Just got back from a great weekend at Mid-Ohio. Roger didn't get the new
engine for his Lotus XI but we still went and crewed for Gary and Gail Harrison
from Cleveland who race a MGA. Gary had a small accident at the Pittsburgh
Vintage Race when his brake rotor fell apart on the last lap of his best race
ever. When he braked the car went up over a curb and cracked two wheels and
later the car was found to also have suspension damage in the rear. Gary
worked real hard and had the car ready to go this weekend. He got a second in
his class and beat his best time ever at Mid-Ohio by about 5 seconds.
Gary and Roger ran the Enduro in Gary's car. Gary started the race and the
last lap that he was out, the exhaust came loose. When he got the car back to
the pits we had a REAL pit stop. Every car was required to stop in the pits a
full 5 minutes. Everyone in our pit was running around trying to borrow a few
wrenches and a jack so they could fix the exhaust in the five minutes we had.
We hadn't taken anything down to the pits except gasoline, watches, clip board
and a fire extin. Another friend, Jack Anderson, who races a bugeye appeared
suddenly and rolled on the ground by the car and started yelling for wrenches
so he could
tighten things up. Gary had gotten out of the car and couldn't tell who that
was under his car. I started yelling out the time left and yelling for Roger
to get into the car and get buckeled up. They made the 5 minutes with about 30
seconds left. All afternoon Gail and I kept laughing about the utter chaos
that we are always involved in on our weekends. We would loved to have had a
video of the entire thing. Gail and I decided that in the future if Roger and
Gary are going to continue running Enduros we will have to get large gold
earrings, find appropriate hats and pull out hair back into little ponytails so
we can be more like the Indy Car driver's wives.
Everyone in our little group will be at Watkins Glen except me. I have to work
that weekend. I can't believe I have to miss all this fun. Everyone in my
office thinks that I live a quiet life and am always the professional woman so
this weekend I tried to find a race poster for my office wall. Couldn't find
one I liked. All the other pictures in my office are very serene so I decided
that the office needed something out of the ordinary. Maybe I will go through
Roger's collection of old posters so see if I can find anything I like. I
really wanted a poster showing vintage racing - usually they only have Ferraris
which I am not interested in. I'll find something sometime. Roger and I are
planning on taking the Lotus XI to Atlanta the end of October. There should be
a lot of vendors there so I will check that out.
I met Jim Fuersterberg (hope I spelled this right, Jim) this weekend. He was
parked with the fast Porsches across from were we were. He can tell everyone
how he did and maybe why he appeared to be spending all Saturday afternoon
under the Mini.
Well the weekend is over and I have to get back to work now.
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