Keith,
A surprise to see my name on the board. Thank you for sharing with the Viper Nation! We weren't well represented there in terms of the Viper clan; just a handful of friends among the registrations of close to 300.
This was our first time to the AmRdRaceofChampions put on by the S.E. region of SCCA. Most Viper people know about the SCCA class T1 which is a national class that our street cars compete in. Earlier we learned that the ARRC represents much the same season finale for regional classes of SCCA, ITE being one of them. A Viper Days GT-1 spec race car qualifies for ITE and SPO so we have run some of these races this year.
If any of you are considering buying a used Viper Race car since there are some on the market now fully prepared, this is a great place to take one. You will think you are "the man" since the car is very competitive in this class.
We met Kenny Hawkins running in SPO this week-end with a similar Viper to ours. Wow, what a ball we had in the Saturday race, Road Atlanta is so rewarding.
We have not heard officially but we think we established the track record for the ITE class, the previous one was held by a Corvette at approx. 1 min 38 seconds. Our race laps (which is the only time it is official) should be in the 34's. Our race group consisted of about 45 starters so it was a busy grid. Many strong v8's out there. I got to watch several wave good bye to me on the straight between 7 and 10a, including a couple of well built Vettes. It takes cornering and stopping to make a full lap though. We did "not" embarrass our Viper brethren, all Corvettes were a lap down by the end of the 20 lap sprint.
Alas! The best race of the whole week-end was the one you, Keith Verges was in with his Spec-Miata. This class, yes, called Spec Miata had over 40 entries. The start saw the pole sitter Daniels get pushed off the track in turn one, while all eyes were watching his awkward but brilliant recovery the entire back half of the field got tangled up and it looked like cattle being chased around in a dirt corral for about a minute while each of these little cars tried to find their way out of the tangle. Amazingly all but 4 or so were able to continue and at this point I had no idea where you were at Keith. Next I noticed you were lapping consistently and smoothly at about mid-pack, your Blue with White stripes (yes viper style)swapping positions with your Texas friend that had the White with Blue stripe. I think you were in front at the end.
God Bless
Bob Woodhouse
