Back in February I posted a story about AJ Doing his first SCCA driving School at Roebling Road... So its time for an update.
Since then, AJ has been to SCCA regionals In a T-1 Z06 Corvette at VIR, Summit Point and VIR for a double regional in May... Today he Competed in his First SCCA National Race at Nelsons Ledges in Ohio..
At the VIR regional in March, he had his first taste of wheel to wheel competion at a tough track and won the race and set a new lap record for T-1, at 2:08.1....
In April, we went to a MARRS race at Summit Point and he won the class and came within 2/10ths of the lap record...
Not Bad...
In May, we went to the Mothers day Double regional at VIR and he continued his education... After a significant off course event in the esses, the car suffered a broken Right rear knuckle along with some major body work damage... But he still made the race since i loaned him my car...
In the first race on Saturday he won the T-1 class and had a fun race with some TCC Corvettes... In the second race on Sunday, he started dead last, worked his way through traffic, got off a couple of times and finished second in class...
Not Bad... 4 regional races, four finishes, Three wins and a second place, and some valuable seat time. Plus he was now eligble for a SCCA National License...
Soooooo, we trecked out to Nelsons Ledges this weekend and here is the story...
From the Phila suburbs it is a 7 hour trip, so we pulled into the Holiday in In Newton Falls Ohio at about 2 am Saturday Morning... Mom had stipulated that we could not leave unless a full day of school was done, and car prep fell behind, so it was a very long, late night ride...
We were all up at 6am after four hours of sleep and were greated by heavy rain...
Nelsons ledges is out in Farm Country, and after a 10 mile ride, we found the track, hustled through regestration, tech and pre race get ready and made it to the grid with rain tires on and 5 minutes to spare... I sat out the first session since my rain tires were still being mounted...
AJ actually found the track entrance and tiptoed around a flooded wet track with the other T-1, T-2 and A sedan cars... Not much was learned except that in pouring rain the track was very slippery... And that this is one of the roughest tracks anywhere!!!
The paddock meanwhile, turned into a quagmire, with mud everywhere and dropping temperatures... not a nice day.
The afternoon qualifying session started with a wet track and drying out conditions, but most everyone went out in rain tires...
Qualifying was uneventfull, but by the end of the session a dry line was visible and I managed a low 1:20 time and was fairly confident that it was good for the top three... Aj was out mucking around in the 1:22 range and on the last lap decided to try one more fast lap... well, he managed a 1:20.1, and knocked me out of third... Sure surprised me.
Not Bad...
We all had a good laugh about dad getting set staright...
Freddy Baker and the Porsche is first. A sedan are 2nd and third, Dave Pintarric is 4th in a Corvette, another a sedan is fifth, Aj is sixth and I am seventh... Several more A Sdans follow and Bob Kahn, Jason Berkeley and Judi Warren complete the T-1 Field.
Hmmmmm. Thought I.. This may not be as easy as it looks...The A sedan Cars include a couple of National Champs and Near National Champs... These guys are all pretty fast...
Come race day, and it is 55 degrees, cloudy, but dry.
The first start is waved off.. So on the second start the green flag waves we all get off and Aj slips in in front of me as we had discussed and we set off in pursuit of the A sedan cars.. and Freddy in the Porsche.
And AJ promptly runs off and hides, leaving poor old dad to wonder where he went...
Yep, he chases down the A sedan cars. Gets by David when david Gets off track and gets about 20 seconds ahead of me. He doesn't catch the Porsche, but he does finsh second in his first national race, ahead of all of the A sedan cars and all of the other corvettes... (Bob Kahn, Myself, Jason Berkeley, Judi Warraen and David Pintarric...)
Not bad for his First National Race...
Did i say before in the previous post that the baton may have passed? well I think he just took it...
Funny thing is, watching his in car tape I am astonished at how easy he made it look... Compared to me...
I am pretty happy, and proud to report that he is having a good time...
May they all be this happy an ending.
Stay tuned, there will be more race reports i think. Even Mom is getting excited by this stuff....
Did i say before that this T-1 racing is the best?
And That the Z06 is a fine car?
Yeah... I think i did. But i figured i would let everyone know once more.
Thanks for reading and letting me share this whole adventure with you..
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