Fubar, continued from page 3
from Delaware tipped a few at Siebkens.
Unfortunately my groggy state never really improved during the weekend. By Saturday it was getting pretty groggy at the track. Rain began around 2, and got steadily heavier until a couple lightning strikes scattered concrete onto the racing surface and canceled racing for the rest of the day. During the soggy (but still delicious) chicken cookout, the word was spread that group 5 (FM/FF/CFF/FS) and group 6 (SRF) would get to race starting at 8:00 a.m. Sunday. For those of you wondering what is "FS" (as was I), it is a broad category encompassing any open wheel car not falling into other "F" categories. Like if you happen to have an old Williams F1 car or Eagle F5000 car sitting out in the garage, FS is your class. No Williams machinery showed up for Sunday’s 8 sharp pace lap, nor did the lone FM entry of LOL’s Chuck Snyder, who left the track after Saturday’s deluge began and didn’t get the word. However I had a strange sense of deja vu as the field exited the kink to be confronted with a quarter mile of water soaked track, similar to that facing the CART field a week earlier. The concrete barriers on driver’s right trap water running off the hill, and it continues to run across the track long after rain has stopped (in this case early Saturday evening). With Snyder missing, Scott Hutchison inherited the outside pole and jumped to the early lead with a ballsy drive through the water, as Bill Luxon (Piper) and the rest of the field backed off in heavy spray. I was totally blind from my 5th row location, and flunked the gonad check as I got way out of the power exiting the kink while hoping none of the spray had metal in it. As the track slowly dried, Luxon was able to close on Scott, and they had a serious go of it, with Bill taking the
checker by half a car length. Marc Blanc ran away from the CFF group, which included Bruce Drenth in 5th and Mike Maienza (Dulon) 11th. Steve Olson had problems with his CFF "vintage" Lola, and was out on the last lap and done for the day. We managed 6th FF only by attrition, as I had seriously screwed up the setup with my front shocks, and fought entry understeer/exit oversteer the whole 8 laps. Two hours later we were back on the drier (but still very green) track for qualifying, and Chuck Snyder notched his second straight pole with Luxon topping the FF group. The Chicago Region did a great job keeping the event on schedule, as all qualifying groups were docked 5 minutes, but the afternoon groups all started on time with full 12 lap races. Our race got off to a clean start with Snyder taking the lead only to be passed by Bill Luxon on the second circuit, with the FF leading the next two laps and pulling out a substantial lead over the next group. I was tailgunner on that second group consisting of Scott H., Kenny Baum and Craig Cunningham in Steve Stadel’s Van Diemen. The second time through the kink I turned in a hair early and got into a lurid slide at the exit, which elevated the old pulse rate, but cost me over a second as the three car group opened a gap. Despite their dicing at many corners and my best efforts over the next 5 laps, I was unable to close that gap as Hutch finally took control of second place. Luxon prevailed by almost 7 seconds for his second win of the day. John Welch (Hawke) was winner in CFF by the narrowest of margins (inches) over Blanc, while Drenth pulled off with gearbox problems with Maienza 5th.
I picked up a full set of Sunday’s results and noted the following by LOL drivers: Group 1 - Mike Sheehy 6th F500, John Maurus and David
Daly 4th and 5th in FV, Richard Schmidt 9th F500 and Jeff Gadbois a FV non starter. The Gadfly Productions machine got off to a brisk start in Saturday’s race (in the dry), but pulled off at turn 3 with a broken rear axle casting which Jeff was unable to repair or replace, and was sadly done for the event. Group 2 had a big LOL turnout - Michael Brown 2nd ITA and 3rd overall; Tom Daly winner ITB; David Brown 3rd ITB; John Glowaski 4th ITB; Gene Harbour 9th ITA; Greg Youngdahl 6th ITB as the Opel still was overheating; Tim Bleed 7th ITB; John Brandberg 2nd ITC; and Randy Van de Loo 3rd ITC. Michael Pekarik was out of the ITA fray on the first lap while non starters included Todd Heilicher (ITB), Mark LaBarre (ITC), and Gary DeHaven (GP). As expected, Brian French dominated Group 3 as no local drivers showed up. We made up for it in Group 4 - Pete Looby won T1; Damon Bosell was 6th ITE; Ken Olson won AS with Tom Fuehrer 2nd; Charles Mack won GT2; Doug Sherwood won GT3; David Gray was 2nd GT2 while Matthew Lawson (ITS) and Eric Peterson were non-starters among 42 entries. Spec Racers started 31 cars with Justin Elder our highest finisher in 4th. He was followed by Steve Anastasi (7), David Watson (9), Brian Kennedy (12), Bill Parenteau (14), Michael Gorman (16), Pat Goolsby (19), Eric Wheeler (20), and Rich Corson (23) in a typically frenetic SRF battle. My work schedule will prevent me from attending this year’s Runoffs, but I will attempt to keep up with Internet and phone calls, as Time Warner still hasn’t seen fit to put Speedvision on our cable. Haven’t they ever heard of Formula One racing? What is the matter with these people? Good luck to CenDiv FC champ Steve Thomson, and all other LOL participants which we hope to feature in next month’s installment.
Tonneau On-Line October 2001
Page 11
Copyright 2001, Land O'Lakes Region Last revised: March 13, 2003
