Thought I would post a little of what went on Saturday at the DBL. Regional. ( Didn't run Sunday grandaughter got baptised.)
This event seemed almost like the old days of unoffical SM racing. Back when Shannon, the Racer Network boys, Ony, Bob and Mad Merv ran in the IT/SRX7run group in our SMs that were just becoming a class of their own. My son-in-law and myself towed out to TMS Saturday morning unloaded the car torqued the wheels, checked the air, the fluids and never did another thing but repeat it after qualifying. No fenders to beat out or tires to change etc. I qualified 2nd in ITA (9th overall) behind another miata at 1:42.
In the race I got a very nice start and moved ahead of all but two ITE cars (Porsche 911 & BMW M3) going into the chicane. By the turn into the infield a couple more cars had caught me (Audi A4 & 300ZX) and I diced with the A4 through the infield and got back on the oval in front of him. On the oval he aired it out and was gone. I was left to do battle with a very fast Neon that basically was like a slower version of the A4 as I was quicker in the infield but way down on power on the oval. I would hve about three or four car lengths on him getting on the oval only to have him pass me on the banking in the middle of T3/T4. After afew laps of this he pulled away to finish about 12 seconds in the lead. After I came to terms with the realization that I was not going to catch him I settled down and worked on staying ahead of the Hondas, (they are faster on the oval too) RX7s and the other miatas. I was able to make real clean passes on some of the slower ITS & ITE cars along with some of the lapped IT cars to hold on to second by about 5 or 6 seconds. Overall finish was 6th out of 39 starters with only three of the ITE and one ITS cars ahead of myself and the Neon ITA car. I had a blast running with different type cars that have different advantages from each other. I never had contact although the racing in the infield was close. I felt very encouraged about converting the SM to full bore ITA for 07. Maybe a permanent number change from 13 to 19 had something to do with it, but it was really fun to be contending.
ARRC at RAtlanta in November will be a totally different playing field in both SM and ITA, but as it is my favorite track I always enjoy racingthere.
:burnrubr:
