speed circuit   

Updated 11/17/2011

2011 WBC Report  

 2012 Status: pending 2012 GM commitment

Tim Carnahan, MD

2011 Champion

Links

  

Event History
1991    Scott Goehring      24
1992    Mike Fitzgerald      18
1993    Chris Hancock      16
1994    Andrew House      29
1995    Lane Hess      23
1996    Trevor Bender      26
1997    Robert Kircher      25
1998    John Weber      38
1999    Kevin Keller     27
2000    Gerald Lientz     28
2001    Scott Cornett     29
2002    Lance Ribeiro     35
2003    Douglas Schulz     32
2004    John Welage     30
2005    Dennis Nicholson     37
2006    Kevin Keller     32
2007    Terry Schulz     33
2008    Gerald Lientz     24
2009    Doug Schulz     31
2010    Lane Newbury     27
2011    Tim Carnahan     29
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Scott Cornett      FL    11    166
  2.  Kevin Keller       MD    11    107
  3.  Doug Schulz        MD    11     94
  4.  Terry Schulz       PA    10     92
  5.  Gerald Lientz      VA    09     81
  6.  Lane Newbury       TX    10     66
  7.  Jimmy Fleckenstein VA    07     66
  8.  Dennis Nicholson   NY    09     60
  9.  John Welage        OH    07     56
 10.  Lance Ribeiro      NH    02     52
 11.  Don Tatum          MD    11     42
 12.  Tim Carnahan       MD    11     40
 13.  Chris Hancock      PA    06     32
 14.  Trevor Bender      CA    02     32
 15.  Darin Morley       NC    04     26
 16.  Mike Aubuchon      PA    11     24
 17.  Seth Kirchner      KY    07     24
 18.  Jeff Cornett       FL    01     24
 19.  Robert Kircher     RI    10     21
 20.  John Shaheen       MA    08     18
 21.  Bruce Rae          bc    09     16
 22.  Lane Hess          PA    00     16
 23.  Jason O'Donnell    OH    01     13
 24.  Bruno PassacantandoCT    08     12
 25.  John Sharp III     FL    06     12
 26.  Robert Rund        MA    10      9
 27.  Tim Mossman        MD    08      9
 28.  Franklin Haskell   NH    03      9
 29.  Dan McGowan        ME    01      8
 30.  Dave Anderson      PA    00      8
 31.  Doug Galullo       MD    10      6
 32.  James Fleckenstein VA    02      4

2011 Laurelists                                                Repeating Laurelists:

Don Tatum, MD
2nd

Mike Aubuchon, PA
3rd

Kevin Keller, MD
4th

Doug Schultz, MD
5th

Scott Cornett, FL
6th

Past Winners

Mike Fitzgerald, CT
1992

Chris Hancock, NH
1993

Andrew House, MD
1994

Lane Hess, PA
1995

Trevor Bender, CA
1996

Robert Kircher, RI
1997

John Weber, MD
1998

Kevin Keller, MD
1999, 2006

Gerald Lientz, VA
2000, 2008

Scott Cornett, FL
2001

Lance Ribeiro, NH
2002

Doug Schulz, MD
2003, 2009

John Welage, OH
2004

Dennis Nicholson, NY
2005

Terry Schulz, PA
2007

Lane Newbury, TX
2010

Tim Carnahan, MD
2011
     

Jimmy Fleckenstein, Chris Hancock, Lane Newberry, Bruce Rae and Terry Schulz

Jeff Cornett, Michael Confoy, Jack Beckman and Don Tatum enjoy the view from the grandstand.

In the Fast Lane

Three new tracks (Valencia, Suzuka, and Sepang) awaited the drivers at the 2011 WBC, but most of the attention was drawn to the revised car construction table that allowed 80 mph acceleration and deceleration; 120 mph start speed, and 0 skill - all for the first time. The result was a lively debate of the merits of perhaps too easily allowing 80 acceleration. Anecdotally the dominate car this year appeared to be an 80/60 car starting near the front of the pack. On track, not a single car won a race after starting on row 1. However three of the six preliminary races were won by cars from the second row.

Valencia turned out to be best suited to running from the back of all the qualifying races this year. Don Tatum won one race after starting fourth, but Doug Schulz placed second, and Chris Long finished third from tenth and ninth on the grid respectively. Mike Aubuchon won the other Valencia table from ninth on the grid while Bruce Rae held on to finish second from second on the grid.

Suzuka was a middle of the pack field for most drivers who qualified Friday. Kevin Keller won one table from fourth, followed by Scott Cornett from eighth, and Franklin Haskell tenth. Tim Carnhan won the other table after starting seventh, Dennis Nicholson took second while starting ninth, and Robert Rund finished steadily in third after starting in the same spot.

Saturday's races saw a number of familiar faces on top at the end of two heats which is why those three thirds from earlier in the week qualified for the Final. The 12 qualifiers included five former champs. Sepang was a dice-filled affair at one table that ended with a win by Scott Cornett (who started the race in third) while Doug Galullo improved from ninth to second. The other table was calmer and ended with another 1-2 finish from Don Tatum (who was fifth on the grid) and Doug Schulz (who was ninth).

The Final was run on Istanbul and contested mostly by cars that won a qualifying heat plus the two runner-up qualifiers who spent the most on the grid. The grid was arranged from front to back like this: Tatum & Keller; Carnahan & Cornett; Aubuchon & Galullo; Schulz & Nicholson; Rae & Haskell; Rund and Long. Five cars were separated by a mere two spaces after sector 2 of the first lap: Carnahan, Tatum, Keller, Schulz, and Galullo. However, the latter had already broken his acceleration. By this point in the race the next car (Cornett) had already fallen six spaces behind the leader.

In the last corner of the first lap, Keller took a chance for the lead and spun, dropping him to fifth and ending his contention. The end of Lap 1 still saw four cars within two spaces at the front of the pack: Tatum, Carnahan, Galullo, and Schulz.

The pack dispersed more during Lap 2. Tatum had wrested control from Carnahan and consistently led him by one, two or three spaces at every check point. Schulz passed Galullo this lap and was making a run at the leaders down the back straight at the end of Lap 2 when his top speed broke. He would end Lap 2 only three spaces behind Tatum, but would not really be able to challenge either Tatum or Carnahan again this race. Galullo, Haskell, Cornett, and Keller would also start Lap 3 close to the two leaders but none were able to stay with them through the first two sectors of the final lap.

The leaders lengthened the gap between them and the rest of the field. As they ran down the back straight for the last time, Tatum was three spaces in front and 11 spaces clear of Galullo in third. Tatum ran the last two corners clean but Carnahan needed two chance rolls and a test brakes in order to contest for the win... and he made them all (the chances, modified) to pull alongside Tatum mere spaces before the finish line. On the next turn, Varnahan had the advantage of exiting the last corner faster than Tatum and succeeded in pushing both his acceleration and top speed in order to cross the line one space ahead to win the championship at his first WBC.

Behind our two leaders, many dice were rolled. Galullo spun in the second to last corner and Cornett did likewise in the last corner, which allowed Aubuchon to move from fifth to third. Keller rolled two chances in the last two corners to claim fourth and Schulz rolled a naked chance in the last corner to claim fifth. Cornett recovered from his spin to finish sixth. The rest of the cars finished in order: Haskell, Long, Rae, Galullo, and Nicholson. Rund was the lone retirement having lost his brakes in the beginning of the last lap.

A picture is worth a thousand words so for a turn-by-turn pictorial account see the only photo album at Picasa (http://picasaweb.google.com/lucidphoenix/WBCFinalsTurnByTurn). Speed Circuit racing as practised at WBC can be viewed at http://www.lucidphoenix.com/sc/wbc/

Doug Galullo and John Welage have prime seats in the pits.

GM Doug Schulz's tracks have been a WBC tradition for 15 years.
 GM      Doug Schulz  [15th Year]   NA 
    doug@lucidphoenix.com   NA

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