Speedway meeting point before caravanning up to Ely on Friday, September 23rd
Bentley entered in race in 115 mph class. He ended up going 5.0583 mph over his
target. Apparently, he just wanted to drive fast! This was taken at the
pre-parade meeting place on Friday evening.
The Display of cars in Broadbent park Saturday morning. There's Steve
Foust, Ken Ackeret and Randy Block getting ready for the Shoot-out worker's
meeting next to Randy's black Z06 in the foreground. Randy was the team leader
for our Shootout workers.
There's my electron blue metallic Z06 next to Tom Hill's black on black Z06,
with more member Vettes in the background.
All clean and shiny and ready to go to work tomorrow!
After the Shootout on Saturday afternoon.
It's hard to see from this photo, partly because there are tow truck tracks in
the way, but there is a gap of several feet between the skid marks at the edge
of the pavement and the tire tracks in the dirt of the 2005 Nissan 350Z driven
by Inada Daijiro, indicating that it was indeed airborne.
Can you make out the damaged sage brush where the car continued to travel after
landing? Follow the right-most tire track out. Note the outhouse near where the
car came to a rest. Also, you can kind of make out the road that crosses this
one in a T right after the curve.
Here's a better view of the skid marks on the road. Notice how straight
they are. Notice how curved the road is. Notice all those signs along the road.
You can only see the backs in this photo, but there are ALL yellow warning signs!
At the banquet, Mr. Daijiro explained to us, through an
interpreter, that he thought the race was 1.5 miles with another mile to slow
down. It was actually 1 mile with another .9 miles to slow down. Imagine
his surprise when all of a sudden there was a curve, and immediately following
that, a "T" at the end of the road! He was also concerned
because there were race officials (two of them members of our own club)
standing there and he didn't want to take any chances of hitting them (he had
seen that happen in the past) so he opted to go straight. Jim G., who was
working that end of the course, said parts were flying when the car landed. There was a
navigator in the car. He was wearing a neck brace at the banquet. Mr. Daijiro
said he didn't need one because he was wearing a safety neck brace during the
race. He highly recommends them. Other than that, there were no injuries.
The Japanese team worked through the night trying to fix the
car before Sunday's big race, but were unable to get it ready. They did win two
trophies, though. They got, I believe it was, Most Exotic in the Display of Cars,
and they won the Shootout at 180 mph!
By The Dawn's Early Light
Red, white and blue at the Pre-Grid.
A C6, a Z06 and
a Convertible.
The cars belong to, from left to right, Dawn, Cathy and Benita.
Trophies were earned by
(driver/navigator - place/target/actual/speed variance)
Benita Klaizner/Ralph Durgin - 1st/95/94.9813/.0187 Both
Rookies
Cathy Wilson/Frank Gagliardi - 2nd/95/94.9682/.0318 First time Driver
Dawn Goldwasser/Sean Goldwasser - 1st/100/99.9973/.0027 Both Rookies
Bob McVane/Ken Ackeret - 1st/105/104.9989/.0011 - and best time overall!
Nat Hodgson/Brian Leary - 3rd/120/120.0279/.0279
Dale Foust/Steve Foust - 3rd/135/135.0439/.0439
Tom Hill/Pat Ackeret - 2nd/145/144.9025/.0975
Not trophying, but with a really good time in a really competitive
class
Scott Mergele/Richard Maslus - 4th/110/109.9601/.0399
Also running were
Ken Rees/Kathy Clapp - 115 mph
Jim Gregorio/Paul Riemenschneide - 120 mph
Randy Block - 150 mph
I've reduced the sizes of these photos so they won't take up
all of my server space. If you would like a higher resolution copy of any of the
above photos, just e-mail me and I
will get it/them to you.
