You couldn't ask for a better weekend for racing and partying.
I have mixed feeling about my own performance. Some things went very well.
In practice and qualifying the Zippy GT6 was on a terror run. The group
started with 42 cars on track and right out of the pits it seemed nothing
could stop us. Weaving through traffic and laying down some killer lap
times (my best so far) even with the heavy field slowing me down.
Qualifying was also good as I bested my time from earlier on lap 4. Then I
had a very exciting 720 degree loop-dee-loop through the carousel and off
into the grass and manged to keep it going and back onto the asphalt. I was
black flagged and had to come in for a reprimand. That was cool because I
came out right behind 2 favorite TR racing pals Tony and Sean. Tony and I
had a nice little battle for a few laps and I was able to get by him buy
use of a Volvo P1800 pick. Then I charged forward to Sean... ending in a
nice little drag race toward the checkerd flag. Perhaps pushing my luck by
flogging the crap out it in those two sessions; it was knowingly due for a
motor rebuild and started to show some signs that it may be in pain. The
oil got to hot and we had too much water in the overflow.
For the race I was 12th on the grid with 40 cars taking the green flag.
I had a terrible start and quickly slipped back several spots due to the
idiot behind the wheel not being able to put the car into the right gear. I
got back to the game and had a great fight with Barb Nevrol in her pro
prepped Alfa GTV. That match lasted till lap 8 when the car lost power on
the downshift into turn 6. A glance at the gauges revealed a falling off a
cliff drop in oil pressure so I shut it down and coasted around to the
inside of turn 7, coming to a stop just past the corner station. At this
point, it started to smoke heavy so I bailed out thinking it might be on
fire. Putting my hand on floor next to me told the story of done for the
weekend with 2 gallons of water pooled in the cockpit: overheated and
overtaxed.
Proving a great Bob Wismer (R.I.P.) quote true.
"If you want to go fast in a Triumph; race a GT6... If you want to finish;
buy a TR"
Thanks Bob!
The weekend went on to include some excellent wine and cheese with all of
us Fot guys in the garage area that made the Beady Eyed boys famous; less
some of our favorite cars with the missing #4 and the #29.
Yet, even with the missing man, and no ole blue... the garage was a happy
place of close Triumph friendships and some of the best evidence of what
makes our group so special. (THANKS BILL and SHIRLEY!)
Later in the evening we burned two truckloads of wood in
our backstreet paddock spot and partied till all hours of the morning with
hoards of crazy people joining in the fun.
A too early morning brought on phase 2 of the racing part of the weekend as
the Barracuda came late to the show and missed the first day of the vintage
racing (but Brian ran the car to a big win for our Plymouth program
finishing 2 races and running solid in the super production) whoo-hoo!
Best of all, my sweet little girls did awesome in the big wheel race.
finishing in 1st place (Naomi) age 5.
and 2nd place (Fiona) age 8.
adding to our long standing winning tradition of Ostrowski/Reed/Garcia Big
wheel champions!
Life is indeed good my friends!
Thanks to all my Triumph Friends for a wonderful season!
See you all at SUMMIT POINT!!!!
Jason Ostrowski
Friendly Ghost Racing
Triumph GT6+'s #27 yellow and "Zippy" #69 BRG
_______________________________________________
fot@autox.team.net
http://www.fot-racing.com
Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
|