Matt-
Hope things are going well for you... Give us an update…
As far as the ITB race I will give you my rundown for your entertainment!!!
Saturday:
Qualifying:
The top 9 ITB cars were within about 1 second of each other (mid 19’s to mid 20’s). Certainly everyone has picked up the pace a lot since last year.
Race:
Derek led from start to finish. Typical ITS pile up in turn 3 that forced the ITB folks to feed through, then for the first few laps Paul Curran (In the last couple races he has really pulled everything together and picked up the pace!) and I battled it out for 2nd and 3rd place as Stephen and Scott battled it out right behind. Paul had some misfires and I was able to finally slip past. Scott and Stephen were able to slip by as well and sooner than I wanted Scott and Stephen were battling it out with me for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I was battling what later turned out to be a broken motor mount and missed a shift coming out of turn 3. Stephen and Scott split me going up the hill and it was all over for me. I battled it out with my bro for a bit, but missed a few more shifts. I slowly started falling back as I was also battling a blown rebound valve in the LF strut. As I slipped back I was forced to race with several ITS cars. I will refrain from further comment about that. A full course yellow brought the pack back together late in the race and Derek (who had a handsome lead) was forced to battle it out with Stephen and Scott. In the end of a great battle it was Derek Scott and then Stephen. I broke another CV joint (probably related to the broken motor mounts) as I continued to “play” with the ITS mid packers. I think Paul ended up third but everyone was so close I am not sure the whole order, and I don’t have the results in front of me.
Sunday:
Qualifying:
The top 3 ITB cars were within about .5 seconds of each other (low 23’s). The rest of the field was all within about a send of each other in the 25’s. (I only got 3 laps before I broke a stupid radiator hose)… errr After qualifying all car were impounded and inspected for damage. Damage was marked in log books to be fixed for next season.
Race:
The start again saw ITS cars spinning in the first real turn (turn 1 in this configuration) and I think everyone got through this time without damage. Derek Stephen and Scott took of from the field with me in quick pursuit. Back a little bit I think it was Paul Curran and Tim Mullen but I couldn’t quite tell as I was dealing again with the ITS cars. I was forced to run with half racing pads and half stock pads we found on a junker from our lot of used coupes out back (Stephen apparently hasn’t checked his brakes all year, and the metal ones probably wouldn’t have helped his battle for the championship, so I gave him my brakes, what brotherly love… sorry buddy, but you didn’t win with my brakes so you are going to get a little bit of a guilt trip). Anyway I was still able to run good in the beginning till things started going wrong… first sign was running once again with those pesky mid pack ITS cars… one of them hit me going into turn 6 and damaged the RF front tire, not enough to end my race, but enough to end a brand new tires life after 1 race. More will be discussed later as the driver feels it was my fault. I am trying to get in-car footage because if it was my error, I certainly would like to educate myself, and if it wasn’t my error, I hope the other driver will also take the educational experience. Anyway as I continued I struggled with the rear end of my car getting very loose so much that I had an (what felt like) outstanding slide going into turn 1 (end of pit wall) the put me backwards into the grass… (Twice) I used a bit of my ice racing techniques to spin the car back around and continue on my way. The first time I didn’t loose and didn’t gain anything (until the results showed me as taking a short cut and I was penalized a lap). The second time wasn’t as graceful but I never did come to a stop but not without falling to ummm… yeah about last place. After the second time (a bit of a hard hit on the curb) I looked at my gauges to see if all was ok. The water gauge read zero… humm what is that??? Did I break the gauge or it their no fluid? Must be the Guage I said so I continued for the last 5 or 6 laps, but lost a lot of momentum and power… I continued to think… I can feel the engine moving all over the place, the throttle keeps sticking, well it must be the linkage, the engine has moved so much that I can not get full throttle, I’ll keep going. Turns out their was not water left in the coolant system when I finished the race… oh and I was getting full throttle, it was the darn ignition coils that were holding the throttle cable as they were in a different spot in relation to the now moving motor. So anyway with all that I was unable to catch the fighting Tom Kelly (in your car) Tim Mullen and Canadian (Rob McCabe?). Stephen led the whole race fighting with Derek and Scott until a missed shift on the last lap allowed Scott to slip past then apparently a last ditch effort to get Scott in turn 12 allowed Derek also to slip past. Nice job bro
!!!
My Summary:
On the broken motor mount… it was not discovered till after the race on Sunday, we thought that my massive pull under power was some sort of alignment or loose suspension issue so all of that was checked and rechecked. Bummer, probably could have avoided a few issues...
In the end, I ended up with 2 last place finishes, a damaged tire, 2 broken motor mounts, 2 broken radiator hoses, a junk motor, a junk strut, a junk CV joint, and yet another dent.
Hope things are well and we see you soon Matt!!!
oh you missed some great Canadian beer... thans Canadians!!! hope to see all of you at the ARRC and next year!!!
Raymond "coulda/shoulda skipped this one" Blethen
Congrats to Scott Carlson for winning the 2003 ITB New England Road Racing Championship!!!