Jan 2007 Go Racing.indd - Go Racing Magazine

Gumpfer
head honcho Greg Bell returned after a two-year
hiatus, sandwiching his consultation track days within
a week-long solo vacation.
Even with the slightly smaller than normal starting
field and the Saturday postponement, the Friday night
crowd showed up bright and early Sunday morning
for an intensely condensed schedule – two hours
of open practice, two laps of qualifying and then
straight into the heats. With the track having dried
off overnight and overdue sunshine bringing Maui
back to life, conditions resembled any normal race
weekend in Puunene, but the constant threat of midafternoon
showers meant organizers could not take
their sweet time getting everyone on and off course
expediently. Subsequently all on-track activity went
off without a hitch, and even a small crowd of loyal
spectators turned out despite witnessing no traditional
opening ceremonies and having no trackside catering
truck available on the makeup date.
With the exception of the KT-100 Heavy class, the
overall winners wound up sweeping all three heats,
but by no means did that equate to a boring day
trackside. The trio of Tom Zaccagnini, Perrin and Jim
Schubert hotly contested the Parilla Leopard rounds,
generating by far the most ontrack
contact and the day’s only
spin, when Schubert looped
it entering the backstretch
as the leader during the
Page 28 Go Racing Magazine January 2007