| Memphis and VIR |
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| Memphis and VIR |
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Westward Tow! Memphis Motorsports Park March 20th & 21st, 2004 Embarassing Novice Moment #1: Driving into a ditch on Roebling Road’s grid at racing school, right in front of my instructor. Embarassing Novice Moment #2: Missing the entrance to pit road at the end of my first race and having to noodle around almost the whole track again by myself, blushing, giggling, and looking for a ditch to crawl into. I had a good excuse. I was so busy waving to the workers on my cool down lap that I missed the cones that mark Memphis Motorsports Park’s pit in. Oh well, if that’s the worst thing that ever happens to me on a racetrack, I’ll be a lucky girl. Art, Chuck, Carl and I had a blast in Memphis. What a
great place to run your first race! The track is small, easy to learn, but
just complicated enough to have some real fun. It’s all about the “M.” I
never got that part of the track right, but it was still lots of fun to
drive. The 90’s rocked, and I even grew to like the Canyon, after I got
over the initial “OMG!!!” |
2004 Races November |
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As luck would have it, almost the entire ITC field set up camp in the same end of the paddock. We were right next door to Bob Qualls and Stephen Douglass. Bob adopted me and was even kind enough to play follow-the-leader during the first lap of our practice session. Gareth Rebstock, Forrest Heath (who spent the entire weekend under his car), and Chris Harris were across the street, and the twin yellow Memphis Fiats were just down the road. Continuing education at MMP: I learned how to handle some BIG (!!!), fast traffic and got a big kick out of out-cornering a Corvette through the Canyon. I practiced drafting and passing on Memphis’ big, long straightaway, and even got to watch some of Rebstock’s lines through back half of the track after he passed me. Best of all, I got to play some more with the Jack, the CRX. Yippeee! A lot of MMP’s track features are miniature, slower versions of things that I will see in Atlanta, Barber, and VIR, so the practice was awesome. I can’t say enough good things about the weekend. I had a blast! Art had a good time, too. He’s still running around with a silly grin on his face. His Sunday afternoon race got off to a rough start. Things looked good to begin with when a couple of cars ahead of him hesitated at the green flag, which opened a nice hole in traffic. Unfortunately, the opening was slammed shut when a Miata tried to dive into it from the middle of the track. Of the three options available: hit the Miata, hit the concrete wall between the track and pit road, or nail the brakes and give up some positions, Art chose brakes. Smart racer = racecar intact. He still managed to tag one of the pylons at the pit exit. Good thing they didn’t have time penalties for that in road race! Between the cones he knocked out in practice and the one he nailed at the start of his race, he would have added six seconds to his lap time. The big fun started when Art caught up with Chris Harris’ Civic. If there was ever any doubt of the value of drafting in racing, their dicing match over the next several laps should put it to rest. Whoever was in the lead coming onto the front straight would be passed by the drafting driver before going into turn One. This went on, lap after lap. When the two of them finally came onto the front straight side by side, the cars were so evenly matched in power that it was a dead heat drag race all the way. You could see them sneaking glances at each other the whole way down the drag strip. Chuck and I were dyin’ up in the grandstand. The two guys pushed each other hard enough that they caught up with fellow CRX-er Forrest Heath in the process. Art managed to put some distance on Chris and start threatening Forrest for a while. He never quite got close enough to try to make a pass, but after the race Forrest admonished him that he should “slow down more in the corners.” Guess Forrest was having difficulty staying ahead. Bummer. Heh-heh. All in all a great weekend with fun racing and good barbeque courtesy of the Mid South Region on Saturday evening. What more could a racer want? Meanwhile, back on the farm . . . In ‘Ole Virginny Virginia International Raceway, March 20th & 21st
-- Ruthie Cartlidge, Art Thompson, Dave Hester, Michael Hartberger
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March 30, 2004
Dave
Hester was all set to bring home a trophy. He was the only A-Sedan—after
three registered—that actually showed up to race. Practice and qualifying
went great, then the finicky Mustang decided to die on the grid right
before his race. Faulty electrical connections were suspected. Big OUCH!
There was a mis-communication with the grid marshall and Dave wound up
going back to the trailer and missing his race. The big bummer was that
the GT-1 cars that Dave was really worried about all took themselves out
on the second lap and had to pit for repairs. The silver lining in this
cloudy tale: Dave now has the finest minds in Chattanooga racing helping
him figure out how to keep that car running so it doesn’t die on the grid
again. 
Michael
Hartberger got out to race and, brave man, chose to do the enduro on
Saturday on his first time out. I can’t repeat the names he called the
Spec Racer Fords, but there were two incidents of metal-to-metal, the
second of which knocked the Miata’s right rear tire and put Michael out of
the race with only a few minutes to go. Another OUCH! He still finished
23rd out of 27. Fortunately, the car was back in shape for the SARRC on
Sunday and Michael finished 21st out of 26 cars. Looks like he might have
had a little fun racing with Dick Hancock of Knoxville, a fellow Roebling
Racing School student. 
