Part 3
Saturday, a better day, the first session saw me down to 3:00 dead with a
car that was doing what it was supposed to do; now it was down to the driver
to get it set-up and get it right. As the car was running so well we decided
to let Mike do the Group 3 Qualifying race to make up for missing out on the
Enduro, he was very careful with my toy and ran a conservative 3:12 before
going missing (can you imagine what was going through my mind?). The car was
returned on the end of a tow rope but with no visible signs of damage, what
could it be this time? Believe it or not the throttle cable had snapped!!
Jon again came to the rescue; he really should wear his underpants outside
of his trousers :-)
The final session of the day was the MOTRAH Qualifying race and, guess what,
the only time over the whole weekend that it rained. Now, we Brits like the
wet (no option really as it rains a lot over here) and despite being at the
tail-end of the grid I decided to enjoy myself; the highlight was ignoring
the advice of Duck Waddle who said in the wet you should always take the
outside line in the carousel as there is more grip there and taking the
inside line and slithering past 4 cars in one go - they probably just got
out of the way of the crazy Brit more than anything to do with my wet
weather driving skills. Upshot was 6th place and a 3:20 lap time.
Sunday, all ready for my 2 races after yet another late night out with the
team and Mr Snook in the Brown Bear - I was stunned that they served
Gordon's Gin in pint glasses and had the best ever pinball machine, way to
go. The MOTRAH race was great, started near the back but the car was on song
and ran a 2:53 which was truly amazing given my previous best times now I
was really ready for the Group 3 race.
I started the Group 3 race 2nd to last and had a real blast up to turn 1,
took 9 cars before the turn, this car has so much torque, by the time I got
to turn 5 I had overtaken another 3 cars and I was chasing the next group of
cars that included Randy Williams. At the start of the 2nd lap I got a tow
of a Sprite on the start finish straight and managed to overtake him whilst
he was overtaking Randy and then I got passed the Toyota Celica going into
turn 1; 15 cars in just over 1 lap (I have a video clip of all of this that
I will upload when I get some time); now the chase was on for the next group
which included Jeff Snook himself. I was getting ever closer to this group
at every turn and was confident that I would soon be joining in the TR3,
Morgan +4 and Healey 3000 battle that I could see ahead of me but, alas, the
engine went sick again. Guess what with this time, yep, bust another rocker
shaft post, the rear one this time and messed the rockers, sorry Henry. Btw,
managed to run a 2:51 before it all went to pot; now that really put a smile
on my face.
We will be back again next year, had hoped to be back this year but pressure
of work will prevent that; boring I know but it pays for the toys :-)
I consider myself really lucky to have so many friends in the US and I would
like to take this opportunity to especially thank Joe Alexander for making a
dream come true, Jack Drews for building the car, Jon Wood for being Jon,
Henry Frye for his endless parts supply and enthusiasm, the wonderful Kas
and Peg for their endless encouragement and, most of all to my lovely, but
nutty, wife Denise (btw Peg, she has taken a real shine to Kas so keep a
close eye on her :-)).
There are many more of you who have supported me in my US ventures and I
would also like to say a big thank you to all of you as well.
Cheers, Keith & Denise.
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