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NASA
Mid-Atlantic’s Triple Lindy
An early start to
the Mid-Atlantic Season took place at VIR over the weekend with great
racing and cold and blustery weather – before it started to rain.
Qualifying for
Saturday’s sprint race saw everyone on the new TOYO RA-1 tires. I think
there was the general feeling that they felt pretty good. Jim Schenck
flew around the cold track laying down the fastest lap at 2:14.683.
Team Boothman/Eves – consisting of Ed Boothman and Kevin Eves and
Charles Burkett were in the 2:19s. I just got into the 2:20’s and Peter
LaRose was close behind.
The race brought
some interesting situations. When they took out 5 CMC cars for their
own start (all rolling starts this weekend) it saw Jim up front only
separated from the Eves, Burkett, Thompson gaggle by 6 cars, and Peter
right behind. And, little did we know, but Brian Cates decided to come
back in Paul Kaiser’s car starting at the back of the grid (his ST-2 car
had problems). When the green flag dropped, Kevin made a run on Jim and
eventually caught and passed him. While Jim and Kevin were battling it
out, Carl was trying to stick on Charles’s tail and Peter was fighting
his way up the pack. Carl pressed Charles and got by after he trimmed
the grass at the “Oak Tree”. Brian came up through the pack and passed
Jim and Kevin. All three had led the race at one time or another. Then
Jim got by both Brian and Kevin. The fans went wild with all the close
racing. Charles worked his way back up and pressed me at “Oak Tree” and
went by after I missed a shift. So, after all the swaps, Jim came away
with the win. Kevin was second and set the new TOYO track record with a
2:14.511, Brian was next followed by Charles, Carl and Peter. Carl
subsequently got DQ’ed for allegedly passing under a yellow. Oh well,
live and learn.
Sunday greeted us
with the usual 7:15 am “All Hands” meeting where we were reminded that
it was going to rain – probably all day. It started as they announced
the prediction. Well, nobody had bothered to get rain tires – Ed bought
them but didn’t have them on. Carl doesn’t like racing in the rain and
didn’t have TOYO rain tires – so it was “should I or shouldn’t I?”
The rain slacked
off by grid time so “why not?” So, Kevin was gridded up in front
because of his time in the Saturday race, Jim second, Carl third
(Charles decided not to start) and Peter 4th. We all tippy-toed
around for the warm up lap and the got on it slowly as the green flag
dropped. Jim just ran away with the race. Carl spun and Peter got by,
Kevin was in hot pursuit of Jim and lost it going into the esses and
banged up the right front. Carl managed to catch Peter and get by and
we stayed that way until the end. So, it was Jim first, Carl second and
Peter 3rd.
I didn’t stay for
the Enduro but when I called back to check and see how Jim did – he said
“it was a monsoon – I did one lap and quit – I couldn’t see”. Kevin
Eves hydroplaned on the front straight and tore up the car a little
more. Then, we all were treated to snow & freezing rain on the drive
home. Maybe this is just a little early in the season.
The first race
weekend for the Mid-Atlantic racers is in the books and we are hoping
for a warm, dry next race which is back at VIR for March 30, 31st
and the 1st of April. If you live close by, please come and
join us and cheer on the FFR Challenge Series drivers.
--- Carl Thompson
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