October 4-5, 2003 -- Roebling Road SIC

It's been almost two years since I have been to Roebling Road Raceway near Savannah, Georgia. With that in mind, I decided to take the Saturday morning practice session really easy in order to shake out the cobwebs. Also, since Roebling has a reputation as being hard on tires, I chose to do the practice on my oldest set.

My objective for the weekend was simply to finish ahead of Lawrence Coogan, from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, who was driving a VW Scirocco. Finishing ahead of him at the SIC meant finishing the SARRC series squarely in fourth place. Finishing right behind him meant being tied for fourth, and if there were any cars in class between us it would mean settling for fifth in the series. Trophies will be presented through sixth place in ITC this year at the SEDIV Annual Convention since there have been enough entries.

During lunch, Bob Forsten dropped by to say hello, and to caution us not to run off the track at turn 5 where he was helping with flagging. His concern stemmed from the fact that he, at 63, was the youngest worker of four on the corner. This was brought to light when they were issued two squirt guns and told to give them to the two youngest workers at the corner. As it turned out, Bob was the youngest, and the oldest was 70!

During the afternoon qualifying session I pushed a little harder. Partly because I wanted the best qualifying time I could get, and partly to see if I could outrun Lawrence. Things were going pretty well. I caught up with Lawrence, backed off to put some distance between us, and caught him again. Now let's see if I can get by him. Looks like a good place between 5 and 6, and… Oops! Off the outside of turn 5 into the grass! Nuts! By the time I got back on course, Mark Senior had come by. Mark is pretty fast; let's see where his lines go here. Not bad; I stayed with him pretty well until… Oops! Off the outside of turn 5 again!
 

2003 Races

November
   ARRC
October
   VIR School
   Roebling Road
August
   Road Atlanta
July 
   Road Atlanta
June
   Charlotte
May
   Kershaw
April
   Roebling Road
March
   VIR
   Birmingham
   Road Atlanta

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Later that afternoon, after Ruthie and I returned from walking the track, we headed for the Rivergate motor home. As I walked through the door I saw Bob Forsten again, this time wearing a devilish grin. An instant later he blasted me with both barrels (literally) from the squirt gun! That's what I get for disobeying the instructions of a race official and not heeding his warning about running off in turn 5!

Will had his hands full during the day too, but for a different reason. He was competing with Terry Boylan, of Lakeland, Florida, in a newer model Civic. The newer cars have more power, but their gearing works against them at most tracks. Savannah, however, isn't one of them. By the end of qualifying, Terry had bested Will's lap times by a few hundredths of a second. Even so, Will needed only to finish the race in sixth place or better to win the series.

Will started the SIC race directly behind Boylan's Civic, and I started directly behind the Scirocco. Another ITC Civic, driven by John Stephens of Titusville, Florida was ahead of the Scirocco. On the second lap I made it past the Scirocco by late braking into turn one. Not long after the pass, as I was working on catching the other Civic, a "black flag-all" came out due to a Showroom Stock Civic that had parked against the wall on the front straight. Somewhere in this melee, the Civic Will was chasing had made a mistake that put him in the back of the field.

Drat! The Scirocco was back on my rear bumper in the regrouping. Once again, I started putting distance between us when the green flag flew. Also during this time Will's nemesis started working his way through the pack.

Wait… Spinning Miata ahead in turn 2!! Will he get it under control by the time I get there? Nail the brakes, buddy! You're all over the track! Carmen Wells, in another Miata in front of me, had to lock down her brakes to avoid hitting the still spinning Hyler Craft. Then, so did I to avoid hitting either of them. The Scirocco, who was several seconds behind me, was lucky enough that everything had nearly stabilized by the time he got to the corner. Though he had to slow down some, he motored through without losing all of his momentum like I did. With about two or three laps left in the race, Lawrence just had too much of a lead on me after the incident for me to catch him a second time.

Meanwhile, Terry Boylan in the newer Civic managed to get by Will to take the ITC lead for the race. Thus the 2003 SARRC season ended for us with Will in first place in ITC, and me tied for fourth.

Kenn Walker had also gone to the SIC to defend his second place standing in F Production. Kenn's Crx has been plagued by tuning gremlins this summer, and Saturday morning practice / qualifying was little different. While attempting to track down the problem, he noticed nasty, gravelly noises coming from the engine. Further investigation found the number three piston had apparently burned through or broken. With no spare motor available, he had to watch the FP race from the paddock. On the plus side, Kenn had accumulated enough of a lead over his nearest competitor that he still managed to retain second in the series.

Dwight Floyd, driving a Baby Grand in SPU, did well in his SIC race by finishing second in a field of four cars. He ended the season in fourth place in the SARRC series.

Thanks to our "all girl crew": Ruthie Cartlidge, Jamie Hamilton and Gail Perry, for their fine efforts. Also, thanks to Bill Perry for assisting the race staff with sound control duties for the weekend. And, most certainly, thanks to all of the officials, staff and workers for making the SARRC Invitational Challenge so enjoyable and smooth, and for making us feel welcome at Roebling Road!

-- Art Thompson