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Oh boy the ups and downs of the Glen. I don’t mean heading up the Esses, down Turn 5 and 6 or even winding up the Toe. I am talking emotional up and downs. Before we get there we always think the best. After all the Glen is OUR HOUSE as Andy likes to put it. Friday was wet but we headed out in the first session just to stretch our legs a bit. It felt good even though it was damp. When I got back to the trailer Andy had that, “something broke” look. First session, first lap, and first turn his transmission lost 3rd gear. So after speaking with Jerry Pellegrino we decided to take advantage of the rainy weather and drop the motor, check the transmission and see if we can fix it for the Sprint race on Saturday. Our friends Case and James Marshall paddock with us at the Glen along with Jeff McCarthy. The Marshalls have a huge 5 car trailer with a lift inside so we put the car on the lift and loosened everything. Then we rolled it out under the E-Z Up and dropped the motor. The lift ramps were too close to fit the motor through. Once we had it out Jerry came over and pulled the case apart and found that some selector ring was out of adjustment (why we were not sure) and he re-set it. Another friend there happened to have a gasket kit and we got some trans fluid from the Marshalls. Long story short, it took the 5 of us 3.5 hours to drop the motor fix the trans and put the motor back in the car. Try that on 944 Turbo. Two weeks later you will still be hooking up vacuum lines. The next day we skipped practice, still wet, and started at the back for qualifying. Andy out qualified me by a lot in the wet. Andy started 21st and I started 33rd. Jeff did well in the wet starting 6th and Peter Dikeman who is pretty good in the wet was starting 2nd. The race was nice and dry and I made it up to 12th spot and Andy made it up to 10th. The Marshalls started in the back. James finished right behind me and Case was a couple back from him. The interesting thing was the fastest lap in the Sprint race grids you for the Enduro on Sunday. Andy had a 2:18.268. I had a 2:18.266. I edged him out by 2/1000 of a second. Unfortunately Andy’s transmission lost 3rd again in Sunday practice so he decided to run the race from the back with everything but 3rd gear. Now for my ups and downs. My car is running great (knock on wood) and I started 8th in the Enduro right behind Peter Dikeman. In the first 20 laps I passed 3 of the cars in front of me when 2 cars crashed in different areas on the track. I was about to lap Andy who was just a ways in front of me and got on the radio and suggested we try to dive into the pit before a double yellow came out (no pitting under double yellow). I was the last one to get into the pit before it closed. Peter must not have seen the PIT CLOSED sign because on the time sheet he was DQ’d for pitting under yellow. Unfortunately that was the least of Peter’s problems as you will read about later. As I passed through the PIT IN cones I started the 5 minute timer in my car. Because Andy, Jeff, Peter and I all went into the pit at the same time (and we were all sharing 2 pit stalls) it was very crowded. I was very lucky that Jerry Pellegrino was also helping out in the pits to help me take fuel. When I got back into the car I found out that my 5 minute timer had not started so I had no idea how long I had been in there. If I leave before 5 minutes I get docked 1 lap. So I tried to gauge myself compared to the others. Unfortunately Peter got out in front of me and when I viewed my video tape I realized I stayed in 25 seconds too long. As we were driving around, still under full course yellow, I stayed close to Peter so I can get by when we go green. As we rounded Turn 10 the crashed car in Turn 11 was still there. I figured after a 5 minute pit stop and a 3 minute yellow lap the car would be gone. Not only was it not gone the workers had stopped the cars with no waving flag to warn us. Peter managed to fit into the last spot on the shoot between 10 and 11 leaving me just one place to go. The gravel! Have you ever watch a pro race and seen someone go into the gravel and continually spin the wheels trying to get out! I have and I find myself calling the guy a bonehead for burying himself even deeper. Well if you were watching me YOU would have called me a bonehead. I was 7/8th of the way through and coasting. As soon as I hit the grass I sunk. It was like quicksand, the more I struggled, the deeper I got. So I sat looking at the crass right in front of me waiting to get pulled out. Then the pace car came around with everyone seeing me in the gravel. Shortly after that the wrecker came and yanked me out. I stayed on the grass and wiggled as long and as much as I could to extricate as much of the pea stone from all the cavities in the underside of my car. I stayed along the pit wall and drove through Turn 1 and then I put the hammer down.I had just under an hour to get back in the race. My down was going into the gravel while in probably 3rd place overall and 2nd in class. The UPs was the way I drove afterwards. The fastest lap I have ever run in an F-class car at the Glen was 2:16.856. In the last 18 laps of the race I had 10 laps that were faster then I have ever driven the Glen before in F-class. I had 4 laps in the 2:15 range and my fastest was a 2:15.601. Before I drove in F-class I drove a nicely prepared S2 in GT3. The fastest I did in that car was a 2:15.777. So despite going into the gravel I had a great race. Oh yeah I finished 9th overall and 6th in class. I got more than a couple emails from other F-class drivers that we hang with that wondered how it was possible. Well, I pitted before the double yellow came out so the field was behind the pace car running 4.5 to 5 minute laps. Anyone who had to pit under green lost 1 or 2 laps to anyone that pitted before the yellow. I spent 2 laps in the gravel because that was also during a double yellow. So basically one washed the other. Then add to that faster lap times then even some of the front runners and there you have it.\ One last downer... Peter Dikeman, while chasing me on the next to last lap, lost it in Turn 10 and put 2 wheels off on the right and shot back to the left across the track hitting the wall. I never saw the car but I don’t think it was good. I did however record the whole thing in my rearview mirror. It didn’t look fun. Cool! |
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