CTTC Experience, First time driver (long)

["----> Bob" <mx@snet.net>]

Since Ian Pavelko put together a nice little summary of his experiences
as a first time observer, I thought I would put together a few thoughts
of my first time competing.

Ill start by saying it was the most fun Ive had in a LONG LONG time. The
people were great, the weather was great and the food..well... sucked.

Anyway, Mark Besso, Matt Baldoni and I got there on wednesday afternoon.
Mark drove his 84 4000Q, I drove mine, and Matt trailered his Scirocco. 
Long ride but we took it easy on the way up since we had no real
schedule.

Thursday morning we got to the mountain rather early, so we could get in
a couple slow speed practice drives up the mountain.  Since Ive only
been up there once in my life, and it was three years earlier, It seemed
like a really good idea to have a refresher.  So that day we got in 3
runs up the mountain.  Thursday night was tech inspection and we
basically all passed without too many problems.

Friday morning: 6:45 Drivers meeting. John Buffum gives us a once over
and tells us to have fun and be safe. (Well? which is it!?) We had two
half course timed runs. My first run I had the 215/15" eagles on saab
rims as did Mark.  I got (going by memory here..) 6m10s first run, mark
got 6m4s. I changed my tires back to my stock ones, since I didnt feel
comfortable with the eagles, too slippery on the tar.  Next run I took
off several seconds, but so did Mark and matt. It was Mark finishing
first, me second and matt a very close third.

Saturday morning: 6:45 drivers meeting again. Dont remember what went on
there, I think I was still half asleep. Today we did two full course
runs. Now my goal for this weekend was to beat the times from Marks
FIRST year. He got a 9:07 as his best time on his first year. Since this
was my first year that was my goal to beat.  I dont remember what I got
my first run of the day, but on my second run I got a 9:02. I did it! It
made my weekend. Needless to say he got an 8:56 and pretty handily wiped
me for that day!

Sunday morning: Race day. Big crowds.  9:30 was driver introduction, we
all stood at the starting line in front of the crowd as they anounced
who we were and where we were from. Kind of a last rites of sorts. :) 
First car off 10:00 or so. When it came to my turn, I was having a
really good run, caught BIG BIG air at one of the corners near the top
on the dirt. Wow, what a rush.  However, I broke a strut along the way
and it made a really bad noise. Not knowing exactly the problem (but had
a pretty good idea!) I backed off on the real dangerous spots. This time
I got a 9:05. Ouch. Matt royally kicked my butt and pulled off an 8:58.
He had an amazing run finally getting a good feel for the mountain and
his car and really hanging it out on the dirt. At this point I thought
my weekend was over, but mark and chris sanborn convinced me to take
another run. Right hand turns were quite an experience on the pavement
so the first half was a real handful. The upper part, being dirt however
was a real hoot. With a broken strut the car felt AWESOME in the dirt. I
made up some serious time and pulled off an 8:55!!!! So now I ask, how
can I have that kind of dirt handling with good pavement handling!  At
this point I beat marks time for the weekend (by 1 second) and matts
time of the weekend (by 3 seconds). I was on cloud 9. Almost literally. 
Then Mark makes his last run. He pulls another 10 (Yes, TEN) seconds out
his ass and drives home with an 8:45.  After knowing what I just went
through, I knew he must have driven the wheels off that poor car to get
that kind of time and I wanted to be the first to shake his hand. Wow,
amazing. (next year, he's mine btw!)

So even though these times may not sound impressive compared to some of
the 'big boys' keep in mind these were STOCK 4000q's with street tires
and 250,000 miles on each of them which are still our daily commuters.

Some things I liked:
-The people. Great people in the pits and the crowds were very nice.
Loaned a power steering pump to john kemp so he wouldnt be sidelined etc
etc etc. Its one big happy family for the most part.
-Driving my a$$ off, hanging my butt end around cragway with the crowd
cheering and waving audi banners.

Things I didnt like:
-The quattro club events schedule completely clashed with the drivers
schedule. We couldnt do anything with the club. Maybe that can be
changed for the future?
-all the damn bugs at the top of the mountain!

Memorable things:
-Catching the huge air over the jump near the top of the mountain....and
having one of my right side tires landing in nothing. 3 on pavement, 1
in air. LONG LIVE QUATTRO! If it werent for quattro bringing me back
in......!
-Driving through the pits in Liz Campbells VW with a glow stick thingy
duct taped to her rocker panel like a cheap imitation of neon lighting
as we go harassing other competitors.

So in a nutshell, if the three of us came in dead last, we would have
still had an amazing time. It was just a bonus that we wound up doing
pretty good!  It was really good meeting some more listers, and great to
see some long time friends..except Dan Simoes, he was harassing us up at
the top!  ;-)
For the sake of not making this sound like a NASCAR podium speech, I
wont go into thanking people, you know who you are. I will thank Matt
and Mark though for putting up with me and making this weekend enjoyable
though.

If anyone has even thought about doing this event, DO IT. Its awesome
and will give you life long memories.

PS, if anyone has any good shots of the black 4000Q (number 30), the
white 4000Q (number 93) or the Black VW Scirocco (number 72) PLEASE let
me know, Ill pay for copies. Would especially love to see if anyone got
a good shot of my jump!

I know nobody is actually reading this far at this point...but if you
are, and can make an mpeg or real video of my in car camera runs, please
let me know!

Thanks for listening!
Bob