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| This is Chevette Race #2, starting from
the pitlane again.
There was lots of pushing and shoving in the first hairpin... |
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In the first Chevette race I started from dead last, and finished in
12th place of 18 starters, (7th last). With
the inverted grid system, that means I get to start this second Chevette
race from 7th on the grid. I'm hoping to turn this into
a correspondingly higher finishing position.
From this far up the grid, I can actually see the starter on the left waving the green flag. I can also see how tight the pit exit is. There is really only enough room for two cars side-by-side, maybe two and a half. Mark Stevens and Lionel McKernan are starting right behind me. |
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I'm boxed behind the slower cars up front as Mark, in the rainbow Blue/Red car, immediately comes up my left side, and Lionel in the green goes up the right. | ||
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Mark and Lionel both had a great start! Lionel in the green is
way up on the right and Mark is beside him.
Meanwhile Chris Zuke in red #98 also passes me on the left. |
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#88 and #98 are both carrying a lot of speed into the
hairpin, and they're on the very slick surface on the left side of the
track. This should be interesting...
Anticipating a big pileup, I back off early to leave myself some room. |
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Sure enough they both slide wide, cutting across the noses of
several cars.
Of course, the moment I backed off two more cars passed me. Bob Mathieson in the grey car and Steve Flewwelling in the purple car both go by on my left. Trent Hamp in #81 seems to have judged this perfectly. Waiting for everyone else to slide wide, he now plans to cut inside to the left. But he will be forced to suddenly change his line due to the unexpected appearance of Bob and Steve. |
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Immediately ahead of me, from left to right, are Steve Flewwelling (purple), Bob
Mathieson (silver), and Trent Hamp #81.
Out of sight ahead of Bob, the #88 car tags somebody else and suddenly turns sharp right. Those two come to a halt sideways in traffic. The red #98 of Chris Zuke then comes to a very abrupt stop as he T-bones one of the stopped cars. |
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I was already congratulating myself for getting through the first corner
cleanly without hitting anyone, when BAM. I got punched from
behind.
Watch my helmet rock back and forth... |
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While Bob and Steve rocket away, I'm boxed in again.
Hiroki Currie in #54 is ahead of me, while Jay Esterer blasts by on the right and Landon Goudreau charges up my left. |
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On the left turn, I have to give ground to Landon and tuck in behind him. | ||
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In the process, I've also allowed #81 to creep up my right side again.
Landon in the yellow car threads the needle and scorches past Hiroki's #54. |
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And my team mate Jim Graham in red #78 cruises past me on the
straight...
I should be all the way up front, racing with Mark Stevens and Lionel McKernan. Instead I'm going backwards. This is depressing. |
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 And then to completely
piss me off, my video camera decided to shut itself down. So I have no further
footage from this Chevette race.
That means I have no record of the really BIG hit I took when, entering the hairpin on the second lap, I was centre punched by Gord McKay in the #15 car. It was almost a repeat of the earlier situation when Paul Maire left his braking too late and got caught out by the slick ice surface on the left side of the track approaching the hairpin. (Read Paul's Confession.) The big difference was that Paul didn't hit anyone, only burying his own car in the outside snowbank. This time, as I was turning left into the hairpin, I got drilled in the left front fender by #15. I never even saw him coming. The impact spun me all the way around to the right so that I fetched up backwards against the outside snowbank of the hairpin, with two other cars buried in the snow behind me. I rocked my car back and forth just barely enough to free myself from the snowbank, then set off in pursuit of the rest of the pack, once again finding myself in almost dead last position. I was buggered again... ...but managed to finish 12th. My video camera cut out again during the warmup lap for the following Rubber race. So no footage of that either. But, for a change, I made a great start in the 3rd Chevette Race. Because they were so surprised to see me doing well, the marshalls immediately stopped the race by throwing out all the Red Flags...
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