>
>We had our first historic meeting of the year in the most atrocious
>conditions I can ever remember at Amaroo. After a fine Friday practice
>with quite good grip, a combination of steady rain and an amazing amount of
>oil on the circuit made everything quite treacherous.
>
>It wasn't a case of one person having dropped some oil on line in a couple
>of corners ?. The stuff was spread quite liberally across the entire
>circuit."
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This brought to mind a surreal race that we had some years back, about 1990.
We used to hold our Canadian Nationals race at Le Circuit Mont Tremblant in
St. Jovite, Quebec, each October. St. Jovite is in the heart of the
Laurentian mountains north of Montreal and in the fall is one of the most
beautiful places in the world. Le Circuit is a challenging ex-F1 track, now
in some disrepair, but with the fall leaves turning colour, and wonderful
world class restaurants nearby, this race was the highlight of our season.
We were sharing the event with all of the Canadian pro and amateur classes,
which gave us relatively little track time, and the Vintage race was set for
first race on Sunday (about 8:30 am). The rain fell hard all night, and
there was frost in the early morning, so the the track was soaking wet as we
got ready for the race. As is typical in the region, the rain had stopped
in the middle of the night and there was brilliant sunshine and a clear blue
sky to go with the totally wet track.
As we took our warm up laps, the track was oiled directly on line, around
the entire circuit. We knew this because the water wicked the oil out to a
slick about six feet wide, and in the sunshine made a beautiful rainbow
effect on the pavement. The race was wonderful, as the ice racers amoung us
had a field day on the slipperiest track I've ever seen. Imagine the
wettest, slickest race of your career, in brilliant sunshine! At one point,
I and a friend, both in Cooper S', spun in tandem at about 20 mph in the
same corner! Many drivers found the mud, but as I recall little real damage
was done. By virtue of spinning first, and then passing the others as they
spun, I managed to come home first of the Classic Sedans, so claiming a
moral victory that was totally ignored by all others present!
Brian Evans
Director, ISP Marketing
UUNET Canada Inc.
20 Bay Street, Suite 1910
Toronto, ON, M5J 2N8
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