[Fot] Loooong Race Recap

[Barr, Scott]

I'm sure others will pitch in with their stories as well, but I had a great
time at The Loooong Race this weekend, too.  Finished all the laps, as well,
thanks to assistance from FOT pals Tom Strange, Steve Yott, Jerry Barr, Ernie
Husmann, and Glade Snodgrass (thanks for the brake line Glade!).

This was effectively my first race weekend of the year, for a host of reasons,
so there was a lot of sorting of car (and driver!) going on.  The first issue
encountered was a stuck right side caliper - or so I thought.  When I got back
to the garage, Tom and Steve dove onto the thing almost before I could even
get out of my driver's suit and quickly determined that the caliper was not
the problem, but the rubber brake line (yah, yah, yah, I know - just shut it).
Then the trans stopped shifting smoothly and we bled the slave and replaced
the master to no effect - probably a new slave cylinder needed, but I didn't
have a spare or a rebuild kit with me.  Fortunately, the lovely overdrive box
which Steve Yott built for me has just the right gears in 3rd and 3rd
overdrive for tooling around Blackhawk without using the clutch.  Not the
fastest laps, but sufficient for getting in some seat time.

And it sounds like I need to make an after-dark stop at the Friendly Ghost
Racing paddock space a regular event...

Scott B.

-----Original Message-----
From: Fot [mailto:fot-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Jason Ostrowski
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2014 10:13 AM
To: triumph friends
Subject: [Fot] Loooong Race Recap

You couldn't ask for a better weekend for racing and partying.
I have mixed feeling about my own performance. Some things went very well.
In practice and qualifying the Zippy GT6 was on a terror run. The group
started with 42 cars on track and right out of the pits it seemed nothing
could stop us. Weaving through traffic and laying down some killer lap times
(my best so far) even with the heavy field slowing me down.
Qualifying was also good as I bested my time from earlier on lap 4. Then I had
a very exciting 720 degree loop-dee-loop through the carousel and off into the
grass and manged to keep it going and back onto the asphalt. I was black
flagged and had to come in for a reprimand. That was cool because I came out
right behind 2 favorite TR racing pals Tony and Sean. Tony and I had a nice
little battle for a few laps and I was able to get by him buy use of a Volvo
P1800 pick. Then I charged forward to Sean... ending in a nice little drag
race toward the checkerd flag. Perhaps pushing my luck by flogging the crap
out it in those two sessions; it was knowingly due for a motor rebuild and
started to show some signs that it may be in pain. The oil got to hot and we
had too much water in the overflow.
For the race I was 12th on the grid with 40 cars taking the green flag.
I had a terrible start and quickly slipped back several spots due to the idiot
behind the wheel not being able to put the car into the right gear. I got back
to the game and had a great fight with Barb Nevrol in her pro prepped Alfa
GTV. That match lasted till lap 8 when the car lost power on the downshift
into turn 6. A glance at the gauges revealed a falling off a cliff drop in oil
pressure so I shut it down and coasted around to the inside of turn 7, coming
to a stop just past the corner station. At this point, it started to smoke
heavy so I bailed out thinking it might be on fire. Putting my hand on floor
next to me told the story of done for the weekend with 2 gallons of water
pooled in the cockpit: overheated and overtaxed.
Proving a great Bob Wismer (R.I.P.) quote true.
"If you want to go fast in a Triumph; race a GT6... If you want to finish; buy
a TR"
Thanks Bob!
The weekend went on to include some excellent wine and cheese with all of us
Fot guys in the garage area that made the Beady Eyed boys famous; less some of
our favorite cars with the missing #4 and the #29.
Yet, even with the missing man, and no ole blue... the garage was a happy
place of close Triumph friendships and some of the best evidence of what makes
our group so special. (THANKS BILL and SHIRLEY!) Later in the evening we
burned two truckloads of wood in our backstreet paddock spot and partied till
all hours of the morning with hoards of crazy people joining in the fun.
A too early morning brought on phase 2 of the racing part of the weekend as
the Barracuda came late to the show and missed the first day of the vintage
racing (but Brian ran the car to a big win for our Plymouth program finishing
2 races and running solid in the super production) whoo-hoo!
Best of all, my sweet little girls did awesome in the big wheel race.
finishing in 1st place (Naomi) age 5.
and 2nd place (Fiona) age 8.
adding to our long standing winning tradition of Ostrowski/Reed/Garcia Big
wheel champions!
Life is indeed good my friends!
Thanks to all my Triumph Friends for a wonderful season!
See you all at SUMMIT POINT!!!!
Jason Ostrowski
Friendly Ghost Racing
Triumph GT6+'s #27 yellow and "Zippy" #69 BRG
_______________________________________________
fot at autox.team.net

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