VALLEJO, CALIFORNIA | OCTOBER 29, 2005

As the final seconds tick off, eight brightly painted, rather bulbous looking cars are poised at the starting line. Under the cartoon-like bodies, motors and chassis have been tweaked and tuned, balanced and lubed to the very edge of legality in pursuit of maximum velocity. The drivers, already nervous from copious amounts of caffeine and cheap donuts, are getting twitchy. Most of them rarely race these kind of cars. Some never have. And every one of them wrestles with the knowledge that something bad is almost inevitable.

The starting grid.

That something is instantaneous as the race starts and the cars scream down the straightaway on the fastest King track in Northern California. All the cars, that is, except one, which pops out of its slot like a frog in a hot skillet. The turn marshall puts it back in, where it immediately lurches backwards, flies out of the slot and flips over on its back, a victim of wrong wiring.

This dubious beginning marks the first annual Durl's Interiors P/T Cruiser Enduro at Eddie's Slot Car World in Vallejo, California. Eleven two-person Expert/Amateur teams will race fifteen minute heats, with each driver running seven and a half minutes per heat. Many of NorCal's top drivers have turned out for this event, some from the wing side of things wanting to give the scale angle a shot.

Race Director FRED PIERPONT and LISA IMMEL.

With the errant car quickly re-wired by track owner Eddie Wong, the race resumed in earnest with the team of Don Snider and Fulvio DaPas, on purple, taking the heat with 157 laps. In this race format, they would sit out the next four rounds, creating one of the more bitter illusions of the day. Though Ray Chamberlin and "Uncle Gary" Hoehn would take the next two heats, and Greg Kondrek and "Durl" Vance's aggregate lap totals would lead the race (despite their "reversal of fortune" at the start), it was heat four that would offer a glimpse as to how this event would develop.

Harold Rowe and Tom Thomas came in on red, and with Thomas' blistering run of 82 laps, turned in a heat of 161, over seven laps ahead of Chamberlin/Hoehn. When Don and Fulvio returned in heat 5 the race was really on as these two teams spent the rest of the Enduro battling for supremacy. By heat 8 Don & Fulvio had reduced a ten lap deficit to one. By heat 9 Harold and Tom had eked out one more lap to lead by two.

Harold Rowe & Tom Thomas' orange cruiser spent most of the day battling for the lead with Don Snider & Fulvio DaPas.

Towards the end of heat 10 Harold fell victim to a broken axle, and though he rushed to the pits to repair it, he couldn't get back in before the heat ended, and that made all the difference. Don and Fulvio finished the heat with 159 laps to Harold and Tom's 141. Though they drove the final heat with maniacal determination, winning it with 155 laps, they simply could not make up the laps lost as Snider and DaPas won the race by 13 laps.

2005 Enduro winners FULVIO DAPAS and DON SNIDER.

Don Snider's racing proved once again that for all intents and purposes, he "owns" the King at Slot Car World, having already won this year's Firecracker 400. And Fulvio DaPas showed why he is one of the top "Advanced" drivers in NorCal/SCRA, turning in mind-numbing runs with a very fast and dependable car. That these guys managed to beat two of the top "Expert" drivers in Harold and Tom says a lot.

Chamberlin and Hoehn finished third, some 48 laps behind. Kondrek and Vance, their wiring problem proving inconsequential after all, wound up fourth, 61 laps out. Surprise of the day was the all-Amateur team of Lisa Immel and Danny Boy, driving their Wong-Wolf prepared car to a sixth pace finish, beating out a lot of so called "experts" in the process. Fresno's Jim Langdon took the first place Concours prize with a beautifully realized Halloween-themed beauty.

Box plaques and eight slotto prizes were awarded, and drivers received complementary Durl's Interiors. Additional prizes were provided by Magna Jiggy and Body Block, Liquid Bearings oil, and R.E.H. Distributors.

CONCOURS:
1. JIM LANGDON
2. SAMANTHA GOUGH
3. JEFF INGHAM

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