[Fot] Kas Kup 2011 report

[TRDOCTOR at aol.com]

Great write up.  Wish I could have been there.
 
Sam
 
 
In a message dated 6/8/2011 11:40:47 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
tony at tonydrews.com writes:

Kas Kup  2011 report

Drove from Illinois to Buttonwillow CA, made it ahead of  time.
Beautiful drive!  Track was open Friday for test day so got set  up in
plenty of time.  Had the privilege of attending the VARA  rookie
meeting (2 hours) and wearing rookie stripes on my car for that  event.
Much fun was had by all.  In the Sunday race, all of the  white
Triumphs were parked by the side of the track.  Jerry Barker  killed a
tranny, Paul Smock broke a (billet crower) crank, and John Frymark  ran
out of gas.  John's was the preferable failure.  I was the  2nd TR in
the finishing order, I think.  Ok track, but I wouldn't go a  great
distance to drive it again.

Stayed overnight in Buttonwillow,  drove up to Laguna Seca on Monday.
Gorgeous drive.  Got to Laguna Seca  around 3 pm, and found Jerry
changing trannys and they had just finished  pulling Paul's engine -
lashed to two boards with people lifting (!).   I missed the pull by 3
minutes.  Darn.  :)

We were let in  and were given primo front row paddock positions.
Paul's car was started  with new motor with an hour to spare for the
morning practice.  THAT's  not being beaten by equipment!  Very
impressive.  Went out for  practice Tuesday morning, and those couple
of hundred laps of Laguna on the  various game consoles paid off.  I
knew the layout, just needed to  figure out the speeds.  WHAT  A
TRACK!!!!  Wow.

Had a  couple of races later Tuesday.  I did pretty well, top 5ish.
The 250K,  Mordy's bionic TR-4, Greg Solow's bionic Morgan, Jerry
Barker's bionic  Herald and eventually Bill Hart and his very nice TR
Devin were my main  competition.  All were very well driven.  Greg
broke a clutch and  took the car home for repair.  Jerry put in another
tranny or  two.

Wednesday, the first race had me gridded 3rd, but numbers 1 and 2  were
no-shows putting me on the pole.  I had a great dice with Bill  Hart,
going side by side through turns 2 and 3 and pulled out a bit of  a
gap.  After several laps, we got a full course caution with pace  car
due to a car stopped in an impact zone.  Bill Hart and Greg Solow  were
the two cars behind me and I knew I was sunk.  Thankfully, we  ended
under caution and I won.  Yeah!

The 2nd race was the  Kastner Cup race and everyone was there in full
force.  I was gridded  on the pole (!).  John gave a nice writeup of
the race.  It was a  great battle.  I held off Bill Hart until nearly
the end - missed a  shift on the last run to the checkered flag.  Only
shift I missed all  weekend.  It let him by me by half a car length at
the finish.   It was a great drive by Bill.  I think that put me in
6th.  We  had a fantastic time playing with each other all weekend.

The 3rd race  was the "trophy" race.  Again, I started on the pole.  I
was  passed by Greg Solow immediately, but he was having grip issues
and I  passed him back in turn 3.  I pulled out a bit of a gap, but  he
eventually found grip in his tires and drove back by me.  Bill  Hart
finally became one with the track and blew by me, and had a great  dice
with Greg.  Eventually I saw a red car looming in my mirror  and
assumed it was Mordy.  Upon further inspection it was  Charlie
Mitchell.  I held him off for a while, but he eventually got  by me.
That's the way we finished: Greg, Bill, Charlie and me.

The  hospitality was great, I'm sore but happy (almost too much track
time), and  I need a new left rear tire, because I wore it out.  The
weather for  both events was fantastic.  The Triumph racers group is
the best, I  felt very welcome.  John Nikas did a fantastic job pulling
this  together.  We had very nice posters and shirts.  Laguna  Seca
rocks.  It is one of the top drivers tracks - right up there  with
Mosport and VIR.  I still had things to learn about it, and  look
forward to trying to learn those another day.

Tony  Drews
_______________________________________________
fot at autox.team.net

http://www.fot-racing.com

Donate:  http://www.team.net/donate.html
Archive:  http://www.team.net/archive
Forums:  http://www.team.net/forums
Unsubscribe:  http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/fot/trdoctor@aol.com