I was so lonely at this Race! Where were all of the other C&DSR's in the NE? Only Bill Goldkind and myself actually attended this weekend. After
missing the Glen National due to motor problem's I was looking forward to trying my new backup motor against all my friends. Everyone who did not make
this race missed what has got to be one of the smoothest paving jobs ever laid on a race track. All of the nasty bumps that used to launch cars waaaay off
line are a thing of the past. The race was held on the "Classic" course, skipping the new uphill chicane and the detour at West Bend.
Speaking of the uphill chicane, the designer forgot that it rains here in the NE and between the ALMS race and this weekend 10 feet of hillside eroded all the way down onto the track! One of the maintenance workers told me the mud was 12" deep before they scraped it away.
In any case, Friday qualifying was 90 degrees and humid with plenty of sun. It was apparent right away that lap records would fall, as many LRP experts were flat out flying! Consensus was that the track was about 1 second faster for most. B. Goldkind qualified his FA and CSR and asked for permission to start the CSR in Group 5 so he could run both, which was granted. My Dragon was qualified 9th out of 21. 6 FA's were ahead as well as 2 ztech FC's. The racing was expected to be tight, as myself and two others were Qualified on the same tenth.
Weather got into the mix for the race day, with 2 hours of rain and lightning from 11:30 to 1:30 pm. After this blew through the track began to dry again, but the surface was cool and the air was heavy. The first start was waved off (too bad, the FA in front and I got a nice jump) but everyone got together on the second try. Just two corners later Bill Goldkin's FA spun out of the lead group and bent front suspension parts. This meant a lot of brake jobs and the order shuffled around. He was in a bad spot, just at the entrance of the esses, so a pace car came out for 4 laps while the car was lifted out.
On the restart everyone behaved and we all got down to business. I had a great race with J Huffman in his FE (he set a new lap record of 52.1) and Doug Rocco's new Elan FC. We battled for every lap and at the flag there was about 3-4 feet between each car. The Dragon Sr2 ran great from start to finish and got the new DSR record of 51.9 seconds.
Hope to see a bunch of DSR's at the Pocono Double in 2 weeks.
Bill Gendron
Speaking of the uphill chicane, the designer forgot that it rains here in the NE and between the ALMS race and this weekend 10 feet of hillside eroded all the way down onto the track! One of the maintenance workers told me the mud was 12" deep before they scraped it away.
In any case, Friday qualifying was 90 degrees and humid with plenty of sun. It was apparent right away that lap records would fall, as many LRP experts were flat out flying! Consensus was that the track was about 1 second faster for most. B. Goldkind qualified his FA and CSR and asked for permission to start the CSR in Group 5 so he could run both, which was granted. My Dragon was qualified 9th out of 21. 6 FA's were ahead as well as 2 ztech FC's. The racing was expected to be tight, as myself and two others were Qualified on the same tenth.
Weather got into the mix for the race day, with 2 hours of rain and lightning from 11:30 to 1:30 pm. After this blew through the track began to dry again, but the surface was cool and the air was heavy. The first start was waved off (too bad, the FA in front and I got a nice jump) but everyone got together on the second try. Just two corners later Bill Goldkin's FA spun out of the lead group and bent front suspension parts. This meant a lot of brake jobs and the order shuffled around. He was in a bad spot, just at the entrance of the esses, so a pace car came out for 4 laps while the car was lifted out.
On the restart everyone behaved and we all got down to business. I had a great race with J Huffman in his FE (he set a new lap record of 52.1) and Doug Rocco's new Elan FC. We battled for every lap and at the flag there was about 3-4 feet between each car. The Dragon Sr2 ran great from start to finish and got the new DSR record of 51.9 seconds.
Hope to see a bunch of DSR's at the Pocono Double in 2 weeks.
Bill Gendron
