I know most of you don't know me but many do and I thought I would share my first road race experince with those who do.


The Rookies View of The Rock!

Wow what a weekend!

This is rather long so feel free to skip my rambling and jump straight to the link towards the bottom to see why I wrote so much.

Last & first time we drove Patty (my Cobra) at Roebling she was just no fun. Patty was to quick to turn in, front end vibrated at a high speed, she stuck her rear out when we least wanted it and just would not stop.

Patty to say the least was a “B!tch”

So the weeks following I redid her alignment and solicited Dave Eves for corner weighting and to make sure everything else was in order that I had adjusted.

So fast forward to last Saturday at Rockingham where I was concerned about Patty’s & I date. Of course this time we were not just playing around. We are here for the competition school, get our provisional license and with hopes to take in a race.

Early Saturday morning before the drills from the instructors she & I head our for some practice laps. After several laps of disbelief that this was the same Patty I started to push her around. Patty had grown up!?! She now handled and braked like I imagined she should, there is no way to describe the turn around.

School in now in session and it was great to have the Gray Family there too share in the experience, Mike Gray and I paired up to run our drills which were fun and uneventful for problems. The most memorable part was when I proceeded to pass one of three cars sent out to mess with us comp school participants. A CMC guy himself was tailing another student in a 944 as Patty & I came upon them. Not sure whether to slow up and wait my turn in the barrel or to pass. I opted to pass both in mid corner, I see him pull out to pursue and quickly gave up to harass the 944 once again. Poor kid in the Porsche must have been on pins and needles. Any who I spoke with the CMC guy (Pete or Greg can’t recall which drove which mustang) later on in the day and he stated I made the correct move and was confident driving with us.

Of course the official word of endorsement came from Jim Pantas who offered tips, help & patience to all of his comp students. Which we did receive his blessing to hold a provisional license! YAY! Woohooo!

Wrapping up the end of the day Sheila and I had a surprise visit from Lars and his wife. Which was great to put a face to name and just bs a while. Thanks much for coming out!

Also gave us a chance to chat with Mike Gray & his wife about other things than racing (I did not know there was anything else). I also found this may end up costing me! As my wife found out Mike holds the fountain of youth close in hand. j/k.

Sheila and I again enjoyed the company of our fellow racers.

After all our socializing with many people it was time to put Patty to bed for a good nights rest for “The Great Pumpkin Run” (a sixty minute race that last 47 minutes & 52 seconds not that anyone is counting) and called about everyone I knew to rejoice before we crashed ourselves.

5:30am Sunday Morning feels like Christmas. As we head to the track from Hartsville where we stayed with other racers John and Pam (thanks again for your hospitality!) it starts to sprinkle. By the time we arrive our sprinkle had turned into a steady rain.

1st Practice session came and went around 8:30am or so. We bowed out as all we have mounted were slicks (710’s), hard rain and a warm garage. Rumor had it that the rain should stop before the race. So I took the extra time to go over the car. Glad I did as I found the welded bolt that holds up the right exhaust up near the door had broken. Quickly rectified the situation with a drill and a rather long carriage bolt I had with me by chance. Matter of fact I think I’ll do the other side this way as it is much cleaner looking.

Qualifying comes around 10:30 am or so and the rain had let up to a sprinkle again so I dawn the race suit and head out. Of course now its raining hard again, decided it would be nice to have a dry suit for the race so after three laps we pulled in. Qualifying results come out and out of 16 cars we place 8th. But not really as a rookie on your first race they start you in the back of the field. Not a big deal as I knew there are more people in the race than qualifying who did not go out as all they had were slicks. And yes it was slick, I literally learned to hydro plane turn seven at speed. Weeee!

So we just hang out for the next several hours waiting to start the race and for the rain to stop.

The Great Pumpkin Run! 1 O’clock and were suiting up once again. Rain is a sprinkle, but hpde’rs are out drying the track (did not help much) and were rolling to the grid. Pull up to the grid Marshall “your comp school right?” me “yes” him “grid over there in the back”. Lucky enough the back is not the very back. Out of 25 cars I am some where between 18th -19th that I can best figure. Still need to watch the video.

So here we go around the track and Mother Nature wants to rain on our parade. We all file in line and keep an eye on the green flag.

The starter waives the green flag and were off! The Pack shoots low two wide into Nascar turn 1 & 2. And I know this is going to sound far fetch from a rookie, but I drove out side three wide to pass 10 cars or so before turn three. The the field shoots to the left again to hug the inside of turn 3 so I drive wide around the outside yet again to a position of 5th or 6th before turn 4 and proceeded to settle into a nice race groove from there. Patty and I had a few more exciting passes which would take way to long to explain but for 80% of the race we were just motoring along by ourselves. All the mean while I had no clue as to what position I am in or how long I have been running and that’s when we see the white flag. The last lap is smooth and finish about 6-7 car lengths behind an Integra as the checkered flag drops.

Now here is where most folks are like Mike stop bs-ing me, so I provided a link:

http://www.nasa-southeast.com/result...PR60-Race.html


4th place!!!Woohoo!!! Made even better that poor Patty was ill equipped with 710!
Now this was a surprise, but I had no idea how close I was to 3rd as it was the Integra in front of me at the finish! If I only knew!
My best lap was a 1:12.713 in the wet on slicks.

Sorry I don’t have an in car footage as I was in a hurry to leave Savannah on Friday and forgot my chase camera. I do have photos coming and a couple of short pedestrian video clips that are very amateur that I have to review to see if there is anything good on.

Once again special thanks to my wife Sheila who enjoys the experience as much as me and is as tired as I am right now.

Dave Eves for letting me be a thorn in his side, assisting with corner weighting and double checking my alignment job.

Don Agnew who helped with welding & general Ford guru, Don would have been there with me but do to medical reasons could not make it. So keep him in your thoughts you guys would like him.

I know Sheila and I have meet a lot of people who all were great to talk with and enjoyed there company. We are looking forward to meeting more of the racers and community in the up coming months.

Thanks to all on the forum who share their info and thanks to Dan E. for inspiring me to write this damn long post!

Mike
05 Cobra (Patty- she’s green you know)