Ferrari Mailing List: NOW story about ridiculous track cars (FERRARI CONTENT!)

[Dennis Liu (bigheaddennis]

Bill wrote:

>Dennis' story about the beater pickup truck at Lime Rock is one of my
favorites :-)

Well then...  :-)


11/09/02

Friends, Romans and Countrymen:

Ok, I had a lot of fun today. Ian Prout (ably assisted by the entire Prout
clan) and his organization, SCDA (www.scda1.com), had a 1-day track event
today at Lime Rock. Similar in philosophy to our own Todd Serota's
TracQuest, SCDA always puts on a really enjoyable, BS-free event, and today
was no exception. Weather was sunny and in the low '60s, with five run
groups and plenty of track time.  [snip]

Ah, and the most fun I had today? Let me tell you about Ron. Ron was my
first student today, in the Novice run group. Ron is 62 years old, and his
son was driving an RX-7 today. Ron decided to not let him have all the fun.
So Ron decides to run his Chevy truck. And, no, this ain't no ex-NASCAR
Craftsman race truck. 

It's a 1990 Chevy S-10 pickup, with 126k miles, complete with a mismatched
set of whitewall Kelly all-season radial tires, a vinyl bench seat, and a
four cylinder engine. Yowza! In the first session, I have to admit to being
a little hesitant. But Ron quickly picked up the line, and we gave point-bys
constantly.  Gradually, our enthusiasm got the better of us. Since it had
bench seats though, and crappy GM seat belts with no tension, and NOTHING on
the interior to grab onto, I had to hold on to the roof or door to brace
myself, until I got black-flagged and scolded by the corner workers for
having my arm/hand out the window. So, for each right-hander (and Lime Rock
is 92% right handers!), I'd find myself sliding across the seat, directly
into the "girlfriend" seating position. "Uh, Ron, I just want to make sure
you understand that while you are a handsome man, I'm not sitting this close
to you on purpose...."

In the second session, I drove a few laps to show Ron the line. We're
chugging along, cruising respectfully, when we spot... a quad-headlight
Ferrari 330 GT. Could it happen? Yes... yard by yard, we reel in the
Ferrari, and pass it in No-Name straight when we get the point-by. Yes! Ron
is gleeful, as he can now recount how his beloved S-10 caught and passed a
Ferrari on the race track! 

For the third session together, Ron was comfortable enough to run around
Lime Rock without using his brakes at all, just dabbing it a bit entering
big bend. The gearing, lack of HP and his inexperience meant that we never
really got going fast enough to need the brakes, but he was driving the line
(mostly) through the corners very well, carrying his (meager) speed, and
giving out plenty of point-bys. I was wondering whether to DQ him after the
initial couple of laps, but in thinking about it, I thought that he paid his
fee like everyone else, he wasn't being dangerous to anyone (although both
he and I were probably in fairly deep trouble if something untoward
happened), he was learning a LOT (which is the point of these events!), and,
equally important, we were having a sh*tload of fun. No one in the group was
held up for more than 1/3rd of a lap, as we were both constantly pointing
everyone by us. 

==========

FOLLOW-UP:  A couple of years later, Ron comes running up to me at another
LRP event.  All excited, he asks, "hey, do you remember me?  I have the
Chevy truck!"  "Sure, Ron, great to see you back at the track."  "Well, let
me tell you, I bought one of those professional photo portraits of us out
together on the track, PASSING that Ferrari!  I framed it and put it up in
my barbershop in NYC, and I tell ALL of my customers about it!  Thanks again
for one of the best days of my life!!!"

How do you beat that?

Vty,

--Dennis


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