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Event Reports From 2006 Round 1
VDCA at CMP - Kershaw, SC
- Click Here for Event Photos |
- Click Here for Peter Krause's Event Report |
- Click Here for Tom Ash's Event Report |
VDCA Kershaw 2006 event photos - courtesy of John Gaither (click to expand)
Peter Krause's Event Report
Saturday Practice and Qualifying
Nice crowd of six, beautiful Sports 2000 cars here at Carolina
Motorsports Park with the Vintage Drivers Club of America.
Tom Ash and his recently re-done Tiga SC85 had a trouble free debut and
ran around within .001 of a second of Walter Carson's immaculate, ex-Bob
Browski Royale S2000M. Max Rubin's pretty Lola T-596 and Mark Gompels very
sleek Royale RP38 had a good time and were covered by a blanket in the dry
and in the damp, only a couple tenths apart. Paul Tavilla's Swift was .022
quicker than Malcolm Mangum's ex-Hubert Kleinpeter RP42 as they circulated
close and fast! The rains came early and so the group decided to bag
qualifying (after three sessions) and have a party! The gathering, at Andy
Greene's Sports and Vintage Race Cars, was enjoyed by all.
Saturday saw five, count 'em, FIVE sessions on-track for Sports 2000 cars. The warm (64 degrees), overcast gave way to decreasing temperatures and drizzle during the late morning turned into a steady rain, so instead of mounting up rains and sloshing around, everyone adjourned to Andy Greene's trailer for a feast hosted by the delightful Walter Carson, aka tyrodb2 (more on him later). Everyone had a good time and most headed into downtown Camden, SC (horse polo country) and the Crescent Grill for drinks and a good dinner. Plenty of lies were swapped at the bar, two of the best storytellers were old friend Max Rubin (T-596) and Carson (S2000M). My hand, passing a drink to another in our party, nearly had a 13/13 with a delightful young waitress's chest! Lots of revelry... After good food, folks turned in early in expectation of a cooler, sunny Sunday.
Sunday
Dawn broke crisp, clear (low thirties) and bright. The first problem came
as we found that the local Bojangles oven had failed and hence, NO
BISCUITS! Now, y'all-from-not-around-here might think this is no big deal,
but Dave Blum, ace fabricator and crew chief (also prepping an Apache for
himself) just about mutinied and went home right then and there! As in
most fine things in life, the experience of sausage and egg on a Bojangles
biscuit can be sublime, if that's what you're looking for!
On to the track where no one was motivated to head out at 8:20 AM for the
warm-up (what a laid-back crowd!) and instead, prepped their cars for the
one-hour Enduro for all entered cars that started at 9:30 AM. The breeze
had picked up so the track had dried but it was plenty nippy as we arrayed
ourselves on the false grid. Tavilla slept in so Malcolm was on pole with
a quick 911 and 914/6 (2.5 liter!) between him and "Mad Max"
Rubin in his Lola. Next up was Mark Gompels in his stunning silver and
white RP38, looking like he was going 150 mph standing still, that car was
so sleek! Further down the order was a Group 4 Pantera, a couple Formula
Vees and some assorted British "iron." Walter had graciously
offered me his Royale to co-drive the previous evening (must have been the
Ketel One talking, but I didn't put up any fuss) and so at the start,
Malcolm and the two Porsches zoomed off, then Max, Mark and I took up the
next positions for the opening laps. Soon, I was able to make my way up to
and around the 914/6 when about four laps in, the 911 lost an oil line in
a big way and turned into a smoky mess after depositing about four gallons
of oil all the way around the track!
For once, I saw a Porsche drive the
perfect
line!
Exit the second place car. Now Malcolm, not knowing that the track had
just turned to a skating rink, came upon the oil in the western side of
the track and was off forthwith! Walter's Royale S2000M, car #1, was now
P1 and building a gap fast! Alas, it wouldn't last...
After
falling off the track during the Enduro, a number of folks decided to pit
and investigate why their cars weren't turning. Malcolm was one of them,
looking for a cut tire. It was pretty apparent that there was a
significant swath of oil that interfered with turn-in, so avoiding that, I
continued pulling out a nice gap in Walter's beautiful ex-Bob Browsky
S2000M until I began hearing bad noises from the flywheel/transaxle area.
Rather than put the car at risk I pulled off at a safe place, got out and
shivered with the corner worker at the Kink for the next 45 minutes.
With Malcolm's temporary and "Team Carson's" more permanent
exit, Max Rubin, in the ex-Steve Ave 1984 June Sprints winning Lola T-596
started chasing down the then-leading 914/6 with Mark Gompels in his
Royale RP38 hot on his tail. Max and Mark egged each other on to the point
where a third of the way into the Enduro, they were leading one-two!
Unfortunately, Mark outbraked himself headed into T1 and fell off,
thankfully stopping short of the wall. Untroubled, Max then left everyone
for dead, keeping a comfortable gap to the 2nd place Porsche after Mark
decided to come in for a checkover. Mark and Malcolm eventually returned
to the fray but did not figure in the final results. Max Rubin won the
Enduro for the honor of Lola and the Sports 2000 cars present!
The Group A (faster cars) Race at 12:30 Sunday saw Paul on the pole and
Malcolm outside. Max and Mark were together two rows back with Tom Ash
getting on track for his first completely dry session. One of the two best
races for the weekend was the battle between the two sleek, black cars as
they ran each other very closely but with room, respect and manners. At
the green, Paul and Malcolm entered T1 two abreast while behind, the 911
locked the fronts so badly that the resultant smoke cloud affected Max and
Mark's ability to see through the corner! Everyone got through ok as Paul
turned a storming first lap to lead Malcolm by a second at the stripe. Tom
was leapfrogging slower cars right and left as he rapidly gained
confidence in his car and himself. Next time around, Paul had eaked out a
little more but was clearly pushing very hard. Malcolm's car looked more
settled and composed, but they both were going really fast! Next up, Max
and Mark redoubled their Enduro dice and all the while, Tom kept chipping
away and going quicker.
On the third lap, Malcolm regained a little space to Paul lost early on
and the chase was on. Paul had a
huge
wiggle at the Kink on lap 4 and it was clear he was battling rear tires
that had lost their edge. Malcolm halved the advantage in the next four,
tight and twisty corners with Paul getting very loose at the exit of T14,
allowing Malcolm to nearly draw alongside. They entered T1 side by side,
Malcolm on the outside, Paul inside! Two abreast through the first three
corners, Paul edged ahead until Malcolm got a great run coming out of the
Carousel and did the fast, on-camber T8 perfectly. Paul bobbled just a
little at the exit of T8 and that was it, Malcolm was past in a flash.
Another three laps saw the lead stretched to about two seconds, but the
fickle finger of fate pointed at Malcolm at the exit of T14, when the
loose axle bolts sandwiching the CV joint and brake rotor on the left side
sheared, disconnecting drive and spitting the rotor out from under the
car! Paul cantered to victory and Max held off Mark with Tom getting
"Most Improved" by virtue of passing a ton of cars in the race.
Malcolm's fast lap would be almost eight and a half tenths quicker than
anyone else...
Sunday SRCC Feature Race
The final race of the day was the Sports 2000-only feature race. The paucity of entries would not detract from arguably the best race of the weekend for second through fourth position, fast laps covered by only a few tenths among them. With Malcolm unable to repair the car in time and Walter's car headed back to Andy Greene's shop with a new "shopping list," Paul took off at the start and drove a textbook race, going progressively quicker as he tamed his right foot and became smoother and more relaxed over the ten lap distance. Behind Paul however was a "battle Royale," with Max, Mark and Tom swapping positions and fast laps among them throughout the entire race. An early spin by Mark allowed Tom to get by, but when it became harder than expected for Mark to get by Tom and get to Max, it was clear we had a fight on our hands, a friendly fight! Mark and Tom, working together (or perhaps egging each other on), steadily reeled Max in and finally, Mark got by. At the checker, it was Paul clear, Max next but less than a couple of tenths between Max, Mark and Tom. Great racing!
-- Peter Krause
Tom Ash's Event Report
I followed Peter Krause and Dave Blum down to Kershaw on Friday afternoon. Fortunately Peter knew the way, and Dave, who was following Peter was relaying turn information to me by cell phone. A good thing too, because the last time I drove to Kershaw I ended up somewhere in Georgia.
Got the car out of the trailer Friday night and headed back to Kershaw to stay at the [Motel name deleted], which was only slightly better than sleeping in my trailer.
Up early on Saturday morning. Raining and cold. Stopped at Bojangles for a biscuit and some coffee. Got called "darlin" a couple of times, which is always a nice touch.
This was to be the first time on track in almost two years for my Tiga SC85. (I had trailered it up to VIR two weeks earlier for a weekend "school," but the track was shut down on Saturday morning because of the threat of snow.) Over the last several months I had completely rebuilt everything on the car from the rear bulkhead back - new cell, rebuilt shocks all around, new motor, new stainless header, new plumbing, new rod ends, new clutch, new deck mount, etc. Even though I had taken my time doing the work, and had pestered Peter and Dave with several hundred "now what do I do" questions, there were certainly a lot of things that could go wrong.
Missed the 8:30 session because it was too damn cold. Went out in the 10:00 session and made a couple of laps before the water temp gauge started dancing all over the place. Popped into pit lane and consulted with Dave who guessed (correctly) that there had been an air bubble that uncovered the temperature sensor. Did a couple more laps only to have the car feel like a rear tire was going down. Came back in to find that the head mechanic (that would be me) had done a bad job torquing the left rear wheel.
The good news is that the new Butler motor was awesome! Every other car I had driven 'till now had a motor of questionable pedigree. This motor was really strong!
While on the theme of bad mechanicing, I forgot to mention that I had neglected to change to Kershaw gearing from the VIR gearing that I had in the car. I recall making a "note-to-self" to do that, but forgot about the note. This meant that I had three usable gears (fourth was useless) and a first gear that was way too long.
Our next session was at 2:00, but by that time it was raining pretty hard, and someone in Andy Greene's trailer thought that it might make sense to start the Saturday SRCC party a bit early. That made a lot of sense to me, so I sat with the rest of the SRCC group and sampled shrimp and cheese and listened to stories about Royales. Good fun. Thanks Walter!
More fun was to ensue as Peter, Dave, Caesar Cone, and I drove down to Camden to eat at a nice restaurant that was in an old bank building. The food was great, and Walter Carson was there and took pity on me and bought me an adult beverage. Royale owners are good people.
Sunday morning, as Peter mentioned in his report, started off ominously because Bojangles was biscuitless. They didn't even have any damn Bo-Berry biscuits. On top of that, they weren't open when I got there at 6:30. There were five or six older guys sitting out in front of the place in their cars, and they were really pissed off by the time they finally got inside at about 6:45. When they found out there were no biscuits, things went downhill fast. Nobody was getting called "darlin" that morning. I'm just glad I got out of there before Dave showed up. Can't imagine how awful that must have been.
Got to the track and started to get ready to go out in the 8:30 warm up session. Bolted on my new set of Hoosiers, only to find out that the rear wheels had the wrong offset. Don't ask. So I took the new tires off, put my two-year old Hoosiers back on, and went out in the Group A race. Started at the back and slowly started to get some confidence in myself and the car, as everything seemed to be working as designed. Passed a couple of people and tried to stay out of peoples' way. Started to figure the track out, except for the entry to the Carousel, which I still have no idea how to handle. The highlight of the race was the view I had of a roadster in front of me that had the curious affectation of having its left door open on right-hand turns and its right door open on left-hand turns. He pointed me by once on the right, but we were approaching a left-hand turn and I didn't want to get smacked by his door. So I waited for a straightaway to get by safely.
After that half hour session, I did a quick nut and bolt on the car (everything was good) and got ready for the 2:00 SRCC feature race. Unfortunately several S2s had fallen out - Walter Carson's Royale had diff issues, and Malcolm Mangum's Royale had coughed up several critical rear end parts on the short chute leading onto the main straight. So, there were only four S2s left...Paul Tavilla in his DB2, Max Rubin in his Lola T-596, Mark Gompels in his Royale RP38, and me. I started at the back yet again, but this time was able to maintain contact with Mark, and he and I were very slowly catching Max. (Paul had checked out.) Mark got a bit sideways in the Carousel, and I was able to get by, but he passed me back on the next lap. So, I finished where I started, but in sight of Mark and Max. Once again, the car had run well, all in all it was a good weekend.
--Tom