Here's the Biscuit version of ELVF...
Arrived Friday in time to find uncle jack's car not running right. Was
amazed at the turnout for this event! There were 74 cars entered in group
2 (although only 50 took the green flag on Sunday's race). Seems to be a
sign that the economy truly is picking up. Tom Strange had set up a huge
canopy for the Triumph crew. This was a weekend enhancer, for sure. Had
some libations at the always excellent Beady Eye wine and cheese party and
headed down to the tasty chili supper. Overnighted at the new Baymont Inn
in Plymouth - very comfy beds, nice pool and hot tub...
Saturday morning I took it fairly easy to get a "gentle" heat cycle into
the new tires. Dad was pulled off the track on the inside after turn
3. The "not running right" problem finally shut the car down. Turns out
that the cam gear bolts backed out. Game over for uncle jack for the
weekend. Mayor bummer!
Stopped by Thicko village for some excellent grub (thanks Flounder!). Gave
daughter Tori (age 12) a fairly long ride in the car for Saturday
touring. Got a few good speed runs in, but the back part of the course was
yellow and the corner workers were making sure everyone was going slow
through turns 7, 8 and the carousel. It seems someone had pulled off to
the inside and they had the flatbed out. ;-) Tori had fun, but wanted to
go faster. I must be doing something right as a parent... :-)
In Saturday afternoon qualifying, I followed an Elva out onto the track and
never managed to get around him. He was faster on the straights but I
caught him in the corners - especially the carousel and kink. I ended up
qualified 8th, right behind the Elva in 7th with a 2:56 and
change. Qualified 6th was Greg Solow in his Morgan from "the engine room"
in California, one of the other Triumph motor builders. I was anxious to
see how an uncle jack engine compared to a Greg Solow motor in the race.
Instead of the $30 per head Siebkens shindig Saturday night, hung around
the track for Thicko grub revisited and the always entertaining Thicktones
concert. They've expanded their song list. These Thicko parties are
always one of the highlights of the weekend and this one didn't
disappoint. We had Thompson on guitar and vocals, Tutone on Guitar (and
electric mandolin?) and vocals, Dalton on guitar, Golanty on harmonica and
vocals, a female bass player (don't know her name) who also provided backup
vocals, and another guest guitar player later in the evening. Flounder, we
all appreciate the effort you put in getting all of the gear to the track
necessary for these jam sessions!
Sunday's weather was excellent (as was Saturday's). Pulled onto the grid
to discover that Greg Solow was a no show. His car seemed to have been
slowing in the All Morgan race earlier in the day, so he must have packed
it in. But on the plus side, that moved me up to 7th with an inside row
starting spot. At the start of the race, I was balked by the car in front
of me with nowhere to go, so the Morgan gridded behind me passed me. I
chased the black Elva and the green Morgan into turn 5 to discover waving
yellow and a Porsche spun off the inside of the corner. So, I'm back to
7th. I was able to gain on the Morgan in the twisty stuff but he pulled
ahead on the straights. I thought I had him once or twice... Then, going
through the carousel he got more sideways than usual and threw up an
arm. He had some sort of mechanical issue and pulled off. So, I'm up to
6th but the Elva looks too far away to catch in the remaining 4 laps. I
seemed to be slowly reeling him in, though. We had started lapping cars on
the 3rd or 4th lap, and as we were working our way through the field the
lapped cars are getting faster and harder to get by. On the last lap,
coming out of the carousel, I see the Elva being held up by a couple of
lapped cars going through the Kink. I got a clean run through the kink and
managed to pull into Canada corner to the inside of the Elva. We went
through the corner pretty much side by side. He missed a shift on the exit
of the corner and I pulled clear. Bonus! I pulled enough of a gap on him
to stay ahead to the start / finish line for a top 5 finish. Best time was
a 2:53 and change. Not my best, but pretty darn good.
This was one of those weekends that really reminded my why I do
this. Great times.
- Biscuit
At 10:09 AM 9/25/2004, Wm. Severin Thompson wrote:
>Speak up youse guys.
>
>WST
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