May 25, 2005 - Carlinville, IL

Well, as promised, here's some shots from "Track Day" at Gateway International Raceway, near St. Louis.  Son Doug runs a 1972 Corvette in the SCAA Pro Rally series whenever he has the time away from his business and family.  And on track day, he will either take his motorcycle or the 'Vette, and run around the track.  The schedule is to take drivers of various skills and put them with others of like skill and let them run in 20 minute segments.  With 4 or 5 groups, it gives some time between runs for story telling, and there was plenty of that.  "Bench racing" is what we used to call it when I was messing around like that .

All kinds of cars show up.  And yes, it may not be aerodynamic, but it went around the track!  Doug's trailers (one enclosed and one open) were busy making money, so he stuffed these racing tires & wheels in the car and put them on once he got here.  He was early enough to get a spot under cover, and since it was a nice warm day, I was happy to sit here and chat.

And yeah, if you look closely, you can see that this car gets run in the dirt a lot more than on pavement.  When you take a flying leap at 100+ mph, you can put dings in the fiberglass.

All cars have to pass a technical inspection, and here's the family car that Robin will be driving in her novice class for teenaged new drivers.  And then some people don't need to park in the garage!  Klaus is a German who has a Porsche shop in St. Louis and had heard of Doug but never met him, and likewise, Doug had heard of him but never met him.  A stripped nut (no, not a driver streaking the crowd) got the two of them together.  In the process of adjusting the ride height Doug discovered he needed a replacement nut, and was talking to everybody who looked like they may have spare parts, and that included Klaus, even though Porsche's only use metric parts.  And much to the surprise of both of them, he had one we could use!  I took some time to chat with Klaus, and discovered we knew some of the same people from the Porsche racing world. 

Klaus had just come back from the Bonneville Salt Flats where he'd attempted to break the 200 mph level with this older race car.  Only got to 194 though.  He's planning on making some minor changes and trying again.  And the reason the ramp is in that position is because it got stuck that way at the Salt Flats, and he was unable to run the car here.  Darn shame, too, because I'd have loved to have watched it.  I'm assuming there are living quarters in front of the garage in this truck.  Good looking rig, and super neat owner.

A shot of the paddock, and then the orientation meeting for the novice drivers, including the teenagers.  Doug didn't really have to be there, but there wasn't much else going on, and besides, it's his daughter in there.  Doug's the one in the red pants.

The other side of the paddock, and then getting lined up in preparation for his turn on the track.  There were about 15 cars in the expert class, and a couple of them were race cars.  Doug's car happens to still be street legal, and when the family car was in the shop getting rebuilt after a hit and run, Robin had to drive the 'Vette to her music appointments, and thought it great fun.

Shucks, got a telephoto lens, may as well use it, eh?  And then the end of the first session.  That little silver car in front of Doug is a Lotus Elise, and you'll see more of it later.

The Lotus fascinated me no less than the brand did years ago when I was just becoming aware of cars.  I've always loved their looks and unique handling capabilities both on and off the track.  Doug's under there tightening the bolts on the differential cover.  On a race car stuff is always getting ready to fall off.  And that new stuff that hasn't been roughed up by flying rocks is a new set of springs he recently installed.

Here's what the 1962 Lotus Elite looks like that we had for a little while when Doug was a teenager.  No, he didn't race it.  I did an autocross or two with it was all.  Pretty different body styles, eh?  But then, but then after 43 years, you'd expect it wouldn't you?  I gotta admit, I like the old styles better than some of the new ones.

OK, so the 'Vette shows it's age here and there, but it's still got one of the coolest logos in the world on it's fender.  That red thing coming out above the license plate is the tow hook required by the SCCA rally rules.

Here's 16 yr old Robin doing her thing with the family car.  Diesel powered, yet.  And yeah, she was a tad nervous about it all, but eventually really got off on smoking the tires on "panic" stops, quick turns and the like.  And she didn't even think the car was leaning while doing the slalom.

This shot of Doug was hard to get.  He's on the final turn heading onto the straightaway.  The driver of the Elise wasn't able to pass, and he said he was running about 130 down the straight, so we guess Doug was going about that fast too.

Since I had the camera set up, I thought I'd grab a few shots of some of the other cars I liked.  Like this newer Porsche.  It was able to pass Doug.  Quite easily, as a matter of fact.  If you look carefully, you'll see two people in the Porsche, and that's why he was able to pass.  An instructor was driving!  Sure was fun to watch.

Tom was Robin's instructor, and made a point out of finding us to tell us how much he enjoyed his time with her.  Made her dad and me feel pretty good, too.  Tom is a recently retired high school teacher, and is used to 16 yr. olds, and was impressed by Robin.  Robin's smile looks to me like she's thinking, "Whew!", but maybe not.  And then another of my favorites.  We had an older Porsche 911 once, and this one sure sounded sweet.  It has been modified for racing, but still looked, sounded, and ran like a Porsche should.

What a day for a car nut.  Never enough, regardless of the potential for sunburn. What's this! Did Doug spin the tires coming out of that turn back there?  Is it oil?  How come the smoke?

AAARRRGGGHHH!!  That's nothing but oil being burned!  End of track day.  Time to pack it up and go home.  The good news is that the oil burning was because of the new tires.  Yup, if you can go faster, harder, and turn quicker, the lack of baffles in the oil pan and valve covers will cause the oil to get pumped out of the breather and onto the exhaust manifold.  First time he's been able to drive that hard, so it's the first time he's had the problem.  He'll solve that and then there'll be something else.  That's racing!