KA710,
Thanks for the pics of the car. It was quite the weekend indeed. Ron and I had a lot of fun, I got a ton of in car video, mostly of the back of his car. We were very evenly matched car wise. He was faster in some places, I was faster in others. In qualifying on Saturday, we ended 0.03 seconds apart. I was in 37th place, he was in 35th. A pair of Porsche 356s got between us. Ron had some brake issues and I ended up working my way up to 28th for the trophy race on Sunday.
Sundays race didn't go as well as either one of us had hoped (for very different reasons.) Ron lent me his set of Hoosier R6s since my 4 year old Toyo RA1s were going away. I figured I'd try and run a lighter fuel load to help my speed up the hill, that gamble almost bit me. The start of the race was terrible. The grid couldn't get lined up for the start and people were moving around and it was a mess. I saw the pace car pull off and was all set to jump down the front straight as soon as I saw the yellow flag go in, or saw the green flag. Well, that didn't pan out so well. I got out on the front straight and saw no green flag. The group started to bunch up and right as the leaders hit the start line, out came the green. The back of the pack more or less had come to a stop and were then looking for a gear to get going. It was a mess. I had no place to go, so I just had to wait till the people in front of me got going. Once down to turn 2 we were 3 wide and everyone was all over the place. The same through 3,4, and it started to thin out through 5. I was in hot pursuit of a Huffaker Genie sports racer that had given me fits on Saturday in the qualifying race. Again I was all over him, and Ron was all over me. Up the hill we went. I took a bad line through 6 and lost a lot of speed. As I came down through the corkscrew, it was still pretty bunched up. What I didn't see was a Mini attacking Ron in turn 9 and punting him off into the gravel trap (bummer.
) Out came a full course yellow (there were other cars off around the track as well.) and as I came around I saw Ron off in the dirt. Then something very strange happend, instead of just going out and through turn 11, the whole group of cars in front of me went into the pits. (It struck me as being very strange, but I figured I'd follow. This was likely the wrong move.) From this point on the whole race fell apart. The leaders were gone, and the rest of us were strung out. I could see the Genie ahead of me, but I couldn't catch him. With about 5 laps to go and no closer to the Genie, I took a look at my fuel gauge and saw that I had less than 1/4 tank of fuel. I started to get worried that I wasn't going to finish. I let off a little and continued on. I got passed by the leaders, but behind them there wasn't anyone close. With what turned out to be 2 laps to go I came through the start and looked at my fuel gauge that now read empty. In turn 2 the engine cut out as the fuel sloshed away from the pickup in the tank. I knew I only had about one more lap at speed before I was in trouble. Lucky for me the next time through I saw the checkered flag. The light fuel load also didn't help my lap times as the back end was loose causing the car to be slower through the corners. Oh well, thats how you learn. Next time I'll go out with a full tank. My first vintage race was done and the car was still running and healthy.
End result, 21st of 58 starters. Not bad for a first time on the track, first race, and the fact that the car is daily driven, and I not only drove it to the race, but I drove it home as well. I think I had the only street legal car in the race, and of all 200 plus cars, the only one that was driven to and from the race without a trailer. From a reliability stand point, all I did to the car for the entire weekend was check the oil, replace the air filter (the old one was really dead) add fuel and rotate the tires. The car ran like a Swiss watch and never missed a beat. Heck I didn't even miss a shift the whole weekend.
You can't beat that.
All in all, a very good weekend. I'll be back for more.
I have a ton of pics and some good in car video that I'll post as soon as I get everything downloaded from the cameras.
Will
