Earlier this evening I got back home after a few days at Second Creek in
Colorado, doing a bit of crew work for a local fellow running his Club Ford
at an SCCA double regional. In truth, it is Bob Allred, who's on the FOT list
by virtue of planning on getting a Spitfire out on the vintage circuit. And
yes, the Team.Net server kissed the turf saturday, seemingly knowing I was
not around to fix it.
This was the first time in about a quarter of a century that I attended an
SCCA regional, the previous time being a corner worker at an event on a track
which no longer exists here in Salt Lake.
Things were a bit different than the various vintage events I've attended over
the last few years. The third run group consisted of small bore sedans and
sports cars, like 16 Spec RX7s, a gaggle of Spec Miatas, a handful of various
Improved Touring cars, and even a Legends racer. Saturday Bob and I watched
their race, it was pretty entertaining. Bob has run Spec 7 before, and his
car was out on the track with the new owner.
It was fun to watch, with a bit of incidental contact here and there, and a
number of exciting dices among the various clusters of cars. I was somewhat
amused by the debris flag in Turn 1 being displayed due to a complete Miata
rear bumper assembly laying in the middle of the track.
Sunday morning at the driver's meeting, the SOM had a few words to say about
racing not being intended as a contact sport. His words fell on deaf ears.
The Group 3 race that afternoon saw a black flag all, as the steward felt he
had to reel in the drivers for an ass chewing. They seemed to have gone
from incidental contact to malice aforethought, and were all directed into
the pits and out of their cars. It was pretty amazing, something I had not
expected to see. I'm used to more genteel contests of speed.
Maybe I won't work on an E Production TR7, I'll just stick with autocrossing
and IVR events in my various Spits!
mjb.
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