Jay Herbert
Enthusiast
SWC GT Round 4 and 5, As seen through Woodhouse\'s windshield
Speed World Challenge GT Round four Infineon Raceway in Sonoma Valley CA. As seen through the Woodhouse windshield. 7-18-04
Accept my apology for a lack of the usual report last week on the Infineon Race. If you were following the event you would understand. Dale Earnhardt Jr. deserves the front page news on his crash in practice, mine, a day earlier seemed more dramatic to me of course; but I skipped the barbecue part.
Yeah really; its Thursday afternoon in the third practice session here at Sears Point, (now called Infineon); I am enjoying the lapping and approaching corner #10 at about 120 mph. (Corner 10 has a bit of infamy for making race cars into scrap). In retrospect a bit more speed than I or the car were capable of when the rear end steps out a bit. Yes a catchable mistake, but one that causes corner exit to be wide, hey still not a problem, I’ve got this thing under control, or so I thought. I needed just 6 more feet of run-off……..dang!! That tire wall put its ********* hand out and swatted me like an irritating fly on the back of your neck. It was an immediate stop; two rows of tires bursting out in every direction, car parts departing in the same fashion. I equate it to a dandelion seed pod when a gust of wind hits it.
What a fantastic emergency and rescue crew. About 10 uniformed professionals swarmed in, with one keeping an eye on me the rest went scurrying in all directions picking up these huge pieces of shrapnel and piling them gently in the back of one of a pickup while the balance of them swiftly pulled the biggest chunk, the chassis onto the rollback and out of there we got.
Surveying the carnage later revealed that the impact was absorbed by the wheels on the driver side keeping frame damage minimal. But oh my, we have a few parts to round up. The passenger door will go again, that is about it.
Now it is Thursday night and I can’t sleep, what a mess I created. Friends, competitors, and crew people are all concerned and supportive but I have to make a quick decision on what to do with the rest of the season: 1)Quit altogether, as I am doubting my ability to even be behind a steering wheel at this point, 2)pull off the west coast, go home and fix the car, or 3)purchase another car and finish the season as planned. Friday morning at 7:30 AM, after soul searching conversations with my wife Louise and partner Lance, we go ahead and make a deal with Rich Marziale who is there with his blue comp coupe, now our blue comp coupe. Crew chief, Rick Maxwell immediately goes to work fixing blown fuses and cracked mufflers and working with the alignment to give us a reasonable race end result. We qualified 14th and finished 11th. Acceptable I suppose but you know, nothing in racing is ever quite good enough.
Round Five PIR at Portland Or. 7-25-04
With two races on back to back week-ends we quickly pack up and head for Portland International Raceway. The couple days in between are used to do some upgrades and modifications to the car. Portland, from a racers point of view is in the corner of the US. But from a Viper enthusiasts point of view, it is the center of where you want to be. The Viper folks made this event an incredible time. Thanks Jon B. Don and Darla Roberts and Doris Rose, Or. Chapter Pres. You guys made us feel like we were home but with better food. Perhaps that was a small part of the inspiration given to Tommy Archer. He was so dialed in at this track he was untouchable. Tommy put his car on the pole and wrestled Randy Pobst through three re-starts to give the Viper Competition Coupe its first win of the year and the 2nd WC win ever. Lots of people will give the Viper credit for being able to dominate. Being around these professional drivers including Tommy, there is your reason for the win as much as anything. He has numerous championships here at PIR going all the way back to 1981. But none of these pros were slow here last week-end. Tommy, his team, his car all deserve a hats off salute for such impeccable performance. The Bob Raub 3R team, and drivers all did a fantastic job, with two podiums and a top 10.
The race for the Woodhouse team was no where near the same result but we gave it good effort: A few race start issues caused us to be off our game, for some reason the radio refuses to work for the whole race, and the staging for the start got rushed. None the less, at the start I am so pumped; when the red light went out the cars around me had no chance, I had the strategy all worked out on how to move up before the first turn. Just one thing foiled the plan; I pulled a “Stan Wilson at Mid Ohio” and killed the beast! Yup, nice move Bob you idiot. I fumble for the start button and watch the entire field scream off into the distance. All is not lost however as you race drivers know, first lap red mist has the field scrapping hard with each other so I catch up within the same lap and begin what seems to me, a slow process of moving past several cars. No longer dead last, and managing to move up every now and then we are in 13th position on the 9th lap when I get a significant love tap from the “notorious” Lou Gigliotti #28 Corvette as I am negotiating around the Veditto Corvette in front of me as he went wide in festival corner. A love tap is nothing unusual in this series, heavens, I received four of them at Sear Point. But this one sent us to the sand trap on the left side of corner one. So now I am dug in on what appears to be a long stay. I am thinking this is where I get to watch the balance of the race from, when along comes the tow truck, hustles me out of there and says. “Get going!” No need to ask twice. I am outta there leaving a wheel barrow worth of sand but doing the best I can to keep it off the race line. I put the spurs to the coupe and catch the field just as the green comes out. Being a lap down left me with little opportunity to resurrect a good finish but 17 beats DNF in any card game. Watching the #28 Corvette that initiated the sand trap event now in front of me and slowing was a hard opportunity to resist but I was a good boy. What one gives is eventually returned and I don’t need to rush that process. The McCanns got thumped and bumped but did fine along with good finishes from Tim Wiens and Jerry Bockman driving Don Roberts car. You can see this race on television August 1st at 1:00 eastern, but check. Both west coast races had high body contact so look for some exciting entertainment. Tell your friends too, this series is becoming the hottest thing to watch in road racing, the ALMS folks are glad to have us as their race week-end companions I feel sure. Mosport next.
Speed World Challenge GT Round four Infineon Raceway in Sonoma Valley CA. As seen through the Woodhouse windshield. 7-18-04
Accept my apology for a lack of the usual report last week on the Infineon Race. If you were following the event you would understand. Dale Earnhardt Jr. deserves the front page news on his crash in practice, mine, a day earlier seemed more dramatic to me of course; but I skipped the barbecue part.
Yeah really; its Thursday afternoon in the third practice session here at Sears Point, (now called Infineon); I am enjoying the lapping and approaching corner #10 at about 120 mph. (Corner 10 has a bit of infamy for making race cars into scrap). In retrospect a bit more speed than I or the car were capable of when the rear end steps out a bit. Yes a catchable mistake, but one that causes corner exit to be wide, hey still not a problem, I’ve got this thing under control, or so I thought. I needed just 6 more feet of run-off……..dang!! That tire wall put its ********* hand out and swatted me like an irritating fly on the back of your neck. It was an immediate stop; two rows of tires bursting out in every direction, car parts departing in the same fashion. I equate it to a dandelion seed pod when a gust of wind hits it.
What a fantastic emergency and rescue crew. About 10 uniformed professionals swarmed in, with one keeping an eye on me the rest went scurrying in all directions picking up these huge pieces of shrapnel and piling them gently in the back of one of a pickup while the balance of them swiftly pulled the biggest chunk, the chassis onto the rollback and out of there we got.
Surveying the carnage later revealed that the impact was absorbed by the wheels on the driver side keeping frame damage minimal. But oh my, we have a few parts to round up. The passenger door will go again, that is about it.
Now it is Thursday night and I can’t sleep, what a mess I created. Friends, competitors, and crew people are all concerned and supportive but I have to make a quick decision on what to do with the rest of the season: 1)Quit altogether, as I am doubting my ability to even be behind a steering wheel at this point, 2)pull off the west coast, go home and fix the car, or 3)purchase another car and finish the season as planned. Friday morning at 7:30 AM, after soul searching conversations with my wife Louise and partner Lance, we go ahead and make a deal with Rich Marziale who is there with his blue comp coupe, now our blue comp coupe. Crew chief, Rick Maxwell immediately goes to work fixing blown fuses and cracked mufflers and working with the alignment to give us a reasonable race end result. We qualified 14th and finished 11th. Acceptable I suppose but you know, nothing in racing is ever quite good enough.
Round Five PIR at Portland Or. 7-25-04
With two races on back to back week-ends we quickly pack up and head for Portland International Raceway. The couple days in between are used to do some upgrades and modifications to the car. Portland, from a racers point of view is in the corner of the US. But from a Viper enthusiasts point of view, it is the center of where you want to be. The Viper folks made this event an incredible time. Thanks Jon B. Don and Darla Roberts and Doris Rose, Or. Chapter Pres. You guys made us feel like we were home but with better food. Perhaps that was a small part of the inspiration given to Tommy Archer. He was so dialed in at this track he was untouchable. Tommy put his car on the pole and wrestled Randy Pobst through three re-starts to give the Viper Competition Coupe its first win of the year and the 2nd WC win ever. Lots of people will give the Viper credit for being able to dominate. Being around these professional drivers including Tommy, there is your reason for the win as much as anything. He has numerous championships here at PIR going all the way back to 1981. But none of these pros were slow here last week-end. Tommy, his team, his car all deserve a hats off salute for such impeccable performance. The Bob Raub 3R team, and drivers all did a fantastic job, with two podiums and a top 10.
The race for the Woodhouse team was no where near the same result but we gave it good effort: A few race start issues caused us to be off our game, for some reason the radio refuses to work for the whole race, and the staging for the start got rushed. None the less, at the start I am so pumped; when the red light went out the cars around me had no chance, I had the strategy all worked out on how to move up before the first turn. Just one thing foiled the plan; I pulled a “Stan Wilson at Mid Ohio” and killed the beast! Yup, nice move Bob you idiot. I fumble for the start button and watch the entire field scream off into the distance. All is not lost however as you race drivers know, first lap red mist has the field scrapping hard with each other so I catch up within the same lap and begin what seems to me, a slow process of moving past several cars. No longer dead last, and managing to move up every now and then we are in 13th position on the 9th lap when I get a significant love tap from the “notorious” Lou Gigliotti #28 Corvette as I am negotiating around the Veditto Corvette in front of me as he went wide in festival corner. A love tap is nothing unusual in this series, heavens, I received four of them at Sear Point. But this one sent us to the sand trap on the left side of corner one. So now I am dug in on what appears to be a long stay. I am thinking this is where I get to watch the balance of the race from, when along comes the tow truck, hustles me out of there and says. “Get going!” No need to ask twice. I am outta there leaving a wheel barrow worth of sand but doing the best I can to keep it off the race line. I put the spurs to the coupe and catch the field just as the green comes out. Being a lap down left me with little opportunity to resurrect a good finish but 17 beats DNF in any card game. Watching the #28 Corvette that initiated the sand trap event now in front of me and slowing was a hard opportunity to resist but I was a good boy. What one gives is eventually returned and I don’t need to rush that process. The McCanns got thumped and bumped but did fine along with good finishes from Tim Wiens and Jerry Bockman driving Don Roberts car. You can see this race on television August 1st at 1:00 eastern, but check. Both west coast races had high body contact so look for some exciting entertainment. Tell your friends too, this series is becoming the hottest thing to watch in road racing, the ALMS folks are glad to have us as their race week-end companions I feel sure. Mosport next.
