Great pic finds Mitch!
Yesterday was
c-o-l-d! It's hard to expalin just how cold it was... we drove up in snow. Two layers of thinsulate gloves and you still couldn't feel your fingers! Just know it was miserable!! That is until your heat was up, then the adrenaline took care of the chill! They ran 2 heats. We were all in the 2nd which meant we had to work the 1st. Of course that one lasted about 2 1/2 hours(where ours was considerably quicker!) and Mitch definately drew the short end of the work detail stick! He was stuck all the way down at the last pole, calling "off courses" and standing cones back up. Eddie and I received "gate detail" and were lucky enough to be able to hang out in the tent with George, Tony and Carlos as we were parked very close to the entrance.
The guys had the forethought to bring a radiant propane heater(that thing warmed nicely!!) and a grill where we cooked dogs, burgers and ribs. They had no food or drinks out there and everyone else were stuck with cold sandwiches, etc. It could have been very profitable as some burgers were sold!
For the most part everyone we met were very nice as well as helpful. None of us had ever done anything like this(with the exception of Eddie running once at the Rock). Learning the course and understanding that the way the cones were set up actually tell you the direction to go(who would have thought??) was a bit dicey and even after a few runs, I would still miss a turn! We made 8 runs. By the 6th or 7th, most were starting to put down some really good times. It was so cold there was zero grip! Spinning out and sliding was very common. Needless to say, the traction control stayed in the "on" position! This is definately a sport where seat time is an advantage!
We did have one incident and all I'll say is that goofing off, burn outs, hard starts, etc. have a ZERO tolerance policy. No warning, but even worse... no statement of the "rules" at any time during checkin, tech, etc. I would highly suggest anyone that attends one of these events download the "rules", read them and then ask about them during check in. The way they handled the situation was
way out of line in my opinion and did leave a bit of a bad taste. I'm sure we all will give them another chance as the organization of the event was impecible and flowed nicely! I just hope they will give the offender of the un-known/un-spoken rules the same consideration!
January 19th, 2009, 08:50 AM
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