Last month I was taking a nap when I should have been sending a column to Christine, I hope she prints the June column, along with this one.
Last month I talked a little about fires, but this month fires turned ugly. At the IRL Texas race the safety crew couldn’t get the water hose to function even though they said it worked fine in the morning checkout. There were a couple of very brave men “helping” the lady out of the car, although for a moment I thought she was coming out in pieces. Check out the differences in the F1 cockpit surround and the IRL surround. I don’t think they ever got the IRL one off during the fire. Seems to me a fire bottle should be a first method of attack, then the water hose, but what do I know?
At the Watkins Rolex race another driver drove around with a fire at the rear, until he stopped at pit in. It didn’t look like any safety folks were close and finally numerous crew guys showed up with bottles. I got a chuckle when the one guy stopped at the front of the car and sprayed the bottle over the top to the big fire in the back. Yea, that will work. Like I said last month, go to C & B or take a class and learn how to properly extinguish a fire.
Double National at HPR will be 4 weekends in a row for car stuff. First was a small car show with the Midget and its still broken motor. Might have gotten a few SCCA recruits much like last fall’s car show in Ft. Morgan. Little furrin’ race cars do attract attention at typical American shows.
Next up was the IRL race at Iowa Speedway. Wow, 17 second laps, good stuff. I was there to hang with Caleb as he was crewing for a USF2000 team. His old boss, John Walko and I were standing on pit lane when he said, “Boy, this reminds me of Pikes Peak!” And it does. Better in some ways, worse in others. In two days, I couldn’t find a flush toilet in the infield, there might have been one in the media center, but Bruno wouldn’t let me in. Couldn’t find any in the Indy car garages either. Amazing as you get older what you look for. And the concession stand didn’t have any Iowa pork tenderloins, good brats and burgers, but no tenderloins. Amazing.
In the USF2000 series is a young driver, Zach Veach I think. Very short, and very young, 15 they say. Joke around the paddock was he doesn’t look a day over 10! Not sure allowing younger and younger is the way to go. In my youth I wanted to change everything, now…....... I did talk to several current and former IRL drivers and all are of average height, as Jackie Stewart always said. The only large things I saw were A. J. and Tony Kanaan’s nose. Burned or unburned ethanol is a sweet smelling fuel!
I watched the NASCAR Sears race on tape, and continue to be amazed about all the crashing. Jeff Gordon appears to get away with everything, but then the whole object is to have lots of incidents. I didn’t understand the waving blue flag on the corner just upstream of a crash. Other corners waved a yellow for their crash. Then another corner had a standing yellow and a waving blue. It’s been a few years since I worked a NASCAR race, so maybe their flag rules have changed. Will a google give me the answer?
Last weekend I worked the June Sprints with my buddy Dave Hegeman, station 3/3A on Friday, and 13 on Sat/Sun. 6 of us on Friday, 5 on Sat/Sun. Captain on Friday had no clue on how to use a white flag; Dave even asked him if he was sure the white should stay up when all the vehicles were parked 20 yards off track. And it appeared to us the waving yellow was for anything between the concrete walls. The meals were provided by Weathertech, the floor mat manufacturer, and they were excellent. Huge box lunches, and a great buffet each night, the root beer floats were a big hit. Two brands for keg beer, Coors Light and some Amber, I forget.
Very few Colorado drivers made the trip, less than 10. There were 407 drivers taking the green in 10 groups. Those numbers seemed way down to the locals. Are the F1000 cars FB, or are FB cars F1000? Either way, they are the best sounding cars. The new Honda motor in FF sounds horrible. We were joking Jack Roush took his exhaust off of the SRF and put it on the new Honda. They ran Spec Miata’s with SSB and SSC cars, wow, what a concept! All on DOT tires, all drive in the grass.
If I can get Christine to hold up Redline a day or two, I’ll add notes from HPR, if not, that is all. After a 10 hour drive home, this just in. Christine won both FE races; the Sunday race came after a lurid spin at Turn 3 in qualifying. I guess that is why Carl spent most of the lunch hour with the air hose on the car. Looks to me like the SRF’s and the SM’s could run together, both on DOT tires, same lap times, and both drive in the dirt. Doesn’t make sense to me to put SRF’s in with FF and Vee’s. 96 cars on the pre entry sheet, 91 took the green on Saturday, 84 on Sunday. Not great, but not bad, considering the National Board’s knucklehead decision to allow everyone in at the Runoffs. Great lunches, great feed on Saturday night, great beer, thanks Michelle!! Track facilities continue to improve, a permanent pavilion, flush toilets (watch those steps), race gas at the pumps, new gate keeper shed, and now car ports.
Oh, F1 at Valencia. How much was the blue paint bill for all the walls? It sure improved the look of the track. And the stewards screwed the race with their safety car mess. It appears Lewis is the Jeff Gordon of F1. He can hit everybody and the Stewards don’t see it.
Next month my thoughts on electric lights instead of flags and why it will never work at club events.
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‘Soldiers in White’ is a monthly opinion column contributed by racer and corner worker Bob Stream. Opinions and views expressed here should not be construed to be those of the SCCA.
