Yes, it’s been two weeks since the June 2 & 3 event(s) at Road Atlanta, but I was in Winter Park (FL) visiting my mom for a week so I’m just now getting around to sending this out.  For those that might care, she’s doing well and is as opinionated (is that the PC term for “hard-headed”?) as ever.  And no, the apple does NOT fall far from the tree. J

Short story:  BK Racing finished first in GTA (third overall), plus we provided support for the first place GT-1 car and the second place GTA car during Saturday’s SARRC race (Bob & Zach Monette), then I crewed for T-1 winner Chris Ingle in Sunday’s National race.  And as Atlanta Region’s Competition Director, I was extremely proud of the job our workers and officials did to make a very aggressive schedule appear seamless.  We had gotten permission to run a combined SARRC/National weekend (rare for SEDIV but fairly commonplace in other parts of the country), and these folks made it happen.  Everyone worked together and the weekend went very smoothly indeed, but I can also say it’s my fervent desire (as Competition Director) that we NEVER have to execute such a schedule again!

 And now the longer story:

 It appears we have finally exorcized the demons from Cuervo’s quick-change rear end.  I only ran one hot lap during the single 20-minute qualifying session, but that 1:35.723 lap was good for first in GTA and third overall behind Wild Bill Smith’s SPO ’55 Chevy Belair (hey, it’s got the right brake light and trim decals, so it MUST be a ’55 even though he’s running an SB-2 engine!) and Tom Wilson’s BP Viper.  I got by Tom and ran second part of the race, but he reeled me back in and passed me about lap five, so we finished as we’d started.  Bill was about nine seconds ahead of Tom, then I was another two seconds behind Tom.  My fast lap in the race was a 1:35.134, but the important thing to me is that we ran pretty consistent 35’s and 36’s except for traffic, so it appears the rear end problems we’ve been suffering since last November are finally resolved.  Oh yeah, and we got that first SARRC GTA win of 2007!

 We also supported Bob & Zach Monette in the same race.  This was Bob’s first real weekend in his ex-Gigliotti GT-1 Corvette, and he did a good job to come in fourth overall (first in GT-1) with a best lap of 1:36.180.  He was disappointed that he didn’t do better, but when I reminded him he did more laps (25) in the car this weekend that he’d had in the car TOTAL since he’s owned it he started being a bit less harsh on himself.  Those cars are not easy to drive, we’ve effectively done NO development work on it, we identified some more things that need to be changed before his next outing, and we loaded a complete car on the trailer Sunday afternoon – sounds like a pretty good weekend to me!  We also assisted with Zach’s GTA car and he did a good job as well.  In only his second outing in the car he finished second in GTA (seventh overall and still on the lead lap) with a best lap of 1: 40.702.  When I asked him afterward what kind of revs he was pulling on the back straight he couldn’t tell me, which indicates he’s still very much in “learning” mode and will get better with more seat time.  And again, we loaded a complete (and running) car into his trailer.

On Sunday I called the T-1 National race for Chris Ingle.  Chris had qualified second in T-1 right next to long-time competitor Phil Croyle in a similar Z-06 Corvette, so we knew it would be (another) tough battle between them.  As they came by to complete the first lap Phil got out in the dirt exiting Turn 12, which allowed Chris to get a run on him going into Turn 1.  Unfortunately there was contact between the two and Phil slid off the track at the exit of Turn 1, which dropped him back to fourth in T-1.  Phil recovered and battled back to second in T-1 about 4 seconds behind Chris at the checkered flag, then in impound we learned the #6 car (Phil) had protested the #7 car (Chris) for the Turn 1 incident.  I couldn’t see the contact from where I was on the front straight, but the Stewards of the Meet heard reports from various parties (drivers, corner workers and witnesses), viewed the in-car video from both cars, and made the decision to leave the results as they were.  Their decision can still be appealed, but they essentially said it was a racing incident and BOTH drivers bear responsibility for avoiding contact.  That gives Chris his fourth National win of 2007 with three more SEDIV races to go.  I’ll be crewing for Chris again at the Roebling Double National June 29 – July 1, so it should be interesting indeed.

Next race for the BK Racing Monte Cuervo is July 7 & 8 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham.  I know I wrote that I’d never go back there after the 2004 race, but it’s a Double SARRC, it’s (relatively) local, and I’m guessing the straights are slightly longer in a GTA car than they were in a GT-1 Corvette! J  It’s also part of the V8StockCar series (www.V8StockCar.com) so there will be plenty of big cars to play with – there are six GTA cars signed up already and at least three more that I know are talking about going.  And Barber IS a beautiful facility (I wonder if they’ve installed automatic wipers in the rest rooms yet?), so I’m willing to give it another chance.

Next Road Atlanta event is July 21 & 22, so if we don’t see you at Barber perhaps we’ll see you at Road Atlanta instead.  Let me know if you’d like more information about either of these weekends.

See you at the track…

BK

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Last modified: February 02, 2009