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

[StephF]

Did I hear correctly that at least two ITB volvos rolled this weekend?

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

Nat Wentworth rolled it right in front of me. T1, running the long course, a gaggle of IT and showstock cars, we had a split start with Miatas coming behind us. We had 48 registered, 41 who went out and got times.
Nat went really wide into T1, apparently keept his foot in it, crossed the track in front of me, got sideways in the dirt, tagged the tire wall with the rear end and instantly bounced up off the ground.
I knew when I saw the silver belly pan that it wasn't going to be good.
The group in front of me scattered, I dove out to the curb and got by, I was close enough when it began that I last saw him hanging upside down in the air. Other folks told me he landed on his wheels again.
We continued up the esses at speed. I kept thinking there would be a full course yellow, but there were no flags.
Then I remembered the split start, so I figured they were busy stopping them. As we reached the bus stop, they finally threw a red flag.

The group I was in did a good job stopping. Drivers were using the NASCAR waving in the windows thing to warn drivers behind us, and we pulled off to the sides and stopped. The group in front of us didn't stop until the boot, then from reports I heard, one Volvo just stopped dead in the middle of the track, just locked his brakes on, and got rear ended bad by another car that never saw the red flag and didn't try to brake until he was 10' away.
That put his car out and mangled the rear end of the Volvo. He tried to race Sunday, but was apparently puking fuel bad enough that he came in after 3 laps. I saw him on the pace laps, just billowing white smoke behind him, real bad.

I also heard a rumor that another car burst into flames during the red too, but I never verified that.

Now the theme of the weekend was the Gulf of Mexico...as in we had more oil on the track than BP left in the Gulf. Qualifying for Sat. was a joke. Oil everywhere, and I saw at least 2 cars puking in my group. We went out after Historics, so they did their own rendition of the Exxon Valdez. Kitty litter everywhere, it was a freaking house cat's paradise out there. We got two laps, then a black flag, sat in the pits and went out for another two laps. Never got a clean lap anyplace due to cars stacked up and debris.

That was somewhat cleaner for the Sat. race, Nat notwithstanding. Once we restarted, that race went relatively cleanly. At least there wasn't any oil on track.

Then came Sunday, foggy foggy Sunday. Good old upstate NY, we were in the clouds in the morning. Group 1 got out to qualify, then it socked in again. They held a meeting and decided to run one group each with two pace laps, and gridded by finishing position. I had won on Sat., so that put me on the pole. We did a split start with Miatas again (Thank God!). The track was clean, we went out and the race started cleanly enough. I saw the Volvo puking early on, then late in the race Mike Goldkuhl in the ITC Fiesta puked all his oil out the breather. I saw him in my mirrors disappearing in a cloud of white smoke as I headed down the main straight.

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 and the car snapped around instantly. I could see the blue armco coming at me from my right, and an ITB car and an SM car coming through T11 behind me. For the first time, I made the decision to unlock the car (I had both feet in) and pulled both feet back out. It worked. The car shot back across the track, away from the 9-mile tall blue armco and into the paved runoff area. I was able to slap it down a couple gears, and mat the throttle again, with no real loss of position other than that ITB and SM car going by.

The Volvo that came through a moment or so later wasn't as lucky. Apparently he spun out of 12, did a tank slapper, and started spinning and tagging the wall down the pit straight, finally coming to rest just before the start finish stand. They checkered it a bit early.

All in all it was a wild and wooly weekend. It was a fun one for us, but not so much for some other folks. I do love the Glen, but it can be a car eater.

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.