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 The
first “warm” day of this long and miserable winter triggered a rush of
car cleaning at a certain West Boxford home. After hibernating for weeks
on end, unable to justify spending any time washing cars, I was eager to
get out the cleaning supplies and start tending to our filthy stable of
vehicles. The first order of business was to wax the two racecars in preparation
for our first two driver education events of the year. Normally I run out
of energy dealing with one car, not this time! For several hours I waxed
away, enjoying the act of sprucing up the cars. With that task out of the
way, I was still feeling full of energy, and since the weather was cooperating,
I decided I could fit in cleaning up our street cars.
I first needed to clean out the dirt, sand, and general debris that had accumulated in the interiors. I think I vacuumed out enough sand to fill a small sandbox. With the interiors much tidier I moved on to the exteriors. Both cars were coated in salt laden spray, which made getting near the cars a dangerous enterprise if you were wearing decent clothes. A half-day later the cars looked a whole lot better, and since they were clean it only made sense to clean up the garage a bit. No sense undoing car cleaning progress, by pulling into a dirty garage. For a brief few hours our vehicles were clean, the garage was clean, and I was feeling much better. I thought a bit about tackling our truck, but decided it made sense to turn it over to a detailing shop close to my office. Unfortunately my timing wasn’t the best, as the truck went in for cleaning the day we were blessed with another 5 inches of snow. So of course the truck didn’t even make it out of the detailer’s parking lot before it was dirty again. I’ll try to clean it up again on a forthcoming warm spring weekend. I know, maybe I’m being unduly optimistic. I stayed entertained during the month watching the start of the F1 racing season, the 12 Hours of Sebring sports car race, and several NASCAR races. The new Formula 1 racing rules and a confusing weather situation made for an interesting race at the season starting Australian Gran Prix. While the Ferraris were once again the best cars, they didn’t win – a very rare result over the past three years. I’m not sure who was the most confused during the race, the teams or the television commentators! Several of the teams made tactical errors, drivers messed up, and the commentators couldn’t seem to figure out whose strategy was working the best. The were declaring certain drivers as likely winners, ignoring the probability that necessary pit stops would take them out of contention. I watched nearly all 12 hours of the Sebring race, which turned out to be quite entertaining. Some 55 entrants started the race, a large and varied field of racecars. The track as expected took its toll on suspension parts, causing several cars to make either extended pit stops or retire all together. Throughout the entire race two Audi R8s led the field, never more than a lap apart. At the end the factory effort bested the Champion team by a mere 13 seconds after 12 hours of racing. Two Bentley’s chased them throughout the race, quicker on the straights but slower in the corners. They look like Stealth fighters with their angular bodywork. They’ll next race at Le Mans against the Audi’s, that should make for another very entertaining race. Don’t think I’ll watch all 24 hours! I arrived home from our region’s NewComer’s meeting just in time to catch the last three laps of the NASCAR race at Darlington. The track “to tough to tame” was once again a challenge, catching Jeff Gordon late in the race. Kurt Busch and Jeff Cravin took turns leading the race over the last couple of laps. Finally they raced door handle to door handle to the finish line, with Cravin winning by an imperceptible 2 thousandths of a second. NASCAR couldn’t have staged a more exciting finish. Our driving season will have started by the time you’ve received this issue. We start each DE season at the Virginia International Raceway, one of our most favorite tracks. The combination of a great track, excellent creature comforts (read real bathrooms with showers!), a well organized Zone 2 team, and friendly track personnel make this event a must do each year. The trip down should be educational as we’ll be traveling with our new 48 ft gooseneck trailer. Both Susana and I are more than a little anxious about dealing with the big trailer. Hopefully I’ll not have sideswiped anything along the way. I’d hoped to have practiced a bit with the truck and trailer, getting comfortable with how they work together. But the combination of lots of snow on our lot, and a late arriving trailer will prevent my getting “seat time” before we depart. I’m already re-planning our trip to allow for stopping only in places with large parking areas. In the past we’ve darted off the interstates into some very tight locals, no more will that work! Fortunately our new tow vehicle gets better gas mileage so we can be a bit more selective about where we stop. Later on in the month we’ll be headed off to Birmingham, AL to drive the brand new Barber Motorsports track. I’ve seen pictures of the track and read several comments about the track that suggest it just might be the best driving facility in the US. Most recently Royal Ford, Boston Globe automotive editor, visited the track during the press introduction of the Cayenne. He termed the track “fabulous”, high praise indeed. I’ll let you know whether the track matches up with all the praise. |
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