lap into turn three Wally dove under the 37, Grant pulled up along side Wally out of four and it was a drag race to the line.
It was photo finish with Grant Greenfield edging out Wally by inch's and Keith Howard in third.

"A" Heat;
Tom Palma's #17 took the point at the green. On the second lap Vern had moved into P2 from his third row starting position.
It took one more lap for Vern to pull into first, Tom tried to challenge but couldn't out run the 38 car. At the checkered it was Vern Brown, Tom Palma and Don Fort's 12 car taking third.

Feature Event;
At the end of the first lap Vern had put himself out front and was off and running, followed closely by JZ i.e. John Zeilinga and alternately Eric Ritchey and Kenny Losch Jr.
The field of cars behind Vern stayed closely packed for most of the 15 laps until again on the last lap, in the back stretch Wally starting from 8th, with his brakes lighting the night, went under JZ's 58 and again it was a drag race to the line.
This time Wally, was able to hold on to 2nd with John Z in third and they could both see the winner, Vern (Downtown) Brown half the straight a way in front of them.

Rob Burgner's # 21 was the Pro-Am feature winner. This completed a sweep of all Pro-Am events for the rookie driver.

With all the problems the Rockford officials had with the track conditions, they, as usual put on an excellent show and FIRA was part of it.

Vern Brown has earned the title number one.
The closest points race in FIRA history is over,

September 5, 2003 Lake Geneva Speedway.
Time trials; Neal Gillentine toped the field with a 16.605, second was Wally Reitz at 16.865 and third to Vern Brown at 17.178.

Trophy Dash
Ladies choice ; 6 cars, 6 laps. From their second and third row starting positions respectively, the 9 of Anthony Wallace and the 12 of Don Fort immediately split the front cars and took the lead into the first turn with Anthony out front high and Don, low and second. On lap two, out of turn two the 23 of Keith Howard spins bringing out a yellow. Restart, single file, the 9 on point. the 9 & 12 diced with Anthony holding on to the lead until the last lap when Don Fort pulled off the pass and took the win with Anthony in second and the 42 of Mike Nelson making one of his rare appearances picking up third.

"B" Heat; 6 cars, 8 laps. Anthony Wallace was able to improve his dash finish and score the win. Second place went to the #14 of Kai McNulty and Dick Heath's #19 car ( the shark ) came home a strong third.

"A" Heat; 7 cars, 8 laps. It was the #6 of Eric Ritchey and the #12 of Don Fort out front first & second. Then it was the 12 & 6, then the 6 & 12 etc. On about lap 5, making his way from the rear was the #10 of Neal Gillentine. Neal took over the lead while the #1, Wally Reitz moved into third with Eric Ritchey in second. As Neal took the checkered flag for the win Wally passed Eric coming out of four and scored second with Eric settling for third.

Feature; 13 Cars, 15 laps. At the green Neal immediately started to make his move when, out of two, his drive let go and he was done for the night. Eric Ritchey took the lead and held on until the #38 of Vern Brown was able to take over and go on to score the win with Eric in second and Grant Greenfield's #37 in third.

Of Note; Rob Burgner's Pro-Am # 21 had engine problems and failed to run, Ken Losch Jr's 31 car blew the engine in practice, Mike Nelson's #42 car had problems and missed the call for his heat and Wally's #1 decided to sit out the feature due to a leg injury.
Had all cars timed in we would have had the best turn out of 2003. On to the Nationals!

ROCKFORD SPEEDWAY
LITTLE CAR NATIONAL SHORT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS
SEPTEMBER 27, 2003

Anthony Wallace brought out the only caution in the FIRA feature event when he spun coming out of turn four just six laps into the race. That didn't hold back Neal Gillentine as he powered to the feature win. Wally Reitz was able close to Gillentine's back bumper before Gillentine rocketed away from Reitz and the rest of the field.

"I felt a vibration so I slowed down a little bit. I was going to nurse the car to finish, but saw the Reitz's nose and had to run then," said Gillentine. "Rockford's the best place to come and run. No doubt about it. And the guys I race with are great. Everyone helps each other out."

photo>Robert Burgner was crowned the Pro-Am division feature winner. He only had one comment in victory lane. "It's all scary and it's all fun."

Time Trial -- 1. Neal Gillentine, Yorkville; 2. Anthony Wallace, W. Chicago; 3. Steve Lemke, Villa Park
     Trophy Dash -- 1. Anthony Wallace, W. Chicago; 2. Wally Reitz, Plainfield; 3. Kai McNulty,
Sturtevant, Wis
     Heat 1 -- 1. photo>John Zeilinga, West Chicago; 2. Richard Makin, Alliance, Ohio; 3. Mike MacDonald, Rittman, Ohio
     Heat 2 -- 1. Neal Gillentine, Yorkville; 2. Steve Lemke, Villa Park; 3. Wally Reitz, Plainfield
     Feature -- 1. Neal Gillentine, Yorkville; 2. Wally Reitz, Plainfield; 3. Steve Lemke, Villa Park; 4. Keith Howard, Franklin Park; 5. Kai McNulty, Sturtevant, Wis; 6. John Zeilinga, West Chicago; 7. Mike MacDonald, Rittman, Ohio; 8. Robert Burgner, Aurora; 9. Anthony Wallace, W. Chicago; 10. Chris Julian, St. Charles.

P=	Time Trials	Time	"B" Heat	"A" Heat	P=	Feature
1	# 10 Neal Gillentine	16.375	Anthony Wallace	Wally Reitz	1	Neal Gillentine
2	# 1 Wally Reitz	16.929	Kai McNulty	Vern Brown	2	Wally Reitz
3	# 37 Grant Greenfield	17.151	Kurt Williams	Don Fort	3	Vern Brown
4	# 38 Vern Brown	17.165	Dick Heath	Grant Greenfield	4	Anthony Wallace
5	# 6 Eric Ritchey	17.305	Barry Trusky	Eric Ritchey	5	Eric Ritchey
6	# 12 Don Fort	17.714	Doug Farrell	Keith Howard	6	Grant Greenfield
7	# 23 Keith Howard	18.000	Ken Losch Jr.	Neal Gillentine	7	Don Fort
8	# 9 Anthony Wallace	18.120			8	Keith Howard
9	# 14 Kai McNulty	18.165			9	Ken Losch Jr.
10	# 31 Ken Losch Jr.	18.342			10	Dick Heath
11	# 48 Kurt Williams	18.494			11	Kai McNulty
12	# 19 Dick Heath	19.778			12	Kurt Williams
13	# 73 Barry Trusky	20.669			13	Doug Farrell
					14	Barry Trusky