Continued from first post...
I chose to sit on the sidelines for the qualifying race, and was
surprised to see so many cars take the track. I guess I was a little
gun-shy remembering the last time I ran in conditions like this. But by
the time the feature race came around, I was more determined to go have
some fun, and drove the TR4 to the grid. Since I didn't run the
qualifying race I was not on the grid sheet. I was asked what my lap
time was. I told him I ran a 28.3 but I didn't run the qualifying race.
He looks at his sheet and says I should be gridded 6th. I told him his
sheet had the wet times from the qualifying race. I ask to see the sheet
and tell where I should go. They still grid me higher than I deserve,
and Randy and all the rest of the guys up there start giving me the
business about how much beer I promised the guy. I don't think any of
them bought my excuse that with the wet track they didn't want faster
cars starting at the back. So we took the track and it was really slick,
I let a by few of the guys I had no business being in front of. By the
end of the race we almost had a dry line most of the way around the
track. I had a great race with John Targett in his RHD red MGB hardtop.
We traded positions a couple times, had some fun with an insanely fast
Turner, and when the checker dropped I was in front of both John and the
Turner, so life is good. I ended up with a 9th overall and second in
class. I am pretty sure Group 3 had the only 'almost' decent track
conditions all Sunday, as the next group left the grid the unrelenting
rain came back, and it never really gave up.
Friday afternoon the race cars go downtown to show off the cars and do a
couple parade laps around the original race circuit. Bob Williams and
his crew did the best job I ever participated in getting us downtown and
parked with no overheating woes, and off and around the original street
course with minimal fuss and jockeying. Helen told me before the event
she had done the circuit enough times, and it was time to offer my
passenger seat to someone else. As I sat having dinner Thursday night
with my Western PA Triumph club friends, I brought up the subject. Bruce
Stutzman immediately said I needed to offer the seat to Diane, Bill
Babcock's wife. Seems that even with all of Bill's fantastic negotiating
skills, he was unable to persuade SVRA that having her sit on the fuel
cell in Peyote's passenger compartment was a good idea. So Diane and I
blasted around the course waiving at all the fans. Speaking of the fans,
I have never seen so many folks both downtown and along the road course.
Watkins Glen was packed!
Another fun weekend at Watkins Glen. Thanks to Jack W and the rest of
the SVRA gang.
BTW, the results are already up on mylaps.com
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