Gregg
New member
By the end of the Sunday race there weren't many "handsome" Spec RX-7's left in the paddock. I was surprised by their on-track antics when I drove Spank's ITC Civic at MARRS 7, but their bashfests in Saturday qualifying and in Sunday's race were two of the ugliest sessions I have ever seen. As I was only a spectator, I'll let some of the ITC drivers comment if they so desire.
[hypocrite mode=on]Although I got through the weekend without spinning or exiting the track in a spectacular way, I was not contact-free over the weekend and feel pretty crappy about it. Thankfully those I did come into contact with were very understanding people.[hypocrite mode=off]
That said, I'd like to thank the Northern boys for coming down and putting on a great show (Ray ran faster at Summit after one weekend than I've ever run there in three years), Kirk Dohne for giving me the race of my life on Sunday (5 lead changes), Brett for letting that happen :119:, Brantly's mom for feeding me all the rabbit food I could eat, Brett for his encouraging words in impound on Monday, and Brett for absolutely destroying the track record on Sunday (so that I can stop pushing to try and break it), James for donating a vehicle that gets more than 6mpg for my late-nite transmission run for Brad, Dave & Terri for not charging me the late cancellation fee at the hotel, and Big John for (1) helping me get the car back together, (2) pointing out how many bent radius rods I possess, and (3) being the "sane" voice on the radio both days.
. The RX-7s made things interesting Saturday and fun on Sunday. 
Definitly had an awesome time, up until a little incident in 3 on the last lap, but the car is in one piece, I'm in one piece, and I didn't lose any ground in the points. All in all a successful weekend.
:119:
Y'all had to be there as everyone nearby had a good chuckle out of that one. So back to camp for a few more beers another great evening and no work to be done on an RX-.... dang It! here comes Chris H. and Dave Y. each with a big smile. I check out Chrises car, blown motor but they already knew that. Of course, since everyone at SP and the entire West Virginia area are sooooo nice, someone went home to pick up a motor for Chris so that he could race the next day. A few more Coronas and an hour or so later (I have done nothing but drink beer up to this point) I asked Chris if the motor was ready to come out of the car and he said yep. What are the chances of getting an engine hoist? He said the dude that is bringing the engine is also bringing a hoist. Now that dude in my opinion is waaaaay cool. A first gen RX-7 pulls up and here is John(I never got his last name but he drives a red SRX7.) the redneck and I say that because at some point during the engine swap, he said so himself " I aim a redneck" loud and proud. Funny guy and waaaay cool. Anyhow, the engine swap was completed Mon morning and when Kimmie and I rolled in, they were trying to get the motor running. Eventually, John was able to get it running but it was suffering from an incurable oil leak. Chris decided not to race and risk oiling down the track. A very sportsmanlike decision. However, Chris did race as John let him use his SRX7 for the ITA race and John had his own race later that day. Man! All this love at the Track. Back to racing. Mondays race was mostly spent chasing down Kirk Dohne in a Nissan 240sx. Gregg G. and Brett D took off and was never to be seen again. I managed to pass Kirk and on the last lap as we were headed towards the checquered flag I had to put a Wendell Holmes size block on him in order to keep him behind me. Kirk. Please, no hard feelings about that. We live to race another day. I did have some metal to metal contact with Don Wenner(71 Monza) I tried a few bumps to try and move him but my little Integra was not going to move the Monza anyhow but I did use him as a guardrail when I went sliding through the grass and it's true what he said. Eight wheels turn better than four 
No real damage was done. We each had a donut to take home. Overall good race and for the most part, very good pointbys from lapped traffic. Third place it was again best lap time, 1:28.151.
I only planned on running my car for one year just to show that it can win and can be fast. As far as I have heard the 1.8 has been approved already for ITA next year. I will most likely go to SM nationals for next year. If anyone is looking for championship winning car let me know.
