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Great weekend! I had a blast and EVERYONE involved with this event were great! :checkered:
Sure, I ran nearly dead last, but my times improved and I did bring my car home! The last group 6 race was really fun, I had a lot of drag races out of 3b and 8 with Dale Bloomquist's Lotus 23. could get a nose in there, but I had the wrong 3rd gear and he could just out accelerate me... I'm not sure if I stayed in front of him though the mayham in the turn 2 incident on the last lap (just after I finally got around him!).
I'm also kid of surprised that no posts have been made regarding that crazy last lap. I saw the in-car video and it was pretty spectacular. :yellowflag::yellowflag:
I would like to extend a thank you to all who helped make this a successful weekend for me, especially to Al Murray and Tom Balzarini - without their help I would not have been there. I couldn't find Al before packing up after the last group 6 race (I'm sure he was busy), but I did want to thank you in person.
There are also SO many others to thank, in no particular order, and I apologize now if I miss anyone. Here is a short list:
Tracy Dye (always great advise and help)
Jim, Kristen and Pat Johnson (awesome hospitality - I will have to work on that for the next race!)
Stephen Guy (fellow Royale owner)
Chris Schoap
Clayton Sturge
Bob Posner (Clayton and Bob have the most entertaining stories!)
Gary Willis (great guy and rented me his spare for novice day last year)
Greg Lovell
all of the volunteer corner workers (a thankless job that we can't do without)
and of course my best friend Jeff, who may have gotten me started on this crazy journey..
Can't wait for the next race!
Ask and you shall receive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mb8luPvftcQuote:
Originally Posted by scorp997
That was a different video than what I saw, WOW! I didn't know that Bob had an incar camera as well.
The one I saw was from Coley's car and I think it was a helmet cam and was closer to eye level.. In the first sequence you can see me going past Skip's car when he finally came to rest (and I was that slow guy they were all trying to get past at turn 7!)
I will take it everyone is physically OK? That would have shooken me up!
-John
Welcome to Formula Ford!Quote:
Originally Posted by fv9
Skip's fine,can't say the same of the car. Marvelous race right up to the last lap...
I happen to disagree-emphatically! This is "Historic Vintage Racing." While Formula Ford typically lends itself to "close" racing, we have some new members from our local Club Ford clubs who now comply with Monoposto FF70 rules that haven't gotten the word-yet. SOVREN ~ Society Of Vintage Racing ENthusiasts. I'm hoping the powers that be in the organization hear the trumpets. Close racing, that some of us here-to-fore (myself included) practiced in the past needs to be examined as it applies to our more relaxed participation and the preservation of our cars and our "getting older bodies." That was a very violent crash. Both drivers were lucky, particularly Skip.
I didn't notice it the first time I saw this video, but Skip touched Coley's rear tire at 0:58 on the straight after turn 9! yeow!
[FONT=Arial][SIZE=3]John (and all),[/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial][SIZE=3]Everyone appears to be physically ok, but I’d say shaken up was an appropriate adjective. Nauseous might be another. In my 29 years of racing (23 in FF), that was by far the worst view I’ve had out of the front of a racecar. We DID INDEED have one heck of an ENTHUSIASTIC race going up until that moment. While this was declared a racing incident, I wouldn’t want to race against a person that wasn’t bothered by this kind of incident. It bothers me tremendously to have been part of it. Plain and simple.. However, I assure you that everyone that runs in the front of the Vintage FF group in SOVREN races as hard as anyone in SCCA or Conference does. There was little to no difference in driving styles and aggression. I have 5 race videos from this weekend that illustrate the desire that every one of those drivers in the top six or seven want to cross that finish line first. But I also give Kudos to everyone, because it’s also some of the best driving I’ve seen as well. [/SIZE][/FONT]
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[SIZE=3][FONT=Arial]The last lap from my perspective:[/FONT][FONT=Arial] I had led for the previous 4 laps, but got freight trained down the straight due to a poor upshift. That puff of smoke was not Skips fault. We all started into turn two as tight as we had been for 20 minutes. Skip appeared to have a good head of steam going and looked to be trying for an outside line around my teammate, so I slid in behind Stuart in hopes of catching a draft down the hill. Then it appeared Skip’s car rotated just slightly, and suddenly his momentum pointed him back towards the fog line, where I had unfortunately set up camp. Knowing I had at least three cars right behind me, I didn’t have many options. I made the decision to check up as much as I possibly could without losing the backend completely. Unfortunately my car washed up the banking slightly while Skip was coming down. At the point I realized contact might be inevitable (sickening feeling by the way), I did my best to keep our wheels from going tread to tread, and also hoped to match angles so I didn’t break my wrists. I actually thought it had worked, and the whole thing appeared it would be rather innocuous at first as we appeared to be sliding to a stop with minimal damage to either car. I think, but cannot swear to it, that Skip may have let off the brakes in hopes of straightening the car out, and then everything suddenly went haywire. He seemed to get shot out of a cannon over my right front tire. Seeing a fellow driver floating upside-down in front of you is not something you forget by bedtime, I assure you that. I am glad that he fared so well physically, and sorry to see that his car suffered several significant bumps and bruises.[/FONT][/SIZE]
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[FONT=Arial][SIZE=3]** Unfortunately, I just bought my REPLAYXD camera this weekend, and while it takes great video, I am still trying to figure out how to cut, edit, format, create a YouTube account, etc.. **[/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial][SIZE=3]I did however manage to capture a screen shot, because I knew it wouldn’t take long before someone suggested there was ill-will and over aggression. It’s an easy leap when you don’t like recent changes in rules. Again.. I challenge anyone that says the fast SOVREN guys aren’t “racing enthusiastically.” I’ve been helping various SOVREN FF guys for a decade, and you can’t run roughly a second slower on treaded tires than the Club Fords run on American Racers if you aren’t getting ever last bit out of your car. Just one man’s opinion based on facts. [/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial][SIZE=3]I post this picture to show that mid corner, there was no intent to be “too close.” Everybody seems to have a lane. Then things took an unfortunate turn; nobody would disagree with that.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]Coley Tipton[/FONT]
It seems obvious to me that Skip suddenly got a lot wider than anybody expected. No fault here but the whole bunch of drivers were running in company so close that there was no margin for error, and not just in that particular corner. I do notice that one video came from a driver who preferred to watch it all from a safe distance, and a great show it was until it wasn't so great any more.
Let's hear three cheers for the broomstick test..
I don't think the 'broomstick test' was tested here as the roll bar (or camera) never touched the ground, which I think was a very good thing!!
Very aggressive racing all round, sad to see it end like that.