 |
See ya at the track... |
|
|
|
This
update was supposed to be coming to you from Texas World Speedway or
Homestead. Instead it's being written in Woodstock, GA.
For those of you whose short term memory
was affected by the 70's (or never read my last update because it was too
wordy), Brian Tuttle had engaged BK Racing to provide a GT-1 racecar (Lucifer)
and trackside support while he gained experience as he waited on his Daytona
Prototype to be delivered the first part of May. We were to run the
Regional/National at TWS April 2,3, the Homestead AGT race April 8-10, then
the Daytona National May 7,8. We also stopped by Little Talladega on the way
out to Texas to let Brian learn more about the car before sending him out to
play in traffic on the Texas oval.
To keep it short, Brian backed Lucifer into
the end of the pit wall at Little Talladega. Took off the right rear corner,
broke the wheel, brake rotor & caliper, snapped the hub off the end of the
axle, trashed a bunch of body panels, bent the rear end housing and axle, plus
probably did more damage to the driveshaft and maybe transmission. It missed
a direct hit on the fuel cell and the center part of the chassis seems
straight, but I was more concerned about getting it off the track than doing a
full inspection at the time.
The track was damp from a morning
thunderstorm and we were on slicks, but I had just done 6-8 laps warming it up
without any trouble - maybe I messed up by making it look too easy. Brian was
in his first session in the car and was working on getting used to the
controls, trundling around in second gear and taking it easy. He had just
radioed in the he needed more padding in the seat but wanted to make a couple
of more laps before bringing it in to change things. I was looking down to
write something on the track sheet when I heard a strange noise (even now I
can't tell you what it was - maybe the squealing of tires), looked up and saw
the back of the car sliding toward the pit wall. It hit the water barrel
protecting the end of the concrete wall and everything exploded. Red fluid
flew into the air and I thought the fuel cell had split, but apparently they
used something red (we STILL don't know what it is and I'm not sure I want to
know) in the barrels. Apparently he started getting on it a bit more coming
through the esses onto the front straight and it simply got away from him. It
happens to the best of us.
Brian was properly remorseful,
was/is pretty sick about the whole thing and is even now revising his
ambitious schedule to compete in the Paul Revere race at Daytona on June 30.
He's now thinking he MIGHT make a Grand-Am race before the end of the year,
but knows that he needs a bunch more seat time and testing before he's ready
to drive a Daytona Prototype in traffic. He had been fairly successful so
far, but now realizes just how big a step it is. He views the whole thing as
a wake-up call and a warning to slow down. One of the attractions of NASCAR
racing is that half the rednecks in the crowd (including Chris Ingle) just
KNOW they could go just as fast as Dale Jr. if given a chance. I know that's
not true and now Brian does as well. "If it were easy, everybody'd be doing
it."
I've already talked to Tim Schmidt about
taking Lucifer to Dale Phelon's shops tomorrow to do the things we can't
handle in our shop (chassis repairs, hanging body panels and such). We'll
eventually get Lucifer back together better than he was before (because of new
parts) and we'll run again before the end of the year, but only with Johnny
Miller or myself behind the wheel. My first experience renting my ride was
NOT a real positive one <g>.
To those of you who thought this was a
recipe for disaster when reading my last update, you can feel good about
telling me "I told you so" as often as you'd like. If you want to blame
people who pursue life with a passion and go after what they want, you're
welcome to do so. I've been lucky when I've spun (the start of the 2003 ARRC
being the most memorable) in that we've been able to finish the weekend even
when I messed up. In this case we were lucky it was at a private test day
rather than with a full field of cars bearing down on him. The only thing I'd
change is that I'd wait another hour for the track to dry some more before
sending Brian out on his maiden run.
See y'all at the track...
|
Send mail to
ebartel@gmail.com with questions or comments about this web site.
|
