Jesse Love claims the Harvest Classic

13-year old racer Jess Love of Menlo Park California made history Saturday night at Madera Speedway as he won the 46^th annual Harvest Classic and became the youngest winner in the storied 79-year history of the Bay Cities Racing Association.  

Love started his night by qualifying second in BCRA time trials, as he powered his Van Dyne-powered 51 Fifty energy drinks to a time of 14.089 seconds, just 13/1000 of a second slower than fast qualifier Mark Maliepaard in his Esslinger-powered Fit & Finish Hot Rod Interiors Special. Perennial Madera standout Chad Nichols timed in third fastest in the orange #17 Shanonian Esslinger, with David Goodwill fourth and Cody Jessop fifth overall.

2013 BCRA Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Screeton made his return to racing in the #1N Shanonian entry and qualified sixth fastest with Cody Gerhardt seventh fastest as the team battled fuel delivery issues.

US Western Speed 2 midget standout Toni Breidinger, USAC’s winningest female driver joined the BCRA field in her family’s #26B Honda-powered midget with an eighth-place qualifying effort, and Joey Iest, currently second in USAC Western Speed 2 midget point standings, qualified ninth, with the ageless JR Williams tenth and Austin Carter in the second Jessop Western Speed2 racing entry rounded out the qualifying field in eleventh.  Frankie Guerrini was unable to make the qualifying call as his Bob Rosen-owned Mr. Espresso midget suffered an oil pump issue during practice and was withdrawn.         

Chad Nichols claimed the lead of the first heat race at the drop of the green flag, was never challenged, and brought home the win over Jessop, Maliepaard, Gerhardt and Austin Carter. Screeton proved that was just as fast as ever as he led the second heat for several laps before he surrendered the lead to Jesse Love on lap six and trailed Love to the finish line. Goodwill finished third, with Iest fourth and JR Williams in fifth place.

Late in the evening, after the 10-car BCRA feature pushed off as the last race of the night, Chad Nichols jumped into the lead in the first turn trailed by David Goodwill, Love, Maliepaard and Jessop. On lap three, BCRA stalwart JR Williams pulled his midget into the infield, and then on lap five Love maneuvered past Goodwill to take over second place, five car lengths behind Nichols, then three laps later Maliepaard dropped Goodwill to fourth place.

On lap 13, Love began to reel in the leader Nichols and an epic duel ensued as Jesse in the blue #5 Van Dyne looked first to the high side then the low side of Chad, all the while glued to the rear nerf bar of the orange #17. On lap 21 as the pair entered turn three of the fast Madera 1/3-mile oval, Love dove to the bottom and after wheel-to-wheel contact, emerged with the lead briefly before Nichols recaptured the point.

On lap 24, Love again tried the inside move into turn three and again the lead cars bumped and both bobbled, with Nichols was scored the leader at the start-finish line. Finally, on lap 28, Love moved past Nichols in turn three to take the lead for good and finished the 30-lap feature .391 seconds ahead of Nichols to score his historic first BCRA feature win.

Mark Maliepaard recorded the race’s fastest lap and scored a strong third place finish, with Cody Jessop in fourth place and Goodwill fifth.  Cody Gerhardt finished sixth, with Jimmy Screeton a lap behind the leaders in seventh, trailed by Toni Breidinger in eighth place and Austin Carter in ninth, two laps in arrears. JR Williams, with the only car that did not complete the race was placed tenth.

Jesse Love, left, and car owner Tres Van Dyne, right 

celebrate Love's historic BCRA feature victory

BCRA wishes to recognize and thank the USAC Western Speed2 midget car owners, mechanics and drivers that made the necessary changes to their cars and joined the regular BCRA racers to present a thrilling non-stop race for the fans.

The mighty midgets of the Bay Cities Racing Association return to action on September 29^th at the unique ¼-mile paved Lakeport Speedway on the grounds of the Lake County Fairgrounds.

Mark your calendars now for the big BCRA year-end doubleheader at the lightning-fast paved Stockton 99 Speedway on Saturday October 27th and Sunday October 28^th as part of the ‘Gun Slingers Sprint Car Series Championship’ weekend, with two complete shows that will also include the BCRA vintage division.                  

The $500,000 Gunther Werks 400R

 

The 400R in the 2017 SEMA Battle of the Builders staging area

The only imported car named as one of the twelve finalists for the 2017 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) Battle of the Builder was this Gunther Werks 400R, a modified 1995 Porsche 911 Carrera which was displayed during the week in the Meguiar’s booth.

The 400R in the Meguiar's booth

 

Gunther Werks was founded in Orange County California by Peter Nam, the man behind, a company best known for body kits for luxury cars such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz and Vorsteiner Nero which builds kits for high-end sports cars such as Lamborghini and McLaren. For more than 14 years, Vorsteiner has manufactured autoclaved pre-impregnated carbon fiber composite parts and now offers forged aluminum custom wheels.

 

 

The 400R in the Meguiar's booth

 

The company name is an homage to Günter Wendt, a German born mechanical engineer who worked with NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) as an employee of McDonnell Aircraft and North American Aviation. Wendt was in charge of the spacecraft service crew on the launch pads for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs and the early phases of the space shuttle program at the Kennedy Space Center before he retired in 1989.   

 

The 400R in the 2017 SEMA Battle of the Builders staging area

 

Gunther Werks specializes in the development of its Porsche 993 400R designed to retain the appearance and driving experience of the Porsche 993 (the last air-cooled Porsche) but augment it with modern technology   Only 25 examples of the $525,000 Porsche 993 400R conversion will be produced, each customer car modified to the customer’s specifications.    

Photo provided by Gunther Werks

 

Rothsport Racing enlarged the stock Carrera’s 3.6 liter flat-six naturally aspirated engine to 4.0-liters of displacement, and the engine uses Mahle pistons, billet connecting rods and billet crankshaft which are blueprinted and balanced before its dynamometer test. The power and torque targets are 330 foot-pounds (ft/lb) of torque and 400+ horsepower with a 7800 revolutions per minute (RPM) redline, which is quite an increase from the stock 911 Carrera’s 272 horsepower, 243 ft/lb of torque and a rev limit of  6700 RPM.   

 

 

 

According to Gunther Werks, “all the greatest Porsche race cars ran a square track where the front and rear tracks were the same width which helped to eliminate the inherent understeer of the 911 platform.” Apparently these folks have never seen a Porsche 917, in particular the 917/30 SCCA Can-Am car which had a 4-1/2 inch wider front track than the rear.

The 400R has a 63-inch track both front and rear, a huge increase from the stock 55.3 inch front and 56.8 inch rear track widths. In addition the 400R is equipped with 8-1/2 inch wide front and 11-1/2 inch wide rear Pirelli P Zero tires , which is 1-1/2 wider than stock in front and 2-1/2 inches wider in the rear.  

To incorporate the extra width, the 400R bodywork retains the basic style of the earlier 911 models, but uses carbon-fiber composite body panels, hood, deck lid, spoiler, front fascia and roof to create a customized body that is lighter weight, stronger and more rigid than the original.

While it was an honor to be selected to participate in the Battle of the Builders the 400R did not make it to the top-three finalists as Troy Trepanier’s winning 1929 Ford Model-A Tudor sedan edged out Alan Johnson’s 1932 Ford Tudor Sedan and Troy Ladd’s 1936 Packard roadster. 


 
Information for this article was provided by Gunther Werks which is not affiliated with Porsche Cars North America, Inc., or Dr Ing h.c.F. Porsche, AG. The Porsche®, 993® and 911® names are trademarks of Dr. Ing. h.c.F. Porsche AG. Any mention of trademarked names is for purpose of reference only.

http://guntherwerks.com/

All photos by the author unless noted