Originally Posted by
Hartley
No wonder there were record crowds at last weekends Trans Am/ FRP/SVRA event at Lime Rock. Beautiful sunny weather in the mid to high 80s after such terrible weather at MO, and unbelievably close racing in F1600. Great close racing in F2000 and not one FCY or black flag all weekend (in F2000) including practice! Plenty of new faces in F2000 and many of them young, the future of open wheel racing is bright and secure in my opinion and I have not seen so many fans at a race track since the 80s. 3 young kids got prized photos taken in my race car. Didn’t know it was possible to have grins that wide!
Back to the racing. Porter Aiken is the real deal in F1600 but there are many other up and comers. Callum Baxter, Timothy Steele, etc! I will leave the F1600 competition discussion to others. F2000 racing was a blast, no mixed class racing, every car around you was a threat to position. No squinting in your mirrors to see if it is an FE2 etc. The whole field (10 cars) were all within 2 secs lap time by the last race. I know that is normal in F1600 but is not usual in F2000. Where else can you competitively race against a 15 year old and an 80 year old in the same race! The 15 year old I am referring to is JT Noveleski and the 80 year old needs no introduction! The kid is damn quick and finished second in both races! He is also the real deal! Mom and Pop are crew, mom had plenty of grease on her hands! Everyone and I mean everyone who knows anything about racing OW cars dropped by to help or offer advice! A 15 year old with great manners and a quick easy grin will bring that behavior out of you!
The event was so well organized and ran on time. Only one lengthy delay of 15 min to repair fencing otherwise the whole event ran like clock work!
Maybe we can credit the schlocky soap opera ‘Drive to Survive’ for the renewed interest in OW racing. I personally cannot watch the show, maybe I should try it with the audio off! I have to say though what I am most impressed with is the total unselfish help from the pro and amateur teams. A huge shout out to Geoff Bushor from Pelfrey, David Clubine from Britain West and his engineer Peter, and Angelo from Anze suspension! Another huge shout out to my crew chief Bob Hogg and my sponsor I mean wife Diane! Even Bob Wright, as busy as he is on a race weekend, and a direct competitor took 10 minutes to show me his data so I could find my weak points on the track! There were many! With all their help I managed to lower my lap time from 58 sec to 53 sec in one weekend! Now I could say it was not bad for the first time at the track but that would not be true. I raced there at a Skip Barber series race in 1980! So I raced there 43 years ago does that count? Lastly if you older drivers think you are too old to race with us think again! Dave W is 80 and I am 66 and we were both within 2 secs of the fastest race lap time which Included the
Lime Rock track record holder.
Looking forward to Pitt Race in 2 weeks!
FYI I (actually Diane) found a solution to my long tow from Florida. I leave my RV and trailer with race car inside at a storage yard only 10 min from the Cleveland airport. The Cleveland airport connects directly to many hubs so is easy to get direct flights which are cheaper. This saves me 36 hours round trip driving from Mulberry Fl to Cleveland. Ohio. Cleveland is almost perfectly in the center of the FRP geographical schedule. I pay (wait for this) $150 per month for storage! I can fly myself, wife and mechanic back and forth for less than the 36 hour round trip fuel cost! I also arrive fresher and ready to race. Maybe you western guys may want to do the same. I am sure the math will work for you. PM me if you want to know the name of the storage yard. The enthusiasm for this series is growing and with some of it being televised I think it will only get better!
