RRR national /Rick Ross

[bill gillespie]

Rick, Rick, Rick!
What are those JB boys feeding you? First Atlantic race and you set a track record at a long-time track ...in a DB4!!! Wassup?
Max kudos to you and RMR. The DB4 value should increase a bit....don't you think? Why not write a "hot-lap" description for the Atlantic guys?

Congrats,
Bill

[RussMcB]

Yeh, Rick was really up to speed and battling for an overall win. Very impressive.

[campbell53]

Rick sent me an email this morning with a quick rundown of his weekend. Needless to say I am very impressed. I was there at that National 8 years ago for my first race in a FM. I finished 6th (and thought I kicked ass!) This is another level all together. I'm putting together a 008 and hopefully I can share the track with Rick at some point. Anyway....a super start Rick! Great job.

[JByers]

I'm putting together a 008

Nice to see another FA in the Great lakes Division, four from Michigan alone that I can think of.

Cooper - 014
Ravandahl - 014
Campbell - 008
Byers - RT41

Any others out there?

Rick, did you stay with the gearing that we spoke of and you & Russ should think about coming to Mido May 31st - June 1.

Jason

[Rick Ross]

Thanks to all for the encouragement and kind words! We were very fortunate to have a good weekend at Roebling Road. While I'd like to say that I carefully tweaked and developed all aspects of the car over the weekend.....that's not really what happened. This was our first race weekend with this particular car, first race in FA, and my first race in over 4 years, so to be honest we were a little behind the curve at first.

I missed the first Friday test session entirely, and on the second session my car was bottoming out slightly so I only did a few laps. The two sessions after lunch were both black flagged, so there were minimal hot laps and I don't think I ever got below a 1:05. On Saturday morning we put some decent tires (Hoosier R25 bias ply) on the car and it was MUCH easier to drive. As far as I know all the other FA's were on radials. We then decided to do a gear change for qualifying, which helped our lap times a bit. I qualified second, around 0.5 seconds behind Georges nice RT-41 (an awesome car).

As for the race, I got a good start and led the first lap, but George was definitely faster than me in the first few laps and he easily passed me and opened up a pretty good gap. The full course caution allowed me to catch back up, but we had two lapped cars between us. George opened up a big lead again on the restart, and by the time I got around the lapped cars he was way ahead. I then just put my head down and tried to catch him, and as the race progressed I think both my car and my driving improved. The lap record was set fairly late in the race, but as I don't have a data system in the car (yet!) I'm not sure exactly what set it apart from any other lap. I suspect that I found a little time in the Turn 1/2 combo. I eventually caught back up to George, but I was unable to get past and finished in 2nd, just as I started. Congratulations to George on his first FA win, he was very quick in qualifying and in the race.

Jason -- my original gear choice didn't work out and we did a gear change prior to qualifying. I ended up gettting pretty close, but I will make some minor changes for my next visit to this track. My third gear was still a little too tall, and the rpms were lower than desired in the slower corners. My car has carbs, so being in the right rpm range is critical. Send me a PM if you want more details.

[jmz]

Rick and friends , i know i had called Rick to congradulate him , but from one swift DB-4 driver , one hell of a job ! you are the man ! john z