watkinsglen ITA best race of the year?

[mgyip]

No one here but us chickens...I made the trip and was dreadfully slow (as always). Missed a shift on Sat AM and popped the alternator belt which also drives the water pump on the VW. I was able to get back for the afternoon session although my times were less than stellar.

Had a great start though - got past a good 4-5 cars only to have them pass me again since with 5 seasons on the motor, the General Li is getting a bit long in the tooth. Started 20th and finished 18th - at least my car was still running and relatively unbent at the end of the race.

Haz-Matt

[itbgti]

Matt,

I was the Audi Coupe that finished in 19th and was slowly creeping up on you...I was hoping we would have had a couple more laps because I think we would have had some fun. Anyone have any news on the BMW driver...it looked like an "easy" roll.

My inspiration Matt, was I thought you were a B car

Regards,
Alan

[This message has been edited by itbgti (edited July 25, 2005).]

[JamesB]

As for the 2002 Roll, driver was fine, no idea on the tub, but it was sure fun trying to load it.

[dyoungre]

Hey Audi,
I was the red RX7 that finished 20th behind you. I was glad to see that final yellow; remember that I waved you by? I no longer had carb secondaries, as a cotter pin let go. As if 12A weren't down on power to begin with.
Fun race, amazing track. Did you have radio communication on the restart? You went by, I couldn't see the tower ...

------------------
Dave Youngren
NER ITA RX7 #61

[mgyip]

Originally posted by itbgti:
My inspiration Matt, was I thought you were a B car

Alan,

I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing - probably bad since you were catching me without too much difficulty There was another orange GTi in ITB - #5 or #05. Apparently he had some problems with the car but I still had to joke with him that he was copying my idea with the orange paint, just like TJ Hanifan's VW. Of course no one has the "taste" to run the Stars and Bars except the General Li

I saw you at the Heel of the Boot during the restart lap when you went from drivers' left to drivers' right in my mirror - hope I didn't do anything to cause you angst. Nice looking car, that's fer sure!!

I was hoping to have gotten past that green Miata before the finish, had the 2002 not decided to go "turtle" entering the Boot. Alton is fine - I caught the tail end of them loading his car on the trailer. Those cars are fairly fragile and I didn't get a good look at the damage so I don't know if the tub is rebuildable.

All told, it was a good weekend - if nothing else for the spectacular weather!! If we could only get some of that in the DC area today...

Haz-Matt

[itbgti]

Dave,

Yes, I remember the wave by on the back straight...the speed at which I caught you I assumed something went wrong.

I do not think you were the red RX-7 that saw me attempt an out braking move that went bad...my brakes were over cooked and I went in too deep, over the curb at the heel of the boot..I talked to Todd Redmond after the race apologizing for that and also thanking him for us having no contact.

I could not find the RX-7 driver who I was protecting the corner against to see if I "baulked" him in anyway.

Yes, I had radios for the restart, and I got by two cars before the turn onto the straight.

Overall, great weekend, and a lot of fun...I started 36th on grid for my first time at the track, so I had a LOT of ground to make up finishing 19th.

[lateapex911]

Originally posted by itbgti:
Dave,

...I started 36th on grid for my first time at the track, so I had a LOT of ground to make up finishing 19th.

26th?? You call that starting badly?? LOL...That's nothing! I can start worse than that...(he said, crying..)

How does next to last in a (was it?) 65 car field sound?? On a car that had been soundly damaged the day before.

A couple items...it was great meeting several (famous!) IT dot com-ers, I just wish I wasn't so tied to the car and could have been more social.

Secondly, and I'm sorry to bore the masses with a personal note, but...I want to thank all my friends who pitched in to help me get the non rolling wreck back on the track. From Brian Mushnick who loaned me the porta-power and Jason Benaugh who actually operated it, to Dave Youngren who came thru with an old Hoosier, to Ray Lee Chee and Dave Faita who lent tools and hands, to the Shine guys like Eli and Matt who loaned me a power sander saving hours of hand sanding, to Bob Smart at the Hoosier truck who had the new (old) tire mounted in nanoseconds, to, last but certainly not least, Dick "what a nice drive on the long country road of Watkins Glen" Patullo, who supplied the strut housing, the damper, the disc, and bearings, and seals' and even the grease, LOL.. along with the advice and hard work to help get me going again. I know I was a bit loopy so I am probably forgetting somebody. If so, sorry!

It's a real comliment to have people pitch in like that for you, and I am very grateful. My ribs and body will heal and forget that it ever happened, but I won't ever forget the help from my friends.

All in all, the patched together car did OK with it's different front dampers, mysterious flopping rear end and soft brakes. I had a great time trying to move thru the field and wound up moving from 63rd to 26th...wishing for more green flag laps!

The BMW did one of those little wiggles right in front of me, then nosed into the banded tire wall at the boot entrance. Sad..hate to see the old cars have issues!



------------------
Jake Gulick
CarriageHouse Motorsports
ITA 57 RX-7
New England Region
[email protected]

[RSTPerformance]

Just wanted to say congrats to all those that seem to have had great races (and lap times!). Even those that had troubles still seem to have had a great time...

I havn't seen many of you as I have been off at the Natinals all year, so I miss all of you giving me a hard time I still keep tabs on all of you though!!! Look for the Red and Silver and Blue and Silver Audi's to return later this fall as the Audi's havn't done much racing (actually the RST Audi's have only had one visit to the track this year and that was the Red and Silver one at Mid Ohio, and it ran without the darn computer so we were a bit slow (70% at best), despite a new faster suspension setup).

At anyrate, we all (The RST gang) miss all of you, and plan on seeing you at NHIS, We will be in Hawaii for the Lime Rock Race, so good luck, and keep us updated!!! Thanks for the great updates online here, as they have been rather entertaining and informative!!!

Raymond

Alan- Get that thing sorted out so we can make a three car Audi train in the front!!!

[JamesB]

Well I do have some carnage shots, so if anyone really wants theirs offline just say so and they will stay in my personal archive only. But here are my pictures, still having an issue with my tele lense (you can tell which ones by the non focal point blurring.) But hey I don't do this for a living.

http://www.baked.net/~crash/gallery/20050724

[moto62]

Nice photos James. Thanks for the oppertunity to view them. The ITA race was great except for being too short. I had a blast dukeing it out with Lorenzo S. and Mark C. while keeping an eye on the battle between Tom B. and Brett D. Those two were really haggling each other. Lots of side by side and tire smoke going into the turns and I believe they may have touched each other maybe once. Now that is some class driving especially at the speeds you achieve at the Glen. Now don't get too cocky because Y'all going down next time we meet yo. Glad to see that all drivers with balled up cars are ok to race another day. Overall good event except for the after party food. It was basically appetizers served on a five inch restrictor plate. Kinda left you wondering when they were going to roll out the main course. No problem. We went into town to some bar restaurant deal and had a good meal.
Bill W and Harry A. Good seeing you again. Gregg G. and a slew of others(I'm getting old and the memory lapses). Very nice meeting you all and hope we meet again.
Ray Lee Chee
P.S.- Jake G. did find the showers at the Glen but I'll let him tell that story.

[Dave Zaslow]

James,

Thanks for the great pics. The refrigerator white #4 Golf is a new racecar and was having some teething problems. These are the first photos and I really appreciate seeing them.

Dave Z

[joeg]

Neat Photos; actually I like the different perspectives without the telephoto.

The weather was nice and everyone pretty much behaved themselves in the group, but I cannot say 4 or 5 laps makes a "good", let alone "great" race...but that's the Glen.

Cheers.

[Tom Blaney]

I had a great (but short) race, and I give Brett credit for driving like a pro. He did to me what I usually do to Anthony, so it was a real fun race. I must thank everybody for doing a good job during both qualifying sessions. Although there was quite a disparity in speed between the cars everybody tried to work together to let the faster cars go, and the faster guys didn't really seem to screw up any of the slower cars individual laps.

The Glen still ranks as one of the best tracks and the folks who put on this event always keep it fun and worthwhile to attend.

Tom Blaney

[JamesB]

Thanks for the compliments, I know at summit point I can get great shots since many of the workers know me and will let me up or near the pods which lets me use my wide angle and I can get great shots.

I may be trading up to a D1 low end SLR with a friend who overbought and is dying for my 5700 and its all in one with a good zoom, so I could get over this tele issue when I can use one of my old nikon tele-wides and get some great shots without having to be near the worker stations.

I have fun doing it and I love action shots, that why I hung out at the off camber the most, since there was a lot of good racing going on in the area.

[alfetta95]

Just wanted to thank Alan, Audi driver, for coming to talk to me after the race. Stand up guy, it will be a pleasure to race with him again. A bit hairy moment on the track, but that's racing. Great weather, great racing, when at speed! Nice photos too!

Anyone know what happened at impound? 1st place ITB, red golf was DQ'd.

Now really. Wasn't it nice seeing the Italian make in the middle of all that German and Swedish hardware? :-)

------------------
Todd Redmond
Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT
ITB #95

[dickita15]

I must say the glen weekend was fun. I had never driven the track before but I had been there. Thirty years ago, when I was a young flagger. This was the first time I have tried to drive a track that I did not know as a worker. The first session, as Jake alluded to, it felt like I was driving a country road. Every now and then I would come up on a corner I thought I had seen before, but mostly was like pro rally. I tried to not be in the way but that is a little hard when you do not know were the way is. The 12-minute session included a black flag all so we got maybe 5 laps.

The second session, 20 minutes, was better. We got 8 hot laps. I would come up on a slower car and say to myself maybe I can pass him at...., hell I have no idea where I can pass him. Reviewing the tape my times dropped one to two seconds every lap. Another twenty laps and maybe I would be fast.
The bad new is I qualified 49th. The good news is there were about 20 cars behind me. On the grid a steward type walked up the line and said, “we have a very large field so bunch up by the laces of the boot”. I said fine and tried to figure out where that was. I looked for eyeholes in the guardrail but did not see any. Oh well it worked out.

My start was a little poor. I did not really know where to look. But I had a great time passing cars and maybe got up to 40th or so by the first yellow. After the restart I spun in the lefthander before the toe of the boot and fifteen cars drove by me. I was able to renter and got to repass a few ITC cars before the final yellow.

All the locals were very helpful and the weather was perfect. The full course yellows suck but I guess with ISC rules and a long track you just have to live with it. I would like to thank the Glen Region for hosting the NERRC series. Having the race be NERRC, NYSRRC and MARRS brought out some cool fields. I do regret not having an opportunity to watch any other racing. Being an early group we were on the road for home by 2 p.m.

Dick Patullo
NER ITA Rx7 15

[emwavey]

http://www.baked.net/~crash/gallery/20050724/DSCN3925

Was Gregg is OK?

[Gregg]

Yes, he was, but now that he's had some time to think about what a disaster this season has been, he isn't.

To go along w/ my comments in that other thread, I'd like to apologize for contributing to the shortness of the race and your extended time under double-yellow. Believe me, I would have preferred to be out there racing with you all past lap #3 and only have my own stupidity to thank impacting your race the way I did.

[emwavey]

Originally posted by Gregg:
Yes, he was, but now that he's had some time to think about what a disaster this season has been, he isn't. ...

Opps, sorry didn't see the other thread...
but anyway I'm glad to hear you're OK physically. We can talk later about his
mental state.

If you don't mind, what happened? Did the last race slightly tweek the car's handling predictability?

------------------
-dave
nerdsracing.com
8)

[Gregg]

The car was actually handling pretty well most of the weekend. The twitchiness I saw during the Sat AM qualifying was eradicated with some tire pressure change and going over the cornerweighting again.

Pretty simple...I came in the the heel of the boot somewhat hot and trail braked a bit too long. Rear of the car came around and as the nose pointed at the apex I tried to correct. Unfortunately I ran out of room and put the right-front corner into the armco. If it were a tirewall (or more than five feet off the side of the track) the damage might not have ended my day as I really didn't hit that hard, but who's to say.

Again, sorry everyone.

Now about my mental state, Dave?

[This message has been edited by Gregg (edited July 26, 2005).]