Postcards from the Back; Anyone wanna win?
The Formula Car Challenge Left Coast Edition wandered up to Thunderhill Raceway Park last weekend April 14-15. The Standard car race was supposed/expected/advertised to be close and interesting but pretty straightforward since these old farts had been duking it out for a few years. But somehow, it ended up to be twisted and confused. How could that be when only 5 of the standard car faithful showed up to play.And Workman went home Friday nite after going off track during practice and ripping the belly pan off the car and other assorted damage. You ever hear of that? Didn’t think so. And looking at the mangled aluminum in the trash can, I can’t imagine how it happened.
For various reasons, the really fast guys, Weaver, Anderson, Fireball Derry and them all had pressing things to do besides racing this weekend. So, there was one fast sub 1:50 hot shoe, let’s call him Kevin, and 3 guys in the Shoe String Racing category; my partner Bruce and the ubiquitous John Brothers, Ertel and Weed respectively. All on a wing and a prayer, just like always.
On Saturday, Q went as predicted with Kevin comfortably in the lead and Bruce and the John Brothers locked in a tight bunch a few seconds in arrears. The race unfolded uneventfully with little drama, other than John Ertel chasing Bruce for 2nd. Kevin, meanwhile, drives around, probably checking FB and putting out some Tweets about how easy this winning stuff is. And he takes what he and everyone else thought was the checkered flag. He does a cool down lap, not thinking anything is strange, because, he apparently had a big enough lead that Bruce and the John brothers couldn’t catch him in one lap. He goes through tech and everyone’s nodding like, “Yep, no problem, straightforward race, let’s get to the podium, pass out the trophies and commence to drink some beer……….YEAH Baby !!!”
But then, out of the blue, Sunday morning, Telo, Mr. FCC himself, comes by to say that Timing & Scoring says that they checked their data and say that Kevin did not actually take the checkers but pulled into the paddock one lap early. So, Bruce was awarded the win. Huh? How does a seasoned veteran racer and licensing school instructor mistake the white for checkers, knowing that NASA waves a white for last lap?
After Saturday's race, instead of celebrating his gift win and relaxing in his own classic style, Bruce decides to change out his clutch line which somehow got kinked and leaked all the fluid out. Not sure why he needs a clutch, but…….whatever. So Sunday morning, as Bruce rolls out for the Q session, he has no rear brakes. Not sure how that happened since he didn’t break the brake line, but he’s smokin’ the front tires bad. So he cranks the bias all the way to the rear. No change, and he’s got a couple of flat spots to show for it, does some agricultural grazing and ends up Q’ing behind his arch nemesis, John Ertel. Well, with a lot of head scratching since the pedal is not soft and some other ambiguities, we manage to fix the problem somehow and Bruce is good to go for the race.
On the start, Bruce is on the outside going into T-1 and manages to pull off his signature move of pinching off the competition on the inside. Ask me how I know.Couldn’t see it in the rear view video, but we’re sure John Ertel was shaking his fist and cussin’ a blue streak.
Karma is brewing.Less than ½ way through the first lap, Kevin, leading, loses his diff drain plug and making a fine mess. Not seeing a meatball for another mile, until Turn 11, he saturates Bruce with that famous-can’t-wash-it-off Redline Heavyweight gear lube. So, let’s see, Kevin just gave away his 2nd race of the weekend.
As for the rest of the race ……..here’s the video that tells all.
So there you have it. Bruce inherits the Saturday win and turns around to hand it to John Ertel on Sunday. Stay tuned for when the fast guys return to Infineon in mid-June and hopefully, everyone’s paying more attention.
But hey, as Jimmy Buffett says, “We do it for the stories we could tell.”
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