New England Region

Saturday Social


I had just given Bob Introne the black flag, ending the Track Tours for the day. The safety truck swung by to pick me up, and after picking up fire bottles and clipboards from the other stations, dropped me off by the garage. I meet up with Chris Franson and get in the line for dinner.

The line is long; just long enough that you can finish your bottled beverage just as you get to the food, giving you a free hand. Wafting up from the pan is a strong, delightful aroma of well marinated chicken. I contemplate taking two pieces so I don’t have to wait for seconds, but decide one is good for now. Heap on some salad and take a roll and packet of salad dressing, then off to a work bench to use as a table.

My nose does not lie; the chicken is excellent, full of flavor and tender. I quickly finish the chicken, roll and salad and announce that I’m going back for seconds, only to be told that none was left. Seems the popularity of RAL weekend has continued to grow and the organizers of the meal underestimated the amount of diners. Oh well, can’t complain too much about not getting seconds at a free meal.

Someone announces that they have chips, dip and other bags of food back in Solo City and we head back. Since Wiley and I had pitched our tent, Solo City has grown to about 12 or 13 tents and a couple of vans being used for sleeping. Wisely, the karting families have chosen to keep their compound separate to reduce the exposure of young impressionable minds to the happenings in the City.

I won’t deliver a minute by minute, or even hour by hour, description, mostly because I can’t, but also to protect the innocent (and the guilty.) Suffice to say, Saturday night at RAL among the Solo crowd is an extremely social happening. Because we have to leave Devens by a certain time (and due to an inordinate amount of afternoon thunderstorms this year,) we do not get much of a chance to hang out in one big crowd after most of events. Sure, people go out to dinner after events, but anything over 10 people at a restaurant finds you sitting at different tables and getting disapproving stares from the other diners.

In years past a simple phrase or comment would carry on for years with a knowing smile from those that were there and a quizzical look by those that were not ($10 anyone?) This year was no different as the beverages were drunk and the antics became, well, funny. A certain Street Mod 240SX driver learned that pacing yourself is a good thing when the party is right outside your tent. Otherwise you get unwelcome visitors and the unofficial party photographer while you are curled up in your sleeping bag.

A former Regional Executive comes storming up to the City. Apparently someone had stolen the key to her golf cart. When one from our group travelled the infield asking around a common response was rumored to be: “No not us. But good idea!!!” That statement may or may not be related to last year’s social activities. Turns out in was a Solo on Solo crime as another person from the Solo community had his golf cart key stolen so took one from the nearest kart. At last report, everyone was getting a chuckle over it.

A certain equipment manager was seen holding onto the Rhino while on his bike. I found out the next morning they were finding out the top speed of said Rhino. Seems the Rhino does not have a speedometer but the bike did. Apparently, the bike’s tires are rated for at least 45 MPH.

Earmuffs. Nuff said. No pictures taken, no harm done. Nope, no story, you had to be there.

It is getting late and I confer with a friend. We determine that the unofficial photographer has gone to bed and it is safe to head to our respective beds. The activities are still ongoing, but experience has taught us that anymore will be too much and there’s still an autocross to be run in the morning. We have no idea of the actual time, just that it IS time.

Sunday Autocross

Sunday starts a bit later than Saturday. I wake at 6:30, feeling pretty good. Snag a ride down to the media center to shower, and then walk back. Various people are up in Solo City, some awake and chipper, others, well, not so much. I meet a few people on the way back and hear about a few things that I had missed the previous evening, one of which, apparently, I was a participant in.

The turnout for the Solo event is a bit smaller than normal, about 70 drivers. Nate Whipple switched the start and finish of the Saturday Jeff Gordon course and tweaked a few other areas for flow, leading to a course that started off slow, but ended in a ‘hang on tight’ finish. With the low turnout, 4 runs per heat are possible. The hang on finish sparks a small amount of concern due to the location of the electronic signs and trailers that the track has stored on the grass and the Op Stewards, Chris and myself decide that a slight change is necessary to minimize the risk.

We decide to make the change at the lunch break and run event as a combined time, best morning and afternoon runs. There is some debate as to whether the change made it better or worse, but the course was a bit different. Because we made the decision after the start of runs, timing cannot combine the times in the computer. We lose that 'will this be the run that the Mazdaspeed3 catches the ITR for the event' flavor, but the course was close enough time wise that you knew if you were close or not. Many thanks to Charlie Currier for manually adding the times together for the day to get final results.

With no one else showing up in HS, I make it my goal to run fast enough to win GS, something that I had not done all year long. After talking to Lou Waddell, I find I am close as we both ran similar morning and afternoon times. Dropping air pressure in the front tires makes me about .1 faster in the afternoon over the morning runs. Looking at the results, I was .17 slower than GS in the morning and .15 faster in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, my co-driver is a bit off the pace in Novice. Suffice to say she was not one of the chipper ones in Solo City in the morning and was probably still suffering ill effects. Still progress was made as she finally got a couple of good launches from the start instead of bogging the engine.

After everyone had their eight runs, it was only 3:30 and fun runs, a rare site in New England Region, were announced. Another 150 runs were taken at $2 each, raising another $300 for UMass Memorial Foundation.

Having taken eight runs, I decided I was done. Back to Solo City to change tires, pack up the car and take down the tent. With the three hour enduro running on the track, it is hard to call it quiet, but there are more tents gone and people are cleaning up. I brought 6 tires and now have ten, courtesy of the Hoosier guy giving me some discards from a road racer. Fit two (making it eight tires in the car) in and give two to a friend to take home.

Pulling out, I pause to reflect on the weekend. Okay, not true, I paused to get my Bluetooth headset which had fallen under the seat. But after retrieving it, I did reflect. What a weekend. Great friends, fun times, new things. Sure, it’s a lot of time spent for a total of just less than four minutes of seat time, but seat time is not the only reason I do this. Hanging around, sharing old stories, and creating new ones to tell next year, all while raising money for charity; that’s what make RAL weekend so special year after year.