| NASA Putnam Park Race report |
Subject: NASA Putnam Park Race report by Matt26R on 2009/5/18 14:13:55 An update for those of you that didn't make the combined Great Lakes / Midwest Regional event at Putnam this past weekend. Unfortunately the weekend started off with the usual mixture of rain/cooler temperatures, a teasing of sun, then more drizzle. The upside was that the dryer periods were during the big bore race on Saturday and it cleared off for a great day Sunday. I usually race my '88 in the PTA class but 2 of my normal competitors that were on the entry list didn't show up. (That is always a bummer when we need at least 3 in class to win any Hoosiers) Anyway, I decided that somebody should have a chance to win something for their hard work and changed my class to ST2 so Geff and Ken would have a third entry. Since I didn't change classes until the last minute I was still gridded mid pack with the PT cars. It turned out to be a fun race (even w/ 3 weekend old A6's...) I started 18th and worked my way through most of the AI field running low 19's in traffic eventually finishing 8th? From what my brother said the battle at the front of the class was INTENSE.......I'll leave you guys hanging until L98 Terror or GAS chime in. Sunday brought us sunshine and a chilly 42*F morning. brrr I decided that I would try and win some tires for me on Sunday and ran TTA. I also had in the back of my head that a track record could be in reach if I put on my fresh A6's with my brand spankin' new CCW classics ! FWIW, Jesse White has the record for TTA with a 116.9xx and he was running this weekend also. We went out the first session to feel things out, my car started smoking badly under the left side of the hood, not good.....Jesse 118.06x, Me 118.08x. (Hmmm, it's close but doable) Those times set the grid for the next session. 1. Sawtell 2. Smith 3. White 4. Me.........pretty cool because there were some faast Cars on the grid. Since I was instructing all weekend I didn't think I would be able to get it fixed (power steering line) before the next session. When I came back to my pits after my student's session my 2 top notch crew members (my brother and my boss) were already finishing the repair. Sweet!! I jumped in and just made grid with 1 minute to go. Results from this session Jesse 118.xx, Me 117.66. Things are looking better. The next session I actually had the hood completely latched and my gloves were on instead of flying around in the hatch... I also had time to think about the basics and focus on the wasted time with my lazy right foot.....The final TTA result for me was good enough for a win and TTA record:116.80x. Jesse was stuck in the 18's but he was on old rubber with some handling issues. I'm sure he'll be back to show me the way around. Sawtelle and Smith were battling for TTS honors and smashing records....more from them later. There were a lot of fast Corvette's that put on a great show in TTS, TTU and the race classes. We just need a few more of those Blue (and Black) Corvette's to start showing up again in the Great lakes Region! A big THANK YOU goes out to my crew (Bret and Curt) for taking care of the car all weekend and keeping the beer flowing in the evenings. Also to Hoosier Tire and Pfadt Race Engineering for their great products and contingency programs. Matt Carlyle NASA #26 PTA/ST2/TTA/ whatever class has 3 entries or more......... |
