September 12, 2002
"Rock & Roll"
"Been a long time since I rock and rolled" Led Zeppelin sometime in the seventies. Yep that will do as a theme song for the CES Gateway event. Entries were lighter than normal due to the date conflict with the Rock Island Grand Prix including the SKUSA King of the Streets and the World Nitpicking Associations Road Race Grand Nationals at Putnam the weekend before. Entries may have been down but the quality was there.
The mysterious Gooseman (?) and I rolled into Gateway International first thing Friday morning and were ready to go for the first round of practice. After finishing breaking in the mighty Honda we began to go for a lap time and after a few very minor adjustments we found ourselves running as quickly as anybody and quicker than most. As practice ground on we found ourselves hovering around the top of the timing sheets on each session. It was beginning to look like our homework was paying off.
Saturday morning saw the arrival of teammate Larry Nagy Jr. and in morning practice he too was on the pace. Qualifying saw this driver put "Lucille" on the outside pole with T2 Racekarts (Team Bermuda?) team mates Scott Barnes and Jason North who is known as "Skuzzie" to his friends offering up a challenge with Barnes on pole and "Skuzzie" lining up third. Nagy had a bad qualifying run and timed fifth.
Race time rolled around quickly and the Gooseman (?) and I rolled "Lucille" into her slot on the grid. In typical CES format we rolled off for the warm up lap and upon the wave of the green flag from Earl Clements I made a decent but not great start. Nonetheless we along with Nagy Jr. and the Bermuda Triangle of Barnes and Skuzzie broke away from the pack and began a classic drafting battle. Each driver taking his turn in the lead only to get freight trained back to fourth immediately. Just before the halfway point I was leading the four pack onto the oval when I saw something fly out of the cockpit only to realize that the data logger from the MyChron was flying around only connected to the Tony by the leads. Grabbing the errant data logger I tried valiantly to find a way to keep it in the car and still shift gears, turn the steering wheel etc. Finding the situation hopeless I stormed into the pits where the ever faithful Gooseman (?) made a great effort to re attach the box. Storming out of the pit lane I was greeted by the data logger falling into my lap once again. Blast and drat!!! The gremlins have got it in for us and after going two laps down trying to do the needed repairs we retired the car. The silence from Team Rapid Racing's garage was deafening as we recovered from yet another bout with Lady Luck.
Sunday dawned and with new resolve the mysterious Gooseman and I prepared for battle with several redundant systems making sure that the data logger would stay in place this time. Qualifying came around and even though we improved our time by over two tenths we still qualified on the outside pole. Due to the rotating schedule the 125 race was last on the schedule and the typical St. Louis heat worsened the waiting.
Finally race time rolled around and after another Formula one type warm-up we lined up waiting for the wave of the green. Not one to take the easy way out I completely muffed the start dropping to eighth on the first lap. Fortunately "Lucille" was running strong and quickly we joined the lead draft which began to break away from the pack. The pack consisted of myself, Nagy Jr., Barnes, North and surprise interloper Melvin Nelson. Lap after lap the lead would change over and over and it was clear that a last lap strategy would be the order of the day. With just a few laps left Nelson found some bad luck and dropped back leaving a gang of four to contend for the win. Crunch time came when Earl Clements waved the white flag. The scramble was truly on and I laid back slightly hoping to use a strategy learned from many, many races at places like Daytona and Charlotte. As the gang of four entered the turn leading onto the oval I quit laying back and smoked it through the corner. Barnes, Skuzzie and Nagy Jr. were absolutely nose to tail and I used my momentum to begin a run at them crossing their wake and moving to the inside as we stormed through the turn known as NASCAR Four. As I made my move the quartet exploded into a four abreast drag race for the checkered flag. Side by side we bobbed and weaved looking for an advantage and as we blasted under Earl's waving checkered nag no one was sure of the outcome. Arriving at the scales we were soon handed the transponder scoring sheet with Barnes winning by .03 second over yours truly. Nagy Jr. was .04 behind in third and Skuzzie was fourth only .15 out of the lead. This race had no losers and was one of the very best races that this driver has been involved in during my long career. Finally! An upbeat race! Another observation is that despite the heated battle not a tire mark was to be found.
Next stop GingerMan for Lucilles debut at that facility. A little more R & D in the meantime should make this next race interesting.
Until next time Race Hard, Race Safe and God Bless America!
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