Jocham/Hurtado Tops at IEHO

On April 3^rd, thirteen racers arrived at MICKEY HURTADO’S Inland Empire HO Raceway for race 2 in the newly formed Old ‘n Nasty Series and the NAS-T-JET Series.  This day would prove to be a very important day in the early life of this new series, as dramatic rule changes would be made. These changes were brought on by the obvious dominance of the Frayjet chassis over the JL chassis. In this series, both chassis are/were legal but, not for long. With the qualifying times of the Frayjet setups averaging almost a second  faster than the JL crowd, it was obvious that something needed to be done. The group agreed to have a discussion and a vote…after the race.  

The race seemed like a mini marathon, as racers ran 25 lap heats, across all four lanes of the arduous, torture track that HURTADO assembled. The track was in good shape and the qualifying began.  Three JL’s started the proceedings, all averaging in the high 11 second to mid-12 second range.  Then GREG DAVIS, in a sweet ‘66 Fairlane, ripped off a 10.96 for the pole. But…would it last? At this point, the fastest JL was MATT PAUL, who ran an 11.72. A couple more racers posted low 12’s and then young MICHAEL HURTADO threw down with his JL, posting a ‘JL Pole’ winning 11.36 lap, which won him a big bonus point. With only a couple drivers remaining, RICK JOCHAM ran his ‘69 Dodge Daytona Charger hard, to squeak past DAVIS and snag the Pole, posting a 10.85.  

As the racing ensued, the Top 3 cars, all Frayjets, were dominating the action. In addition to JOCHAM and DAVIS, DOUG BROWN was having his way with most of the field. Among the JL set, host HURTADO was quietly making his way to winning half of his heats and the top spot in the JL category. HURTADO finished the race with a very impressive 12 points out of a possible 16, an outstanding run with a JL.  The race for the win was down to 2 racers, as BROWN had mucho problemas in the Red gutter lane, scoring only 1 point and eliminating him from the hunt. DAVIS and JOCHAM both ended up winning 3 of their 4 heats and placing 2^nd in the remaining one, placing them in a tie, with 15 points each. As per the rules, all ties revert to qualifying times and, by virtue of Jocham’s qualifying lap, which was 11/100 of a second faster than DAVIS, JOCHAM took the drive to Victory Lane for the second time in as many races. 

This race had 2 Victory Lanes
One for the Frayjet class and One for the JL class. 
HURTADO also took the revered ride to Victory lane,
marking his first win in the series, this year!
MATT PAUL was the JL winner!

In an effort to consolidate and simplify, the club voted, after the race, to limit the series to ONLY JL CHASSIS!  
There were four choices: All Frayjet, All JL, Both with tire restrictions on Frayjets, or Both….half you race with one, half with the other. 

By a margin of 1 vote, all JL won out over Both with tire restrictions. 
So, the rest of the season, there won’t be a split field.  

Thanks go out to all who made the drive and participated. Also, BIG THANKS go out to our series sponsor, Model Motoring, and Harrison, who once again, showed up with cool prizes and lots of great products. We urge you to patronize Model Motoring and re-discover real, vintage hard body racing! 

The next Old n’ Nasty Series race is on May 15^th, at Jocham Raceway. 

This will be a unique (and long) day, as it is the only day in the season, where we will run 3 classes. In addition, our friends from Arizona will be joining in the fun! Hope to see you there.