Here you go Simon......
Report from the Group 5 trenches......
There were about 100 cars on hand for HMSAs' club race at LS this past
weekend. Saturday was cold, blustery and rainy......we lucked out though,
as the darker clouds seemed to go around us, leaving the track with some
light sprinkles. Group 5 was A and B production cars with a sprinkling of
Lotus, Alfa TZs and Porsche Historics hopefuls mixed in with the GT350
Shelby, Cobras and Corvettes.
We were first out at 11:00 am for a practice session and the track was
mostly dry but cold. There was a small creek running across the apex of
turn 3 and a puddle at the apex of turn 6 but the track was otherwise dry.
Slipping and sliding was the order of the session as we couldn't get much
heat in the tires so most of group was pretty low key except for a Lotus
Elan that was going for it....I followed him for a bit and he must've been
practicing late braking as he smoked the tires at a number of corners under
braking and slid along the edge of the gravel on the outside of turn 2 as he
tried to slow too late.
The afternoon race found a warmer track and the creek and puddle had dried
up. I had put on my vintage race face (relax, smile, don't crowd and
intimidate, just have fun and take it easy.......). Have to remind myself
that there's no money for a checkered and in fact, not even a nut dish with
a little placque so get in the proper spirit and notch back a bit, point the
faster cars by.....et cetera.
The race started and moved left to the wall to get around the Lotus and ran
up alongside, heading past.....as I drew alongside I was about a foot off
the wall on the left and for some unknown reason, the Lotus moved over to
the left and hit my right rear tire. He seemed to bounce off and back and I
think he hit it a second time but this time behind his front wheel as he
must've lifted after the first contact. I lifted for traffic coming into
turn 2 and the Lotus went wide and outside. As he went by I saw two large
black donuts on his side about the size of 6:00x15 Goodyear Blue Streaks.
We both continued on.............One lap later I came out of turn two and
was a car or two behind him when he braked too late again going into turn 3
and ran off the track onto the slippery grass and into the concrete wall
hitting hard with his left front quarter.
The group was brought in while he was towed. We restarted and had a nice
clean finish and an overall good race. I had to go to impound, make a
statement about the contact and have pictures taken of the damage. There
was no damage unless you count a slightly scuffed Goodrich so they took
pictures of the tire. Tonnage rules!!! Scuttlebutt was the Lotus driver
didn't recall the contact....duuuuhhh!!
I've finally got the handling dialed in with the third set of springs and it
now drifts nicely thru turns with just a tiny bit of push. This is much
better than the last outing at Coronado where I had fierce oversteer. I was
finally able to diagnose the Rochester F.I. as being too fat on the high end
and a simple adjustment stopped fouling the plugs and put everything right
for Sunday.
Sunday was a beautiful clear day, a bit on the cool side......many radiators
sported duct tape to get temps up. The morning practices went well and the
six afternoon races were spirited but some cars didn't qualify as we had to
meet a 103db sound limit on Sunday.......The race was great fun and I
finished in 7th or 8th place, finally having power and handling in the same
place at the same time.......This time I didn't get lapped by those damn
Cobras belonging to Phil Gallant and Don Lee :). There was a beautiful 73
Porsche RSR in our group and as expected, I pulled him on the front straight
and pointed him by into turn 2......yup, you can outcorner me, I gotta Porch
too. I got to pass him in 7, the corkscrew as he was parked in the gravel
on the left of the apex.....didn't look damaged......I think these smaller
displacement guys get crazy when surrounded by V-8 thunder........
All and all a great weekend....very low key for most of us and we had plenty
of time to socialize and kick tires......
Ted Smith
1964 Corvette roadster, Rochester F.I., trackstar since 1965
1966 Porsche 912 vintage racer
1959 Elva FJr
1971 Royale FF
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