Well, I got back Monday night, took all day yesterday to wade through
the nearly 450 messages in the box. Ya'll are getting prolific! Anyway, mjb
did a pretty good job of summing up what went on in Boulder. But here's a
few comments of my own.
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->
->It was pretty amazing to have so many Team.Net folks in one place, all
->driving Triumphs! I had a great time, for the most part. And many folks
->were impressed by the stack of trophies at our table after the banquet.
->
And I was one of them. Just when we thought it was over, they dragged
me up to the podium again to recieve the 'Longest Awards Banquet' trophy
from the Texas Contingent that we (Adirondack Triumph Assoc.) gave it to
last year.
->since a fellow in a TR8 (Is it Bruce Gold from Chicago?) which looked like
->it could scoot right along ran earlier in the day and rumor has it he got
->screwed. You see, the timing and scoring folks (I use in the term loosely)
->had been seeing a lot of folks go out and putter around, turning 1:30s,
->1:40s and such. So when this TR8, complete with race tires and Pro Solo
->stickers comes in with a 1:05, they figure something *must* be wrong and
->gave him a 2:05! Sigh.
It was Scott Walker on the bronze TR-8 from Venice, Florida. The one
who's SO beat me at pool so badly 2 nights in a row....We're now talking about
building an ITS TR-8 to run The Longest Day at Nelson's Ledge next year. I'm
definitly phyched, and they have the parts to build a car, but there's a
little logistics problem involved with them being in Florida and me in
Wisconsin...We'll work it out I'm sure.
->The organization of the autocross was atrocious. After the drivers meeting,
->the fellow basically said "Line up." So, all the cars wanting to run were
->get out to the track and take pictures, but Dr. Bobwrench did get time to
->file his wheel studs. I hope I got some good shots.
->
Well, I seemed to be the focal point for alot of the 'discussion'
about the organization of the autocross. Since I hung out near my car (trying
to sleep) during the Concours, people knew where to find me. That and the awning
that we had set up at the track. The basic concensus was that I would take the
rules and suggestions I wrote up last year, package them up nicely, and send
them off to VTR for incorporation into the 'how to do a convention' package.
Ya'll will see them first since I want your suggestions.
As for the filing of the wheel studs, that was an adventure in and of
itself. What happened was that the guys with the race prepped TR-6 from
British Auto Specialists in Ft. Worth were wondering how they would
do if they had real race tires rather than the ucky street tires that they
were running. Seeing as how it was like 2 hours between runs, I allowed as how
I could loan them my A008R's for their 2nd run and we could put them back
on my car in time for my 2nd run. well to make a long story short, I ended up
with 2 partially stripped studs on one front wheel. Definitly Ungood. So
we filed out/off the stripped section which left plenty of good thread and
managed to be one of the last cars out before the first rain struck. I was
definitly distracted though and turned a time slower than run #1....And the
folks I loaned the tires to? They picked up 2.5 seconds coming down to a
1.17.xx from a 1.19.xx. Jeff's wife mentioned that he was going to rush right
out and buy tires. He was definitly esctatic...
->Now, for a bit more on "Stock TR6" results. Yes, Bob runs a stock TR6, at
->least according to the SCCA rules. And, as most of the folks who read the
->VTR rules, also stock according to VTR.
->local club took second. Those two were happy, all the modified TR6 drivers
->were not, since they all moved down one. Bob still had them all quite handily
->beaten. Bob was most certainly not happy.
->
Yup, I was definitely not happy, but that's racing. All the autox
organizers came up and apologized to me during the course of the next 2 days.
The new rules will make sure this doesn't happen again. And I was not the only
one things like this have happened to I discovered later. I debated being a
rules laywer and checking all the stock cars and having every car not on
stock sized tires moved into the modified classes, but decided I'd rather
be remembered next year as the guy who decided not to be a jerk. Now I need
to decide if I'm going to run Stock TR-6 next year or if I'm going to build
an FTD car....Or both ;-}
->soap, etc for naught, though I did get most of the dirt off the one wheel
->from pulling off the track. I'll let Bob tell you about tracktime and
->Spitfires.
Well, after the rain scared most everyone else off, there were the
6 or 7 of us left who got to run open track in the late afternoon. The
temperatures were just about right for the A008R's and the sky was a little
overcast, just about pertfect for a little racing.
We went out in 3 or 4 sessions, the first lead by a BIG block mid 60's
vette driven by the track manager. We were to all stay together, single file,
no passing allowed. That session, I spent tucked in behing Kurt's vintage
race Spitfire, and learned alot about the line of the track from him. 2nd
session, I was tucked in behind a race prepped GT-6 with little or no exhaust.
Cruising down the back straight I eyed my ashtray where the earplugs live...
He was a good driver, but Lizbeth was clearly the winner in the HP and
torque department. I spent the last 2 sessions about 18" off the rear bumper
of a red Spitfire (Mk I) washington plate 100AYI, black stripe, blue muffler.
And the guy later said he wished he's followed me around. Grrrrr. I wanted to
pass this guy sooooo bad but didn't want to risk getting yanked off the track.
The TR-6 would make a great road racer. I really want one now. Take some height
off the suspension, sway bars, real bushings, and I think you'd have a killer
car. Now I just need to find one. Sigh. Tow vehicle and trailer need to come
first.
-> Needless to say, when they got to the line in full dress in the
->lowrider TR, LOTS of folks got out their cameras.
Pictures I really want to see by the way.....
->Definitely the FAST time for that leg. Folks were just astounded, except for
->the ones sitting at the table at the end of that stretch. They went in to
->change their clothes for some reason. The final result was that due to a
->couple of downed pylons in the tennis ball jousting session, Team.Net only
->finished second. Yet another trophy for our table.
->
We ended up with a 30 sec worth of penalty for the cones and 5 sec for
the ballon we failed to run over. And we missed first place by just under
10 sec....Ah well. Next year!!! And FTD funkahna car, yeah, that's what I'll
build....
It was really neat to finally meet some of the folks I've been talking
to for years now. I really like John's TR-4, and trying to drive Mark's lowrider
was an experience to remember. We'll just have to do it again next year in
Kentucky! But Salina's less than a month away.....
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