Kate
05-18-03, 07:54 PM
I am just back from a weekend with the Speed World Challenge, of whom I aspire to become Queen, and you can read most of it at www.rfmsports.com but I bet we had a lot more fun than anybody who is, or wishes he was, at "Indy". Friday it rained pitchforks and hammer handles and only half the cars went out, and my boys at Irish Mike's Racing were delerious with joy to put their Subaru Imprezas fourth and seventh on the grid. (They are well at the back when it's dry.) Boris Said, the Hero of Corner 2, was banned from Trans-Am for calling the ownership Opprobious Epithets, but was very much in evidence driving for BMW PTG with Bill Auberlin and Hans Stuck; when he was kidded by a Corner 2 habitue who said "I'm not rich like you are," Boris said, "Oh, Gentilozzi has made me poor!" He autographed several stickers showing his phyzog with a piece of duct tape over its mouth and the words "Free Boris! Free Speech!" and suggested they be pasted on the Trans Am trailer. Later, Hans Stuck and Stu Hayner made their appearance at Corner 2 and quaffed a cold one and signed some stickers.
Mike Flynn of Irish Mike's won the Hole Shot award for making up the most positions on Lap 1, but in the process he broke some joint in the car that controls the all wheel drive and ruined his race. He was still happy. His teammate, the always adorable Steven Piantieri, said "I could have won but I would have had to push the boss off the track!" He surged to about 30th on the grid from nearly last, and was very happy. It is only their second race.
And after telling me in an interview that John Young in the Saleen was his closest competitor (which fact I relayed to Young, who is in his second year of racing and was very pleased to hear it), Young surged from 22nd and a pitlane start to miss out on beating McClure to a win by just a little bit over a second.
It was an exciting weekend. My new tent, a 3 season tent with a vestibule for keeping shoes and other grimy objects out of the main floor, was very comfy and it didn't rain all weekend and everyone behaved so well that security didn't even show up to reprimand us once.
Unlike the discontented masses at "Indy", I had a wonderful time. And so did my friends.
Now that is totally other racing.
Mike Flynn of Irish Mike's won the Hole Shot award for making up the most positions on Lap 1, but in the process he broke some joint in the car that controls the all wheel drive and ruined his race. He was still happy. His teammate, the always adorable Steven Piantieri, said "I could have won but I would have had to push the boss off the track!" He surged to about 30th on the grid from nearly last, and was very happy. It is only their second race.
And after telling me in an interview that John Young in the Saleen was his closest competitor (which fact I relayed to Young, who is in his second year of racing and was very pleased to hear it), Young surged from 22nd and a pitlane start to miss out on beating McClure to a win by just a little bit over a second.
It was an exciting weekend. My new tent, a 3 season tent with a vestibule for keeping shoes and other grimy objects out of the main floor, was very comfy and it didn't rain all weekend and everyone behaved so well that security didn't even show up to reprimand us once.
Unlike the discontented masses at "Indy", I had a wonderful time. And so did my friends.
Now that is totally other racing.