I am overjoyed to see that Mark Jaremko is first day fast qualifier in both Formula Ford and D Sports Racing in Stohr's cars. I'm looking forward to Mark and Lee's utter devastation of DSR in particular. The DSR board has hosted some "bitterness and contention" that's the equal of anything I've participated in on this board, and I'd like to see this week establish beyond any doubt who is who and what is what.

Chris Billings had 4th fastest in American Sedan - very good.

Duane Davis is fast qualifier in GT2 - no huge surprise there.

When I talked to Scott Zellner today he said they were scrambling parts for one of their customers who'd had a shunt. I notice that Kris Skavnes didn't have times so I'm afraid it might be him in his T2 S2K. Correct me if it's not.

While not a Northwesterner TC Kline notably put a BMW 330 at the front of T2's times. Everybody with an E36 M3 knows what they need to do.

I happened to be somewhere where I could watch some Speed Channel today (I dropped it a few months ago) - and that's REALLY helping with the Joneses.

Scott, who thinks he needs the ITR, a Stohr DSR, a kart, and a Ducati 748R......advice to self: pick one (that ought to be hard enough).....

 

I forgot to mention excellent qualifying performance by Scott Culbertson in GT4 - my competitor Joe 240SX is crewing for Scott.

I heard that it was Kris Skavnes and that's he's done for this year - bummer. Especially considering that half the T2 grid was disqualified for illegal camber devices (I noticed that many had no Wed qualifying times and thought it was because of the onset of rain - whoa!)

Jaremko still has DSR, but lost FF by a huge margin - gonna hafta keep an eye on that. How does an FF driver/car go more that a second faster than anybody else?

Chris Billings dropped to 8th - but that's better than pushing the crank out the bottom.

Scott, who wishes there was a real Race Car channel that devoted a few hours a nite to the runoffs including the highlights on both sides of the pit wall.....

Argh - Jaremko is now 3rd in DSR - Micheal Reupert is about 1.5 faster. That's it till the race.


[Modified by RR98ITR, 1:56 PM 9/19/2002]

 

It's not that unusual for me to go to the track without a car to drive. And if I go to see how Greg's doing at a Conference Race it's no big deal psychologically - "I'm just running SCCA this year."

Today I went to see what was going on at the last SCCA Regional of the year. It's different - it should be one of my race weekends. So as I start thru the pits saying hi to friends, I think about how "apart" I am from the event. My friends are all warm and friendly, ask why I'm not running, some say I'm smart for planning ahead for next year, and generally do nothing to make me feel strange. But I do feel strange. As I pass the pits of a Porsche driver who's an acquaintance, I'm sure he see's me and I nod, but he's in an engaged conversation and so maybe his lack of response is nothing, but I feel again that distance from the living event.

It was earily familiar and fun to get a little teasing over the PA while I was watching Ron Cramer's group qualify from the hot pits (Ron runs an ITS GSR). The announcer is a good guy and has taken some interest in my car - thinking he'd like to go H-A himself - so he said hi and asked where the car was. I could only shake my head.

The eary part is that when I was a little kid, and my Dad had just quit racing, we were at the track one day just to see what was going on, and Monte (local legend) and whoever was announcing did something similar to my Dad. While the words have long ago faded, the impressions remain.

A few laps later Ron came in to get tire temps. I started wandering down to their end of the wall, and when I got there tried to do a little peeking over Ron's friend and crew chiefs shoulder. This was immediately announced to all over the PA as "sneaky Acura racer Scott Rinde spying on his brothers". As I was discovered showing an interest I was immediately shown the data and we started talking about it (we always spend plenty of time every race weekend sharing what we know/learn). I was aware that I was "inside" the event after all. It was a good feeling.

I'm really new to this vicarious business in some measure, but I've always been able to be happy for friends successes. Mark Jaremko took the DSR Championship in Lee Stohr's car, taking the lead from 3rd, spinning, and retaking the lead from 11th. Reuperts Lola was reported to handle better, but Lee's bodywork and a hot Yamaha motor gave mucho straight line speed. I am so happy for them - and so what if the FF results were unremarkable. BTW, Mark ran DSR after FF, so there's a solid psychological recovery too in my view - Mark's a really good racer.

Duane Davis (GT-2 Celica) took his umpteenth Championship. Yawn.


Scott, who couldn't have driven this weekend if he'd planned to anyway.....

 

In "Real" racing things like this happen:

Mark gets protested for passing under double yellow.

Mark is subject to rumors that he's going to be protested for brake checking Al Beasley Jr.

Meanwhile, second place Reupert is torn down on a protest.

On their DSR board, even the congratulations are backhanded.

I've always thought that being caught out on a brake check was the penalty for not being on an alternate line - but then motocross is different and there usually are alternate lines.

Vicarious racing is a wonderful thing - and it lasts so much longer than the actual race.

Scott, whose vicarious racing life would be so much poorer without the internet....

 

 

Whoa - check this out:

http://pub6.ezboard.com/fdsrforumfrm...tart=1&stop=20

and page 2:

http://pub6.ezboard.com/fdsrforumfrm...art=21&stop=27

I've gotten to know Lee Stohr over the last year or so, but I've never been around Mark - just seen him drive and heard how good he is.

I used to think that the announcers gossiping and the press conferences were the most interesting part of most F1 races - I always said that it was my kind of soap opera.

But this is a soap opera on crack.

Scott, who says "repulsive - yet I can't take my eyes off it".....

 

Had coffee with a friend who was crewing for another in FV at the Runoffs, the other day. He ended up buying yet another FV, making it like 4-5 total!

Tupper's son is currently in 1st place in the DC region, and Bob is like 3rd or something.
Hmmm ... one of these years I'll have to spend a season crewing for them and take him up on the Comp school offer in the Veeeeee.


[Modified by Zygspeed, 7:21 PM 9/24/2002]