Kamikawa Rules 2005 Deckertring Debut

FROM THE PADDOCK
By Rob Varsha

Round 11 of the 2005 ISF championship was contested at the Deckertring, SMI’s newest entity.  The night went well although it was a tough night for a lot of the drivers in attendance as numerous DNFs dotted the night.
THE DECKERTRING debuted on time thanks to two weeks of non-stop work by the SMI projects crew, led by salty job boss Bo “Buster” Hymen.  The track infrastructure was completed a week out from the race with track smoothing three nights prior.  The day before the race the curb aprons were installed and on race night as the first cars were taking to the track, temporary crash walls were installed.  The ISF teams worked out of an open paddock area as a formal pit road is still in the design phase and thus was not ready for race night.

  

"The 'Ring" -- The Deckertring made its ISF debut to a large crowd.

 The Deckertring, when completed, will be a natural terrain road course set amidst a forest backdrop.  The “feel” that SMI is going for is a Hockenheimring or Nurburgring-type setting. 
AS EXPECTED, Ev Kamikawa, the fastest driver in the ISF right now, owned the Deckertring and it’s high speed turns and straightaways.  Kamikawa completely dusted the field in GTP qualifying by a wide margin and then cruised to an easy-looking victory in the main event.
 Kamikawa’s main competitors in this year’s championship, Jim Iverson and John Shea, were nowhere to be found at the finish.  Iverson never got the handle on the new track and DNF’d into the scenery early in the night for a sixth place finish overall.  The result all but killed his GTP title hopes -- nothing short of a Stevie Ray Vaughn for Kamikawa between now and the season finale will allow Iverson a chance at the title.

Everet Kamikawa won both the GTP and F1GP features at the Deckertring.

 Shea, meanwhile, qualified second and raced Kamikawa hard in the main event before falling a lap adrift.  Struggling to keep pace with the unmatchable Tenoras Toyota of Kamikawa, Shea had a mighty off at the end of the S-turns which put him out for the night with a fourth place finish.
 The 2005 GTP championship looked like it was going to be a classic.  Finally, after several years of one breakaway driver, it seemed like a legitimate three-horse race was on for the title.  Sadly, in recent weeks, the GTP class has looked a lot like the GT class -- one big fat Kamikawa benefit.  All credit to Kamikawa for coming to terms with his GTP program and taking the fight to the rest of the field, and once again Toyota will take the constructor championship, putting that lone Jaguar title of the inaugural season one step further into the past.
TRUE TO his word, John Shea’s new Deckertring track catered wine and cheese for the sports car crowd.  Two bottles of wine, several pounds of cheese, 75 chicken wings, two bags of chips and a case of soda were consumed during the race night.
THE END of Monza -- The mighty Monza circuit has apparently gone the way of the legendary Nordschleife section of the Nurburgring.  When the Deckertring was built, pieces from the Monza circuit were used in its construction and subsequently became unavailable after being chemically bonded to the track table.  As such, SMI has pulled the plug on the event for 2005 and shifted the date to Bayside.
 Monza was the ultimate test for both man and machine.  Only a fast car could tame the mammoth track’s legendary straightaways, and only a driver totally committed to taking the car as far into the braking zones as possible would be able to get the maximum speed out of a lap.

Only one way to run Monza -- balls out, totally committed -- as Margetta, Shea and Rotter demonstrate in 2004.

 The Monza circuit enjoyed a four year run in the ISF.  John Shea and his Minolta Toyota won the first race in 2001, outlasting Larry Rotter’s Jaguar and dodgy weather conditions which switched from cool and rainy to hot and sunny.  In 2002, Everet Kamikawa took the win in a Mercedes C9, shadowed at the finish by Jim Iverson in a Porsche 962.  A switch to Jaguar in 2003 allowed Iverson to take the win in the first Monza event held at night as the season finale.  Shea’s Toyota was the runner-up in 2003, and again in 2004.  The 2004 edition will be remembered as a classic which featured Shea and Dan Margetta in a tooth and nail fight for a full 60 minutes, with Margetta narrowly scoring the win in a Porsche 962.

 There are apparently no plans to bring Monza back, but in racing as in life, never say never.  “I don’t see Monza coming back anytime soon, but perhaps one day we will all get nostalgic and do it again,” SMI President John Shea stated when asked about Monza’s future.
RAPIDS REVIVAL -- The racetrack known as Rapids International Raceway, home to the ISF for years, is no more.  The track was completely demolished and the area turned back over to the Rapids town board.
 A location for a new track has been acquired according to RIR owner Ev Kamikawa, but the track design and name (if changing) are being closely guarded secrets at present.
THE FACTORY Corvette team of Chad Sorce and John Shea apparently will be back in 2006.  The team recently acquired a car hauler to bring their program’s “bling factor” to a more premiere level.  Now if the on-track pace of the cars could make a similar step forward and break up some of the GT class tedium, I believe everyone in the ISF would be cheering for the yellow Corvettes.

The new factory Corvette team hauler is even rumored to have adequate lighting . . .

MARGETTA TO run “second” car -- After having several drivers run his cars in 2005, Opus Racing team boss Mike Fitzlaff has apparently selected his number one car for himself for 2006.  “Iron Mike” is keen to make a run at the GTP title and is pulling his trump card as team owner to take the number one spot in the team, and the car to go with it.

Margetta in a victory pose at Monza in 2004.

 The move leaves Dan Margetta as number two driver -- at best -- as he has been sharing a ride with Dean Strom throughout the 2005 championship.  Opus Racing has said it will field cars for both Margetta and Strom, but one has to wonder how Margetta will take being placed as number two when his racing mantra has always been “win or crash trying.”  Margetta would be just as happy to either go to the front or crash out it seems, and there is some serious doubt as to whether or not he would be an effective teammate running in third or fourth spot while the team leader tries to gain maximum points.Time will tell and the ISF off-season is a long one, so anything can happen . . .