PicturesGlenn, Gina, and I raced at Gingerman Raceway last weekend with the help of George, a friend of Glenn’s from a camping club. We went to the track on Friday to practice (and learn the track), but Glenn’s Spec Ford was hit by a Formula car trying to recover from an off-course incident. Although we managed to repair the external damage (broken suspension, some body work, new wheel and tire), the crash must have done some internal damage to Glenn’s transmission. During qualifying on Saturday, Glenn lost third gear. He qualified third, bit was unable to race the rest of the weekend.
My luck was a little better. Thanks to some tips from Glenn, Chris “Cat-Killer” Childs, and Dan Waleke, I was able to develop a pretty good line through the course. Even though I was running a Spec Neon against ITA cars, it seemed to be a good match for the track. It rotated well through the corners and drifted out predictably when exiting corners at high speed. I got 5th in ITA and 7th overall on Saturday and 4th in both ITA and overall on Sunday. I had some great battles, and these were, by far, the longest races I’ve participated in (20 2 mile laps each day). My best time of the weekend was 1’44.7″. I liked the track a lot (although I still think Grattan is more fun), but I still think there’s a lot more to learn at Gingerman.
Leave a Reply