Greetings.
If you were at M5 I need say no more than brutal heat, good racing, brutal heat, more good racing and brutal heat. I want to salute John Weaver ITB 2002 #9, Brett Brillinger ITB 2002 #82, William Radford ITB 2002 #80 (I see a pattern here) for racing with wits, patience and cunning and sharing many laps of good clean fun. I worked may ASS off to finish behind you guys and feel pretty good about it. Also want to give a thumbs up to James Hess IT7 #71 for an excellent battle. Mr. Radford and I got called up to the tower for metal to metal in turn 1, which was subsequently deemed a "racing incident" by the powers that be. According to my Very Entertaining Video tape, I think I tapped him very slightly as I bounced off the curb trying to avoid a more serious collision as I tried to pass him under braking, and he would have none of it. My new friends Mr. Weaver and Mr. Brillinger and I traded places a number of times. It was obvious to me that we all enjoy racing door to door and apex to apex, but are clever enough to leave a tiny bit for the unexpected and willing to give it up for another shot at it on the following lap. No bending, no mending. Thanks, guys, that was great fun.
I volunteered to drive the pace car for Group 8 and was unexpectedly rewarded by getting to drive that lovely Jaguar convertible. Dick Hummel wisely observed that it would be REALLY BAD for the pace car to spin out on the pace lap. It was very interesting trying to keep such a willing car at a steady 35-40 MPH while a bunch of yahoos are gunning their engines, lurching forward and back, weaving back and forth, scrubbing their tires and psyching each other out inches away from someone else's very expensive rear bumper. I glanced back in the mirror once and decided that was not such a good idea. When I came back to park it at the winners circle, there was a video crew from 3AM Sudios. The on camera interviewer was an attractive young woman who looked up at me as I carefully backed it into the designated spot and said, "will you take me for a ride in your car?" (And some people say that the car doesn't matter.)