[Wichita-SCCA] Corners at Hallett

Mon Apr 14 19:59:50 EDT 2008

Let's see ... you gentlemen only worked one day ... I think two days at the
top of the hill at turn 4 trumps you both! I knew that fur-lined white rain
jacket (thank you Lands End!) would come in handy at some point in my
cornerworking career. And, it was one of those days you didn't mind using
the port-a-john, as it wasn't windy there! :o)

Wichita Region even had two new members who came down to work as well -
Vickie and Gary McKnight. Vickie spent the morning with us at 4, then went
to 5 to work with Gary in the afternoon. I think they had a good time too.

We watched the whitecaps on Lake Veronica. Aside from the small amount of
shrink wrap we put on the north side of our bunker, there wasn't any wind
break coming up the hill from turn 3. And, talk about a funnel ... have you
seen the way those trees direct air?

I won't comment on the fire truck, except to say that with the right
firestarter, you could have had the entire gazebo burned before they ever
got there. Thank goodness Karen knows how to use a fire bottle! No harm, no
foul - fire was OUT! John McMurray's car survives to race another day.

Hans Peter (he of the "first name last" category) was flying in the
Atlantic. According to mylaps it was 1:07.xxx, and Dave Wilcox was in the
1:12s. Dave didn't look that far behind. :o) Darren Brown set a new DSR
record in the beautiful Speads. He struggled some with the car, but due to
the early checker actually got a finish!

The FP winner was fellow Wichita region member Rick Harris. He drove a great
race! It was fun to watch him in the brand-new Miata battle with two cars
which have been racing probably longer than a few members of this list have
been alive! Eric Prill's Lotus 7 has been a race car in his family for 36
years. Kent's raced his car since the early '80s. I just hope the wrecker
trip didn't mess the car up any worse than the broken 3rd link in the
suspension did.

Chris Bovis took that beautiful CRX and lowered the GTL class record by
something like 2.5 seconds (or so). He hadn't been to Hallett before, and he
was still learning the track. I doubt the conditions in July will be as
favorable. The cool crisp air is pretty good for setting lap records -
although, a little less drag down the straight would probably have been
helpful.

It's a good thing that the FV race was a good one, otherwise that last race
could have been a real snoozer. But Lisa and the boys put on a good show.
When I talked to her Saturday night, she said she just put the car on a
little trailer, didn't bring any spares, and only one wrench! I guess doing
prep work on the same car for so long helps you ensure that you can do
something like that!

Next up - MidAmerica Motorplex in two weeks. If you're interested - don't
hesitate to give us a call. We'll be going.

Kelley & Will Huxtable

  _____  

From: wichita-scca-bounces at wichitascca.org
[mailto:wichita-scca-bounces at wichitascca.org] On Behalf Of Brian Meyer
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 4:38 PM
To: Dave Geis
Cc: Wichita-SCCA
Subject: Re: [Wichita-SCCA] Corners at Hallett

Hmm... I'm pretty sure Corner 1 was much colder and windier than Tech. After
all, it is at a higher latitude and closer to the source of the extreme
fridgedness that was bearing down on us. Secondly, being on the side of a
hill is much worse since we not only get the wind that was steadily hitting
us at 30-40 mph, all of the air from below was also being added and thus
accelerating the main gusts to what surely was at least twice that (or maybe
it just felt that way). But finally, those trees were on the other side of
the interstate, which may have broke the wind somewhat for the dozen's of
SUV's hauling trailers full of dune buggies, ATV's and dirt bikes coming
back from somewhere that most certainly was warmer, they didn't do much for
us in the bunker at Corner 1 where we stood facing into the wind looking
upstream of the track ready to throw a yellow flag (which I quite literally
did once just before realizing that my hand was too numb to maintain grip on
the flag stick). At one point we were ready to start burning some of the
tires in the bunker for warmth but just then Corner 6 called for the fire
truck to help put out a car fire and we thought better of it. No sense in
getting doused with 300 gallons of fire suppressant.

Tech, on the other hand, not only had a permanent shelter canopy (the
structure Dave claimed to "funnel" the wind), they also had a three-story
tower, an entire paddock full of huge RV's, toter-homes and car haulers, and
plenty of nearby trees to break the wind which was being warmed by those
vehicles to boot. I remain convinced that Corner 1 was indeed both colder
AND windier therefore more deserving of sympathy and also more deserving of
whining than Tech, although probably not to the extent that I have already
whined just now.

Seriously though, I've been in worse weather and all-in-all it wasn't
unbearable. Got to see some great racing. Never would have imagined that
Peter Hans would be soooo fast in a Formula Atlantic - that was just simply
amazing. Formula Vee had a great race, congrats to Lisa Noble on her win. FP
had a great race at the front, too bad both Prather cars broke. I can't wait
for the race in July so I can check out the awesome GTL Honda CRX. I think
mine might evolve into something like that someday.

Finally, I'm am positive that the best place to work a race is where Dave
Gird did, which was at the drivers seat of the pace car. Nicely done sir.

-Brian
...we used the ice water in the beer trough to warm our hands up.

On 4/14/08, Dave Geis <dgeis at cox.net> wrote: 

Hey,

Although Brian Meyer said that working corner 1 was the coldest place to
be at Hallett yesterday, tech was a *lot* colder!

Corner 1 is at the bottom of a bunch of hills and protected by trees and
tire walls. Tech is at the top of a hill with nothing around it except
the "carport" that funnels all of the wind into it.   :-)

--
Dave Geis
#25 STU2 - '07 Corvette Z-51
Wichita Region SCCA - http://www.wichitascca.org 

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