Savannah Fry ‘05
I have been doing the July 4th weekend double National at Savannah since 1996. I have been vowing to avoid the heat and humidity for years, but somehow always end up back there. Racing has changed since 1996 where I was among 26 FC cars and there were only two DSRs entered (Bob Urso and Brian Little). This year there were 3 FC cars and 13 DSRs.
Although some years have been worse, this year it was simply hot and humid with a heat index of over 110 degrees each day. I was concerned about how my relatively untested Speads car would cool. The car was also fitted with a new nose support solution (?) that would hopefully prevent the nose from folding under when encountering rough terrain in the event of an “off.” There was considerable opportunity for discovery.
Son Sean would attend also in his Zetek FC car running as a FA, and Dan Carney would be there in his FF. Kathy would come along, liking the shopping in Savannah and Hilton Head. With the Carney clan providing 3 small children for entertainment, she would spend far more time at the track than usual.
For the Friday qualifiers, I ran my old tires (Sean’s take offs from the Runoffs) while getting more comfortable with my new Speads ride. Good news was that the car cooled very well. Grip, with the old R35 tires, was lacking but I turned acceptable laps in the 1:13 range. Downshifting was becoming a problem, but I found one of the bolts that hold the clutch cable cover to the engine had stripped and backed out. A longer bolt solved the problem, and the car shifted OK in the Sunday morning qualifier.
Sunday. Mounted new R45A tires for the qualifying session. Car felt good. Ran only 5 laps to scuff the new tires. Turned an excellent time of 1:10.8, which is a new personal best for me in July by a full second. This was the first time that I was faster in the Speads than my old Cheetah (which had a built motor; the Speads has a stock GSXR). Things were looking up. I did spin in turn 4 during the last lap of the session when downshifting went a little wrong. (shifting omen) Great news was the nose solution worked, and for once there was no fiberglass damage. I qualified 4th in a very fast DSR field (and 14th overall in the FA/FC/FM/S2/CSR/DSR 31 car group)
Sunday Race. Crash
fest! First crashes caused by a really
STUPID start. As usual, the large field gets strung out on the pace
lap. The first few rows were being careful not to pass the pace car (as
we were sternly warned about in the drivers’ meeting). The pace car was now on pit lane, going
quite slowly and quickly coming to the end of the pit lane, which ends before
the starters stand. The mid pack, after exiting turn 9, are still
catching up and now going on the brakes hard. The last third of the pack
is still accelerating HARD thru turn 9 and going up thru the gears. (Sean
is 24th on the grid, so is at the end of the middle pack) Starter holds
the green flag until the leaders are with 50 feet of him. The middle pack
has their arms in the air thinking the start is aborted. The last third
is in chaos. There are cars passing Sean in the dirt on both sides.
There the many contacts and fiberglass bits are flying everywhere.
This is followed by the usual 2 or 3 offs at turn one. As the field
completes lap one around turn nine on to the front straight, they see a field
of debris. Cars take avoiding actions. Cars hit each other.
One FM gets bumped from the rear and hits the pit wall bouncing off and hitting
a DSR (Montalvo). An 8 lap double yellow follows while the mess is
cleaned up.
Single file start two. Lead mid pack car
spins and parks in turn 3 pretty much blocking the track. I got around,
scary, with two wheels in the dirt. More double yellow.
Start 3. Four cars crash together in turn
5b, blocking 90% of the track. I manage to get around. Expect to
see another double yellow. Slow. Get passed by several cars that
notice that no yellows are showing. Wake up and gas it just in time to
prevent Mike Schmidt from getting by. We do another full lap, having to
come almost to a full stop at the crash scene. Coming back to the front straight, the officials drop an early
checkered flag. Except for the lead cars, few got any clear laps.
Most unsatisfying. Glen Cooper, from
his 6th DSR starting position, somehow threaded thru the chaos best
and took the DSR win. Must have been a
wild ride.
Monday. Car is shifting badly in the morning qualifier. I stay out too many laps trying to figure out how to drive around the problem. Phil Creighton comes over to help. (Big THANKS!) He replaces a bolt in the mechanical shift linkage. Problem solved? I have high hopes. Now starting 24th overall and 9th in DSR, I had a big hill to climb.
Monday race. (This will be brief.) I knew I was in trouble right away. On braking into turn one, the rear wheels would clunk and stutter. A grinding sound began. It was very difficult to shift down without several tries. Several cars had an adventure in turn one, and I got past several. By lap two or three, it was getting difficult to upshift also, taking several tries. I get passed a lot. It is now sounding like the chain is slipping on the sprocket (stripped teeth from shifting abuse?) Problem continues to get worse. I park the car and watch Sean’s race. (He would take 3rd in FA). Drive problem is so bad, I have difficultly driving the car back to the trailer. It is making lots of nasty sounds. Rodger Cook would take the DSR win after a race long battle with Steve Shelton, who was glued to his tail. Glen Cooper would join me with a DNF.
Post Mortem. My left side, inner CV was thrashed and binding up the axle. Not sure how the physics work here, but with the chain/sprocket not being able to spin freely with the binding, the shifts were difficult. Glad I quit the race before I scattered broken bits everywhere. Hope I didn’t hurt the engine/gearbox. Will have to install a new CV and test somewhere before the car goes racing again.
Ah, four days in purgatory with out much to show for it. Racing.