Hey Youse Guys,
Mid Ohio was quite a decent event... I thought turnout was pretty good
considering it was new on the schedule (and the club promotion of it
sucked). The weather turned out to be good (although camping in the back of
my truck Fri night at 35 degrees was a challenge. It was a 3 dog night, and
all 4 of my dogs were at home...)
After a quick rebuild Thursday AM (thanks PPP) of my right front suspension,
I was anxious to see how the car felt with a shock absorber and a A arm
fulcrum pin with no slop in it. I got to the track about 10 pm Friday
night... knocked on Grenade's camper, and was greeted by Gary sportin pillow
head, some little white undies, no shirt, no glasses, and a confused look.
(Guess I woke him up... sorry Gary). I parked my rig, crawled in back,
zippered into my sleeping bag, and crashed.
I ran about a 1/10th of of COlby's time my first time on the track, which
pissed him off, and caused him to put his foot in it the next session. His
new car is really pretty. We sorted thru Grenade's continuing lack of revs
issue, and determined his tach was FUBAR above 6k, and after changing his
rev limiting chip out, he got the revs he's been searching for all season.
I'd bought 2 185/60's for the front of my car, but knew the rears would not
last the weekend. But just the fronts were $270 friggin dollars, so that's
all I could afford. Gary co-drove my car in the enduro, and we tossed the
A/70's on for SUnday.
The track is picturesque, and the surface is in great shape. Facilities are
top notch too. Once I figured out which way all the turns went (took 2
sessions to do that) it wasn't a real hard track to drive. It was definitely
a rhythm track, rewarded late apexes. What I didn't like, was that like Mid
America and Gingerman, there are very few (if any) late braking
opportunities into hard corners... in other words, its a very fast track in
nearly all the sections. Fun to drive, not nearly as much fun to race , at
least in a 948.
My car ran great all weekend, never put a wrench to it. I believe my best
lap was a 1:54. I think I won class in the sprint race, and I'm guessing
Gary and I won class in the enduro. I pulled off in the feature on Sunday
with about 3 laps to go, as my throttle started sticking. Turns out, that
wasn't such a bad thing, as all hell broke loose. A big Healey t boned a 356
that had lost it in 1. Didn't see the 356, but the Healey was a mess, and
the Porsche was supposedly worse. Mark Pirner's # 117 white bugeye got into
the wall both front and back when he slid in someone's oil. In the enduro,
Bert Saydock got into a 911 and then the tire wall, and Barb "Mrs. Cleavage"
Nevoral looped to the inside of 11 in Bernie's 7 and smacked the tire wall.
Jerry Landers and I were having a good go at it most of the weekend. Up
front, Colby, Gerald Allen, Roger "Lonely F*ck" Heil were at each other, and
Dr J and an XKE were having at it too.
I've never been so close to bitch slappin' another racer as I was during the
warm up on the feature. For pace laps, they send you out with a the marshall
splitting you right or left for the start. We're out there, (and its
relatively cold) and typically, you'll do the "side to side" weave to build
some temperature in your tires. Next to me on the grip was a reddish/orange
Guilietta, with a fairing on it. I had not seen him out there earlier
Sunday, or Saturday. His car was smoking some, and as we're on the pace lap,
the guys decides to use up the entire track for his "side to side"... and
puts me into the grass twice. I finally pull up alongside him (still on the
pace lap), raise my hand (no finger extended) and give him a "what the f*ck"
look. During the race he was black flagged as his car started smoking real
bad (pity, huh?).
After the race, I head down there to look for the guy. He's way too clean...
apparently an "arrive and drive" kind of guy. I say..."were you driving the
Alfa?" He says, "were you the guy pointing at me?" I told him he managed to
put me in the grass twice during the warm-up. At this point, he's still not
getting it. He says " I race here a lot, and we always go single file and
use the entire track width. Apparently, it didn't occur to him that no one
else was doing this. I pointed that out, and suggest he glance over at that
little thing on the left door. I said " that's called a mirror... you should
consider using it, you asshole".
Dr. Dreadful and Mrs. Dreadful did their usual great job of organizing the
small bore enduro and enduro lunch that we hosted in Thicko Village. (Note
to Rick... 3 pages of instructions for the enduro???)
The evenings were too cold for the Thickotones to play (which really broke
my heart... not!).
Racing season is over, time for the 6 month winter long depression.
WST
Flounder
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