--- "Wm. Severin Thompson" <wsthompson@thicko.com>
wrote:
> Good News/Bad News was the story of ELVF
> Jeff Porasik "Park" smacked the
> wall to avoid an errant
> Grasshopper, and later had a piston decide to become
> "multi part".
ELVF was indeed a great time, and another learning
experience for the 'hopper. The error in question was
caused by stupid rookie thought process of "all these
guys are going fast on the 1st lap, it must be ok", so
driving gently (I thought) thru turn 5 trying to
follow Dr. Dreadful's normally excellent and
previously beneficial advice of not using brakes in
warm-up, in 3rd gear, constant power, on-line, but
apparently very cold tires, I began a spin. One thing
they taught in Midwest Council school was avoiding
spins, and we were told to aim where the guy is,
'cause he won't be there long. Porasik Park, like me,
is a rookie, and this wasn't covered at Spring Brake,
unfortunately. As I was sliding to the inside, I am
looking right at Jeff (and yes, Jeff, I read you're
lips, along with many other drivers'). It looked like
he'd stop in time, but he just kissed the tires on the
inside, ripping off a chunk of front fender flare that
he previously hated, but later was certainly wishing
he still had. Flounder worked his Red Rat Bastard
legacy duct tape magic, but I still felt (feel) like
shit about it. Offers of a replacement flare by me
have been rebuffed, and it looks like Jeff is going
the Spridgetech Bugeye bonnett route. I am thankful
no one else got tangled up. I'm sorry if I held
anyone up on pace laps later in the weekend, but I am
not about to let that happen again.
In the feature race, I worked my way quickly around
some traffic that held me up in qualifying and was
feeling pretty good. A black Bugeye I had been dicing
with all weekend, a Volvo, and I ended up 3 wide into
the Carousel(!!!), separated at the Kink, and then
bunched up again going into Canada Corner. I bailed
out first, figuring I'd get on the power sooner, and
pass them up the hill. I hit the brakes, sudden lock
up, then more disruption as I tried to correct, so I
decided to visit the pea gravel to ask the corner
workers for directions. The wrecker had me back on
the track to finish the session in no time, although
they waved me out a little too close to Paul Fitz for
my comfort. In my limited experience, I thought the
corner workers and track crew at ELVF were the best
I've seen, especially for a slow guy like me in the
Enduro. I knew early and often when the Big Thunder
was gonna blow by me.
I hope everyone had as good a time as I did. A track
like RA with its higher speeds opened up a whole new
bag of "stuff" to learn, and I learned a tremendous
amount, as I have all season. Thanks for all the
guidance and constructive criticisms the VSCDA drivers
have given me all season.
'hopper
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