|
Road Race Report Newer Road Race ReportsGingerman -- July 15-16, 2000Gingerman raceway is located in the gorgeous town of South Haven Michigan, 100 miles Northeast of Chicago and just off the eastern shore of Lake
Michigan. My wife told me that she wouldn't mind honeymooning there.....as The track is awesome!! Almost 1.9 miles long, 11 turns, and extremely technical. There are two very challenging decreasing radius 180 degree turns which I lost time in all weekend. Even so, I (Jamie Blair) came home with another two first place trophies placing me solidly in the lead for first place in the Central Division Championship series! Saturday's qualifying ended in a haze of blue smoke, and yet it was successful as I was on the pole for ITC by over a second. It seems I had assembled the oil pan gasket a little off the flange of the pan and a leak had developed which dripped oil right over the exhaust header. I spent the whole time between the qualifying session and the race under the car trying to shove enough Permatex between the pan and the block to seal the leak. Fortunately I was able to slow it down, but not permanently. I was able to drive a conservative race watching the oil pressure gage the whole time, and still finish in first place.....again in a haze of blue smoke. All of Saturday evening was spent installing a new oil pan gasket (good thing there's an Autozone within 6 miles of the track, and for the fact that we don't drive such exotic cars that the Zone doesn't stock parts for them.......). The funny thing is that my wife was just commenting on Friday night how thankful she is that, unlike a lot of other people we see, we don't have to work on the car much at the track........ Sunday went much the same......without all of the oil leaks!! During the morning qualifying session I went over a full second faster than I had in Saturday's race. I found out later that my time was within a half second of the ITC track record. Maybe next time......... I spent most of the race following an ITA MR2 whose rear wheels kept trying to pass the front ones. Needless to say, I tried to maintain a comfortable distance from him, especially after my incident at Blackhawn Farms. -- Jamie Blair Roebling Road Double SARRC -- July 7-8, 2000Vesa Silegren took his ITC Civic to Roebling Road to try to extend his SARRC points lead. Will Perry crewed. For Saturday's race, Vesa qualified first in a field of 7 ITC cars by 2-1/2 seconds! He led the race the full distance. His win was made even easier by the second, third and fourth place cars getting into a crash together, taking two of them out. Again on Sunday, Vesa qualified first in ITC, in a field of six. With another of his smooth, fast drives, he pulled out to the win. Vesa now has the maximum possible points in SARRC, with six first place finishes in the 8 races he has completed. He leads the points by 24. Carl Blevins (with Will Perry & Vesa Silegren co-driving) is now second in ECR points, but he has started only two races (winning both). He is behind by only seven points to the Krispy Kreme car, which has started all five races. Will Perry is leading the ProIT points by a substantial margin. The big lead is good as he will miss the next race due to a conflicting Pro Rally in Maine. Jamie Blair has won all three races he has entered. I'm not certain he is eligible for the Central Division championship, being a member of the Chattanooga Region.
|
||||||||||||||
On Sunday, things went much differently. In the first qualifying session, I
broke my own qualifying record by almost three tenths of a second. By this time,
all of the 510 drivers were really whining about how fast my little Honda is.
These guys are used to dominating up here and I'm really starting to spoil their
fun!! I started the race eight cars ahead of the second place ITC car. I
actually out-qualified all of the ITB cars!! (to be fair, the field had
shrink......the fastest ITB car had left). Even so, at the start I got passed by
four ITB cars. I spent the first half of the race watching the battle for first
place in ITB. On lap 8, going into turn 1 and ITB Fiero spun and the BMW 318
behind in plowed right into its side. The VW Scirocco plowed into the back of
the BMW. Unfortunately for me, I was just behind the VW. I saw what was
happening but my reaction wasn't quick enough. I plowed into the tail end of the
VW with the right front of my car. It took what seemed like an eternity to put
the car in reverse and maneuver around the wreckage. In the mean time three ITC
cars managed to pass me, going completely off the track to get around the wreck.
The car seemed to be fine, tracking straight and not overheating. I quickly
decided it was time to hit the afterburners. I quickly passed the Civic that had
gotten around me and went on the hunt for the 510's. I caught up to them after
about 6 laps and passed the first one without any problem. The first place 510
proved to be a little more difficult. We were getting into lapped traffic and to
compound things we were fighting an ITB Mazda who decided to make things
interesting for the battle for first place in ITC. I finally managed to get
around the 510 with two laps to go. On my victory lap I got a kiss and a
"lay" from the aloha corner crew at turn 6. We won't go into trying to
explain the bright pink lipstick on my face to my wife.......