[Fot] VIR Wild Hare race report

Wed Apr 16 22:47:11 MDT 2014

 I didn't use overdrive because I no longer have overdrive.  I
comprehensively lunched my tranny at the end of last season and sprung
for a Quaiffe close ratio dog box.  They don't have a mainshaft for the
OD.  That's why you hear the gear whine in the video (straight cut
gears).  Had to change rear end ratio to compensate for the removal of
the overdrive.  Had I had OD I wouldn't have run it to 6500 on the back
straight.  :)

Mark is a hell of a driver and has kicked my butt at VIR every year until
this one.

Tony

At 11:29 PM 4/16/2014, davehogye wrote:

  Wow!  Really great drive Tony.  Watched the whole thing with a big
  grin.
  It seems you didn't use over drive.  I'm guessing there just wasn't
  enough straight? 
  Man, you really pushed your 4.  Excellent.
  Mark impresses me too.  Too bad for the mechanical issue.  He has a
  simple and basic, yet very effective approach to racing.  He was
  pretty amazing last year at RA.

  Dave H.

  --------------------------------------------------------------------

  From: "Tony Drews" <tony at tonydrews.com>
  To: fot at autox.team.net
  Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 8:48:11 AM
  Subject: [Fot] VIR Wild Hare race report

   Last weekend's race at VIR was another excellent event.  We had the
  usual Triumph "Ghetto" set up on top the hill, and had quite a number
  of
  Triumph folks there.  The paddock paving project hadn't made it quite
  that far yet, so I was still able to use the normal tent stakes to
  hold
  down the canopy - may be the last time for that at VIR, though.  The
  Triumph bunch had their usual Friday night party, and it's great to
  get
  all of the Triumph guys bench racing over a beer or three.  The
  Triumph
  gathering is one of the things that makes that race special.

  The newly repaved track is fast, smooth, and grippy.  The esses are
  still
  FASSTT and a test of your intestinal fortitude.  I ended up set up
  next
  to Randy Williams, Mark Wheatley, and Leo Oddi.  We spent a good
  portion
  of the weekend figuring out carburetion on Mark's car - finally
  getting
  it right for the Sunday feature race, so he and I had an awesome
  battle
  in that race - video link below.

  In the Friday afternoon practice, an Elva lost power on an un-sighted
  part of the track forcing Randy to take evasive action and he ended
  up
  running into the side of Dean Tetterton's TR-4 as he was sliding back
  onto the track surface.  Sad to see.  Both drivers were able to
  continue
  the weekend though.

  The Friday afternoon Wild Hare pursuit race was my first chance to
  run
  the car flat out after a couple of break-in practice sessions.  Runs
  really nice, new tranny guts are sweet to use.  That race was cut
  short
  by a lap or two by a couple of S-2000's getting together on the way
  in to
  Oak Tree (which now doesn't have an actual Oak Tree at the apex due
  to a
  storm last year).

  In Saturday afternoon's race, with Mark still battling carb issue I
  managed to ease out a nice lead over all of the TR-s in my group, but
  we
  ended up with a full course caution due to a grass fire outside turn
  1
  which closed the field back up.  I was napping on the restart and
  Randy
  managed to get by me as I was blocked by an Aston Martin with 2 laps
  to
  go.  On the last lap, I was kinda closing in on Randy but the same
  Elva
  that caused the incident on Friday passed me going into turn 1 and
  then
  proceeded to get all kinds of sideways in the corner.  I had a better
  run
  out of it but he slammed the door on me so I followed him into 2.  In
  turn 2, he managed to completely spin.  In my avoidance of the Elva,
  Randy got a comfortable lead that lasted until the checkered flag. 
  This
  allowed Leo to close right behind me for the remainder of the last
  lap.
  Leo used an "insider" trick of knowing that the finish line was 100
  yards
  or so from the checkered flag to pass me between the flag and the
  actual
  finish line.  Neat trick that he won't be able to pull again!  :)

  By Sunday's race, we had guessed at some better carb settings for
  Mark
  which turned out to be pretty good.  We spent most of the race
  following
  each other closely, drafting by on the straights, and at one point we
  went through turns 1 and 2 side by side - I edged him on the inside
  of
  turn 3 to lead through the esses.  Unfortunately, dropping oil
  pressure
  force Mark to ease off for the last couple of laps.  I got passed by
  the
  Aston Martin and tried Leo's trick at the end of the race - but the
  Aston
  didn't let off enough for me to sneak in that pass.

  I had a hoot, Mark really enjoyed the race with me, the car's running
  as
  good as ever and I'm good to go for Eagles Canyon.

  In-car video from Sunday group 3 feature race:
  http://youtu.be/8Q5BqfxZGaE

  Tony Drews
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