Back in the swamp. 3400 miles later. What a great country.
Yikes! It's over 90 degrees down here. I want to go back "up on the hill" at the Glen.
Some random thoughts I had during hours of windshield time driving across the Southeast...
Sunday morning, while most the field was practicing on the track, where was Cole? He was climbing the 880 steps at Watkins Glen State Park taking in the views of all the waterfalls.
Chris Camadella may be the luckiest guy on the planet. Sunday during the race Jed's halfshaft (with CV joints) bounced off of Chris' helmet and then off his upper element of his rear wing. Chris motored on to finish.
Chris and his wife told us about a great restuarant up the east side of Lake Seneca. Stonecat. Neat place. Great menu. Live entertainment after 10 p.m. Great view of vineyards and Lake Seneca.
Meanwhile, the unluckiest dude on the planet. Craig Clawson. Craig has always been one of the most competitive pintos. Sunday he was in a hot battle with Chris Burke, Clark Cambern, et al. Oops! Above noted halfshaft entered his left sidepod, taking out the radiator. Not knowing he was damaged, Craig motored on. Ouch! Dash told him the pinto was way overheated.
Jed Dorsheimer's car was a mess after Sunday's off. If there was any good news. at least his car was shiny and complete when it was on display Saturday afternoon at the ICUITI luncheon.
In the preseason the folks from the New England area predicted Kniffin would be a contender at WGI. True they were, he was fast out of the box on those big 10s and 8s. Looked like we would finally have a Cooper-spec car in impound. Unfortunately, his zetec swallowed a velocity stack fastening nut. Bummer. Eric carted the engine back to QSRE in Maryland, and we didn't get to see the true potential of #13.
On Sunday, Keegan Van Sicklen came onto pit lane and replaced a broken nose, returning at the back of the field. Making his 15th place finish more impressive than it looks on paper.
OK, the big technical story of the weekend was failing clutches. I lost track of how many cars got split to repair failing slave cylinders. Whatever the count, it was too many. There will be lots of calls to Craig Taylor to get answers for a good fix to this issue. I know that at the least Vassmer, Mansur, Willard, Nicholas, and Guibord were effected.
Hurt worse by this problem was Terrick. He could not get off grid for Sunday's race. His crew franically thrashed, got him running, he zoomed through the paddock, onto pit lane, and onto the track just ahead of the green flag for the start. Terrick stayed poised, and charged all the way up to 9th by the finish. Where would he have finished if he could have started 4th?
Sometimes the results sheets just don't do justice to the real drama.
Just wished i could have gotten a camera shot of three lead cars 'bump-drafting' at the green flag. I mean actually touching. Yes, sportsfans, it was that close. Andersen racing will need to put helicopter tape on Noah's front wing, if they don't want that pretty paint job getting scratched by those pesky strakes on other's diffusers.
Kudos to the whole front of the field. Those guys were real pros. How they got cleanly through 5 starts/restarts is amazing. Especially when you see Mrs. Frog's photos.
Jesse is oh-so-close to being right there with the Piper.
John Dole quietly is getting it done. He warms up for each session by riding around the paddock on a very trick trials bike. This weekend he was also almost constantly showing his young (2 ish) son John all the ropes. Too cute! The kid that is.. John's (the elder) solid top ten finishes reflect a lot of work and great driving by the leading independent one-man deal.
Al Guibord has been waiting for the series to get to a venue he knows. We get to WGI and he readily shows he's competitive. Learning VIR and Road Hotlanta put a crimp in his style. But back on familiar ground, he was able to show his ability to be knocking on the top 5.
Get this. Cole's, Rickardo's, and Noah's fastest laps occured either lap 13 or lap 14. These Hankooks don't fall off in just a few laps! Clark Cambern and I were joking (well, maybe i was serious) that a club racer may be able to run a whole season on one set of take-offs.
Joe Stimola was showing an impressive video from Keegan's car (zetec) of a very close battle between him and Craig Clawson's pinto. Four laps of video, and it looked like the two cars were very evenly matched. Three more weekends ahead. Don't be surprised to see a pinto on some podiums, maybe even a win.
more later... got to unload the race trailer.