Initial Race Report - 2014 ARRC

[jim murphy]

1. Clint McMahan
2. Hunter Brayton
3. Cory McLeod
4. Ryan Barth
5. George Fox
6. Ted Simmons
7. Carl Maier
8. Matt Strand
9. Jack Walbran
10. George Bugg
11. Ken Van Horn
12. Tom Edwards

More about what happened on the track as soon as I get everyone's own race report for compilation.

[Bob Wheless]

So you had 12 f600's at the arrc impressive .... keep up the good work,,,bobo,,,, i do love the way they sound.....

[jim murphy]

Sorry, two were 2 strokes - Corey and Jack.

Jim

[tedsimmons2]

Arrived on Wednesday evening and setup looking forward to getting some practice time on the track. Thursday went out for the first session and saw some slight smoke out the rear. Found the water pump seal had started to leak and need to be replaced. Clint McMahan had a spare pump which he generously gave to me to replace mine Thank you very much Clint and Dan). Spend the rest of Thursday replacing the pump. Chassis bracing prevented me from just pulling and putting in the new one. Had to disassemble a lot of pieces and move the engine to get the new pump in place.

Friday– qualifying went Ok but really I could have used the practice time to get up to speed, kind of a slow learner when it comes to track layout corner speeds and braking points. Put up the best number I could which was good enough for 5th. Afternoon qualifying improved my lap time marginally but not my position – still 5th.

Saturdayrace – Wednesday and Thursday were great weather warm and sunny but come Friday it was cold and windy 47 degrees for the high and 25 mph winds blowing. Wind chill made it down right unpleasant, but hey it’s a race day which is always better than being at work.

Race started with two (2) warm-up laps followed by 20 laps of racing a with a cool down lap. I wasn’t sure I’d make the complete distance due to fuel cell size. Start of the race saw the F5 class start up front as Clint McMahan had out qualified everyone including the Formula F cars. Split start was uneventful but shortly followed by several offs and spins by some of the competitors bring out a double yellow. Got to bunch up with the leads as I’d lost touch. One of those spins was Hunter Brayton, driving Fred Edward’s Maverick car. (This would become important as the race went on). Hunter made a spirited drive to get back up to the front – did I mention he qualified second just behind Clint.

On the restart I tried my best to catch up with Cory (2-stroke Rotax powered) and get past him but didn’t happen. Then I looked in my mirror and saw Hunter – where the hell did he come from? I know I saw him spin out earlier on lap three (3). Anyway, we had a spirited duel from lap 10 through 15 when I spun in turn five (folded like a cheap suit under Hunters pressure) and dropped to last place (among those still running).

Restarted and got back on track and finished out the race. Last lap I saw George Fox up ahead and tried desperately to catch and pass him coming under the bridge before the checkered flag. Fell short by 0.092 seconds. Close – real close but not good enough!

Hunter Brayton (15 years old) finished second (2) to Clint. I can only dream about where I might have finished if not for the spin. Would have been fitting to finish on the podium 43 years after my last podium at Road Atlanta in 1971 on a twin engine kart (WKA B-stock). Looking forward to next years ARRC.

[tedsimmons2]

Everything was going OK at the ARRC until Friday (Halloween) when these two showed up looking for their lost spotted dog. One of them stayed and raced while the other one started working on the race cars. No one knows what happened to the dog. Keep a lookout and let us know if you spot it.