6 replies to this topic

[Bruce Wilson]

Clean but hard fought racing by all, and with no unnecessary drama. Brian Ghidinelli won the first in a 99 and Ken Sutherland won the second in a 1.6. Although I'm not sure it was the greatest parity test since Ken had a flat in the first race and Brian missed a shift in the second, which allowed Ken to get by and then use lapped traffic to keep the lead. I was able to catch Brian in the first race but couldn't make anything of it (he drove a great race), and in the second race I felt Vance's '01 and my 1.6 were a pretty even match.

Oregon contingent did great in both races placing 5 of the top 6 for the first race and 5 of the top 7 in the second!!!

Had a hell of a race with Tyler Vance and Matt Schultz in the second race, probably the most fun I've had in years, problem was I ended up going from 7th (missed shift at start) to 3rd and then back to 5th. Congrats to Brian and Ken for the wins and Jason Rawlins and Tyler Vance for the podium runs!

-bw

[Ron Alan]

Both wet races? Video?

[Bruce Wilson]

Sadly no, I love driving that track wet. Qual1 ended wet -- Ken was on a flyer and went through t8 flat and it didn't stick. He went out to find his airdam and measured 50 feet between launch and landing tracks

-bw

[Brian Ghidinelli]

Great weekend - always fun to have the Oregon guys come down and the Vances come up. Would have been nice to see a few more SoPac people but having just hauled to WSIR, I feel their pain. However that didn't stop the guys who had to chain up their RVs AND trailers to haul from Portland!

My test day was ugly but we pulled it all together and the rest of the race weekend went great. I had a great car under me in race 1 and even had something left in the bag. The afternoon race I was less lucky but Ken drove a great race and deserved the win. We'll get the car on the dyno and see if the misshift caused any problems. I felt the pressure for the first half of the race from Bruce and Matt as they were right on my bumper until Ken and I opened up a gap. Tyler finished in 3rd and I heard you three had a good scrap - what happened there?

Congrats to Jason for breaking his P5 curse (it doesn't matter how you get it!)

[TheFence]

Having been my first time down, hearing about how much fun the track is.. Well worth dealing with chains on the way down.

[Jason Rawlins]

Thanks Brian.. First Podium in SM so I was very happy with it. Then qualified 2nd for race 2, right behind you.

Jason

[Ken SM94]

Man I love that track!

I have to say the weather did let us down a bit though. We can get that kind of weather in Oregon!! I had to break my promise to myself to never use the snow chains on the motor home to get down there but all went well. We a went the coastal route home and added an aditional 200 miles to the trip. $1,000 for fuel really hurts! I hope the fuel costs don't spoil our plans to do a couple more races in Cali later this year.

My "moment" of the weekend came in the first qualifying session when it started to rain. I thought I was on the best lap of the session and if I could go through turn 8 flat one more time..... never made it. Had to drive it straight off at the exit and what a ride! I went out after the track went cold to get part of the front air dam and could see where the tires left the ground and where it touched back down. 49' in the air! Thanks to Bruce, Ed and Jason for that race-winning alignment!

Congrats to Brian for the win in race one! Can't wait to do it again (without the snow)