Round 3 of the Can Am series for 2014 produced a spectacular, make that two spectacular, crashes, courtesy of yours truly. The incidents occurred at the start of the fourth heat. This was my first race heat and I put the Porsche 917-30 at the starting line. The red lights went out, the power came on, and the Porsche accelerated hard to the first turn. Unfortunately, the speed continued unabated into the turn, the Porsche crashing hard into the wall and careening off the track and onto the floor. This was disconcerting to say the least; the car did not seem to respond to my controller. I thought that perhaps the pots on my controller had debris inside. The very sturdy Carrera body survived the crash, the only damage being the rear wing popping off. After re-inserting the wing and working the throttle and brake knobs, I replaced the car at the line and, somewhat nervously, got ready for the restart. Jordan, working the first turn, took a couple of steps back, and was probably more nervous than I; the car was the heaviest car on the track. Restart, and the same thing happened again! This time, though, after striking the wall, the Porsche stayed on the table. It was at this point that Ary discovered the problem; I had placed the car in the Green lane instead of the Yellow lane! Much chagrined, I placed the car in the correct lane for the second restart. You can view my mistake at the 24 minute mark in the video below.
The actual racing was excellent. The ever-improving Jordan battled Ary fiercely in Heat 1, turning 71 laps to Ary’s 72. He finished ahead of me in Heat 6, although we were both two laps behind Marty. Overall, Jordan was first in Group B and fourth overall. David’s beautiful Shadow was second in the Group B and Mark’s winged Chaparral was third. Ary was also hot, especially in Blue in Heat 3.
Marty ran a spectacular race, finishing with 223 (corrected) laps. Marty and I had a great battle in Heat 5, followed by Steve. Steve’s Warbird McLaren was a little down on speed but Steve ran a very smooth, consistent race throughout.
At the half-way point, the Can Am series is a two-way race between Marty and myself, two cars which could not be more different. However, with the recent change in weather, who knows what will happen? Perhaps some softer rubber??? Tomorrow’s round will see a very cool back room. We shall see.
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