the experience was beyond my wildest dreams!
2371.8 mile round trip of faith in the "lust bus" wich now has almost
330,000 reading on it's odometer.
wednesday's practice i fouled a plug and was running on 2 cylinders for most
of practice....talk about down on power! i pitted and changed the plug and
went out and proceeded to scare the living daylights out of myself carrying
way too much speed into the hairpin chicane and got up on 2 wheels just as i
turned in . the whole world was at about 45 degrees when i turned into the
roll and the car dropped down on 4 wheels and i took off through the grass
and got back on course! i was pretty rattled by that but continued on.
the rest of the event was very exciting. the run group of "vintage" cars
was very exciting. of course i was the slow car out there with my team mate
randy cook driving the other 1960 saab. having mustangs and numerous
porsches out there wizzing past me at evry chance was a bit wild at times .
trying to hold my line watch my mirrors and drive my race with cars passing
some times on both sides at the same time was a hand full . but nothing
prepared me for saturday's exhibition race! the combined historic group
and vintage group was incredible! when gurney's toyota gtp car blasted
past me flat out(i was too!) down the airport runway straight i could not
believe the feeling! my car actually rocked towards the car as it passed
me! i was expecting to be pushed away! that was just incredible!
the drive down town for the recreation of down town tech inspection was fun!
70-80mph on city streets waving at the local and state police parked along
the road was an ultimate illegal fun moment! the sweet smell of orange
orchards combined with burning castor oil was like some sort of vintage
racing aphrodisiac! what fun!
the trip home was not so much fun...i had a fender bender in sebring. my
trailer left an impression in a sebring resident's new (3,000) chevy's front
fender. it broke my lic. plate frame on my trailer. but the rest of the
trip was uneventfull.
would i do it again? right now the answer is no! why you ask? the long
tow was a bit much for me . but ask me late this year and i will probably
change my tone after the long drive wears off a bit.
as for the 12 hour race? i saw the start and saw some of the night time
activity but chose to leave around 9pm to avoid any big exodus from the
track after the race ended. it was neat to be there watching the
activities of the crews and the cars.
right now, i'm glad to be home and looking forward to running hershey
hillclimb next month.
chuck.
orange saab #25
BTW! we believe we were the only factory sponsored vintage team at the
event! yes saab sponsored our participation for sebring! even B.S. Levy
could not believe that! but it's true! entry, tires, fuel and team shirts
were all made possible by saab cars of north america!
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