Pocono National

[Amon]

Any results? Thanks!

Mark

[G.B.]

I have search mylaps, but been unable to find anything.

[problemchild]

It rained. The fog came in. Races were delayed. Races were shortened. Roger did not win because he was not there. Everybody went home wondering why they came and promised themselves they would not go next year. Just like most of the last 25 yrs or so of Pocono Nationals.

There were atleast 5 FVs there including Dean Curtis, Eugene Grimes, Hugh Maloney, and Bill Roche. From some pics I saw, they were running in that order, but don't know who won. Sorry!

[Amon]

Greg,

I heard from Gary Blanarek who said he won but didn't mention anything else.

Mark

[problemchild]

I guess he was the 5th Fv. Being an outsider, no one bothered to include him in the photo gallery I saw.

[ajpastore]

I left the results in the trailer but I'll take a stab.
There were 8 vees, the fog and rain scared none of them away while many in other classes with roofs and wipers high tailed it.
If I could have found the exit in the fog I would have left....

Saturday (sunny)

Gary Blanarek
Dave Scaler
Eugene Grimes
Hugh Maloney
Rick Ruckman
Andy Pastore
John Pittman
Dean Curtis (problems)

Sunday (miserable)

Gary "soggy bottom" Blanarek
Dave "soggy bottom" Scaler
Andy "soggy bottom" Pastore
Rick "soggy bottom" Ruckman
Bill "soggy bottom" Roche
Hugh "soggy bottom" Maloney
John "soggy bottom" Pitman
Dean "soggy bottom" Curtis (problems)




Andy P.

[Mark Filip]

Is Pocono really that bad? Every time I hear someone take about Pocono they all seem to dislike it? Is it a bad design track?

Mark

[racinray]

I wasn't there but I heard that not only did Gary win both races but in the rain race he started from the pit lane and won by 16 seconds! Sounds like a pretty good drive by a talented driver! Btw, Jim Kearney was coaching him that weekend and that is where I got my info.

Ray

[Tom Valet]

Is Pocono really that bad? Every time I hear someone take about Pocono they all seem to dislike it? Is it a bad design track?

Mark

Speaking from the FF point of view but I think it applies to all other classes as well including FV: It is a boring track and not very technical. If you have a lot of cars and they stay together in a big pack then it can be fun and exciting to race and watch as there is a lot of drafting given that you are on the oval part of the track for 80% of the lap. If you are running around alone it gets boring real quick. Plus your engine is at full throttle longer than at any other track we have ever been to so it puts a lot of strain on the car.

Add to all this, however, is that they have made a big mess of the bus stop on the back straight. The track added a NASCAR Safer Barrier to the INSIDE of the back straight after a big crash recently. The anchors for the Safer Barrier are in the ground and to form the anchors they poured big concrete foundations in the ground. The foundations and the Safer Barrier go right through the bus stop chicane. They remove the Safer Barrier for the SCCA races, but the concrete foundations remain. They did a piss-poor job of pouring the foundations so that there are two huge bumps, one at the entrance to the bus stop and one near the exit that really upset the car as you come into the chicane and go over the concrete.

Supposedly an announcement was made during the race weekend that SCCA would not be running that track configuration any more in the future and that big improvements were going to be made to the pavement of the entire track. Many years ago SCCA used to run the track counter-clockwise with no bus stop. Maybe they will go back to that configuration.

[Clyde]

Hey Tom; You left out the fact that the track management and staff are so pleasant, LOL

[G.B.]

Well done Gary. It looks like I made the right decision to withdraw from Pocono in favour of Nelson next week, although I generally do quite well in the rain.