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Thank you, Gris.

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Thank you, Marcus.

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You should do it, Tom. They had 3,080 cars this year.

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I know, Tom—it's been a while. Lots of time-consuming life stuff going on.

Good afternoon, all.

American flag tie, miniature medals, propeller cuff links …

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Excellent!

64 representative photos from Saturday at Corvettes at Carlisle 2022:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/j3studio/albums/72177720301655972

Good afternoon, all.

I've been "signaling" for most of the weekend: American flag tie at work on Friday (which was a big hit), battleships shirt today, World War 2 aircraft shirt tomorrow.

July 4th weekend is usually pretty quiet for us, and it looks like 2022 will be the same. On Friday evening, we went out to a fun dinner with the parents of our goddaughter. Saturday evening was at a dual graduation party being held by the Mexican side of Ivelis's family—as expected, the food was superb. Otherwise, mostly errands and chores.

If the weather is nice tomorrow, we'll try to take Grace out (Louis goes in for body work on the 11th).

Have a glorious Fourth, folks.

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We had a ton of fun at the TWA—it really is gorgeous.

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It's a 6"/30 caliber Mark 3—not one of the Navy's better guns.

Good morning, all.

It's now been about six years since we visited Normandy.

Returned on Friday from a very different trip—the classic "road ttrip for John's birthday," and the first one in three years. Bryn Mawr, Saratoga Springs, Portland (two nights), Montreal (two nights), Mount Washington, Queens, Bryn Mawr. 1,629 miles in seven and a half days.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/j3studio/albums/72177720299553360

Good evening, all.

Nice pictures, Tom. We loved Alaska.

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I hope you have a good experience, Matt.

We were battery-powered Black and Decker for garden power tools for three generations and transitioned over the last 18 months to the Echo 58 volt system. Aside from some teething troubles which our local repair shop soon solved, we have been happy.

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Thank you, Gris.

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Have a blast!

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Agreed—hot like fire.

Also, so rare and a highly awarded car.

My NCRS chapter had its first meet since 2019 on Sunday, April 24th. It was smaller scale than it had been in the past, but we had some really nice Corvettes to judge. 25 photos:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/j3studio/albums/72177720298549620

Good afternoon, all.

My apologies for being so infrequently present—April was bonkers at work, for many reasons.

My NCRS chapter had its first meet since 2019 last Sunday. I'll put those pictures in another thread.

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Happy Birthday, Marcus!

Good afternoon, all.

Went to a wedding this weekend:

https://flic.kr/p/2ndx5ww

If I'm another team in GTD Pro, I cannot be happy if Garcia is in the C8.R with an hour to go and is anywhere close to the lead. He's been driving Corvette for almost a decade, and I can't remember when he wasn't the closer for the #3.

Garcia closed beautifully. The C8.R just looked so much more settled on-track today than it did a month ago.

I'm surprised, but happy. Goodnight, all—more analysis tomorrow.

Checkered flag!

DPi—#02 Cadillac, #5 Cadillac, #31 Cadillac

LMP2—#52 Oreca (7th overall), #29 Oreca, #18 Oreca

LMP3—#33 Ligier (13th overall), #30 Ligier, #38 Ligier

GTD Pro—#3 Corvette (16th overall), #63 Lamborghini Huracan, #97 Mercedes-AMG

GTD—#47 Ferrari 488 (22nd overall), #32 Mercedes-AMG, #21 Ferrari 488

About 47 of the original 53 cars were still running when the race ended.

Nervous times—we don't want a yellow.

One hour remains:

DPi—now #02 Cadillac, #5 Cadillac, #31 Cadillac

LMP2—now #52 Oreca (6th overall), #29 Oreca, #18 Oreca

LMP3—still #33 Ligier (13th overall), #30 Ligier, #38 Ligier

GTD Pro—now #3 Corvette (16th overall), #63 Lamborghini Huracan, #14 Lexus RC F

GTD—now #47 Ferrari 488 (23rd overall), #21 Ferrari 488, #96 BMW M4

47 of the original 53 cars are still running.

Darkness has fallen, two hours remain:

DPi—now #02 Cadillac, #5 Cadillac, #60 Acura

LMP2—now #52 Oreca (6th overall), #18 Oreca, #29 Oreca

LMP3—still #33 Ligier (13th overall), #30 Ligier, #38 Ligier

GTD Pro—still #3 Corvette (16th overall), #24 BMW M4, #63 Lamborghini Huracan

GTD—now #47 Ferrari 488 (23rd overall), #28 Mercedes-AMG, #21 Ferrari 488

The #48 DPi fried their front brakes and had to replace them under green. About 49 of the original 53 cars are still running.

Three hours to go, as darkness begins to fall:

DPi—now #02 Cadillac, #48 Cadillac, #5 Cadillac

LMP2—now #52 Oreca (7th overall), #29 Oreca, #11 Oreca

LMP3—now #33 Ligier (13th overall), #30 Ligier, #38 Ligier

GTD Pro—still #3 Corvette (15th overall), #24 BMW M4, #63 Lamborghini Huracan

GTD—now #96 BMW M4 (24th overall), #28 Mercedes-AMG, #47 Ferrari 488,

About 49 of the original 53 cars are still running.

Four hours left:

DPi—now #10 Acura, #5 Cadillac, #60 Acura

LMP2—now #52 Oreca (7th overall), #11 Oreca, #18 Oreca

LMP3—now #33 Ligier (13th overall), #74 Ligier, #30 Ligier

GTD Pro—now #3 Corvette (17th overall), #24 BMW M4, #63 Lamborghini Huracan

GTD—now #27 McLaren 720S (26th overall), #21 Ferrari 488, #28 Mercedes-AMG

The Corvette looks much more racey today than it did in Daytona. About 49 of the original 53 cars are still running.

The seventh full course caution is ending now.

About four and a half hours left:

DPi—now #10 Acura, #60 Acura, #02 Cadillac

LMP2—now #52 Oreca (7th overall), #18 Oreca, #11 Oreca

LMP3—now #74 Ligier (13th overall), #33 Ligier, #30 Ligier

GTD Pro—now #9 Porsche 911 (18th overall), #3 Corvette, #24 BMW M4

GTD—now #27 McLaren 720S (27th overall), #28 Mercedes-AMG, #12 Lexus RC F

About 50 of the original 53 cars are still running.

Full course caution as the #6 LMP2 car shoves it into the wall.

6 hours 45 minutes to go.

Corvette 2nd in class (19th overall) behind the #97 Mercedes-AMG. Catsburg is now in the car.

The #5 Cadillac now leads overall.

Eight hours to go.

The Corvette is still out front in GTD Pro, with Jordan Taylor now in the car.

The #31 Cadillac is still in the overall lead.

Another full course yellow has just ended.

Just getting back to green with a little under nine hours to go.

Big crash brings out a full course yellow.

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The #4 car raced yesterday as the #64 in the WEC race at Sebring.

Two hours in, Garcia still leading in class and 20th overall. The #48 Cadillac has the overall lead.

One hour in. Garcia has used pit strategy to get the lead. #63 Lamborghini and #62 Ferrari are right behind.

#31 Cadillac is in the overall lead, with the #10 Acura second.

Only one Corvette running in this race. Garcia is running 3rd in GT3 Pro in the #3 car.

Good morning.

A generally clean start, but a few cars have mechanical issues at the very beginning of the race.

I trust nothing but a wire transfer for big-ticket items like a car.

Marcus will have to slum with us C6 owners for a little while longer …

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Those are handsome cars—I've judged a few.

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That's the (realistic) hope, with the privateer cars running in GT3 instead of GT3 Pro.

Nothing wrong with that photo, Letty!

GM is managing to build them—I saw a transporter full of them (with their distinctive white shipping covers) late last week.

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The GT3 Pro class is very competitive, and the C8.R they are currently racing is the one car that isn't like all the others—it's basically the old GTLM platform with some GT3 features. IMSA allowed Corvette Racing to continue for one more year with the first C8.R design because it is still relatively new, and building new race cars is (natch!) expensive. The completely re-worked car will come in 2023, along with (finally) the actual availability of the C8 Z06 street car that the original C8.R was supposed to match. If the Corvettes win a race or two in 2022, it will be because of racecraft and raw driving skill—not because of the car itself.

GT3 Pro is a good thing for sports car racing in general, and for the Corvettes in the medium term. It will mean that the same cars can consistently race in Europe, North America, and Asia, and will almost certainly mean that we'll see more teams racing Corvettes.

Does that all make sense?

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Methinks you are correct, Tom. We haven't gotten there yet—I think the only way the 2012 will go away is if (when) a C8 replaces it.

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Wait … what?

Good morning, all.

Cold but clear in the Philadelphia area.