Thread: Sebring Feb
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Old 02-18-2008
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Re: Sebring Feb

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerardo View Post
Hi guys.

The incidents were greatly reduced during the races. I guess the lessons of Lapping and Practice took!

Gabby Chaves is still undefeated, and did it with smarts. He sat in P2 for most of his Sunday races pushing the leader along (Hayden Duerson in G1, Connor De Phillippi in G2) executing textbook passes in Turn 17 on the final lap in each race. The G3 pass for the win was especially cool, done on the outside.

Michael Self showed speed, although had a hard time understanding what "black flag" meant in one of his races. In his second race he went from 14th to 4th on lap 1. Not bad.

Mark Bumgarner, a new guy, won twice, and looks to be heading for the National series along with many other young drivers who used this weekend as a warmup for the Sebring opener coming March 11-14.

David Libby suffered some of the worst bad luck of the year. In our efforts to make the races longer, his race was one lap too long, and he ran out of gas with one lap to go. We shortened the rest of the races by one lap. In a makeup-race for David, he lost a gear with a couple of laps to go. You can't make this stuff up. We were all really bummed. He'll be back. It happened to the nicest guy. Even with his problems, he managed to turn the fastest race lap in Group 3, faster than Gabby Chaves and company, while finishing dead last with his broken gear. Go figure.

Harsha Sen accomplished his goals of driving an entire race weekend as a relaxed man. He put himself in the toughest group and drove clean the whole way. Kasey Kuhlman had the most fun in Champ Group. Michael Edwards provided some of the biggest entertainment, also not understanding what a black flag meant, but definitely understanding what "entertaining dive bomb" meant.

It was nice to see Ryan and Jim Booth reappearing for some racing. Ryan showed great speed to get Pole in Group 1, but faded somehow in his final race on Sunday. The depth of the field was part of that, but still...

It was really nice to see Michele Marden, if even only for a day, and Ali McInnis. So sorry I didn't have more time to chat, as I was deep into evaluating a new Computer Car system from AIM all week.

Keep an eye out for Peter Tucker. He's learning a thing or two and plans to run the National series this year.

I have to correct you here, Bobo. "Docter Mike" knew exactly what the black flag meant (even acknowledged it every lap), but what's the fun in pitting and therefore turning a great race into a lapping session?

Also, while you were busy watching Hayden and Senor Chaves enter T17 in fourth gear trying to make the other lead, I unfortunately witnessed Ryan lose his spot in the lead-drafting group. After getting passed by Gabby entering T15, he had bobble (oh, what problems marbles can cause) and fell back to P3, with P4 in striking distance. He had to fight a couple cars off, but by the time he got himself a nice gap to sit in P3, the P1-P2 train was 10-15 car lengths ahead. He was very fast, despite being out of a Skippy car for a while, hope to see him back up there in the next few races.
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