[s-cars] ANCA Watkins Glen II Report

[Tom Mullane]

Though I would rather forget this event, here's the summary per Paul's
request.

The Cliff Notes version is that crappy weather took a toll on an otherwise
great event.

Long version:
The weather was killer depite the best efforts of the organizers to get as
much as possible out of the event.
Also, the WG1 event was soooooo good that WG2 had little chance to beat it
even with perfect weather. At WG1, five of us (Phil, Carson, Marc, Kevin,
and I) were all the same run group (yellow). The group was fast, we were
fairly equally matched, we all drove well, and the weather was perfect. The
classroom sessions were more technical and geared to the more advanced level
of the group. This WG2 yellow group (Justin and I) had about 50% students
that had not driven the Glen and a few first timers at the track. I'm not
bitching, but it was just a different level of skill and confidence than the
WG1 yellow. For WG2, Phil and Kevin stayed home, and Marc and Carson
advanced to red.

Monday morning the track was almost dry, but fog blanketed the area and the
track stayed closed until 10:30 due to poor visibility.  Every group got 2
of the planned 3 sessions on Monday.

Tuesday was worse.  Rain and fog were the order of the day.  I made it out
for a single lap and was staged to go out again later but was aborted.
Around lunch time, the organizers set up a skid pad and let everyone have a
go at it so at least the day wasn't a total loss.  At 2:30, the plug was
pulled.

As if the weather wasn't bad enough, Robert Caro's S car had a turbo failure
late Monday.  Not a problem since he was planning a 3071 turbo upgrade
anyway...except that he was 300 plus miles from home.   Well, as luck would
have it, Marc Swanson was planning the same upgrade...and already had all
the parts in the car.  Robert called 034 and had another 3071 kit shipped to
Marc, and Marc handed Robert a box of parts.  Tuesday morning Robert started
wrenching away.  Eventually small issues with the install began to pile up,
and the lack of time, tools and parts began to take it's toll.  When we
eventually tried to start the car at 6:30 (long after the paddock was
deserted by everyone else) it sputtered a few times before something jammed
in the timing belt.  We pulled the plug on the job.

By 7:45 we had off loaded the Miata from the trailer, pushed the S car on
(don't try this at home) and fled the Glen. I'm certain that the only thing
worse than driving the overloaded Suburban with an unbalanced load for eight
hours in the rain (versus five hours on the way out) is driving the
Miatabehind it in the race seats and watching the trailer sway next to
an
eighteen wheels with your car riding on it - I'm surprised Robert survived.
At 3:30 AM we rolled into my driveway.

I had a good time, but not a great time.  Even a single lap is better than
no track time at all.  No one crashed or was injured.  Robert's car is rough
shape, but I think the timing belt and valves are ok - he will recover
quickly.  Take the good with the bad and learn as much as you can. Even if
the weather sucks it's cool to meet other Audi nuts and check out the cars.
You can't change the weather.

A big thank you goes to Mike and Barb Scanlan and the ACNA for their efforts
at putting this event together.  As rough as it was for the participants to
see the weather curtail the driving, their investment in time and planning
was far greater than ours.  Thanks!

One month until Tremblant!