From Paul Foster This past weekend was the Double 50 celebration commemorating the 50th anniversary of Porsche and Watkins Glen. The festivities included exhibition runs by some of the most famous Porsche race cars, including the Gmund car, very first 356 race car, 911 GT1 that was apparently recently procured from Rohr, who has decided to get out of racing. Adios dudes, and thanks for all the fish. There were also vintage racing and club racing using PCA classes. The garage was devoted to the Porsche play toys of the rich and famous. I know the cars didn't hold a candle to the recent get together for the Historics at Laguna Seca, but the cars on hand were indeed special. One of my past DE instructors, Art Pilla, was driving a 935. He was one of the chosen few to get a garage spot for bringing a significant historical race car. There were even fans in the stands who paid admission and professional photographers aiming those big-ass telephoto lenses at you as you navigated the track. There were big time drivers and obscure club racing podunks like me. There were priceless 917s - one of which is probably totaled after coming together with the outside wall in T11 - it was very sad seeing it loaded into an enclosed trailer by a fork lift. And there were irreplaceable RSKs being driven by people who didn't have enough sense to come off the track when the parade lap was over so they found themsselves on the track with 917s and 962s at speed. And they were not even wearing helmets. There was a lot of red mist hanging in the air that infected many drivers before the weekend was over. As a result there was also a lot of bent powder blue Armco that ostensibly had to be paid for by the benders before leaving the track. There was even a driver taken away by helicopter. The organizers did everything they could to manage the 300 drivers taking part in the weekend's races, but it was a bit like Saturday Night Thunder in the early days when Jeff Gordon was coming through the ranks. People were trying a bit harder than normal. There were women in the stands that had to be impressed. Someone important might spot them and offer a big F1 testing contract. My close calls and near death experiences can be counted on nearly one hand so I felt fortunate to have brought the car home in one piece. However, my weekend started on less than a favorable note. While trying to find the motel room in nearby (24 miles?) Ithaca, I pulled the car over to the curb and turned it off to get the address out of the back. It wouldn't go back into gear unless I turned off the engine. Damn, damn, damn. Dark evil thoughts suddenly sprang up to completely ruin the original high of seeing those splendid machines in the garage at Watkins Glen. My weekend was apparently over before it had begun. Damn, damn, damn. My brother, who had flown up from Florida to crew, wanted to go hide somewhere. I slept very little that night thinking it was probably all over before it had even begun. Damn, damn, damn. Friday morning, we got up bright and early to hobble the car to the track so Will DeGiavanni, my new mechanic who owns Precision Motorsports in Long Valley NJ (shameless plug!), could do whatever could be done to possibly salvage the weekend. It turned out the problem magically disappeared. That's right, the clutch just worked the next morning! The Keebler elves visited in the middle of the night and fixed my car! Actually, there are these itty bitty teeny weeny springs that break and fall out. They get lodged between the clutch and the pressure plate. If you are lucky, they go sproing and fall out. If you are not lucky, they get wedged temporarily. If you are very unlucky they get wedged forever. I was lucky. During the first practice, I immediately noticed the car was very down on power. I was hitting over 130 on the back straight the last outing a month before, but I can no longer get it over 120. My best lap is a 2:24.5. The practice is very long at 30 minutes, but there are only two per day. I asked Will about the loss of power and he told me it is the result of a broken exhaust stud. See, right there? Great. After the first practice, George Beuselinck asked me if this was much different than Drivers Eds. At that time I didn't think it was that much more intense. My opinion changed in the second practice session. At the beginning of the session, four of us got stuck behind a Turbo 911 that was slow through the corners but was blindingly fast down the straight. We diced back and forth in the wake of his car. We were stuck bigtime until he finally screwed up a corner so bad we all got by. A lap later we were black flagged off the track due to a stuck car that ate up the rest of the session. So ended session number two with just a handful of frustrating laps and one clear lap at the end. But I was still over a half second faster than the first practice session. My brother reported seeing an interesting fender bender in the very crowded main paddock area. A Kelly-Moss car had bumped into another Kelly-Moss car damaging the rear wing of one of the cars. He was disappointed "the wimps" did not coming to blows and thereby provide a real show for the fans. (Continued in part 2) Paul Foster 8 Ball Racing Saturday morning brought overcast skies and rain. I was overjoyed at the idea that the rain would make me more competitive, completely overlooking what effect it would have on the overall weekend if it continued. After all, there were fans to consider! As it turned out, the rain stopped just before I took to the track for practice. It was supposed to be the qualifying session, but the organizers decided they didn't want a bunch of bent cars as people tried to go 11/10ths in wet conditions. I went another 1/2 second faster during the session, but I got seriously sideways exiting the chicane and then again at the bottom of the hill at the ankle of the boot on the next lap. I decided to come in just as the checkered flag fell. I asked Barry Lenoble to raise the hood to help the car cool down. He told me I had a problem. There was coolant squirting from a hole in the lower radiator hose. Shit, shit, shit. There is absolutely nothing worse than getting antifreeze in your hair before your race! And not only did it happen to me, it happened to Will as well as I couldn't manage to get the hose on the engine. The 951 was built around the NA 944 and it really shows as there is no longer _any_ room for such simple repairs in the maze of additional stuff that has been wedged into the engine compartment. But with a little help from my friends I got the car back together in time for the race. The drivers meeting at noon was pretty grim as the organizers tried to get us to mind our adrenaline levels after a few more incidents during the morning sessions despite not counting towards grid position. My sprint race was at the end of the day. I was in 31st place in a field of 36 cars as the E cars were the slowest of the group. The race had been shortened from 10 laps to eight due to problems in other races that caused delays. I noticed I was gridded next to a Kelly-Moss car that was even equipped with a two way radio. This guy had his own "crew chief"! I knew I'd probably be between T10 and T11 when the race went green so I took my cue from him. As soon as I heard his car light up I went. And I got a great start! I must have passed nearly ten cars before T1. But being down on power they all got back past me during the next 3 laps. I kept going backwards and backwards through the pack. I ended up 29th feeling pretty bad about the whole thing. It turned out Ron Savenor was excluded from the event after once again finishing 1st in my class and 9th overall. Rumor had it he was bounced due to rough driving. My lap times do not compare very favorably to his 2:16s in qualifying and during the race. That is a lot of ground to make up. Chris Musante won the overall race in his GT4S 911. He was right on my tail on the last lap but I finished before him just managing to stay on the lead lap. Fellow Metro NY member Bob Slawson finished in 19th place in his '85 911. That night I missed the big dinner because I had left the passes back in the motel. (Do you detect a pattern here???) It turned out to have been the best move of the weekend as the negative opinions about the food from those who went was unanimous. After the very decent party Friday night I was very surprised to hear the dinner was not well received. (Continued in part 3) Paul Foster 8 Ball Racing The enduro was first the first race Sunday morning. Getting the car ready I found the right front wheel was loose. Hmmm. Gotta check dem wheels more often. I think the steel lugs have more of propensity to work loose than the alloys ever did... I took my place 40th on the grid out of 61 cars. There was to be a required 5 minute "pit stop" that must occur during the first 45 minutes of the 60 minute race. I decided to not deal with refueling the car as this necessitated a refueler wearing Nomex (which I had) and a person manning a 5 lb extinguisher (which I didn't have). I decided to pit in the middle of the race or during the first yellow, whichever came first. This strategy really paid off. There was a full course yellow before too many laps as a car was stuck without power in the toe of the boot. I came in, got out of the car (which was required), and I had a couple of big gulps of Gatorade as Andy counted down the time. I just managed to complete the stop before the pace car came by the second time so I just lost one lap. I caught back up with the field just as they were getting the green flag for the restart. Sweet! Perfect timing! However, a car went off into the sand trap at T1 on the restart. Damn! There goes the advantage of my perfectly executed pit stop! Now more people are going to get athe same chance to do what I did! And most everybody who wasn't relying on running a certain distance before pitting for gas did come in on the second yellow. I found myself mid pack but still a lap down to those who hadn't pitted. The next restart happened without too much red mist in evidence. Everything started really clicking as we burnt off some laps. I even managed to turn a lap that was a tenth slower than my best thus far. This part of the race was more like a DE than the frenetic nature of the sprint race. But as I headed down to the ankle of the boot, I saw a yellow flag being waved quite vigorously. It turned out to be due to a white 911 getting into the tires on the outside of the corner just before I got there. The toe was under full course yellow so I backed off and signaled the 911 Turbo C car just behind me that I was slowing for the full course yellow. As we headed up the hill to the heel, I got a blue flag from the flagger in the middle of the straight! He was passing me under full course yellow! What the hell? It turns out that the heel corner station wasn't showing the full course yellow and this guy discerned the fact and jumped my ass! The next station was under yellow... Who was this guy? No other than ringer #1 - Dave Murry in what turned out to be the second place car overall. He was driving it over 16 seconds a lap faster than the owner had when he had qualified it 52nd on grid with a 2:27! When I came around to the S/F line the starter was having a kniption fit because he had already told the pace car to pick me up as the leader of the race. Instead of penalizing Dave for the pass under yellow he decided to tell the pace car to pick him up instead. When the rest of the leaders pitted, I missed leading the race by a pass under full course yellow! And it was made by a famous factory racer dude! Damn! As we came around on the next lap, I saw another white 911 had lost it up track from the previous car. I guess he lost control when he saw the yellow. I hope no corner workers were nearby... I went to pass a back marker in the esses. He didn't see me and I had to use my horn to get his attention as his left fender almost nailed my right hand door going through T3. I had visions of hitting the Armco and sitting helplessly on the track as the next group of cars came by. Who says race cars don't need horns? On the next to the last lap, I was approaching the chicane with a NA 944 just behind that I had passed coming up the hill. I saw a quickly approaching GT4S car so I decided to hesitate before turning in. It turned out to be the proper strategy as the driver came in way too hot and hit the steep entry curbing on the right side. As Mike Piera found out the hard way, this approach to the corner launches you into the air with no control over your destiny. If I had turned in as I should have, he would have come down right in my path with nowhere for me to go! That turn in particular is extremely dangerous as far as metal-to-metal contact is concerned. There is absolutely no way for two cars to get through there side by side and the entry curb is way too high. They have decided to increase the driver safety at the expense of the equipment. It sucks under racing conditions. At the end of the race, which went 23 laps for the winning GT4S 911 with ringer #2 Elliot Forbes-Robinson as codriver, I found myself one lap down in 25th place. I was 4th in E so I just missed a "virtual podium" for my first enduro. Cool! So it _is_ true that us "old guys" can do better in the enduros! The flaggers this weekend were superb. I was going substantially slower than the frontrunners on a very crowded track and I found the blues were perfectly timed, even the one for the pass under full course yellow. Without the warning I could have easily turned into Murry not knowing _some_ of us were still racing. I also want to thank The Redmans for putting on a wonderful event. I also want to thank my brother for flying up, helping out, and most of all for sticking with the thankless job of being my crew under very trying circumstances. This was an event I will always remember. Paul Foster 8 Ball Racing