There is not a whole lot I can add to Bill's write up
about the weekend at Pacific Raceways. Bill and Peyote
were pretty awesome on the track. I was there for the
first race on Sunday, the one where Bill elected to go
for his best times. Wow, there was a whole lot of time
between him and the 2nd place car, to the point where I
was wondering what happened to the rest of the pack.
The TR250K had a great race on Sunday morning. During
the first three laps Tony came up the straight just
sitting on the rear bumper of that BMW 2002, you could
tell he was itching to get by, but it sure seemed like
he was taking his time figuring out where to pass. I
was a little surprised to see that one-of-a-kind TR250K
being driven as hard as it was, but Tony apparently knew
what he was doing and was driving the car as it was
designed to be driven. According to what I heard from
the announcer, he made a few attempts at getting by, but
was closed out. Finally, he had the opportunity to pass
comming out of a turn right in front of the grandstand
and the BMW was not able to catch up for the duration of
the race, although he was close enough that if the TR
faltered or got hung up in traffic, he would have gotten
by. In this race, as well as Bill's, there were a lot
of good dogfights further back in the pack too.
While I've seen pictures of the TR250K, looking at it up
close and personal, it's hard to believe it was built in
1967(?). The lines are fabulous, almost exotic. It
really did look a bit out of place on the track with the
other period cars, to me at least. Peyote looked out of
place on the track too, but for the completely opposite
reason.<Huge Grin>.
We were unable to make it to the track on Saturday, with
the kid's baseball, etc., but my wonderful wife, Susan,
was willing to give up part of her Mother's Day to head
out to the track. We had a great time with Bill and
his "pit crew" and appreciate the hospitality shown to
us. Everyone from my family had a great time, something
which doesn't usually happen we when go to the tracks.
Jack Brooks
> I promised to give my impression of the Hoosiers. I love 'em. I actually
> took about four seconds of my typical lap time at Pacific Raceway
> (formerly known as Seattle International Raceway). Did a whole bunch of
> sliding and slithering around, but I got used to it--very controllable. I
> found it very fast in tight turns to just let the back end hang out and
> keep my foot in it. A little disconcerting on the sweepers at first, but I
> finally got the point of drifting all the way through the turn. The end
> result was that my car started the weekend off four seconds a lap faster
> than second place and by the end of the weekend when I was getting the
> most out of the tires it was six seconds faster. It gets kind of lonely
> out there, so I slowed down and played with a Porsche-powered Cooper
> (Pooper). After pushing him so hard I couldn't see nipping him at the end,
> so I backed off and took second. My that sounds smug. Second race I
> decided to just go for best times, so I lapped my way up to about fifth
> place. Third race there was a young kid just flying in a well-prepped
> Sprite, so we swapped the lead back and forth a few times, I made an
> impromptu rule that I wouldn't pass in the straights, and we had a ball.
> He passed me in the carousel on the last lap, and I couldn't break my
> rule, so I took second again.
>
> Peyote is just ripping. I'm going to get the organizers to put me into a
> faster class. Kas, you'll be pleased to know that your TR250K was running
> in the group I want to move into--Tony Garmey won all three races in it,
> beating a bunch of very fast cars, including a blistering-fast 2002 BMW
> and a raft of really fast Porsches. I think I might have been able stay in
> contact with the lead group--Tony turned a 1:40 something, I turned a 1:42
> with no one to race with (I tend to get sloppy when I'm not pushed). The
> TR250K looked and sounded great. What a car.
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