Road Atlanta, Braselton, Georgia

Following an almost two-month hiatus after Sebring, the season really kicked off again with our annual trip to "the Mitty" at Road Atlanta.  

Pete Gulick was bringing his FW08 Williams F1 car here (above) to get some more valuable seat time in his latest steed.  He would be the only HGP car running with a bunch of much more contemporary Indy, Champ, and Lights cars, and even a 90s F1 Benetton. Still, this was to be a "test day" prior to our next HGP outing at Watkins Glen the beginning of June, again supporting the IRL. 

Rick Carlino was in his Gropa 
again, the engine hopefully now rid
of its oil pressure maladies, which had
 caused us so much grief last year.
It certainly seemed to be a strong unit.

Rick Carlino with Chuck Golder attending

Rick's little Lola 240 F/A had been repaired over the winter following an off-course excursion here at Atlanta last fall.

The car, as usual, looked beautiful, particularly with its new, polished aluminum nose fins.

Rick & Lola & Chuck
(click to enlarge)

Tom Yeager also joined us this weekend,
 full of beans – even doing test day,
his little Merlyn Mk6 having had
 a facelift over the winter.

The bodywork had a substantial tidy-up
 and then was given a fresh paint job.
It made all the difference to the car.
It looked really stunning, even though
 it still lacked some of its original graphics.

 The car had a new tranny and a fresh motor,
so the 914s had better be looking out
for our intrepid hero.

The March 782 had just been straightened out after an off-course at the Glen last year. 

It had its new correct and proper F2 rear wing end plates fitted for the first time, and yet another freshly painted nose.

Hamish's Chevron B23 was a must
for this weekend – the engine having
 come back from MWE where it had
its fuel system gone through to address
fluctuating/low-fuel-pressure problems

Hamish & the Hot-Pit Hotties
sans umbrellas, Scottie & Jennifer 

(click to enlarge)

Hamish's Lola T70 was brought especially for the Enduro race this weekend – again to be shared with Pete Gulick. 

The engine had ingested something at Sebring, so this had been a quickie refit in time for Atlanta.

Tom and Hamish both did test day, Hamish in the Lola T70 and the March 782.  Pete took advantage of every session available to him in his F1 car for all the seat time he could get. 

Tom Yeager's weekend was going really well.
Test day brought back the way round the track
and he was soon on the pace,
despite the clutch problem.

Tom and his water-bearer, Scottie 

Having got by them, Tom just checked out
and quickly made his way up to the front
of the field. 
  (click photos to enlarge)

Unfortunately, only a matter of minutes from the finish, an errant 356 moved over on Tom whilst being lapped and whacked the Merlyn nose, bending the suspension and steering and damaging the freshly painted nose. Tom was in either 4th or 5th spot at the time and was reasonably sure of a podium finish the way he was going, but this put him out for the remainder of the weekend. Bad luck Tommy!  No worries, we'll get her straightened out in time for the next event.

The Lola 240 was a little out of its league in the Boss group (as were one or two other competitors with their early Atlantics and Super-Vees). 

The Gropa, it's oil pressure problems now behind us, was superb in the sprint races. 

During the Enduro (Rick's favorite
part of the weekend), the car was
running really strongly. 

He took advantage of a first lap
full-course yellow to come in for
his mandatory 5-minute pitstop
 (one of the few to do so).

Rick continued his strong pace, having made up places as fellow competitors had to take their pitstops whilst the track was green; but with three or four laps to go, the Gropa started misfiring and dying on the track. It sputtered into the pits with a lap to go. We chased Rick back out to take a slow last lap – so he did take the checker, although losing lots of hard-fought places.