jkopp
06-13-2005, 07:52 PM
Borrowed from Scott B.'s message on the list:
One word to describe the weekend was HOT! 90+ sunny and humid. About
what we would expect in this area for July, but it has been very cool up
here
all spring and this was our first taste of the hot stuff. I'm not used to it
yet...
About 1/4 of the cars in attendance for this race were in our race group. A
very large field of GT1 cars caused most of the problems.
Two qualifying sessions on Friday with the first session having a bit better
track conditions.
Matt Roberts on pole with 1:00.473 (SN95 Mustang)
Mike Lavigne in second at 1:00.732 (SN95 Mustang)
Scott Bleiweiss in third at 1:01.114 (SN95 Mustang)
Brian Lacroix in fourth at 1:01.313 (Gen 4 Camaro)
Ray Blethen in fifth at 1:01.507 (SN95 Mustang)
Kelly Lubash in sixth at 1:01.782 in Kurt Weiss' old gen 4 Camaro
Tom Less in seventh at 1:02.667 (Gen 3 Camaro)
Chris Tompson in 8th at 1:03.670 (Gen 3 Camaro)
Kent Johnson in 9th at 1:04.098 (Fox Mustang)
Lacroix's time was most impressive as he picked up a bunch of time in the
second session where everyone else went slower. The top AS car was
qualified 23rd on the grid so we new the start was going to be a mess.
I was nursing a transmission leak all day on Friday. I have cracked the
second case on my Tremec 3550. They both cracked from the LH
front dowel pin down the side of the case. This case is cracked about
1/2 way down the side. On Mike L's advice (he has also had this crack),
I JB welded over the cracked area on Friday night. The crack eventually
broke through the JB-weld, but the leak was much reduced and it wasn't
a factor for the race.
The pool at the hotel was closed to add insult to injury :~(
We raced at about 2:30 in the afternoon, a time when a nomex suit is not
what you would want to be wearing... Kurt Weiss was sharing pace car
duties and he made sure that our pace car brought us down fast to minimize
the carnage in big-bend. It worked like a champ.
I lined up behind Roberts on the grid. We were so far back that we were
flat out as soon as we got to the bridge on the down-hill. I was luckily
clear
of Lacroix as I could not hold the inside line by the time I got to the
bottom
of the hill. This high speed into the down-hill corner caught Lubash off
guard
who did a 360 in the dirt and continued without losing much time.
I was able to stay on Roberts bumper to shut out Lavigne and get second.
Roberts was aggressively working through some GT2 cars gridded ahead of
us and Lavigne and I were just following him through. The three of us were
staying close together until the GT1 field started lapping through. As one
of the
GT1 cars was coming through (about the 5th place), he made a very optimistic
attempt to pass me into the down-hill. He was too far back to do what he
attempted. I tried to leave him room, but he could not hold the inside at
the
speed he was coming and knocked me sideways. I lost second place to
Lavigne and the two GT2 cars mixed up with us got past also.
I continued in third and was able to close back up to Lavigne by the later
stages of the race. Roberts had not gotten away either, so the three of
us were reasonably close. With 2 to go, I saw a belt fly out from under
Lavignes car while he was braking for big-bend. The GT2 cars between us
had also gotten by Mike. I figured I might have a shot at him, but the GT1
leader mercifully lapped the two of us on that lap ending the race a lap
early for us. Mike had lost the power steering, and with the heat, he
thought
it had been 5 laps. Sorry mike, just one...
Ray Blethen had been punted into the swamp about mid-race. There was a
flagging irregularity where the station was displaying a white flag and a
yellow
flag. The white was blocking the view of the yellow and the GT1's were
doing a lot of passing in the esses even though the wrecker was out there
trying to move Ray's car. The chief steward had a few un-kind words for the
group after the race and the results were delayed as a consequence. No AS
cars were involved in the CS action that followed. They ended up dropping
the whole thing since so many people had witnessed the flagging problem.
Still
was kind of obvious with the people and equipment at the edge of the track.
Finishing order was:
Roberts
Lavigne
Bleiweiss
Lacroix
Lubash
Tom Less fell out early with a broken locker. Chris Thompson also pitted
late in the race but not sure why.
I don't have the final results, but the fastest AS time was 1:00.6 and 2
tenths
covered the top 3 AS cars. It should be a really fun season if we can keep
it this close...
Regards,
Scott B.
One word to describe the weekend was HOT! 90+ sunny and humid. About
what we would expect in this area for July, but it has been very cool up
here
all spring and this was our first taste of the hot stuff. I'm not used to it
yet...
About 1/4 of the cars in attendance for this race were in our race group. A
very large field of GT1 cars caused most of the problems.
Two qualifying sessions on Friday with the first session having a bit better
track conditions.
Matt Roberts on pole with 1:00.473 (SN95 Mustang)
Mike Lavigne in second at 1:00.732 (SN95 Mustang)
Scott Bleiweiss in third at 1:01.114 (SN95 Mustang)
Brian Lacroix in fourth at 1:01.313 (Gen 4 Camaro)
Ray Blethen in fifth at 1:01.507 (SN95 Mustang)
Kelly Lubash in sixth at 1:01.782 in Kurt Weiss' old gen 4 Camaro
Tom Less in seventh at 1:02.667 (Gen 3 Camaro)
Chris Tompson in 8th at 1:03.670 (Gen 3 Camaro)
Kent Johnson in 9th at 1:04.098 (Fox Mustang)
Lacroix's time was most impressive as he picked up a bunch of time in the
second session where everyone else went slower. The top AS car was
qualified 23rd on the grid so we new the start was going to be a mess.
I was nursing a transmission leak all day on Friday. I have cracked the
second case on my Tremec 3550. They both cracked from the LH
front dowel pin down the side of the case. This case is cracked about
1/2 way down the side. On Mike L's advice (he has also had this crack),
I JB welded over the cracked area on Friday night. The crack eventually
broke through the JB-weld, but the leak was much reduced and it wasn't
a factor for the race.
The pool at the hotel was closed to add insult to injury :~(
We raced at about 2:30 in the afternoon, a time when a nomex suit is not
what you would want to be wearing... Kurt Weiss was sharing pace car
duties and he made sure that our pace car brought us down fast to minimize
the carnage in big-bend. It worked like a champ.
I lined up behind Roberts on the grid. We were so far back that we were
flat out as soon as we got to the bridge on the down-hill. I was luckily
clear
of Lacroix as I could not hold the inside line by the time I got to the
bottom
of the hill. This high speed into the down-hill corner caught Lubash off
guard
who did a 360 in the dirt and continued without losing much time.
I was able to stay on Roberts bumper to shut out Lavigne and get second.
Roberts was aggressively working through some GT2 cars gridded ahead of
us and Lavigne and I were just following him through. The three of us were
staying close together until the GT1 field started lapping through. As one
of the
GT1 cars was coming through (about the 5th place), he made a very optimistic
attempt to pass me into the down-hill. He was too far back to do what he
attempted. I tried to leave him room, but he could not hold the inside at
the
speed he was coming and knocked me sideways. I lost second place to
Lavigne and the two GT2 cars mixed up with us got past also.
I continued in third and was able to close back up to Lavigne by the later
stages of the race. Roberts had not gotten away either, so the three of
us were reasonably close. With 2 to go, I saw a belt fly out from under
Lavignes car while he was braking for big-bend. The GT2 cars between us
had also gotten by Mike. I figured I might have a shot at him, but the GT1
leader mercifully lapped the two of us on that lap ending the race a lap
early for us. Mike had lost the power steering, and with the heat, he
thought
it had been 5 laps. Sorry mike, just one...
Ray Blethen had been punted into the swamp about mid-race. There was a
flagging irregularity where the station was displaying a white flag and a
yellow
flag. The white was blocking the view of the yellow and the GT1's were
doing a lot of passing in the esses even though the wrecker was out there
trying to move Ray's car. The chief steward had a few un-kind words for the
group after the race and the results were delayed as a consequence. No AS
cars were involved in the CS action that followed. They ended up dropping
the whole thing since so many people had witnessed the flagging problem.
Still
was kind of obvious with the people and equipment at the edge of the track.
Finishing order was:
Roberts
Lavigne
Bleiweiss
Lacroix
Lubash
Tom Less fell out early with a broken locker. Chris Thompson also pitted
late in the race but not sure why.
I don't have the final results, but the fastest AS time was 1:00.6 and 2
tenths
covered the top 3 AS cars. It should be a really fun season if we can keep
it this close...
Regards,
Scott B.