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[924RACR]

We made some allusions to it in the General forum, but here's a quick run-down of how things went...

Saturday was cool and cloudy for qualifying; despite the car feeling a bit slow out there, we got the #77 car on ITB pole with a very low time, only 1/10th of a second off our best-ever time! The #55 Chris Marsh team car also fared well, lining up in 6th in class in a full field.

Chris suffered from a poor start in the Saturday Class Race, but perservered, held his position from there, and picked up one more spot as the #88 car of Bob Hagemann Jr. failed to hit his braking marker and ran off the end of the back straight, lodging the car in the gravel for the remainder of the race. As Chris was only 2 points behind Bob for season points, this error moved Chris up to one point ahead of Bob for 3rd in class for the season!

Meanwhile up front in the #77, after a good start, we yielded position to the two leading IT7 RX7's, who were battling to the last for their class championship. This however resulted in us being held up a bit later in the race, allowing the 2nd place ITB Capri of Todd Lincoln to again make an appearance and apply pressure. We were able to maintain position, however, and brought the 77 home to another win by a close margin.

Sunday's Class Race was more of the same, as Chris had a better start - these are so often simply a matter of which column you're in; one always goes, and one often falls back due to someone in front of you, and there's no choice but to stay in line and take your lumps! Later in the race he fell back a couple of positions as faster cars, starting from the back, moved through the ranks, but he was able to maintain his pace and position in-class, finishing 5th. As Bob Hagemann started last (due to his off on Saturday), and was only able to move up to 8th, and as this was the final race counting towards Class Championship points, the final result held with the 4M/PUB Racing Porsches 1st and 3rd in the ITB Championship!

Up in the #77, we made a more agressive start, pushing hard to get back in front of the IT7 cars, which rewarded us with a more competitive pace, and Todd Lincoln was not able to close and apply pressure before the finish of the race.

The Feature Race Sunday afternoon held no great surprises either; Chris Marsh gridded up further back in the pack than before, but was able to make a good start and improve his position again, passing the #88 of Hagemann before Bob again ran into trouble, this time with a flat tire, and had to park the car. This left Chris in 4th, just shy of the podium.

All was not so rosy back up front in the #77, however. Despite a good start, actually gaining a position over a Spec Racer Ford, on starting the 2nd lap a Mini spinning at the apex of turn 2 forced us to go way wide, as the Spec Ford had started a pass down the inside and we were running 2-wide through turns 1 and 2. Since forcing him into the Mini to retain the position would have been very ugly, we swung wide to give him room and play safe. However there was no more track left, we ended up in the grass, and two cars made it by - including the same old black Capri of Todd Lincoln!

This now put us back in 2nd, with an IT7 between us, and the 3rd place ITB Golf of Al Stephenson nipping at our heels! Well, we were able to defend and pull away from Al after a lap, then get back to reeling in Todd. We were helped substantially in this as the EP Nissan 240SX driven by our old friend Doug Spencer came up and moved on Todd going into the end of the back straight; rather than tucking in and chasing Doug, Todd foolishly decided to run 2-wide through the turn, allowing us to immediately suck back up to his bumper.

But Todd's tires were shot by this point, and he was having trouble keeping the back end under the car and putting down power, so after only another lap or two, it was fairly easy to power out of Big Bend onto the back straight while he was still sliding through the turn, giving us a big run by him into the turn. We then ran side-by-side through two corners, but had the advantage on the inside and pulled clear as we entered the esses. Another lap left allowed us to stretch the margin slightly, and we completed the final race of the season back in first place - where we belong!

Footnote to all the wins; going into the weekend, we were lagging 8 points behind Danny Kellermeyer (ITE Corvette driver) for the overall Waterford Driver's Championship. Though we won all our races, he also won all his races, resulting in no net gain or position change. That still puts us 2nd overall out of some 200 drivers, and a substantial improvement over last year's (very respectable) 5th place! An excellent season.

So, what's next? Well, Fun Run is next; a chance for workers and crew to take the car out and experience the track. We have two workers and a crewmember, Erik Orhnberger, slated to drive the #77 car (not sure of what plans are for the #55 car right now).

After that? Well, there's the Annual Awards banquet on the 1st of Nov., and we'll be present to receive our ITB Championship trophy (and pass on the Gary Taylor Memorial Award to the next recipient). But then the ARRC is the weekend after!

Yes, we're going back to the American Road Race of Champions in Road Atlanta! We have good expectations of finishing well, and are lining up the resources now to ensure the best results - tires, transportation, etc. We know we have a serious chance to win, and can expect to finish at least on the podium, barring any mishaps. We'll be towing down to Atlanta on Wed, Nov 5th, Thursday is a practice day (we'll need to bed in new brakes and scrub in tires), qualifying on Friday, Race on Saturday, and Sunday to tow home.

So wish us luck!!!


_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype