From the Seat!

Dateline - Putnam Park: Team Rapid Racing's latest outing was the July 4th weekend at Mt. Meridian Indiana's lightning fast Putnam Park Road Course. Putnam, despite being less than two miles in length, is one of the fastest road courses in the Mdwest as far as average speed goes, featuring a smooth surface with the exception of a high speed dip between turns nine and ten.

The mysterious Gooseman (?) and I arrived first thing Friday AM and quickly got ready for a full day of testing. Practice started pretty much on time and after a break in session it was time to see what "Lucille" our Tony/Honda had to offer.

This time driving with competitive anger lap times dropped dramatically. A quick jet change and a minor chassis adjustment saw the times drop once again. By the third session "Lucille" was turning low 1:13s and we skipped a session to do an "I spy" to check up on the competition. Much to our surprise nobody was going any faster. A little more diligent fine tuning by the Gooseman (?) and some breath holding by yours truly got us into the high 1:12s. Feeling this was going to be pretty close we spent the rest of the day on race prep.

After practice ended for the day a trademark Putnam Park thunderstorm blew in and lasted into the next morning. Saturday dawned rainy and downright ugly. Not being very smart the ever faithful Gooseman (?) and I made the short trek to the track while the windshield wipers cleared our view of a dreary gray sky.

Amazingly the rain ended and big Denny Hoffman who was functioning as race director for the weekend assisted mostly by his family managed to get the track dry and begin the day late but by careful scheduling got all the races in.

After a quick practice session to scrub in some new tires we began race prep in earnest. Race time rolled around quickly and although we were on the pole for the SK-125 we started behind three of the dwindling WKA 125s and behind the entire field of MSSS mutated version of CIK 125. Despite what I thought were clear instruction regarding the three-wave start, the first start was botched by people who have problems following directions. As I saw the starter wave off the WKA cars I put "Lucille" in gear and about that time was passed by drivers from the back of the SK-125 pack. I swear they were in third gear already as they passed me and ran into the back of the stationary CIK 125 pack. CHAOS!! The flagman had no choice but to red flag the start as the WKA drivers were quickly approaching the quagmire of cars and drivers milling around on the starting grid.

OK, let's try it again. This time the start went smoothly and I made a fair start which was lost as I avoided a stalled car directly in front of me. Nonetheless "Lucille" and I stayed in the top five and we drafted away from the rest of the field. At two thirds distance the top five were all in a line like 100 mph ducks when we caught the leaders of the miniscule WKA field coming out of Dead Bear corner. As luck would have it first through fourth got past both of them but I only got past one having to check up to keep from running over my good friend Hal Diehl who was leading his class. Well, that was it. The draft disappeared and we were relegated to a more or less solitary run to fifth place.

After the days racing was over another furious thunderstorm rattled through but thankfully was gone by Sunday morning.

Sunday morning practice went smoothly as we offered up another set of tires to the altar of speed and were rewarded with consistent times in the low to mid 1:12s.

It was a long hot wait until the sixth race but was worth it. The start was somewhat simplified as there were no WKA cars entered. (I told you it was dwindling!) Once again the mysteriously muddy Gooseman (?) (A result of a perfect three point landing on a grassy slope in the paddock!) pushed "Lucille" into the SK-125 pole position slot. Making a great start (even surprised me) we got off the line in prime position for a good run. As the race roared on the leaders in SK-125 including yours truly caught the leaders in CIK 125 and a furious battle ensued. The parity between the two classes shows the folly of having two divisions and hopefully for next year a common class structure will allow reunification of the class. But I digress. After a lot of dicing and maybe just a little bit of luck this ancient mariner brought "Lucille" home in the third place slot. So far that outright win has been elusive but we seem to have the pace now and all we need is a few breaks to go our way. Buoyed by our performance this weekend the Gooseman (?) and I are looking forward to our next outing at the newly repaved Blackhawk Farms facility.

Until next time, Race Hard, Race Safe and God Bless America!

"When in doubt, gas it. It won't help but it ends the suspense."