LCR Race Reports - Mid-Ohio

TEAM-LCR REPORTS

SVRA Mid-Ohio Mansfield, Ohio June 19-22, 2003
Our plans for SVRA Mid-Ohio went a bit pear-shaped this year. We were plagued with roadblocks, beginning with Lee, where "block" will suffice. A first-time-ever kidney-stone attack struck him suddenly on Sunday night preceding the race weekend, prompting a sprint race to ER. 'Mrs.' Lee (webmaster, not racecar driver) was obliged to take the wheel of the Chapman TT, but couldn't drive fast enough for the screaming patient, who felt that Endurance race better described the trip. (Doubled over in pain, he had little choice in the matter.) A longish wait, but quick diagnosis was followed by a morphine drip, CT scan, x-ray and a large measure of relief..... but not for long. A rollercoaster battle with the damn stone had only just begun. On Wednesday, a mile from home and determined to get to Mid-Ohio, Lee was struck again by the terrorist stone. Mrs. Lee strapped herself into the TT for another wild ride to the hospital, picked up the patient, and improved her times by almost three seconds a block this trip. The ER staff was equally quick to hook up some serious pain meds; but, needless to say, Lee was unable to travel to Mid-Ohio with an IV in his arm.
The CT scan revealed a 2 mm kidney stone to be the source of Lee's agony: (magnified here many times)	Lee insists that the actual size was more in the neighborhood of........
		(romancing the stone?)

Next to encounter a roadblock on the way to Mid-Ohio was Pete Gulick, whose plans to race both his Chevron B42 and B23 were cut short by a bout of what he thought was pneumonia (turned out to be bronchitis, luckily).		And with Lee out of commission, the LCR Tiga never made it to Ohio for our ace guest-driver Gordon Medenica to race. In no time, however, he found other ways to amuse himself.
The team was now down to Paul Flowers in his Elva Mk7S and Toleman F2, and Pete Schultz in his stunning S1 Elan. They both put in some sensational performances, but there were more roadblocks to come. Looking after them was our Wonder-Boy crew chief -- Bill Pedersen -- who took the reins from the ailing Lee Chapman and saved the day for LCR.

Paul's Elva as usual was dazzling; that is until the flywheel detached itself from the crank (this on Thursday test day). Fortunately, sharp work by Bill and the rest of the temporary crew (Bob Marti) soon had the problem remedied and, in fact, repaired even before Paul left the track that evening.

For the vintage Enduro, Paul had pole -- a position he held for most of the race until a misfire (with the car from the start) gradually got worse towards the end of the race.

Paul "Superstar" Flowers got maximum points
in the Vintage Enduro in his '63 Elva Mk7
- Photo by Bob Harrington
(click to enlarge)

He finally had to concede first place to Travis Engen and succumbed as well to "young" Henry Payne. Still, it was another podium finish, which now must leave Paul leading the Vintage Endurance championship handily. Another great, focused drive by our Vintage Enduro future-champ.

On test day, Paul was quicker in his '80 Toleman TG280 F/2 than ever (I believe he said over 3 seconds faster) -- the car apparently going like never before, and this prior to any chassis tuning.

(click photo to enlarge)

In fact, the Toleman ran strongly all weekend. In formidable company -- with almost current F1, Indy and F3000 machinery -- Paul was third fastest overall all weekend. Not bad for a 20-year-old 2-litre car of only 300 HP (its closest rivals being a 600 HP '91 F1 car and 500-700 HP Indy cars, all with huge downforce). Once again, an extremely good and focused drive by Paul. Alas, a spin in final qualifying whilst fighting for second place dropped Paul down to 9th; and, unfortunately, final grid positions for the feature race were taken from qualifying finishing positions instead of the usual fastest times.

And so it came to pass that our next Mid-Ohio roadblock appeared before the flag dropped for the feature race: lining up 9th on the pace lap, a car in front of Paul "checked" up unexpectedly a couple of slow corners from the green flag. A concertina reaction followed, and Paul whacked the tranny of the car in front with his nose cone and front wings. Instant retirement resulted, which was truly heartbreaking after such a fantastic run-up to the race. We can't wait to see the Toleman out again.

(click to enlarge)

This was Pete Schultz's first race at Mid-Ohio. He set about the weekend in a purposeful, business-like manner in his beautiful '63 Lotus Elan S1 -- taking it easy, building up speed and confidence with every session from the beginning of test day onward. In fact, he placed a terrific 12th place overall in the Endurance race on Saturday.

Now fully prepared, the car still running strongly and with a new set of sticky sneaks mounted, Pete set off from seventh place on the grid in the feature race. And wouldn't you know it -- another roadblock loomed on the very first lap: cars slowing to almost a standstill on a corner caught Pete unawares. To avoid hitting the car in front, he spun the Elan; but, alas, it went sideways into the concrete retaining ROADBLOCK! Well he did keep it the right way up this time, but it's back to the bodyshop again for the Elan, and after driving so well all weekend! We'll do our best to get him out for the Glen in September.

Pete Schultz (left) ran strongly all weekend
(until hitting his own roadblock on Sunday),
& Bill Pedersen (right) did a stellar job of taking
care of our downsized team at Mid-Ohio.

(click to enlarge)

Much like the kidney stone saga (which thankfully resolved
on Saturday),
Mid-Ohio was a rollercoaster.

We all look forward to much better luck on our next outing!!

You're
damn right
it bloody
well hurt!!