March 6-7, 2004 -- Gainesville Georgia

The 2004 Road Race Debut

When Atlanta Chief of Flagging and Communications, Stan Martin, emailed his volunteers about the first big event of the season, he promised that the workers would be busy, what with experienced drivers shaking out the winter cobwebs and rookies trying out Road Atlanta for the first time. He wasn’t kidding.

Bill Perry trained as a safety steward for Saturday’s SARRC races, running the incident board. By the time his stint was over, he was running out of little stickers that show where cars were having problems. Drivers were running off and bouncing off all manner of surfaces: asphalt, concrete, sheet metal, rubber, and mud. Bill said that the run off areas were so slick from Friday and early Saturday rains that an off-track excursion meant sliding until you hit something. Eleven people were sent to medical on Saturday, and after Sunday’s IT Enduro, all 71 competitors were impounded for “rubbing” anything and everything they could lay their bumpers on. Guess who got to inspect every single car? The most interesting incident came from an off-off-OFF track excursion before practice and qualifying even got started. Friday night, a driver started up his racecar (during quiet time . . . duh), sped up the hill from the lower to the upper paddock, and ran straight into a concrete platform. The guy barely missed knocking over the portajohns, banged his unprotected head into his un-padded roll cage, and had to go to the hospital for stitches.
 

2004 Races

November
   ARRC
October
   SIC
September
   AMS
July
   Road Atlanta
   Barber
June
   Low's
May
   Memphis
   Kershaw
   VIR
April
   Roebling
March
   VIR
   Memphis
   Road Atlanta
Feburary
   Roebling Road

<< Older            Newer >>
 

On the track, things went much better for the Chattanooga gang than most anyone else. What does that say about the skill of our drivers? Hmmmm. Anthony (Formula Vee) shook out his cobwebs with a vengeance, taking second place in his race after some fun dicing with a couple other Vees and a Ford. He had a great time and said his car was in the best shape it’s been since he got it, though he came perilously close to losing his left rear tire after losing the axle nut in an off-course romp during qualifying. When Anthony got back into the paddock, he was able to pull his whole wheel/brake assembly off with one hand. Yikes!

Will and Vesa left the rest of the ITC crowd in the dust, carrying a 9-second lead by the end of their race. Good grief. Will finished 1st and Vesa finished 2nd. Congrats, guys!

Dave Hester made his Road Atlanta racing debut, finishing 4th in class (American Sedan) and 17th overall . . . and this after mowing the lawn at turn 10. Dave wasn’t really sure what caused him to spin into the infield, but he suspects some oil on the track after another car blew a flywheel. The battery didn’t have enough power to restart the car (“The crew chief did everything right,” said Dave, “But the driver forgot to turn off master switch after he moved car in the morning.”), so he got to watch the last 7 laps of the show, which included an airborne Mustang and some blown transmissions. Fortunately, there was no damage done to Dave or his car, and 9 laps was enough for him to get credit for his first Regional race as a novice. Way to go!

The Chattanooga Region is off and running for 2004. Keep those tires burnin’!

Reported and written by Bill Perry, Dave Hester,
Anthony Henderson, Ruthie Cartlidge, and Art Thompson

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