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| Road Atlanta |
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Carolina Motorsports Park
Kershaw, S.C. While all the horsey people were drinking fine champagne and watching the Carolina Cup horse race in downtown Camden, the South Carolina Region was ran one of the tightest and cleanest road race events we’ve seen in recent years. The event was virtually seamless and loads of fun. Chief Steward Sara Snyder ran short and sweet drivers’ meetings, and delegated to her assistant stewards so well that she bragged of spending the weekend soaking up the sun. The racing was great. The weekend was virtually incident free, and the weather stewards cooperated, too. Almost everyone contributed a report this time. Here we go . . . Vesa Our group consisted of ITB, ITC and SM for a total of
34 cars. Half of the six-car ITC field was from Chattanooga region: Chuck,
me and Art (Sat.) and Ruthie (Sun). For our practice session on Saturday
morning the track was a little damp in places from the overnight rain. The
rest of the weekend we had beautiful weather. |
2006 Races September July April Feburary |
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Chuck ran the Friday test to familiarize himself with a new track. Late in the qualifying session on Saturday he tried some different approaches to turn 4, and found the limit which resulted in skipping turn 5 all together. In the race Chuck and Art were running nose to tail for the entire race, with Chuck getting 3rd and Art 4th. I was able to fend off Randy Hilliard for 1st after getting mixed up with some Spec Miatas in the beginning of the race. Speaking of SM, the ones I was around behaved well. Sunday saw Ruthie taking over the driving duties on the #31 CRX. The race had the same results as Saturday, Chuck 3rd, Hilliard 2nd and the #38 in1st place. Having the starts at the back straightway worked well, mostly I think because the pole sitters kept the field nicely bunch together. Overall a very nice weekend at the track and at the dinners afterwards. Visited a Mexican restaurant were Efren got us some special treats. Thanks to Theresa for all the support efforts. Efren Dave Saturday's race actually went pretty well with three cars in A/Sedan. I figured 3rd place trophy was mine, if I finished... Not a sure thing. I managed to hang with the other two A/Sedan cars for three or four laps before dropping back on old Goodyears (same set Matt and I used at Nashville). I even managed to pass Joe in the Firebird when he and another driver tangled into turn 12. WOO HOO! Unfortunately, he caught me with two laps to go, but it was ALL fun. Told him after the race I appreciated him holding back to give me someone to race with. *LOL* The leader did catch me on last lap and I was close enough to him that there was talk on the net of making me do another lap to get the checker. Cool heads prevailed after someone realized I wasn't PASSING him. Not bad and the car ran pretty good. Sunday Bill showed up with his Camaro, so we had four in our group. This time Joe checked out and I managed to hang with Curtis for three or four laps with Bill right behind. Much mo fun! Bill would make a run on me and then overcook and fall back. Good fun and even though I could see the leader from time to time on the last lap, he never got past Bill, so we finished on lead lap. WOO HOO! Fourteen of 14 laps complete. Great group to race with. Thanks Bill, Curtis and Joe. Great people from Chattanooga Region to travel and paddock with. Thanks to everyone! Linda Looking at the track, we noticed that the gray truck (with Stan and Dan) was now DIRECTLY behind the pace car where it stayed the rest of the drive-arounds - and oh, that wasn't where it started! Later, when Stan and Dan returned, Dan said they got in trouble for passing - IT WAS THEM!! They said people kept pointing them by, so they went! I imagine it was the lights on top of the truck that made drivers think it was a track vehicle - or just what, I don't know! Anyway - it sure was a great weekend - looking forward to Roebling! MMMMM, River Street ..... can't wait to hear Efren's take on the food there! Ruthie Art had one great chance to get around Chuck in the last turn onto the front straight, but the Miata he had planned to draft locked his brakes and that was it for Mr. Thompson. I stood in the pits timing their laps. There were several times that they were only one to two tenths of a second apart. Both guys pushed each other hard, had fun, and never did anything that would endanger the other driver. Great racing in my book. Even though I saw improvements in my racing and lap times, I still felt a lot like the fat kid running to catch up: “Guys! Wait for me! HEY! Wait for meeeeeee!” I know, I know: smooth first, fast later. I did wind up in the pace lap right behind Chuck, so I stayed on his bumper all through the start. That was a lot of fun. Chuck Very little damage all weekend. Only one reportable metal to metal on Saturday and the races went off quickly on Sunday so not much breakage there either. We were on the road by 5PM and the last race was history. Randy Hillard of South Carolina Region made Vesa work for his win on Saturday. That seemed to get Vesa motivated as he way out qualified all the ITC cars on Sunday and left us in his dust. Folks said that Art and I put on a great show in our race on Saturday. We were nose to tail for the entire race. Interesting note, none of the non-Honda ITC cars were around for the finish. Starting on the back straight was interesting. Despite his other faults our Spec Miata pole sitter did a good job of pacing us around to the green. Traffic remained tight until the start/finish straight where things finally got strung out. As usual, the Chattanooga Region showed off a little, came home with some trophies, and had a really good time. We’ve got one heck of a good group. See y’all at the next race! Reported by:
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April 6, 2006
