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| Home
> Speed > Stories >
Summer 2003 |
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WatkinsGlen
BeaveRun
Mosport |
.2003 |
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| The
Summer of my Discontent |
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"License
and Registration Please" |
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Officer Bob
of the Pennsylvania State Police glared at me while I handed him the requested
documents. At only 90 minutes from home, Mosport International Raceway
was still 8 hours away. Caught in a speed trap doing
81 in a 65 zone while heading down a long hill, this didn't bode well
for the rest of the weekend.
I should've
seen the pattern. Not only had the trailer been speeding downhill, so
has my racing season. Sometimes it isn't just "all good".
It started with the Glen. Or more accurately, with the Glen enduro. The
start of the Glen weekend was great. I won the fun race in the wet, keeping
Lou Betstadt in his 911 behind me all the way to checker. The sprint ended
with me in the 6th, just inches off Lou's bumper after a great battle
swapping leads. No, the beginning of the slide was the
enduro.
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Normally,
I do well in enduros. I dial it back a second or two a lap, keep a cool
head and capitalize on opportunities as others tire. I had gotten a great
start and then lost it several laps later when I got a little greedy
and made a mistake. I was flying up the esses when I came up on
a GT4S car. They're very light and have little motor. They can walk around
me painlessly in the turns, but if you get stuck behind them it can feel
like being stuck behind somebody driving 55 mph in the
left lane of I-95. I had 2 E class cars several car lengths behind me. I
would much rather have the GT4 car behind me, slowing down my competitors,
than in front of me, slowing me down and allowing them to catch up. I worked
hard to get that space. |
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Lou on the outside
at turn 1 |
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As
we rocketed out into the back straight, the GT car stayed to the inside.
I waited, I had the speed, I wasn't going to let him out brake me
into the bus stop. I waited, the brake markers coming up fast, the GT car
hung tough on the inside. I waited, and waited, and Shit! Too late, no way
to turn in now. Hard on the brakes I rocketed through the orange cones and
came to a stop in no-mans-land between the entrance and
exit of the chicane. |
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Knowing
that I would get a stop & go penalty if I kept going, I waited for the
corner worker to signal me back onto the track. He let the GT car by, and
then the two E class cars. "Let’s Go, Let’s Go!".
I'm screaming into my helmet as I watch my competitors disappear into the
distance. The corner worker seems to ignore me as each
agonizing second ticks by, and with it more cars pass in front of me. Finally,
after there's only 5 minutes left in the enduro, but in reality was only
30 seconds later, I'm waived onto the track. |
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That
was mistake number 1. Mistake number 2 was soon at hand.
Several minutes later the 1st full course yellow (FCY) was thrown. This
year for the first time, the pits were open for FCY's. When that was announced
at the driver's meeting you felt the buzz as racing strategies were quickly
discarded and modified. Every driver had to make a 5 minute stop somewhere
during the race. My strategy was to run 60-75 minutes before doing my pit
stop. |
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with sympathy, or money. Non-POS race cars also accepted.
(c)
2003 Cris Brady - All Rights Reserved
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Lou on the outside
at turn 1