VSCDA Spring Brake - Gingerman Raceway, May 3-4

The final leg of the Silverberg spring race trilogy occurred the first weekend in May. This is typically the first race of the season for me - but not for 2008. The car had gone through a thorough review after the first two races. Gingerman is one of my best tracks so I was looking forward to the trip. Of course after the first two races of the year I was looking forward to any track within 200 miles.

Friday was school for new drivers. We had an excellent turn out of new and potential Formula Vee drivers all of which did very well. The VSCDA Vintage Formula Vee series continues to grow - even in a down economy - and we hope to exceed 30 cars at one of our events this year.

Saturday I qualified 7th out of 22. There was a light rain for the Saturday sprint races and I managed to improve my position to 6th and the end with the 4th fastest lap time which would grid me in the second row for the Sunday feature race. The sprint race I enjoyed a spirited battle with Eric Coppock with Eric prevailing by half a second at the end. At the front Ricky delRosario beat Garret VanCamp by 0.007 seconds. The closest finish in series history.

After the race Eric enjoyed looking at his reflection in my helmet visor. I enjoyed teasing him in my best Darth Vader voice saying "Eric, I am your father!"

Sunday weather was much more pleasant. The race started with a bang, literally with two cars coming together to my left in the first corner in what I will describe as "unfortunate circumstances". While this left me in third place it also brought out the safety car which I definitely did not want to see as I had a substantial lead on the forth place car. I apologized later to the start/finish flagger for not acknowledging the full course yellow. She stated that it was pretty obvious from my theatrics of pounding on the steering wheel that I had seen it!

The restart went well but on lap 6 I made a mistake which allowed Jeff Janus to get by for third place. I chased him relentlessly for the rest of the race but once again late traffic played a part and he was ahead by about 2 seconds at the end. 4th place was once again a very good result

Next Race - Autobahn Country Club, Joliet IL, July 26 and 27

VDCA Wild Hare Run Virginia International Raceway, April 18-20

After two weeks back in Michigan it was time to hit the road again for phase II of the spring tour. After a frantic morning of trying to get work done I bolted for the Airport. Upon breezing through security and sitting down at the gate I realized 1) I had forgotten to change clothes before leaving for the airport and was still wearing my dress shoes instead of my sneakers and 2) I had left my main set of keys for the trailer on my desk at home. Fortunately I had left a spare set of trailer keys in the truck at the Raleigh airport and I would be in the car most of the day on Friday so I could get by with just driving shoes. Fortunately I did remember my helmet.



For those of you who may not know VIRginia International Raceway is a wonderful track located just south of Danville. It was built in 1957 and closed in 1974. It sat dormant for many years and was re-opened in 2000. It is being redeveloped into a major motorsports facility.



The flight was uneventful and I actually flew over the track on the way into Raleigh. I got to the track in mid afternoon to find that many entrants were already there. This was a major weekend with BMW club and the modern FF2000 series sharing track time with the vintage race groups. Fortunately not all in the same session.



Friday was a busy day with lots of practice and a gimmick race - aka the Wild Hare Run. I am not exactly sure how it worked but we were lined up are released based on practice times earlier that day. There is some sort of handicap system based on lap times, the phase of the moon and VDCA race director Mike Jackson's discretion. All I know is I passed quite a few cars, a few passed me and I didn't run into any body. A pretty good afternoon.



Ellen and Eric arrived shortly after the race was done and we had diner on site at the Oak Tree Tavern which is in the restored plantation house (the track is on the site of a former plantation). Eric seemed quite taken with the Lions guarding the door. We were graced at dinner with the company of John Gaither, fellow Vintage Formula Vee racer and teller of many great stories - most of which appear to be true!




After dinner we retired to the Lodge which sits outside turn 4 on the track. Ellen resisted the urge to mumble her usual "how do I get to the track" when I was departing Saturday morning.


Both Saturday and Sunday were highlighted with some spectacular FV racing. On Saturday John Gaither ran away and hid from the rest of us to the tune of about 9 seconds. Paul Buttrose and I caught the second place car, Paul Meis, on the last lap and came across start / finish as a group with Paul Buttrose ahead by 0.14 seconds.

On Sunday John had other obligations. The racing was even more exciting with five cars running together for the entire seven laps. I found myself in the very unusual position of leading! There were four official lead changes and at least 4-5 other changes at some point during the race. The top five cars were separated by 2.7 seconds at the end with the top three within 0.7 sec. Late race traffic did not go my way and I ended up third which was a very good result for never having been to the track before.



The drive home was long but largely uneventful. I then had to get ready for my third race in four weeks at the beginning of May.

Formula Vee Birthday Party - Roebling Road Raceway, April 5-6, 2008

Well I suppose I should come kicking and screaming into the new milenium and create a Blog for the race reports.


The race season started very early this year with the Formula Vee 45th Birthday Party at Roebling Road Raceway in Savannah, GA. Fortunately the weather held for the monumental 950 mile tow from Detroit. It is probably not something I would do every year but the Birthday Party is a once every five year event. Having missed the 2003 event by one week because of car damage (an understatement) I was determined to make this event. I had been to Roebling Road as a spectator but never as a driver. It is a pretty fast track for Formula Vee's with average speeds over 80 mph (faster than Road America). The track is one of those places which is pretty easy to go moderately fast - but obviously has some subtle tricks to it. But as I said to fellow racer Garrett VanCamp "It goes both left and right - what else do you need to know?"


There were nearly 130 Formula Vees for the event which was a great turnout. Of those nearly 40 were Vintage cars from 1969 or earlier - probably the biggest field of vintage cars any place to date.


Friday was a test day with a late start as we were fogged in - not a typical Midwest track delay. I did manage three sessions as I recall with about 1.5 hours track time total. Everything seemed to be coming together nicely and the fresh rebuild by Shings Racing was producing satisfying horsepower.

Saturday practice started well. With ever darkening skies I got to grid early for clear running. This was good strategy as I ended up 5th fastest in the session with some early quick laps before conditions got worse.


Unfortunately qualifying worked exactly the opposite way. Extremely wet conditions at the start with drying throughout. To make matters worse I picked up a horrible vibration in the front of the car in the 80+ mph right hand corner coming onto the front straight. Consequently I found myself at the other end of the grid in 32nd. Hero to zero in a few short hours.


After kicking a few things and being disgusted about my situation I went over to talk to Charlie Wilson who always manages to have a good time at the races no matter what. When told about my predicament Charlie said "Just pretend you are Pac Man and gobble them up one at a time".


Race day was back to good weather. The warm up showed that the vibration had departed and I was ready to go. I lined up on the grid in 32nd. Do you have any idea how far back 32nd is - I could not even see the front of the field. I was still in the last turn when the green flag came out.


Fortunately being farsighted has its advantages as I was able to get going and picked up 6 positions before the start/finish stripe and another 3 in the first lap. After that came 13 more laps of traditional close and hard Formula Vee Racing

At the end of 14 laps I had worked up to 14th position and was within striking distance of the 13th and 12th place cars.
While I would prefer not starting 32nd ever a gain I can tell you that getting by 18 cars in 14 laps is quite a work out!

After giving myself a brief pat on the back I got the car loaded for the trip to Virginia to drop the car and trailer for the next race in two weeks.