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I got talked into going up to Gingerman Raceway this weekend to work an SCCA National yesterday... here's the whole story... it starts at Purdue, where its raining...
Got back to my apartment, loaded up the car, so my camping stuff is
already wet and I haven't used it yet, and couldn't put the road wheels back on
because I didn't want to sit in the rain for 20 minutes to do it. So I drove up
to Michigan on the pumpkin wheels. Along the way, I determined that US 421 is
the MOST BORING road ever. I think I drove perfectly straight for 50 miles,
looking at cornfields. I also decided on the way up that I like Michigan
better than Indiana because there's trees to look at, but I94 is pretty crappy,
and they should make one of those "Got Chocolate Milk?" commercials by driving
down it with the bottle shaking in my cup holder. Got to the track Saturday
night, parked in the campground (under the trees in the grass, remember this
for later). Went out and looked for people we knew... got down to the
pavilion.. FREE BEER! I'm thinking this is great! and I've been there for all
of 5 minutes. Drank some, talked a little, went to find a place on high ground
to put the tent up. It wasn't raining yet, but looked like it could. Sure
enough, as soon as the tent went up and tied to a tree (super windy), it
started raining. Not much was going on by this point (all of 9:30 Mich. time),
so we just ate some junk food and went to bed. Well yeah. So stuff seems to
be going "ok" by this point... now the real follies start. I got into my
sleeping bag, which is kinda old, first thing I did... put my foot through the
zipper seam at the bottom. Its 40 something degrees out, now I've got air
conditioning. Seriously not cool (in fact it was cold). So now I'm trying to
go to sleep in my air conditioned sleeping bag, its pouring and windy... well,
anything can happen right? So it did. The tent starts leaking. Water is now
running in the window seems on both sides, grab some towels, them move a little
closer to the center of the tent. Sort of helped. Woke up, almost the whole
floor of the tent was wet. Luckily I had a rubber backing on my eggcrate mat
thing, the guy I was with wasn't so lucky. His soaked up the water like a
sponge, a wonderful start to the day. 6:30 in the morning, up and at 'em. Ate
some food, then grabbed the necessary stuff to take out on the track with me.
I was just working flags and the radio, so I took some munchies and dry stuff
then headed out. I made it 10'. Refer back to the part where I said under the
trees in the grass. Yeah... I got my car stuck in the mud. So I tried rocking
it out when all I really did was dig a deeper hole, I ended up in the mud up to
the bottom of the bumper (thats a good 5"). I guess race tires aren't meant
for off roading. Couple guys tried pushing, obviously no traction in the mud,
so we left it there. First casualty of the day, and the races hadn't even
started. Went out on the track, the first thing over the radio, "Umm, there's
a siver Honda sports car that got stuck in the mud, is that one of our guys?".
It got left there until lunch time. Worked a couple boring races in the
morning, it was still wet, and when you own your own open wheel race car, you try not to crash it. So it was kinda boring. Lunch time, they
got the on track wrecker over to my car, hooked a cable up and towed me out of
the mud. Went back and worked the afternoon, they did all the production and
bodied cars, the SRFs and FVees and F500s, had to clean
up a really messy crash in the GT1, GT2, AS, T1, T2 Race, which was kinda funny in a bad way. What happened is a T2 Camaro spun exiting a corner, the 2 T2 SRT4s behind him split to avoid, one went high, the other went low. The Camaro slid down the track and the inside SRT nailed his rear bumper. The rear hatch glass on the Camaro exploded, as did the bumper and tail lights... some how he limped it to the pits. The SRT4 wasn't so lucky. My guess is the control arm or suspension collapsed in the left front corner because he was stuck it was probably salvagable until the guys in the wrecker couldn't get the
hood open to flat tow it off the track. So they hooked it to the roll cage through
the drivers window, the second that thing hit the grass, they rolled the whole
car over. Ok, now its totalled. Then they couldn't roll it back upright.
What did they do? Went around the car, hooked the cable through the passenger
window, pulled it back upright... just insult to injury. By this point the
driver is just going off at them. Keep in mind, this is amateur racing, these
guys pay for their own stuff, or get little sponsorships. That was most of the
excitement on the track. There was some good racing going on, but you kinda
need to watch that as it happens. So of course, now I gotta try it since it
was so cool. I'm going in July to drive the same track in my car, and I sense
the money pit just got dug a little deeper. Drove home, got another unwanted
massage from I94, made it home about 830 last night, unpacked and went to
sleep.
One crazy weekend... and I want to do it again (maybe without the rain)
Here's some pictures
Some of the last race of the day (the only one I wasn't waving flags or working
the radio for) Production and GT4, GT5
My car at the track
The famous mud
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I tell you, SCCA people are a sick bunch.... we drive for hours and put up with just about any inconvienance or misshap just to stand around for a day and watch other people race.... Hell, I just drove 7 hours one way just for 6 min of racing (and I'd do it again in a Heart beat)... whats wrong with us???
any way, congrats on supporting your club. Maybe when the SCCA starts doing club racing here in Las Vegas I'll do the same.
Autocross: Because Life is more fun on three wheels......
"I know Solo only comes one minute at a time, but what an intense, non-stop, fast-forward car control exercise minute it is. Sure, the velocity is higher in road racing, but inside the car it is slow-motion in comparison. In Solo, the turns come like machine-gun rounds. "
Randy Pobst
Originally posted by Zzyzx I tell you, SCCA people are a sick bunch.... we drive for hours and put up with just about any inconvienance or misshap just to stand around for a day and watch other people race.... Hell, I just drove 7 hours one way just for 6 min of racing (and I'd do it again in a Heart beat)... whats wrong with us???
any way, congrats on supporting your club. Maybe when the SCCA starts doing club racing here in Las Vegas I'll do the same.
A man I can understand. I guess we do it because we love it.
Dude when you are planning for an open track day at gingerman, PM me i'm like 2 1/2 hours from there. it would be cool to meet a fellow 7thgen racer (not to mention race at the track together)
__________________ "I like anything that is fast enough to do something stupid in"
#36 STS Detroit SCCA
Originally posted by CrazyCakes Dude when you are planning for an open track day at gingerman, PM me i'm like 2 1/2 hours from there. it would be cool to meet a fellow 7thgen racer (not to mention race at the track together)
I'm not planning. I'm registered for the Western Mi. Honda Meet... its July 5 and there's a waiting list for it already. www.ef-honda.com/wmhm4
(maybe without the rain)
