[Delayed due to various mail filters at Team.Net. mjb.]
Had an absolute blast, though I made some very poor choices in tires. It
was great fun to see everyone. Kas did a great job speaking at the banquet.
I don't think I'm being too ungenerous to say that the endless MG
announcements and congratulations to each other for some kind of little
newsletter they do and the MG speaker before Kas were a bit tedious. Kas
made up for it with his funny anecdotes about what it was really like to
race back in the day.
I really enjoyed watching everyone race in group A. All the Triumphs
performed very well. I forget the name of the guy driving the green and
yellow TR3, but he was fast as blazes, very smooth, and his car is
beautifully prepped. He was catching Jeff Snook quickly at the end of the
race, but he started too slowly to make up the time. Too bad, it would have
been great fun to see them go at it. As it was, once Jeff got through the
pack and past the MGAs in the front he pulled out a big lead and cruised.
I'm sure Jeff would have pulled out the stops once he saw green in his
mirrors.
Jeff looked great blasting up from mid-pack. I won't bother with the story
of why he and a few other miscreants were there. He richly deserved to win
the Kastner cup, not just for that drive, but for his attitude, preparation,
and presentation of his car. A fast and legitimate TR3.
Peyote behaved very well, though a practice session in pouring rain (I
wanted to know where the puddles were in case we raced in rain) produced a
low-speed thump into a wall and resulting semi-frantic bodywork in the pits.
And then came the disasterous tire choice. I was on my usual Hoosiers, and
doing okay, (qualified fifth for the MG/TR B race behind two MG V8s, the
very fast Vitesse, and a very hot MGB, did 1:48 soemthing) but noted that
everyone in front of me was on SLICKS or something very close to slicks. I
had no idea the organizers were that liberal on tires. Group three was even
worse, with a pack of 914/6's, Datsun 240Z's, XKEs, Lotus 23s, and the usual
mass of 911s, all of then except a few were on Hoosier or Goodyear slicks.
Somehow I qualified second in Group 3. Turned a mid 1:46 something. Huge
group--54 cars. That was my fastest time of the weekend--I never got close
to that again. I should have been satisfied, but noooo....
I got tire envy and made a dash to the tire truck. After all, I was going to
need about three seconds to win the MG/TR B race, thinks I. All they had
left that would fit were some Goodyear Bluestreaks in 5.50 X 15 but a nice
looking minimal tread and 50 series sidewalls, bias ply. So I bought 'em.
But when I went back to the pits, Dave Talbot showed me a Grassroots
Motorsports article that said they suck out loud. Dashed back to cancel but
they were already mounted, and looked interesting. The tire guy reassured me
that they were better than Hoosier TDs.
The tires might have been ok if I had ground clearance, but with the much
shorter tires every time I blasted down the hill to the last turn I scraped
something on the left side--HARD. And they felt like they had been liberally
greased. Other than that they were great. In the MG/TR final I was holding
okay in fifth place, but grounded hard on the entrance to the last turn of
the esses and spun. Got back out okay, but lost two places. I saw George
Wright in front of me, so that was kind of cool. He drives very well in that
TR4. I was pretty sure I could catch him and the blue car with him, but on
the last lap as I came to the start/finish tower I saw a white flag. I
assumed the pace car was out, or an emergency vehicle so I lifted, then
noticed no flag at the corner. Finally figured out that they were indicating
last lap. YIKES!! We don't do that on the West Coast except in SCCA races.
And many of _them_ don't do it anymore.
So I got back into it and finished about eighth I guess. Comedy of errors.
Not the only ones. On Friday in the group 3 qualifier I lost two places when
I thought a group of yellow flags at the end of the front straight were
standing double yellows. Turned out to be Porsche flags flying in the
paddock! They took them down on Sunday. Duh.
After the MG/TR B race Dave Talbot and I did a serious firedrill, yanking
off the wheels, grabbing the hoosiers, and racing back to the other paddock
to get them remounted, only to find the tire guys GONE. Put the goodyears
back on, went out in about 12th place and finished 11th. Got the hang of
ignoring the bang, scrape and staying in it. Turned a low 1:48. Not bad.
Road Atlanta is a wonderful track, and it was great fun to spend time with
all the FOT folks. Great bunch of people, and I enjoyed putting faces to
names very much. But it will be a long time before I'll run any races with
HSR again. Way too many silly organisational choices, and I don't think the
tire choices should be quite so free. I've never seen anything quite like
that. When my car hit the wall in the rain Saturday morning it was in a very
bad spot--anyone coming off the track from hitting the giant puddle on one
side or the river on the other would T-bone it. You'd expect them to get it
out of there under yellow to keep other drivers from getting hurt hitting
something that unmoveable--but they wouldn't consider it.
On Friday they read the riot act to the MG/TR group about people getting
carried away on cold tires during the first lap of practice but they start
practice with waving greens at each station. What the hell does that mean?
I've never seen that anywhere.
The Porsche guys seem a little nuttier than usual, which is saying a lot. I
think part of it is that they are on slicks. Gives them delusions of
competence. I've never seen so much car-to-car contact go unremarked. In the
last group three race on Sunday half the cars in the pits had major duct
tape repairs. Those guys would have been on the trailer at most places. I
feel like a sissy saying this, because I love to just race, but it wasn't
what I expected, so I wasn't ready for it.
Great trip though. Great track, good friends, good racing. What more can a
guy ask.
Bill
|