ARRC 2006 CFC Report
[SIZE=3]It wasn’t easy. But then, as Butch (GT1Vette) says if it was easy, everybody would be doing it.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Purple Frog Racing is now the 2006 American Road Race of Champions victor in the CFC class. CFC used to be for cars 1990 and earlier, this year it was for cars 1995 and earlier. A change that did not make our job easier. Both of my closest competitors were driving 1995ish Van Diemens.[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3]Janice and I left Crawfordville Wednesday after work. After dropping the dogs off at the Cromer Pet Resort in Bainbridge Georgia, we continued north into the night. Court Dowis called, and after we explained we planned on camping in the Expedition at a rest stop somewhere South of Atlanta, he generously offered lodging at Pine Mountain Club Chalets. Wow, what a treat! We awoke to view the pond reflecting as a perfect mirror the most beautiful fall color that was being displayed on the surrounding trees.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]We arrived at Road Atlanta about 11 in the morning on Thursday (test day). In the trailer was what I thought was a thoroughly prepared race car. I had since last April to get it ready… even enough time for me. Our plan was do go out for two test sessions in the beautiful weather and get the cobwebs out of my head while reintroducing me to Road Atlanta and ’89 Reynards. I was to go out on some ancient tires first session, and then scrub in a new set of stickers in the second session.[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3]The first test session went pretty good. Other than the exhaust RTV blowing out and the front nose collapsing and exposing the wing to asphalt at 135 mph, it was fun. By 3:20 a.m. Friday morning I had all the repairs accomplished, and a new suspension setup installed on the car. Janice had to drive to a Wal-Mart in Buford around midnight to find the needed fiberglass repair kit. Court even joined in the repair party about 1:00a.m. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]With four hours of sleep I went out Friday morning for the first qualifying session and went just about as fast as I ever went in the previous Reynard, the 2003 SARRC Championship car, Buford. I was pleased. Especially as rusty as I was, and not having a lot of seat-time since the 2005 Runoffs. I had gone out on the new ‘stickers’ because of the change of plans Thursday. So I decided to skip the afternoon qualifier. Why put another session on those nice new tires, plus the track was hotter, and there were all those crazy kids driving/crashing FSCCA cars. I spent the afternoon in a sleep depraved daze, just visiting and hanging out, and driving pace cars. Meanwhile Janice was shopping around Gainesville, visiting yard sales, and yet somehow keeping us all very well fed in the paddock. Near sunset I prepped the car for the Saturday morning race, went to the worker’s party and fell asleep about 9:30.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Saturday morning we calmly waited for the call to grid. I was the first car there, with my helmet… just in case. (I had been to Topeka) I had decided Friday afternoon to buy the push-to-talk button I needed to complete a radio harness for the car. So with Butch’s borrowed radios, I had Court and Janice stationed at T5 and T8 and Butch calling the strategy from the pit wall. I had qualified P2 behind Dan Upchurch from Raliegh NC, driving a 95 VD. Russ McBride was positioned close behind. 4th and 5th were David Klutsenbaker and Dean Bonessi. Dan and I were surrounded by FSCCA backmakers, which had been a pre-race concern for me. On Thursday I went out for one test session and saw eight of them off course in varied states of disassemble. Friday, in the Q1 session, I think five or more had serious offs. Same thing in Q2. Enterprises was selling a lot of parts.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Some guys really don’t know how to start. They let the field get way too strung out. But, it was OK with me if that’s what they wanted to do. Coming down into 10A on the pace lap, Butch was shouting “Green Green Green”, so I made one of my best starts ever, moving up quite a bit by T1 and leading the CFC guys. By T3 “the problem’ started occurring. My downshifts from 3 to 2 were resulting in a nice placement into 4th gear. So at the end of lap 1 coming out of T10 Dan was able to wisely capitalize on the situation. I found myself fighting off Russ while I tried to diagnose the problem. Russ kept my mirrors filled. Very filled[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]After a few laps Butch was telling me that my lap times were lacking… duh. Dan was like 10 seconds ahead. UH-OH. By lap 7, I figured out a way to move my thigh out of the way on the downshift, and I gapped Russ enough to concentrate on Dan. Bit-in-teeth, I was in pursuit. To be fair, I knew Dan’s tires were pretty old, hell they were old when DaveW sent them to Dan. I was on the second session of a pretty new set of R-35s. Plus, as an added bonus, bolted behind me was a fresh Rollin Butler bullet with 40 minutes on it. Plus, I had radios, my guys were telling me every situation on the track and where to drive through it. For example, I knew about yellow flags at T-3 and that the track was clear even before I was in T1. I was aware of almost everything happening around the track and in the tower. No excuses…If I didn’t do well, it was going to only be because of the driver...[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]On lap 14 I was comfortably riding behind Dan checking out his line. This is when I wish I had an onboard camera. I think I first passed him on Lap 15. Oops, missed that darn shift again, he passed me back. Same scenario on lap 16. I had gotten the best of a big accident at T7 getting through it on Mansur’s geartbox. It was a classic roundball pic play, leaving Dan to deal with spinning FSCCA cars. So going into lap 17 I’m thinking that each lap Dan was leading at S/F. I didn’t like that pattern. Knowing it would only be 19 laps for us, it was time to get serious. So remembering that Cole had told me T1 was ‘flat’, I took the inside away from Dan and just hung on through the exit. Yee-haw. Got a good shift to second at T3, then again at T5, again at T7, and again at T10. I was letting the car drive itself, all I was doing was concentrating on that dam shifter. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Butch told me I was starting the last lap as I came down from the bridge. He was politely explaining to me that it was time to begin driving defensively. Well…as polite as Butch can be. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]So I went into T1 at mid-track, put the left wheels about on the right curbing going through T3, with all the shifts going as planned. Dan didn’t try anything at T6 or T7 so I knew the race was down to T10. Court was instructing “stay left”. I went into T9 and T10a at mid-track, giving Dan 40 feet on the right to use as he pleased. [/SIZE][SIZE=3]I late apexed, worried about losing the race exiting T10b, but went under the bridge on the right and stayed right approaching T12 with the idea that I might not make it onto the pit straight in one piece, but my transponder would be the first to the line. Luckily I was in a Reynard, which loves curbs and grass as racing surfaces. I saw the checker, but cannot tell you how close Dan was behind. Finally, after too many 2nd and 3rd place trophies at the ARRC, I finally had a win.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Whew. So far that was the hardest I have ever raced. I must give great credit to both Russ and Dan for being the kind of guys I could trust to race beside safely. Their competitiveness made the victory much sweeter than an easy parade would have been. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]I have to thank Mark Hatheway for not showing and thus making it possible for me to win.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Of course I was quite the ham on the podium. Armed with multiple bottles of bubbly I attempted to bathe all the crew and spectators. I don’t get up there often, might as well have fun.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Sometimes you need to know when to hold them and know when to fold them. All the friends at the track tried to talk us into running the Pro Shootout on Sunday, but Janice and I packed up and headed South to the swamp. I had gone faster in this Reynard than any previous Reynard I had driven. And in reviewing the race, I knew there were about 12 turns I could go faster through. It was very tempting to stay and see if I could lay down a great lap. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]For the life of me I can’t figure out why more CFC drivers don’t take advantage of what is probably the nicest event they can get invited to. The Atlanta Region really goes all out. Maybe for my sake it’s best it wasn’t highly subscribed this year.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Special thanks to:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Kevin Roberts – automotive machinist, welder, Crawfordville FL[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Dave Boudreau – machinist, Crawfordville Fl[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Richard Fogleman – the guy “back at the shop”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Ninos Restaurant - incredible chow, Tallahassee FL[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Rollin Butler – engines[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Keith Averill – racing stuff[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Tim @ Safequip – our #1 all time sponsor[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Dave Weitzenhof – mentor and inspiration[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Court Dowis – Housing coordinator, T5 spotter[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Butch Kummer – Team Strategist – Spotter – reader of the GCR[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Most of all… Janice (Mrs Frog), who does so much to make it all possible.[/SIZE]
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. Congrats Froggie, hope you can make it up here next season to run a race in our series.
they give you someone to race with/chase making the race more interesting?
Originally Posted by Mark H
