Jeff:
I though I answered this a day ago....not sure what happened to my original reply?
Anyway, the weather for our Watkins Glen weekend was horrible....after the terrible occurance at Lime Rock, we were hoping for a nice weekend but the weather didn't cooperate.
At any rate, we made the best of it!
I should have taken off on Friday: That was the only day EMRA had good weather at the Glen.
My pal Pete ran his #23 Sprite on Friday, but ended up having "all neutrals" in the trans. I told him it was a snapped axle, but he insisted that the Torsen rear would drive on one axle.
I helped him pull the engine and trans out last night...and there was nothing wrong with the trans.
As we have now discovered, a Torsen will *not* drive on one axle! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif
We showed up on Friday night and immediately went to the Seneca Lodge
(Note to other readers: The Seneca is a fine old tradition at the Glen. All the F1 racers hung out there in the 60's. There is plenty of old race memorablia as part of the decor and the food is decent too.......I know that Jeff already knows this).
Anyway, we ran into some friends and after we had dinner together we ended up staying late at the bar....great time!
Early Saturday morning, it was pouring and it was quite cold. I can take a bit of rain and I can tolerate cold....but not together (especially not in an open car). Before unloading the Sprite, I watched one of the guys try to maintain control in a Lotus 7 during sprint practice....he was having an impossible time. That was when I decided to forget about the sprint race and hope that the weather would clear up for the enduro.
The weather never improved...and I never unloaded the car the entire weekend. Oh well....no "scary Blue Walls" (or syrofoam crashes!) this year.
So mostly, I ended up sitting in the tower, helping with timing and scoring.
The major "help" I provided was that I went to Wal-Mart and bought a small electric heater for our gal who's in charge of Timing/Scoring. She was freezing.
I did my little Wal-Mart run in a borrowed WRX wagon and since the owner didn't need it back right away, I took it for a 6 miles lap around the "old" street course. It was pouring all the time, but the little Subie was unfazed.
We actually had about 8 cars for our fomula car race, but I don't know how they could see anything.
We also had the "944 Group" run with us in their own race (they usually run with NASA). There was about 25 of them and they *loved* the rain. We're glad they came....otherwise the weekend would have been a finacial disaster (one other good thing about the Porsche guys: they brought a catering service with a tent!). /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif
Our three hour enduro ran only 1.5 hours and was halted due to fog. A lot of big-engine cars (mostly Mustangs) spun off repeatedly. The enduro was won by a stock-engine Civic on skinny tires (mostly because I think he had the best windshield wipers).
Man it gets *cold* at Watkins Glen in the Fall. The lady at Curly's Restaurant told us that snow was predicted in two days (nearby Binghamton got 6").
Saturday night, we went back to the Seneca with 8 friends and stayed late again. Another great evening.
On Sunday morning, we went over to the actual "glen" at Watkins Glen. It's a state park. Took pictures of the water falls and climbed part of the pathway on the glen.
I had decided not to run the Time Trial (still too cold and wet). We loaded my van up with some of the extra EMRA stuff we wouldn't likely need for the afternoon (including about 5 cases of beer) and took off early. The Sprite is still in the van as I type this. I'm leaving it there (along with the beer), since I'll be taking it to Summit Point WV in two weeks for our last '05 event.
I would love to go to Road Atlanta...never been there. The "Mitty" sounds like fun.
I do have some pictures I just got back from our September Lime Rock event...here's one with links for more below:
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v170/aeronca65t/EMRA_05/limerock05-sprite-2.jpg
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v170/aeronca65t/EMRA_05/limerock05-sprite-3.jpg
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v170/aeronca65t/EMRA_05/limerock05-sprite-4.jpg
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v170/aeronca65t/EMRA_05/limerock05-sprite-5.jpg
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v170/aeronca65t/EMRA_05/limerock05-sprite-6.jpg