WGI Fun One....who's in?

[joeg]

THAT TRACK SIMPLY SHOWS NO MERCY.

The pig roast, however, was better than ever.

[gran racing]

So I assume Nat was okay physically? How is his car?

[tdw6974]

Congratulations To Dan on his win!!!! We had a great weekend after having not completed a raced since last October. We ran ever minute available incuding the test day.

[StephF]

Nate was OK, his car might be a throw away. The roof had a new peak to it, the front end was caved back in, and as of Sat. night he wasn't sure how damaged the frame was.

We offered to get a big hammer and tie it to a tree and straighten it with the truck, but I think he had enough for this weekend. He loaded and left Saturday night.

Steve Frederick (seabee here) also had a sucky time of it. Got tagged first lap on his first race going into the busstop, spun into the armco and may have tweaked the frame on his as well. Damaged some suspension stuff for sure. He's ok, but he loaded up and left Sat. night also. (we also offered the hammer/truck straightening to him, but he was itching for a happy ending...the sundae, you pervs!)

Let's see, in other NER news, Jon Leitner won both races in EP. Paul Dethier debuted his brand new FP Miata to two second place finishes, did really well both times. Bill Leitner was going to run in STU (I think) but opted not to due to some body aches he had going on. Mike Goldkuhl was third on Saturday and blew up on Sunday (ITC). The SSC silver and black Cobalt (name of driver is escaping me) was there, ran just ahead of me both days, stayed out of trouble, don't know where he finished.

I don't know of any other huge shunts this weekend, but then again we left before group 4 ran Sunday.
Our group was the naughty one apparently.

[Eagle7]

Any other updates? I heard Marty won the first race - congrats!

Thanks, but I didn't know I even went. Hee hee!

[gran racing]

See how much faster you are when you stay home?

[THawkbh]

...
Well, unbeknownst to me and another Volvo, Goldkuhl had puked on the line through 11 and 12 (high speed left hander off the NASCAR straight and the last turn onto pit straight)
Next lap through, with no flag visible, I came through 11 like I had been...

Did anyone else feel the corner work was a bit lacking? Over the entire weekend, I saw ONE oil flag, which was in the heel. Group 7 was pretty lucky and didn't see much oil though. They must have done a great job cleaning it up between sessions. I also didn't recieve any help getting back into traffic after either spin going into the boot. Is this normal for WGI? I never seem to get any help when I've spun on a blind turn.
Group 7 had 76 cars. I didn't get a single clean qualifying lap. I was worried about not getting run over and not running over someone else. Oh well. I still had fun and came home in 1 piece.

All in all, I had a great time. I was extremely slow because I'm in a new car and I've only been to WGI twice now. I got some really clean laps in during the first and second races when I let everyone go by me. I had a ball!! Thanks to everybody who didn't run me over when yall were lapping me. I tried to stay out of everybody's way as best I could. (I was in the orange RX-7, by the way)

[StephF]

I thought the flagging was generally OK. I just didn't see one prior to catching the oil. So maybe they didn't know it was that far up?
They had one at 12 that I saw...after I spun back around to race direction and continued...
I don't know the Volvo's story, whether he was losing it prior to 12 or after.

[benspeed]

Great update Stephanie - THANKS!

I hated missing this race :-( One of the best all season

[dj10]

My hats of to the corner workers at least for group 7 and the drivers too! I saw plenty of blue flags waving and standing yellows where they needed to be. 99% of the people that I passed were watching their mirrors and very alert to what was happening on track. It was a good event other than not enought track time for the money. The races were too damn short, I was just getting warmed up.

[THawkbh]

My hats of to the corner workers at least for group 7 and the drivers too! I saw plenty of blue flags waving and standing yellows where they needed to be. 99% of the people that I passed were watching their mirrors and very alert to what was happening on track. It was a good event other than not enought track time for the money. The races were too damn short, I was just getting warmed up.

I agree with not enough track time. I was just getting warmed up as well in all 3 sessions when they were over.

Yes, there were plenty of blue flags. Everyone was coming up on me faster than the corner workers could wave flags at me!!

Dan, I assume you were in the red bmw in your avatar? Thanks for putting your lights on. Since you were leading, you would have surprised me if you had them off.

[Jack Hall]

I agree. It appeared that the pit workers were more than appreciative of the way group 7 ran (70 cars or so?) on Saturday. When I came in, they were out on pit lane applauding. I suspect that with the number of black flags in qualifying, double yellows, and 2 (?) red flags during the day, we may have been the 1st group to run with only local yellows. We did not go out until almost 5pm. When we finished, they still had one group to run, the BBQ was getting cold and the sun was getting ready to set.

John Grzech and Darrel Stein put on a heck of a show up front in ITS. I thought almost everyone showed respect for each other where I was. It was a hectic 6 laps.

Had to get back to CT on Saturday night and I have to admit I am glad I did not have to deal with fog, etc on Sunday.

[dj10]

I agree with not enough track time. I was just getting warmed up as well in all 3 sessions when they were over.

Yes, there were plenty of blue flags. Everyone was coming up on me faster than the corner workers could wave flags at me!!

Dan, I assume you were in the red bmw in your avatar? Thanks for putting your lights on. Since you were leading, you would have surprised me if you had them off.

You assumed correctly and you're welcome. I've been lapped a few times myself by faster cars and the speed differences can be quite high between classes, so the brighter I am I hopefully the more I'm seen. The thanks goes out to the people that are watching their mirrors because it's harder to watch the mirrors and identify that someone is closing on you than it is to turn on your headlights.

[THawkbh]

I thought the flagging was generally OK. I just didn't see one prior to catching the oil. So maybe they didn't know it was that far up?
They had one at 12 that I saw...after I spun back around to race direction and continued...
I don't know the Volvo's story, whether he was losing it prior to 12 or after.

John was my instructor at the last chance school last year. He found me by chance in the garage afterwords and told me what happened, but I forgot exactly what he said. I'm going to guess he slipped in some oil though. He seemed to know the track very well when he was my instructor.

You assumed correctly and you're welcome. I've been lapped a few times myself by faster cars and the speed differences can be quite high between classes, so the brighter I am I hopefully the more I'm seen. The thanks goes out to the people that are watching their mirrors because it's harder to watch the mirrors and identify that someone is closing on you than it is to turn on your headlights.

You're right. I can't even describe how much of a difference it made. With your dark colored car at that time of night, you would have scared the sh- out of me going past as fast as you did. I saw you an entire straight away behind me. I think you caught me in the bus stop and I let you by at the exit. It was a good warning for more cars to come.
By the way, how much did you win by? Must have been a huge margin.

[RedMisted]

My major complaint was going into the event. Did anybody notice that the organizers lopped considerable track time off the '09 Fun One schedules?

[JLawton]

ITA results???

Damn for Nat. That's the second car he's rolled in like 5 years.......

[StephenB]

I really feel bad for Nat. He is a great Guy and someone I would race side by side with anywhere. I hope he rebuilds it and brings it back. I would bet we lost one of if not the fastest Volvos out their. He really is one of the best guys I have met racing.

Stephen

PS: he sold the Saab and someone else rolled that.

[StephF]

Geeze Stephen, are we going to have to rename Nat to Rolly now? Dang...
I'm guessing he'll be back. He seemed like he was already pondering what he was going to have to do to the car.

ETA - I forgot to add that Paul Curran won ITB at least one day if not both. They were still holding results on Sunday when we left.

[THawkbh]

My major complaint was going into the event. Did anybody notice that the organizers lopped considerable track time off the '09 Fun One schedules?

I didn't run '09, but yes, the sessions did seem very short.

[joeg]

There wasn't much of a schedule difference between '09 and '10.

Obviously track conditions (oil, fog) played a huge role as did...well "rolls"..in determining track time.