"Lucille and the Mid Ohio Redemption"
October 24, 2002
It was a dark moonless October night when the mysterious Gooseman (?) and I rolled into the paddock at Mid Ohio. Although this event for some reason or another does not have a Friday practice day at least registration and pre tech is available on Friday evening. After much hand shaking and stumbling around we were ready for the action to begin.
Saturday morning dawned cool as expected but at least it was dry. With only two rounds of practice available the Gooseman (?) and I had our work cut out for us. Round one was used to finish breaking in the mighty Honda and scuff in a new set of Bridgestones and to get a reading on gear and jetting. Between sessions the determined Gooseman (?) went to work changing the gear while I scratched my head on the jetting equation.
Round two we were ready to go for a lap time and "Lucille" responded to the changes with a personal best ever lap. Smiling but determined we readied "Lucille" for battle and waited for our customary first race after lunch-time slot.
Race time and confusion reigned supreme on the pre grid as approximately ninety 125 cars pushed up with about a dozen WKA 125 streamliners, eight to ten ICC 125s and the rest in the dominant CIK 125 class. Duplicated numbers and drivers signed up in the wrong class only added to the mayhem. Finally a semblance of order seemed to take place and the field rolled out of pit lane backwards, hooking around pit in to come up the pit straight and stage for a Formula One style start. Upon the wave of Flagman Phil Clements green flag the large CIK 125 class which was gridded in between the WKA and the ICC packs lunged into the middle of the WKA class and the melee did commence for two laps before the red flag was displayed for Angie South's hard wreck in the carousel. For the restart an enduro/LeMans type start was used with a split between the WKA class and everybody else. Almost everybody understood the routine but not all. I had a great dice going with SKUSA regular Tom Birchard and our momentum kept us moving forward and with two laps to go we caught and passed the car that was scored third. Nonetheless I was scored fifth and Birchard sixth. (?) It didn't really matter because an overzealous tech man disqualified nearly the entire field on the three inch steering wheel to fairing rule that was written for full bodied machines not CIK type bodies. To add insult to injury the above mentioned DQs were implemented nearly two hours after the race! Interestingly after everybody modified their front panels to satisfy the nitpicker they were no longer in CIK spec.
Sunday the inevitable rains came and washed out practice. But we came to race and come race time we were ready. Flagman Phil Clements again chose to go with the Enduro/LeMans type start and the race was on once again. This time everybody actually abided by the split start! The race was relatively uneventful as I made a good start (Surprise!) and ran to second behind sometimes team mate Larry Nagy Jr. Our R & D work of the last three months has certainly paid off with stronger performances and while we still didn't win the race we certainly put a spanking on a bunch of people. Redemption for our hard work? Sort of. Happy with our performance? Sort of. Charged up and planning more R & D for next season? Absolutely!
As the days grow short and the nights long and cold the memories of this past season will keep the off season demons at bay."The race is never over!" Cried the Gooseman (?) and I as we visited with our many friends before the drive home.
Meanwhile, Race Hard, Race Safe and God Bless America!
|
