Jay Herbert
Enthusiast
Speed World Challenge GT race Round 8 at Road America as seen through
the Woodhouse Windshield. 8/21/2004
My crew lady Nancy Shanno placed us in a "put up or shut up" position at
Mosport last Aug. 8th . She told Tom Hnatiw, the announcer that she
would have our original Viper Competition Coupe back at Road America.
He did what any good announcer would do and gleefully rubbed her nose in
it over the p.a. whilst she was standing on the grid with the 24 other
flag bearers at race start. In the 8 day work window between the two
races she proved that she could make good on a promise. (You remember
from earlier windshield reports that this car hit the turn 10 wall at
Infineon.) We were all pretty grouchy with no sleep but the car was
there gleaming in the morning sun at Road America Thursday morning
before practice. Was it done? Not quite; 10 tick list items left,
including stabilizer bars but we could run practice without them!
(Amazing what a car can do with no bars). Jump to Sunday morning, The
first chance to tell Nancy and Rick how proud I was of them came on
Sunday morning as I watched the tears roll down her cheeks.
We qualified the car twelfth Saturday morning with a time under the pole
sitting time for this race in 2003. That dramatizes the competitiveness
this series has seen in one year.
Derek Bell with the Volvo team showed up for this race. We have
expected them since January. As results show, it will be a daunting
task to get competitive. Even with the air restrictions and weight
added to the rest of the field.
Audi made everybody scratch their heads when their qualifying times came
in at a ballistic 4 seconds below last year. No I ain't speculating so
don't ask.
Our Corvette friends had some engine difficulty this week end so it was
an honor to be asked if we wanted to help out by loaning the blue and
silver Viper Comp Coupe to get Leighton Reese a seat in the race. I
can't say we converted him but he was pleased with the mid-range torque!
Given about one lap to familiarize he finished an admirable 15th.
With a "race start vs engine kill" ratio higher than anybody in the GT
series I was pleased to see the curse leave me. Unfortunately the curse
infected Tony Gaples Corvette and while he was in re-crank mode several
competitors attempted to occupy the same space as he and Adam Malmquist
were evaluating their getaway plans. Adam got the worst of it in his
blue #9 Corvette making his total race about 29 feet from start to
finish. He told me he thinks he got hit three separate times.
I managed to arrive at turn one ahead of Ron Fellows in the
Cadillac leaving me feeling excited about being in the herd with the big
dogs. After circulating a half dozen laps with a confidence that I was
not holding him up, it was time to keep my wits in my helmet as the
brake zones were picking up a sort of snake wiggle at the ends of the
long straights. It was time to be courteous and drop a half second a
lap and make things work to the end. Ron made a clean pass at Canada
Corner with my blessings. Meanwhile the Audi's, the McClure Vette, the
Cad's, Tommy Archer and Mike McCann were all looking like a conga line
out front. How Tommy even kept that lead sled (250#s in rewards weight)
moving was amazing. He had the largest cornering arches in the history
of Road America, starting the corners near the dirt and exiting them the
same way trying to keep from dropping corner speed.
The white flag just flew and I am picking up a red spot in
my rear view mirror, fondly known as Stan Wilson the #92 Viper CC, one
of two of the most talented young drivers in this series (the other
would be Chip Herr). Stan is doing a fabulous job of closing on me. By
turn 5 at the end of the second long straight he is on my rear bumper.
Ya know if the man and the car are that dominant I should breath it and
let him go, so corner six I go wide and drop off a bit, hmm, no pass,
corner seven, OK he takes the pass, I fall in behind and go back to
business. As we leave the carousel and pucker up for the kink I can
tell I have a decent run going and approaching Canada corner I am
closing quickly with an inside pass on my radar. . Stan is as
competitive as any and he places his car in front of my intended inside
pass. No problem I think as I squeeze in a small amount of brake so as
not to lose the passing momentum that may still be useable as I switch
to the outside of the corner. What surprised me was the early brake
check from Stan's car. What takes place next felt like something out of
a Star Wars movie. Full brake pedal could not prevent the nose to tail
contact. EEE-GAD! I watched Stan's car do a tank slapper. I can't be
sure what made the car react so violently, perhaps some wheels were in
the dirt. It was like the car was shot out of a cannon. Stan spins
around backwards and tails it into Canada corner butt first ignoring the
sand trap altogether and stopping via the use of the tire wall on the
far side. I was just sick. I finished the lap, took the checker and
waited as a tow truck brought Stan and his car in. It looked like a
dirty piece of red christmas wrap after a Rottweiller tore the package
open. Oh did I mention I felt pretty awful? I hope I am speaking for
Stan, but neither one of us felt very proud of this.
I spoke with Stan today and he is hell bent to get the car
re-incarnated by VOI8 where we are both looking to be part of the races
on Sat and Sun noon. But without this much drama of course!
Thank you all for enduring my antics and for the support you
give the Vipers and this Woodhouse Auto Family. Next WC race is Road
Atlanta. Bob Woodhouse
Corner 5 at Rd Am Aug 20 2004, Stan Wilson in Red #92
the Woodhouse Windshield. 8/21/2004
My crew lady Nancy Shanno placed us in a "put up or shut up" position at
Mosport last Aug. 8th . She told Tom Hnatiw, the announcer that she
would have our original Viper Competition Coupe back at Road America.
He did what any good announcer would do and gleefully rubbed her nose in
it over the p.a. whilst she was standing on the grid with the 24 other
flag bearers at race start. In the 8 day work window between the two
races she proved that she could make good on a promise. (You remember
from earlier windshield reports that this car hit the turn 10 wall at
Infineon.) We were all pretty grouchy with no sleep but the car was
there gleaming in the morning sun at Road America Thursday morning
before practice. Was it done? Not quite; 10 tick list items left,
including stabilizer bars but we could run practice without them!
(Amazing what a car can do with no bars). Jump to Sunday morning, The
first chance to tell Nancy and Rick how proud I was of them came on
Sunday morning as I watched the tears roll down her cheeks.
We qualified the car twelfth Saturday morning with a time under the pole
sitting time for this race in 2003. That dramatizes the competitiveness
this series has seen in one year.
Derek Bell with the Volvo team showed up for this race. We have
expected them since January. As results show, it will be a daunting
task to get competitive. Even with the air restrictions and weight
added to the rest of the field.
Audi made everybody scratch their heads when their qualifying times came
in at a ballistic 4 seconds below last year. No I ain't speculating so
don't ask.
Our Corvette friends had some engine difficulty this week end so it was
an honor to be asked if we wanted to help out by loaning the blue and
silver Viper Comp Coupe to get Leighton Reese a seat in the race. I
can't say we converted him but he was pleased with the mid-range torque!
Given about one lap to familiarize he finished an admirable 15th.
With a "race start vs engine kill" ratio higher than anybody in the GT
series I was pleased to see the curse leave me. Unfortunately the curse
infected Tony Gaples Corvette and while he was in re-crank mode several
competitors attempted to occupy the same space as he and Adam Malmquist
were evaluating their getaway plans. Adam got the worst of it in his
blue #9 Corvette making his total race about 29 feet from start to
finish. He told me he thinks he got hit three separate times.
I managed to arrive at turn one ahead of Ron Fellows in the
Cadillac leaving me feeling excited about being in the herd with the big
dogs. After circulating a half dozen laps with a confidence that I was
not holding him up, it was time to keep my wits in my helmet as the
brake zones were picking up a sort of snake wiggle at the ends of the
long straights. It was time to be courteous and drop a half second a
lap and make things work to the end. Ron made a clean pass at Canada
Corner with my blessings. Meanwhile the Audi's, the McClure Vette, the
Cad's, Tommy Archer and Mike McCann were all looking like a conga line
out front. How Tommy even kept that lead sled (250#s in rewards weight)
moving was amazing. He had the largest cornering arches in the history
of Road America, starting the corners near the dirt and exiting them the
same way trying to keep from dropping corner speed.
The white flag just flew and I am picking up a red spot in
my rear view mirror, fondly known as Stan Wilson the #92 Viper CC, one
of two of the most talented young drivers in this series (the other
would be Chip Herr). Stan is doing a fabulous job of closing on me. By
turn 5 at the end of the second long straight he is on my rear bumper.
Ya know if the man and the car are that dominant I should breath it and
let him go, so corner six I go wide and drop off a bit, hmm, no pass,
corner seven, OK he takes the pass, I fall in behind and go back to
business. As we leave the carousel and pucker up for the kink I can
tell I have a decent run going and approaching Canada corner I am
closing quickly with an inside pass on my radar. . Stan is as
competitive as any and he places his car in front of my intended inside
pass. No problem I think as I squeeze in a small amount of brake so as
not to lose the passing momentum that may still be useable as I switch
to the outside of the corner. What surprised me was the early brake
check from Stan's car. What takes place next felt like something out of
a Star Wars movie. Full brake pedal could not prevent the nose to tail
contact. EEE-GAD! I watched Stan's car do a tank slapper. I can't be
sure what made the car react so violently, perhaps some wheels were in
the dirt. It was like the car was shot out of a cannon. Stan spins
around backwards and tails it into Canada corner butt first ignoring the
sand trap altogether and stopping via the use of the tire wall on the
far side. I was just sick. I finished the lap, took the checker and
waited as a tow truck brought Stan and his car in. It looked like a
dirty piece of red christmas wrap after a Rottweiller tore the package
open. Oh did I mention I felt pretty awful? I hope I am speaking for
Stan, but neither one of us felt very proud of this.
I spoke with Stan today and he is hell bent to get the car
re-incarnated by VOI8 where we are both looking to be part of the races
on Sat and Sun noon. But without this much drama of course!
Thank you all for enduring my antics and for the support you
give the Vipers and this Woodhouse Auto Family. Next WC race is Road
Atlanta. Bob Woodhouse
Corner 5 at Rd Am Aug 20 2004, Stan Wilson in Red #92
