Garage Sale Challenge Vintage GT

Yow! Made a big mental mistake watching Bryce in my rearview, and obsessing over staying ahead of him on only lap 2. Touched a curb, skittered across and caught a jut in the armco and cartwheeled!

Suspension was badly broken after that, I tried to stay out but car was undriveable, so I pitted. Spent an entire lap repairing, worried the car would still be a handful when I went back out, but fortunately it was back to 100%. Managed to unlap a couple of cars which was some small consolation, but still a disappointing finish for me.

Nice job on the podium, points race continues to heat up!

Another fun race for me. For the third time in a row, I was given a wonderful gift by the driver in front of me to gain a position (said driver will remain nameless here ;-) ).

This is one of my favorite tracks, and after a few laps, Gordo just took off and I couldn't keep up, and of course Mike Miller took off and won the race in the cheapest car! Way to go Mike!

See you guys next week.

Ho hum....Mrs. Abarth was my date tonight. You ever been on a date where you just say ho hum...I qual'd sixth. The car was faster than the driver tonight. I felt like the car easily had 36's in it, but I was always making 1-2 stupid little mistakes. Locking fronts and missing 1 apex and getting on the gas too soon and loosing the rear grip easily is 1-2 secs on this track. Corner exit speed was critical here.
Mr. Kolar was behind for the start of the race. I wasn't expecting the clock to start so quickly and lost 2 positions right at the start. I followed Mike K around the track and was able to get along side in a few corners. Then I backed off and waited to set him up, but Mr. K proceeded to plant his car into a wall and give me the position. At that point I was 7th and quickly made it up to 5th with a few other driver errors. I knew my errors would happen sooner than later. I looped it twice in a matter of 30 secs handing 5th spot back. At that point, 13 secs back, I put it in cruise control wanting to bring it home.
I had a 20sec lead over 7th and 8th until I got blackflaged? Had to pit and I gave up both spots. By race end, I was on the tail of 6th and 7th. Was hoping for just 1 more lap...

I prepared a setup for both the Mini and the Elite. I was turning basically the same lap times with both so I decided to save a point for Zandvoort and go with the Elite. Right away I was driving in the 37's. It took 25+ laps before I could figure out how to dip into the 36's. Another 30 laps and I just could not crack 35's so I thought that was it. I was close with a best of 36.2 in quali trim.

Quali - I called on the crew for the quali set and got to the track 1st. I think it was Gord in the Alfa who got on track right behind me. Thanks for not jumping in front. I know that Alfa has huge power and could have got in front at almost any time. With a clear track, I got my safety lap in, but I was surprised it was quicker than I expected (low 36). Still with a clear track on lap 2 I decided to push a bit harder. A 35.7! I was shocked. I really didn't push that much harder. I just hit my marks cleaner yielding a much smoother lap with higher entry and exit speeds.

Race - I again called the crew for another set. I loaded quite a bit of extra gas for 2 reasons. 1, I didn't want to run out like Monoco pre-season. 2, the car felt more stable with more gas (the suspension setup between quali and race were quite different). I practiced numerous starts in the pit lane because I knew from the last race in Monoco that the Alfa is might quick in a straight line. I wanted as much of a jump as possible at the light. This extra practice payed off with a huge jump at the start. Thinking back, I don't know if I got a lightning start or Gord and the Sheldon were sleeping? I was also fortunate to have, I think, Sheldon harassing Gord off the start which gave me even more of a gap through the first lap.

I pushed hard the first 4 laps clicking off high 35's/low 36's to build a 7 second gap to 2nd. I found something in qualifing that I could use in the race, hence the 35's. The marshalls called me for cutting the track on lap 5 so I backed off. I didn't want to risk a black flag. The gap hovered between 6 - 8 seconds most of the race. I couldn't back off too much. With 15 minutes to go, I looked back and could see Gord in my rear view (down to 5 seconds). I put the gas down to the floor again and started clicking off some quicker laps. The gap built up to 9 seconds and I brought her home.

Impressive run Jason. Very fast and most importantly consistent in the Mini. A tick slower, but mistake free will always pay big dividends.

What a great time sliding these old cars around. And I love the sound of the Elite! Now... what to do about Zandvoort with only 4 points? That is going to be a high speed track. Mr Waltz has 5 points. A Cortina can certainly win there. Jason is also looking very strong with 9 points and clearly has driving talent. Sheldon is showing speed. I don't think I'll be winning the next one.

Did Gordo have a Alfa Jr or Alfa GTA?

Looks like Gord was all-in with a GTA.

Next race, we put a potato in Mike Millers tail pipe. That should take care of him just long enough to where someone else will win...LOL

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make last nights race. I was mowing the lawn mid-afternoon and a good friend of my wife's was in the last stages of a losing battle with cancer. We had to head up to UW medical center for a couple hours and didn't make it back in time.

I am not the emoptional type, but I have to tell you that losing someone who JUST turned 40 - 10 years my junior is tough.

I am looking forward to racing this Sunday with good friends and fast cars.....

What a race! I chose the Alfa Jr. because I just couldn't find speed AND consistency with any other car. I did manage to put together a good setup and I got pretty consistent with the Alfa during practice throughout the week, so I knew I SHOULD be able to run in the 1:39 range throughout my full fuel run with no problems.

My 11th place qualifying run was no surprise -- about what I had expected. What I hadn't expected was how "off" I was during practice . . . I just couldn't seem to get myself in-sync with the car and the track, and I found myself constantly chasing the car and fighting with understeer.

Towards the end of qualifying I began to realize it was me more than it was the setup -- I had too much adrenaline going on, I was over-cooking it going into the turns, missing my turn-in, and carrying too much speed through the turn. I finally managed to find my groove and settled in for a more-or-less consistent run.

I picked up a spot or two at the start -- I was watching the timer in my HUD along with the starting lights, and when I saw the timer start to tick off the seconds I knew the lights had changed. The starting lights didn't look like I had expected them to look, though, so without the HUD timer I would have been a lot slower off the line. I think the lights caught several people off-guard because I jumped from 11th to 8th on the start, which caught me off-guard because I couldn't recall if we had a "no-pass" rule on the first lap or not.

I continued to push on, figuring that I'd accept any penalties one way or the other.

Sitting in 8th place I dogged the 7th-place Alfa in front of me, reducing the gap from a 5-second lead down to a nose-to-tail run through the twisties, while the the guys behind me dogged me like crazy in turn, trying to get past or to get me to screw up.

Consistency paid off in the end, though, because I managed to outlast the Alfa driver, who eventually bobbled going into T1, thus allowing me to slip past for 7th (still haven't watched the replay, so I have no idea who was in front of me). A couple of other cars got by as well, one being the TR4 of Bill Guillaume, who had been dogging early on, then dropped back as I closed-in on the 7th-place Alfa. Hot on my tail yet again Bill was putting in some herculean laps keeping up with me. He almost got past me a couple of times, but didn't seem to have quite enough to take me down the start/finish straight. He was faster than me though some of the twisties, but I always managed to open the gap up a bit at the Chicane just before the start/finish straight -- I think Bill's TR4 was a bit more unstable than my Alfa over the Chicane "traffic island," which gave me the edge I needed to hold him off on the high-speed run up to T1.

Bill eventually managed to get inside me around lap 20 or 21 going through the Virage du Lycee hairpin and I lost sight of him -- I couldn't see him in my mirror so I wasn't sure if he was on my right or if he had lost it in the hairpin, and I was too busy accelerating and searching my mirror to risk a glance to the right. Bill must have been directly off my right rear-quarter panel, though, because I started to drift wide through the big left-hand sweeper at Avenue de Musset; I felt a bump indicating contact, then I saw Bill's blue TR4 skitter across the track behind me in my rearview mirror. I lifted slightly, unsure of whether this constituted the type of thing that would invoke the "pull over and wait" rule -- once I saw that Bill was neither off-track nor spinning, I got back into the throttle because I figured Bill was probably okay, and I assumed that since he wasn't off-track this probably wouldn't qualify as the type of contact that would require the "pull over and wait" courtesy.

Bill dropped back and was never able to establish contact with me again, so I didn't see him for the remainder of the race. Unfortunately, I learned after the race that the incident had damaged Bill's suspension, and shortly thereafter he planted it in some tyres, forcing his retirement.

My apologies, Bill -- you gave me a good run, you drove a clean race, and you deserved a much better finish than you got. I know you said in the post-race chat that it was one of those "just racing" incidents, and I know I didn't take you out through outright negligence, but I still feel bad that you were the one who came out worse for wear.

:-(

I continued on after the brush with Bill, somewhat shaken and definitely tired. In the closing minutes of the race, Barret Erickson began nipping at my heels with his Arbath -- I managed to fend him off for the last lap, desperately clinging to my 7th-place position. As we crossed the start/finish line and got the "race over" message, I noticed that my HUD somehow showed me in 5th position -- without ever having passed a car on the final lap! I see that Bryce reported in his post-race report that he had to pit for a black flag penalty which would account for one position, but I still have no idea where the other position came from.

This marks my best finish ever in a NASRL event, and at the end of the day I feel like I definitely earned my 5th-place finishing spot -- I was fast enough to fend off some equally-fast guys, consistent enough to make fewer fatal mistakes than some of the guys who were faster than me, and composed enough to maintain my postion even under considerable pressure.

Not sure what Zandy will be like next week -- with only 3 rental points to play with, I'll probably show up in either a Mini or a Lotus Elite . . . neither of which seem particularly well-suited for a fast track like Zandvoort.

Should be fun, though, regardless!

:-)

well I thought I was gonna do good here was practicing in the TR4 but saw the times in the mini so I figured I'd gamble with the Mini. After working out the kinks in practice I was still 2 seconds off the pace. After changing a couple settings I Had a really good quali lap and put it on the grid in 3rd but lost 2 or 3 spots on the start. I battled up to 3rd and was running good then the mental fade hit with a 2.5 sec gap on Jason I drifted it into the wall on the long right hander. Hoping I could just kind nudge it off the wall on back on track I hit the wall right where the sections separate and next thing I was doing loopty loops and fliberty jibbets. And lost 3rd place in the process, then I lost the back end coming on to the staright a few seconds later and lost two more places. Got the message that I had front end damage but within two laps I set my fastest lap of the race so I knew the car was fine. Worked up behind M Peeler in the elite to I think a 4 sec gap and then another mistake dropped me back another 6 seconds. Then at the end I got a stop and go for cutting the curb coming into the long straight. Strange thing since I was on the same line through there the whole race. By the end of the race I was really fighting tire wear and my left front was really getting hot.

One of these days I well keep it together and get a result.