|
Over the 2nd through 6th
of October, 2007,
IMSA,
the
American
le Mans Series,
and
Road Atlanta
celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the
Petit le Mans.
The Nuts also celebrated their
10th Anniversary spectating at the
Petit le Mans, keeping our streak intact, having attended all
of them. As long as they keep having them, we plan to keep attending.
This weekend also marked the “swan song” for the
Panoz Racing
Series. We haven’t followed the series very closely, but
we’re still sorry to see it go. Dr. Panoz has done a ton of
things to help and promote sportscar racing in the US, and this
series was just a small part of it. It will be interesting to see
where those cars end up.
In addition, the weekend included races for
Star Mazda,
IMSA Lights,
Speed TV
World Challenge,
both Touring and GT races,
and the Porsche GT3 Cup championship.
Notes and Highlights
- We can warn you off the Scottish Inn at Oakdale, if you’re having
any thoughts of staying there. People tell me it’s better
now than when it was the Admiral Benbow Inn, so I hate to imagine
what it must have been like then. The only thing that made it even
partially worth the cost was saving us the nearly-an-hour commute
from
Lefty’s
house to Road Atlanta. Next year, we’ll camp at the track or stay at
one of the other nearby inns if we work the race, and just commute if
we don’t.
- The weather was great except a little rain Friday morning.
We needed the rain, too, so it was hard to get too upset at the minor
inconvenience of it.
- Attendance appeared higher than in the past. It seemed like a record
crowd to us, but we haven’t heard official numbers.
- We both worked corners for the Test Day on Tuesday. On Wednesday
Righty
worked while
Lefty
spectated and shot photos of the corner workers and track action
for the SCCA’s
Atlanta
Region.
- Throughout the week and weekend, it seemed like there were a lot
more red flags than in the past. That’s not a severe as it
might sound to an SCCA
habitue, though. Under
IMSA
flagging rules, the red flag gives about the same signal that a
“Black Flag All” gives under
SCCA flagging rules.
It still means that someone “parked” in a spot bad enough
that the Stewards feel it needs to be removed right away, and they
don’t feel a “hot pull” would be safe. A “hot
pull” is when the emergency vehicles go out on the track with the
cars still circulating.
- Golf carts are great for getting around the track property during
a big event like this … except when they break and you spend
hours dinking with them, then have to do without after being
spoiled by having one the last couple of years.
- We had new hats this year, but we didn’t get of our own pictures
of them. Dozens of people stopped us for photos, but we have not
found any of them on the web yet. We only wore them on the grid on
Saturday morning and to show some friends over by Turn 9 later in
the day.
- The grid walk Saturday morning was hopelessly congested; you could
barely move. They seemed to have more trouble than in the past
getting the fans to leave the starting grid after the grid walk. I
hope that sort of problem doesn’t lead them to get rid of the grid
walk.
- After the grid walk we went down to the fence near Turn 1 to watch
the start of the race. We were wearing our gag hats. While there
a reporter from the Gainesville Times interviewed us. Parts of the
interview appeared in the paper the next day in a article about the
race.
- There seemed to be a lot of cars leaving the track compared to the
previous years.
- The pointy end of the field finished this Petit le Mans
closer together than any of the previous nine.
|