To all;
A quick report on the Northwest Historics last weekend at Seattle.
Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate, with rain on Friday, and clouds
and drizzle for Saturday and Sunday. Monday, the sun came a few days late...
This didn't dampen the enthusiasm or the turnout, as there were approximately
300 cars, and some great racing. The track is repaved from my last visit
here and is one of the most fun tracks I've run on. The back side sets up a
rhythm that is addicting as you swoop through the esses and up the hill.
Unfortunately, both the wet conditions and some agressive driving contributed
to an alarming number of incidents, both single car and car to
car....including one where Steve Earle's C Jag T-boned Tony Seinigers Testa
Rosa. Ouch, that was expensive...I wonder who gets to tell Steve he's on the
trailer for 13 months?? (by all reports, however, it was said that he had no
where else to go....).
Even Gil Nickel took a trip to the hospital after bending his Lotus 27. Gil
was in the pits on Sunday wearing a neck brace and claiming he was sore, but
ready to go out again. I hope we see him in Portland next week.
One of the Can Am McLaren's had a nasty shunt with the front straight wall,
and numerous other cars also had problems. Our own Smoke & Mirrors Racing's
Terry Tinney (Jerry's son) took a hit in the side from an agressive Datsun
510 driver in our race.
We managed to make it through unscathed, and are looking forward to Portland
next weekend. We hope the sun will stick around for that.
BTW, we tried a set of Kuhmo tires for the first time this weekend and found
them quite nice, but very different than the BFG T/A R1's we've been used to.
Found we had to run much higher tire pressures (as per the manufacturers
recommendations), and they behaved much more like bias plies than radials
(i.e. lots more understeer). Anyone else out there tried them and have any
advice? GOing to bump up the pressures some more and see what happens.
Other than the increased understeer, they feel very predictable.
Regards,
Myles H. Kitchen
1965 Lotus Cortina Mk1 #128
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