 |
See ya at the track... |
|
|
|
BK Racing 2003 Wrap-UpIn an effort to summarize our 2003 season, I’d certainly have to say it was a “rebuilding” year. Not only did we have to put Lucifer back together after throttle stuck at Mid-Ohio in August of 2002, it was necessary to rebuild my bank account at the same time. As a result, we didn’t get to race much all year, but we DID get to spend a lot of time at the track. Back in 1992 Tony Dudek and I had campaigned a Spec Racer to the SEDIV National title and finished sixth at the Runoffs (Tony drove while I was crew chief, gopher, parts washer and team shrink at various times). It was working with Tony that I really learned the meaning of the word “synergy” – we shared an intensity for racing, fed off each other and were faster working together than either of us would have been working separately. At the end of 2002 I struck up a conversation with T-1 Corvette driver Chris Ingle – he was a one man effort that had done well at the 2001 Runoffs (right up until the point he drove it off the track in the rain) – and offered him a similar deal. I’d help him with his car in exchange for travel, room and board at the racetracks we visited. Only problem was he had been deployed to Kuwait in September (thus missing the 2002 Runoffs) and wouldn’t get back until May. Ends up Chris and I made a good team. We share a similar intensity for racing (much as Tony and I did), he drives the wheels off anything he gets in and my organizational skills helped make him faster. Even though half the SEDIV National season was over by the time we got started, Chris reeled off five straight National wins to take the SEDIV title, qualified seventh in T-1 at the Runoffs and finished sixth after getting knocked off the track in the first corner. It was a very neat deal and suggested maybe I really DO know something about this “racin’ thang”. During the year I also crewed for Mike Eakin’s effort as he contended for the SARRC CFC title. Although I didn’t really speak “Reynard” (or even “Open Wheel”) that much, we did well and ultimately qualified under the CFC track record at the SARRC Invitational Challenge in October. Mike cruised to the class win after his main competition fell out during the SIC, and the 2003 CFC SARRC Championship went back to the swamps of Crawfordville, FL. Demonstrating yet again that racing is racing whether you can see your tires or not. And of course we continued to slowly rebuild Lucifer as the year went on, too. We acquired parts the first part of the season, then Quinn Conda and Johnny Miller came to town and spend four intense days putting him back together in June. I got back into the cockpit for the first time in over a year at a track test day at Kershaw in October (where we found a number of things that still needed to be done), then followed that up with our “Spin & Win” at the American Road Race of Champions at Road Atlanta in November. It seemed like it was a long time coming, but that race was one of the best I’ve ever been involved in. 2002 showed me that while we had a car that could contend with anyone in GT-1, we didn’t have the budget to do so. 2003 was spent slowly putting the car back together, so in 2004 we were going to go for the SARRC GT-1 title. See ya… |
|
Send mail to
ebartel@gmail.com with questions or comments about this web site.
|
