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My season was to have begun last month with a road trip down to the SVRA Road Atlanta race the weekend of February 20-22 to be followed by the Sebring event last weekend but RA was cancelled due to freezing weather. So the trip was shortened and I set out south for Sebring last Tuesday, not escaping ice and snow until well into South Carolina and eventually reaching the track Thursday.
For those of you who have never been to Sebring the track is located on the grounds of what used to be a WWII AAF base. The configuration has changed much over the years, at one time being over five miles long and it is now about 3.5 miles in length, lacing together a few asphalt sections connecting old concrete runways. The track is flat as a pancake, the biggest elevation changes probably being the expansion joints and the bumps in turn 17. Both because of the length of the straights and the rough surface it is a notorious car breaker.
I took down the Elva MK IV sports racer which placed me in SVRA's group 4 composed of two 330 CI Corvettes, a 4.2 liter XKE and a couple of late-entry Cobras. We shared the run-group with SVRA groups 1 and 3 which is populated primarily by production cars up to 2000 cc's, the fast guys being a bunch of Porsche 356's which are claimed to have 1690 engines. All-tolled there were about 30 cars on the grid, not very crowded given the length and width of the track.
Though the forecast was for a lot of rain the weather was better than advertised and except for the first practice on Friday I raced on a dry track all weekend, which is a good thing given the track's terrible drainage and the prevalence of old concrete. BTW some kind of tar-like coating had lately been put down on the surface (maybe to refill or seal the expansion joints) and some guys' tires were literally covered with a glazed substance that did nothing for adhesion. For whatever reason this did not seem to happen to me--maybe my narrow Dunlops did not generate enough heat to make it transfer from track to rubber--but in any case this did little for grip!
I had a trouble-free weekend and except for having to drain the antifreeze from the trip down I did nothing more than check fluids, tire pressures and wheel torques. Within my group I did battle primarily with the Jaguar and in Sunday's feature I came in 2nd in group (to Treffert's Corvette) and 6th overall. I was able to keep the Jag behind me until he passed me under a double-yellow and was disqualified and somewhere in the ethers of the internet exists a podium shot showing me with a shiny trinket as proof of my prowess.
It was great getting out of the cold if only for a few days and I was happy to arrive home and roll the Elva out of the trailer knowing I had no repairs to make. BTW my plan for this season is to primarily race the new-to-me Ginetta G4 and its first outing will be at the VDCA Wild Hare run in April. In the meantime I will be repairing the Courier from its 2013 prang at PVGP so that a good friend of mine can use it to attend VRG's Jefferson 500 driving school in May.
For those of you who have never been to Sebring the track is located on the grounds of what used to be a WWII AAF base. The configuration has changed much over the years, at one time being over five miles long and it is now about 3.5 miles in length, lacing together a few asphalt sections connecting old concrete runways. The track is flat as a pancake, the biggest elevation changes probably being the expansion joints and the bumps in turn 17. Both because of the length of the straights and the rough surface it is a notorious car breaker.
I took down the Elva MK IV sports racer which placed me in SVRA's group 4 composed of two 330 CI Corvettes, a 4.2 liter XKE and a couple of late-entry Cobras. We shared the run-group with SVRA groups 1 and 3 which is populated primarily by production cars up to 2000 cc's, the fast guys being a bunch of Porsche 356's which are claimed to have 1690 engines. All-tolled there were about 30 cars on the grid, not very crowded given the length and width of the track.
Though the forecast was for a lot of rain the weather was better than advertised and except for the first practice on Friday I raced on a dry track all weekend, which is a good thing given the track's terrible drainage and the prevalence of old concrete. BTW some kind of tar-like coating had lately been put down on the surface (maybe to refill or seal the expansion joints) and some guys' tires were literally covered with a glazed substance that did nothing for adhesion. For whatever reason this did not seem to happen to me--maybe my narrow Dunlops did not generate enough heat to make it transfer from track to rubber--but in any case this did little for grip!
I had a trouble-free weekend and except for having to drain the antifreeze from the trip down I did nothing more than check fluids, tire pressures and wheel torques. Within my group I did battle primarily with the Jaguar and in Sunday's feature I came in 2nd in group (to Treffert's Corvette) and 6th overall. I was able to keep the Jag behind me until he passed me under a double-yellow and was disqualified and somewhere in the ethers of the internet exists a podium shot showing me with a shiny trinket as proof of my prowess.
It was great getting out of the cold if only for a few days and I was happy to arrive home and roll the Elva out of the trailer knowing I had no repairs to make. BTW my plan for this season is to primarily race the new-to-me Ginetta G4 and its first outing will be at the VDCA Wild Hare run in April. In the meantime I will be repairing the Courier from its 2013 prang at PVGP so that a good friend of mine can use it to attend VRG's Jefferson 500 driving school in May.
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