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The theme of Solo Event #6 was ‘Hot’. As in hot drivers, hot tires, a hot course, and it was just plain HOT.
166 drivers (just 41 less than the National Tour) showed up for Cone-a-Thon, New England Region’s 6th point’s event of the year. They were treated to a course that would not have looked out of place at the National Tour, temps in the high 80’s that had many drivers scrambling for the watersprayers , and 5 sixty second runs that had the fast drivers at the top of second gear.
Some class championships were effectively sealed, as long as the leaders continue to show up, while others became even tighter. There was dehydration, lots of excitement at the finish, the usual battle in Pro with a season first coming about, and more.
But first- what most people don’t know is how a repeat of the Tour’s ‘speedi-dry’ shuffle was narrowly averted – twice.
I was talking to Stacey Strout behind her trailer (discussing the purchase of a freezer of all things) when Ken Hurd came to drive the Reynard Formula Ford to grid. When he left, a small puddle of coolant was left at our feet. Leaking radiators were quickly diagnosed and the decision was made to park the car. Had it run we would have been cleaning up a lot more coolant than we did oil from the same car at the tour (which ‘only’ ended up being a quart over the ½ mile or so.)
The Eckelmans offered their Formula Ford up to Josh and Ken to run in Pro. Sometime during the event a cone bent a tube coming out of the dry sump, breaking it. Luckily, it was noticed when the car was coming back into grid and the spillage was limited to grid. If it had not been noticed, again, shuffle time.
Having related that tale – here are some thoughts, news, and musings from Cone-a-Thon:
- Pro put on the usual battle, with the lead being decided on the last run. Bud Collins was sitting in first, set to be the sixth different Pro Class winner in six events when Billy Davis dropped close to nine tenths of a second to become the first repeat winner in Pro this year.
- BSP and STX have both become RX-8/BMW 3 Series battles. Both were close at the Tour and continued so at this event with Mazda bringing home the honors in both classes.
- As mentioned above, with three points events to go, the points battles (which can be seen here have either spread out or tightened up.
- Grant Reeve has been consistently at the top of the Pro class and leads the class in points. Billy Davis, on the strength of back to back wins is only 5 points behind . Nate Whipple is in third, 9 points back and Eric Chiang is only a point behind Whipple. Reeve and Davis will need to stay in the four to avoid the dreaded 1 or 2 that could allow Whipple or Chiang to over take them.
- STX belonged to David Gott at the beginning of the year, but with three wins in his last four events, Jeff Anderson is now only a point behind. With Derek Sivret seventeen points behind Anderson, this is a two horse race.
- It’s too bad that Hank Wallace didn’t get the M3 together for the first three events or BSP would be a three horse race. As it is Wallace will get the opportunity to play spoiler in the race between co-driver’s John Rappa and Marc Monnar. Monnar needs to either win out or get some help from Wallace if he is to overtake Rappa.
- Brian Kuehl took much needed points from dad Don, allowing the SSM battle to tighten up. Gus Heck only trails the elder Kuehl by two points. With two points events before Brian returns to college, he might want to think twice about letting Don adjust tire pressures.
- RTF is wide open. Michael Smith currently leads the class with 15 points (okay, technically Marshall Cone leads with 18, but I don’t see him coming up from Virginia to run more events), but needs to attend the next three events to qualify for the championship. JoJo Corrales has run consistently all year to be one point behind.
Brent DeWitt and yours truly are in third with 12 points. The class should be pretty safe from my showing up again (unless PJ Aspesi wants to buy be a set of Star Specs to get me out of HS.) but Dewitt is certainly a threat. The wild card here is Pat Huxley who won the class by 2 seconds at Cone-a-Thon. While he does not have enough events to take the championship, Huxley could take those precious nine points away at any given event.
- After watching Chang Ho Kim work on Kim Soo’s kart at almost every event, that has probably ended. Kim Soo’s kart is sporting a brand new shiny Briggs & Stratton engine. This one will have electric start as well once he gets a battery installed. The case can be made that the best way to go with a kart is to buy a roller and get a new engine for it, either that or buy a kart, sell the old engine (no matter how ‘good’ the previous owner says it is) and get a new motor.
- Ran the ‘new to me’ experienced (came off of a Club Racing Porsche 914) Hoosier R6’s at the event. While I had tried to get all the OPR (Other People’s Rubber) off prior to running, there was still a good amount. Until it was all scrubbed off I had no sensation of the front tires being connected to the car.
- The course was a blend of National Tour elements (run backwards) and new stuff that Roger Whipple cooked up. Having to bleed off speed by the tower in order to get on the taxiway was challenging as it was easy to bleed off too much speed (or not enough) before entering the decreasing slalom on the taxiway. Staying ahead in the slalom was rewarded by a good run onto the main runway and into a fast set of walloms. This was followed by some offsets, then a ‘bus stop, which, if you got WAAAYYYY over to the left, was nowhere near as tight as it walked. Doing it right gave you good speed going into the set of finish ‘six packs’. The finish was close to the top of second in the Mazda.
- Speaking of the finish – we almost lost the timing lights. While walking the course, I had predicted a few spins in the area, figuring that a higher horsepower car would get on the gas too soon and too much in the six-pack on the right hand of the runway, over-correct, then spin. Pretty much what happened in the second heat, only the driver stayed in it too long, carrying the car in to the finish lights. Luckily they continued to work.
Lesson here is that you need to back off once the car becomes uncontrollable. Trying to save a run turns very quickly into a ‘tank slapper’ which can lead to very bad things. In this case it was hitting the timing light, but it can, and has in the past, led to scratching the roof. It’s an extremely rare occurrence and we would like to keep it that way.
- Holy cow it was hot. But not just hot. The slight breeze that served to cool you down a little also wicked every bit of moisture from your body. Four 20 oz. waters, four 16 oz. Gatorades, some assorted fruits and vegetables, and I was still dehydrated by the end of the day. And one of the problems with using freezer packs versus ice is that you cannot dunk your head into a cooler full of freezer packs.
Next up is Racing Against Leukemia at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. This is a two day charity event and is also the only event where all the programs; Club Racing, Solo, Rally, and RallyCross get together. With the whole club in one place it is also the most social event of the year. So put August 4 & 5 on your calendar.
-Paul Zahornasky
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