SARRC- Moroso (West Palm Beach) 4-12-08

Four AS cars competed @ Moroso Saturday. Scott Siefret, Al Bailey, Mitchell Geltz (all in Mustangs) and Daniel Barr (Camaro)

Scott Siefret took the pole, a full 2 seconds ahead of the tightly packed other three cars. But the cheering stopped there, as I later found out only two of the four competitors were aware that it was a qualifying/practice session combo. They were in Group 3, right after lunch, in what was an abbreviated weekend. (Saturday Only)

At the green flag, a GT1 car on the inside lane of grid either missed the green or a gear and Mitch took advantage by going from third in AS (Four cars back) to the AS lead before the "kink" in the front stretch and pulled to about a seven second advantage over Scott, Al, and Daniel (in that order) within the first few laps. Scott gave chase and had a few "high-light reel" laps in an exciting battle with a T1 Corvette. Meanwhile, Al and Daniel kept pace nose to tail a few seconds behind Scott and his T1 nemesis. (which he finally got around) Everything stayed fairly much even through the middle portions of the race with Mitch and Scott maintaining their interval, slowly distancing themselves from Al and Daniel.

This was easily the hottest day of the year (90+) and the track was slick as hell. Lots of competitors had "offs". Mitch and Scott looked more like drifting competitors than AS racers, both exhibiting great car control. The slick conditions seemed to expose a problem with Mitch's car, who was debuting a complete new front brake system and he clearly had difficulty at threshold braking due to the aggresive pads he was using. Scott, in the last 5 laps, was able to methodically gnaw away at Mitchells lead and was on his "posterior" in the last turn heading for the checkered. Mitch held on for the win, with Scott right on his bumper. Al dropped out with 5 remaining, after pitching a serpentine belt, leaving Daniel a third place finish.

After the impound, in the best spirit of AS competition, Mitch came over to the trailer and I was fully entertained by the smile-filled exchange between him and Scott. They put on a hell of show.

The most important event of the weekend however, was the fact that I volunteered to pull Scott and his car the 200+ miles from Tampa to Moroso in my new Diesel/Trailer combo, and it performed flawlessly I left there with my head spinning of the prospect of being able to compete with these guys by fall.

Mark
CFR