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John George breaks
the track record twice at Watkins Glen – Thompson takes East Coast
Championship
I guess it can’t be Watkins Glen
without some rain. The test and tune on Friday had tons of track time,
but only two sessions in the dry – the first two. Both John and Carl
decided that dry was better.
Saturday dawned dry and with the
promise of sun and John took to the track in practice and qualifying
just blistering the time. Thompson was still trying to figure out which
way the track went with slow times to show for the venture. During the
race John consistently turned great times and broke the track record
getting down to 2:13.440. Thompson also ran.
During the evening entertainment
and food and drink Thompson begged some “inner secrets” at Watkins Glen
and John brought out his trusty “in-car” camera and took me around the
track. So, he was ready for Sunday.
John was flying in practice on
Sunday and turning in the upper 2:13’s and Thompson knocked 4 seconds
off his “turtle” time from the day before. In qualifying John turned up
the heat and broke his record of the day before by turning 2:12.447 and
Thompson dropped another second – still in the rear though. The race
was a mess. Someone in the Lightening Group dumped oil on the last two
turns coming onto the straight and someone paid dearly for the bags of
oil dry. Well, when the race started the dust was so bad that they
called off the start and we took a couple of laps just to get rid of the
clouds. It didn’t take long once the race finally got started and a new
Corvette ZR-1 in race prep (with only 400 miles on it) bought the farm
(and a bunch of armco too) and the race was finished under a red flag.
So, a great weekend for new records for John.
Since Carl had the points, he
made off with the East Coast Championship. Not the way he wanted to win
it, but he took it anyway.
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