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Cool Fun Stuff -
SPS Racing
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Written by John Comeskey
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Friday, 01 February 2008 |
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After earning a pair of second place positions at Grattan during the September 1-2 weekend, team scR prepared for the Watkins Glen double regional on Saturday, September 15.
After replacing more wheel bearings (we need to buy our own press one of these days) and otherwise tidying up the car, we began the eleven-hour haul from suburban Detroit to Watkins Glen. All was painless until the headlights decided to spontaneously shut down at 8:30pm on a twisty two-lane road twenty miles from the track. Not to let electrical gremlins again spoil our fun at our favorite ‘big’ track (anyone remember the alternator problem last season?) crew magician Alex devised an elaborate series of sparking wires which somehow restored enough light to make the registration booth as they were closing. Fortunately, the woman behind the counter had a sense of humor.
Qualifying in a pack of seventeen ITA cars on Saturday morning was an exercise in dicing through traffic. We ran the Glen ‘short course’ which provided plenty of opportunity for slower traffic to interrupt a solid qualifying run. Careful timing and passing prevented a truly quick lap, but by the end we were second on the ITA grid, only five tenths of a second off of the pole position.
Continuing our luck from Grattan with the chassis set-up, we did nothing more than wash the car for the race that afternoon. After one aborted start (James still insists that he did NOT jump the green flag, regardless of what the guy on the loud speaker said) we took off for turn one, three wide.
Early on in the race, the #34 car was tied up racing with out-of-class ITS cars which drastically impacted our ability to catch the pole sitter. By the time we had cleared ourselves of the slower ‘faster’ cars, we had an eight second interval to the leader. We turned up the wick and slowly began to reduce the interval - six seconds, five seconds, four seconds, two seconds, checkered flag!
Just as we thought a race for the win was in our grasp, the race was called four laps early due to a big mess in the esses. While second place was certainly not as sweet as an outright win, we had set the fastest race lap in ITA - a 1:32.7 - and had the winner wondering what we were going to follow up with on Sunday morning.
To make along story very short, we kicked ass in qualifying on Sunday morning. The car was handling as well as it ever had, we had a draft for several laps, the weather was cool but sunny, and apparently the planets were all aligned as well. Not only did we manage to qualify on the pole (our first time this season,) we also managed to break the track record by two tenths of a second - a 1:32.1. Something was definitely going right.
At the start of the race that afternoon, we started an intense four-lap battle for the lead. We swapped the top spot no less than twice per lap with the #26 CRX, dicing in every corner and drag racing down the straights. Unfortunately, during a three-way battle going into a section of track known as the ‘bus stop,’ the #26 car had a suspension member let loose which caused him to turn left directly in front of our car at 117mph! The ensuing wreck left the #26 car, as well as an unfortunate ITS RX-7, against the guardrail as the plastic-bodied SC continued on its merry way. You can catch an instant replay here:
While we had certainly dodged a bullet, the hit taken on the left front wheel made the wheel bearing very, very unhappy. Consequently, James backed off his race pace a touch and did his best to limp the sick car home. As it would turn out, even sick, the SC was screaming fast, as we continued the rest of the way home unchallenged for our first win of the season. Wheel bearing and all, we still had a twenty-three second margin over the second place car. Way to go team - a checked flag for the wall! |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 22 April 2008 )
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