First let me say, the West Virginia area of the country has been at almost
draught condition as a result of no (that's none at all!) rain for the past
2 1/2 months. Confidence was high and we were looking forward to a sunny dry
weekend with lots of enjoyable fast sessions.
Now the reality check. It rained a bit on Friday morning early but was clear
enough to go out and have some reasonable sessions and the line was dry.
Friday night the sky opened and almost an inch of rain was had. The morning
sessions were on a wet track on Saturday. Again, it cleared a bit in time
for the afternoon runs to be in the dry and a lot of fun after a long winter
of hibernation and pouting. Then there was Sunday. Foggy, drizzle and coldly
humid. That was when it was at it's best. Shortly after the start of our 1
hour run at 1:00pm the skies opened and we were able to experience all the
agonies of that course when wet. As an aside, racing in the wet on Summit
has been likened to walking on greased eels on wet glass while wearing ice
blocks for boots. Is that a vivid enough picture? Brian Redman can usually
be heard to reply, "Oh, Bloody Hell! when asked what he thinks of running
Summit Point in the wet.
In any case, the Florida based alligator corps with their captured "spoils
of war' as Mike Jackson puts it, ran their Formula Vee herd with some very
impressive outcomes. I'll leave it to Mike to fill in some of the details
here. Mike didn't want to soil the TR-3 and bear the wrath of the wrench
wazoo. One of his notable feats during the weekend was to construct an
obstacle that left knots on the cranium of anyone over 6'2". I muttered his
name many times over the course of those days! First time I ever saw someone
bring a barking frog as a guardian of their vehicles (maybe it's a Florida
thing!?). Now, he really does have some explaining to do!
Larry Rossi of Vermont TR-4 fame was there with his Formula Ford and wisely
chose to keep his car in the beautiful condition it is in. He did not run it
in the torrents that were his event.
Bill Warner, also of Florida, was there with the Group 44 TR-6 which I had
seen back in the days when it was still in the Newman Silver and Black
scheme. It is now a piece of rolling art as many of you have seen and he
drove it well against the squadron of Brumos Porsches to a second overall.
Bill seemed to be suffering from minor frost bite when he arrived in shorts
and tee shirt, exclaiming "it was 95 degrees when I left!". At that time it
was about 45 degrees at the track. This triggered a nesting ritual new to
those of us from the northern climes. I leave that to him! I am sure the
ride had it's moments and Bill was spared the "trouser check" at the end of
the run. We assume all was well and he is still friends with his laundry
service. Maybe Bill can fill in some details at some point.
There were 5 Spitfires in the event and all but two of them were smart
enough to come in from the rain. Having no laundry service I was not at risk
of angering them, so I stayed in for the duration. Why, I'm not sure, and
still keep asking myself. It was a full time job just keeping on the track.
Hydroplaning at speeds in excess of 100 is down on my list of fun stuff.
Kent Bain's Spitfire, having almost as much trouble as I was, did manage to
stay on the track for enough time to garner a first overall with the Mini of
Cindy Bauer hot on his tail. The Mini was, I believe, designed by an
ex-submariner. It certainly works a whole lot better in the wet slime than
the other cars in the group and I was envious of the enclosed cockpit as I
was catching the spray when she was in front of me. I did finish the event
but it was not exactly what one might call a rise to glory. More than half
the field either didn't go out or packed it in early after their first few
agricultural adventures. I lived through it! No body work needed. Nuf said,
on to the next event!
I am pleased to say there were no injuries of note I am aware of for the
entire weekend but there are a number of folks who have a considerable
amount of body work in their near future. The landscape around that course
is very unforgiving especially after the 2 months of oil was brought to the
surface of the pavement and the water brought the mud onto the exit of the
carousel.
Not exactly an ideal weekend weather wise, but it was great to see friends
again I don't otherwise get to see. It was very surprising to see a huge
lack of entries in what would be Groups 1 and 3 in SVRA. There was not even
a single Spridget in the field nor any large TR's except for Bill's TR-6.
Hopefully not a trend.
Best regards to all.
Russ Moore
Spitfire #49 (still drying out)
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