The original plan was to take the best car we’d ever had to the 2002 Runoffs, but that went out the window (along with Lucifer’s RF corner) when the throttle stuck entering Mid-Ohio’s Turn 1 at 120 mph on Friday, August 23. Given the damage to both the car and my bank account we decided not to try and fix it for the Runoffs week that started Sept. 15, but I continued to waffle on whether I’d go to spectate. Ends up Mike Eakin & Joe Satterwhite were interested in a banzai trip from Tallahassee, plus we wanted to help "associate" team member Marshall Aiken with his inaugural FC Championship adventure. Once I figured out I could take broken parts to the Rocketsports Team (there to support Paul Newman) to start the repair process, the Boone’s Farm Reunion Tour I was born!

We left Woodstock around 7:00 Friday (9/20) evening, had a leisurely trip north that included dinner and beer at a Pizza Hut in Cleveland, TN, getting washed off the highway by a blinding rainstorm between there and Knoxville (I was asleep at the time) and a 45 minute breakfast at Duke's Family Resturaunt in Mt. Gilead, OH, then arrived at the track at about 6:15 AM. Napped until Registration opened at 7:00. FC and GT-1 both ran on Sunday, so we didn't figure we'd have much to do and went exploring.

We finally found Marshall's paddock area on the third trip around the area. It had been a pretty abysmal week for our hero - he was next to last in the field, had maybe 20 laps total (in four sessions) on a track he'd never seen before, the car set up kept changing on him out on the track (the spring perches were moving for some reason) and when we arrived there was no cylinder head on the engine. Marshall was NOT in the best of spirits, but we did our best to remind him that he had not forgotten how to drive while Sandy Dells and the crew from QuickSilver (finally) got around to re-installing the now repaired head. Then Marshall, Andy Brumbaugh, Mike & Joe went about putting on the set up for Sunday morning's warm-up while I went off to find fellow SEDIV Corvette driver Phil Simms and offered my services as a spotter if he wanted me (actually I again pushed for him to adopt me). The guys from Rocketsports apparently were back in Michigan since the rig and garage were closed all day. After watching John Heinricy and his T-1 Corvette put on another seminar (he lapped consistently in 1:37’s and no one else even QUALIFIED that fast), we headed out for the Mexican resturaunt, then got to bed pretty early.

Marshall's spring perches moved again during Sunday's 10-minute warmup (changing the cross weight to exactly the opposite of what they wanted), but we determined that the radios worked well and that from my "reserved" spot in the Turn Seven stands I could see the starter's stand on the back straight (to call the start) plus the exit of 1, all the way thru the Keyhole, the back straight and most of 7, 8 & 9. Since the GT-1 session was 15 minutes after FC, I swapped radios and stayed in place for Phil's warm-up as well.

By the time I got back to the Aiken Racing compound the guys had found the problem and were hard at work implementing a solution. I went down to Phil's and the changes they'd made for the morning had made the car worse, so they were going back to the set-up they used for Thursday when they qualified fourth with a 1:28.906 (Tim Cowen’s Mustang was on the pole with a 1:27.983 and the top 11 were covered by 2 seconds). Phil's plan was to try and avoid the carnage at the start, hang around the top five until lap ten when the other guys' tires started to go off (he was on Goodyear 430 radials) then make his charge to the front. I then went to visit some of the other GT-1 hot shoes. Ends up Tim was on special "experimental" (i.e. softer) BFG 300's that they (BFG) are developing for club racing for next year. My original prediction was that Tim would run his tires off during the race, but that was based on his results with Hoosiers the past two years (there's a hedge in here somewhere). Tim said they'd run 20-25 lap tests with the 300's and they dropped off maybe .2 seconds after 20 laps. Oops.

I also took our broken uprights & tie rod ends by the Rocketsports garage and talked to Quinn & AJ at length. They were running the 300 BFG's as well and very much liked the way they work. BFG is talking about $1100 per set vs. $2000 for the Goodyear radials when they release them to the general public next season. Lucifer was designed around BFG radials, so we’ll take a close look at them for 2003.

The good news about the FC race is that Marshall beat seven-time National Champion Dave Weitzenhof. The bad news is that both of them completed only four (4) laps. After the restart following the wreck that ended Dave's day, Marshall got wide on the exit of Turn One, hooked the curbing, snapped spun across the track and slammed into the tirewall on driver's left at over 100 mph. He was woozy when he got out of the car and is battered and bruised, but he appears to be okay otherwise. The worst part is that (as with our wreck in August) he never really got to show what he can do. He had moved up to 16th (from 22nd) in the one full lap before the caution, then had picked up a couple of more spots in the half lap before his wreck. Mike Eakin said the car he was behind when he went off ended up eighth, so Marshall would have been in the top ten even if he'd not passed anyone else. He's talking about going back next year, so he seems to be okay mentally even if his wallet will be hurting for a while.

In the GT-1 race I called the start for Phil (after our pal PLN prompted a wave-off the first time around by hanging back too far) and he slotted into third behind Cliff Ebben (Corvette) and Tim Cowen with 2-time National Champion Jeff Ervin (Mustang) hot on his tail. Phil had legs on everyone on the straight and hung tough with the first two while fending off Jeff. Cliff pulled about a two second lead by lap three, then Phil started fading a bit and Jeff was looking for a way by in the tight stuff. Horsepower ruled the straight, however, but Phil kept dropping back from Tim who was maintaining a five second gap behind Cliff. Ends up Phil's brakes were going away about the same time his 430's were coming in, then Ervin's (Hoosier) tires went off around lap 15 and Phil cruised to a third place finish. Up front we noticed Cliff getting a lot of rear tire spin going over the hill at Eight around lap 12 or so (he was on Hoosiers as well). That's the same time that Tim started applying some heat, set the best race lap at a 28.0 and started closing in. As they went up into the Keyhole starting lap 19 (of 20), Cliff got in too hot and slid up, so Tim motored by on the inside for his first National Championship. After two years of leading the most laps and then running out of tire before the checker, Tim reversed the roles this year. I talked to him afterward and he was VERY pleased with how things had gone. Phil was also pleased with his podium finish ("they knew we were here") and thanked me for my help with the radios. I may not say much during a race, but he didn't say a word from the time he was strapped in until the cool off lap. But then he's yet to respond to my adoption proposal as well.

Other notes from the GT-1 race:

- Tim is talking about making the Road Atlanta National next March. I hope to have the "Runoffs" version of Lucifer available by then, so it'll be good to see how we stack up.

- Based on past experience I figured Bill Gray and/or Jack Busch would take out the front half of the field at the green, but they didn't. Everyone got thru the first lap clean, then Gray lost it coming out of Eleven (Thunder Valley) and Tom Sloe drove over his hood. Gray retired while Tom rejoined and ran competitive laps but was one lap down.

- Newman was running sixth (with help from the wreck) but was holding up a train of four cars behind him. Ross Murray made a very nice outside pass going thru Seven to demote PLN to seventh, with Rob Giorgi next, then Bill Hopwood, Phil Lasco and Richard Grant. Giorgi punted Newman in Nine to get past on the last lap and the crowd booed Giorgi when he came by on the cool-off lap.

I still believe we can run with these guys. We’ve got all winter to get Lucifer back together and we’ve targeted the Feb. 23 National at Carolina Motorsports Park (Kershaw) as our next event. I’ll certainly keep you updated at things progress.