Tales of Triumph and Tribulation
by AONE Members at Lime Rock

Summary by Kevin Murphy

Every year, the Connecticut AROC club puts on their drivers’ school and track days at Lime Rock around the last weekend in April. Every year, it’s a little bit different. Take, for example, this year’s snow on the track. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective), I missed the morning’s icy session due to a last-minute re-schedule at my office. Instead, I got to drive the Mass Pike early Friday afternoon through rain, sleet and flurries. Not the best weather when you want to make time in a Spider. Not the best weather when you’re trying to make your best time at the track, either, as it turned out for some of our members that morning. Needless to say, a frozen track surface does little to warm up racing tires so that they adhere through the corners, and it didn’t look like anyone had brought winter driving tires to change into.

When the afternoon rolled around, however, and the temps rebounded to a balmy 50 degrees or so, one couldn’t resist the bright sunshine and allure of this locale. Jonathan Kirshtein turned in a few really hot laps in his GTV6 racer once the surface (and his tires) heated up, especially on Saturday morning when conditions were much better (no precip, for starters). Eliot Shanabrook had a respectable day, and new AONE member Jim Murphy (recently moved here from the warmer clime of California) looked really good in his dark blue ’72 Berlina. I’ll definitely be recording more video next year – the sounds of all those Alfas braking and accelerating through Big Bend, the esses, and the diving turn being as much of the experience as the sight of them.

There was also great camaraderie off-track in search of dinner at a couple of the locals bistros, and the usual eye-fest in the pits along with lending a hand where needed. It certainly provides the opportunity to meet and get to know a much wider circle of Alfisti than the usual club event. Put this one on your calendar and I’ll see you there next year.  

Rather than report on these episodes in the usual manner, we’ve asked the participants to tell their own stories. I’ll throw in a few facts (well, and maybe an occasional opinion) in italics for the sake of completeness. Here they are (in no particular order). – Ed.]

Click on the links below to go directly to that member's story:
Brian Shorey
Gene Durso
Bruce Fernie
Eliot Shanabrook
Tom Freiberger
Bill LeClair
Jim Murphy
Jonathan Kirshtein
Nick Fonte

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Brian Shorey

Well, Mortimer the Berlina made his long-awaited return to racing at the Lime Rock event. Prepping a car that has not been driven for three or four years for track time turned out to be pretty time-consuming, but all in all Mortimer was in pretty good basic condition. [Mortimer, widely billed as "the world’s fastest Berlina" with mods that include Ferrari F40 seats, heavily modified NASCAR brakes, and a full Sperry Stage 5 engine, has quite a story behind him. Click here for details.]

It took a couple of sessions to get the surface rust off the rotors and the brakes heated up enough to actually have some grip. Prior to that, I did not have kind words about those amazing (on paper) brakes. I’m still a little neutral about them; I think that after I adjust the linkages to get some bite a little higher they’ll be okay.

The car itself was a hoot to drive! Pretty neutral overall, but with enough power to bring the rear end out if I gave it too much throttle at the wrong time. But then very easy to get back in control. I’m not sure where the limits are with this beast, or how close I’ll be able to get to them, but by my third session I was starting to turn some more respectable lap times, even passing a couple of P-cars.

And then the head gasket blew in a major way just after the uphill, spraying anti-freeze all over the rear wheels and resulting in an exciting spin. At one point, I was caught sideways in the dirt and thought I might be going over, but ended up stopping without any damage.

So, a little more sorting to be done, hopefully a few more events this year, and I’m already making a list of things to be done over the winter (rebushing the suspension will be high on the list).

The low point of the weekend was when good friend Gene demolished his Spider. Luckily, he was banged up but relatively unhurt; however, his instructor ended up at the hospital for observation.

Gene Durso

[Gene endured an incident in which, coming off the downhill turn onto the straightaway, his yellow ’74 Spider slid off the track to the inside and hit an embankment, demolishing the entire driver’s side. Gene and his driving instructor were a bit shaken but are fine; the Spider didn’t fare as well and is considered a total loss.]

I am still trying to figure out what happened. It seemed that I was doing a typical slide into the straightaway and suddenly the back end just hopped out on me. I have been in similar situations but never had the back end jump out as quickly as it did this time. I countered with a left-hand steer, hoping to ride it out as I had done before on the uphill, but the rear end just seemed to keep sliding out. After that, it is hard to remember details. I do remember, however, thinking, "I’m losing it – better put both feet in!" It seems, though, that by the time I did, the car was off the track in the grass. Everything then happened really fast. The car seemed to be on ice. Then I saw myself at about 180 degrees going sideways into the dirt embankment. Boy, did it smart... The frustrating part was that I missed the tires by about five feet. This probably would have reduced the impact on both myself and the instructor. I have a few thoughts on what might have happened:

1. The most likely scenario in my mind is that I was going too fast and the back end just started to slide away from me. On top of this, I seem to have been on the worst section of the track. There seems to be a dip or ripple in the track at the point where I lost the rear end. In looking closely at the video, it appears that right after the tire breaks away you see the car bounce. This is consistent with Jim Hayes’s statement that he saw dips on the track in the area where I lost it. I am fairly sure that the car was at its limit with non-racing tires on a cold day. When it hit this slight dip, it was all that was needed to swing the rear end around and out of control. I also checked the speed for that lap – it was approximately 1:16, according to the clock. This is probably faster than any lap I have ever done with the Yokahama AVSi street tires. My best time with the racing tires has only been 1:13.9. Or maybe:

2. The cold track caused the usually gradual response of the tires to be more abrupt than I have seen in the past. Perhaps, with all the great go-fast stuff that Paul Glynn did for my Spider, the power may have been too much for these tires. I was only running on my street tires, as mentioned above. The last time I ran with this power I had the racing tires. Or maybe:

3. Just too fast …just too darn fast….

In any event, if anyone is interested in any body pieces from my already-stripped carcass, see my classified ad under Parts. [Own a piece of racing history!]

Bruce Fernie

[Bruce, soon to be leaving New England to live forever(?) in Italy(!), and his Duetto make a stunning appearance on the racetrack. However, during the final official time trials, his car was unceremoniously dragged back to the pits behind the tow truck. Hit something? Mechanical failure? Nope – ran out of gas…]

The weekend wasn’t my best; I never really got it together and felt comfortable in my car. I think it might have been the aftermath of cresting the uphill on the backside of Lime Rock on Friday and being pelted with hail and huge snowflakes. I consider myself somewhat of a trooper, but trying to drive at speed in hail and snow and 32-degree weather...that’s when I call it quits. I heard that all of the coupe guys had their heaters on...wimps!

One of my biggest thoughts during the weekend was how I felt for Gene. Any one of us could ‘roll-it-up’ at any time and I was glad he was OK but I still just felt bad. Saturday was a treat with the weather, and a few good laps were had by all.

Contrary to popular belief, I ran out of gas on my hot laps simply because I forgot to check it, and not because I was trying to be lighter and therefore faster. Even if that was the case (it wasn’t), it sure didn’t work for me, did it? I was still 3-1/2 seconds off my best times.

It was good to see everyone and enjoy some Alfa camaraderie. One more thing...I think that we should all elect Brian as Alfa sportsman of the year or something. His help in dragging Gene’s car home was really impressive.

[Yes, Brian volunteered to haul Gene’s crunched Spider all the way back to Leominster on Saturday, having to return to Lime Rock later to haul his own car home. What a guy! Gene had driven out on Thursday night through the hailstorm with his top down, since it didn’t fit over his roll bar. At least he got an enclosed ride home.]

Eliot Shanabrook

[Eliot, you may recall, was the guy who took overall Fastest Time of Day at the Corvette club autocross a couple of years ago in his ’74 GTV.]

Hanging out with Jonathan, Nick, Brian, Bob, Fran and the rest of the Alfa nuts always makes for some fun. Forza weekend was an adventure, from the white-out snowstorm Thursday night to the timed runs Saturday. The weekend gave me an opportunity to break in my new engine and get some much-needed practice laps at intimidating LRP. In each session Friday, I upped my rev limit, giving the new rings and bearings time to bed in. On Friday night, I changed the break-in oil and was ready to give the new engine 7,000 RPM on Saturday. I was pleased that my first high-compression big-valve engine was running well. We’ll see how it does vintage racing this summer.

During Mario’s [AROC-CT event organizer Mario Romagnoli] careful explanation of the green/white/checker flag procedure for the time trials, Nick turned to us and said, "What he means is, drive like hell till you see the checker."

[And indeed, for the first group out, the flag worker at the finish line forgot to wave the checker after the normal three laps, and they all went tearing around the track one more time.]

Tom Freiberger

[Tom showed up from Vermont with his supercharged two-liter Giulia Sprint GT (yes, you read that right). Things didn’t go quite as planned, though, as it ended up sliding off the track, began running poorly, and by the end of the day Friday wouldn’t run at all.]

I trailered it home the following Monday evening, which took six hours. A few days later, I actually got it to start for the first time since Lime Rock. Seems that my distributor hold-down bracket had worn a groove in the distributor shaft, which allowed the distributor to rotate, causing the timing to get out of whack. Unfortunately, I have to remove the supercharger to get at the distributor (bad design). Anyway, I made a shim that seems to have worked; now I have to put it back together.

After I got the Giulia running, I changed the oil and found that I took a substantial chunk out of my oil pan when I went off the track. It’s not leaking (yet), but I think I’ll replace it to be safe. Check out my classified ad in the Wanted section!

I drive a 1991 164L, and the only modifications done to this car are poly bushings and a K&N air filter. I drove my car for the first time in time trials at Lime Rock in 2001, with a time of 1:17.78, placing third in the novice class.

My number one goal for 2002 at Lime Rock was to have fun. Right behind that, I wanted to be able to drive my car home under its own power. And finally, I wanted to better my time from the previous year. [This guy has his priorities straight.]

Well, it was wonderful to spend a couple of days with some old friends. My car ran better than ever, and I was able to drive it home under its own power. I also placed second in the novice class and bettered my time from the previous year by a little more than a half of a second with a time of 1:16.94.

I’ve heard that "every Alfa is a race car," even a 1972 Berlina. After years of listening to me talk about driving school, my wife bought me a pass to the AROC-CT weekend at Lime Rock. This was my first time on a track, so I had some preparation to do. After buying the helmet ($), and tech inspecting the car ($$$), I headed out through the snow (!!!) for Connecticut.

Friday morning was class time for the novice group. Apexes and contact patches, flags and car control. All backed by the bellowing, shrieking and whining of group after group of cars (or was that just the drivers trying to survive sub-freezing temperatures?). Finally, I met my instructor, and went out for the first demo laps. Fifteen minutes later, we switched seats, and I pulled out of the pits for lap #1. I had three more sessions that day, to look for the line, learn the point-by (I got very good at that move), and generally try to figure out if I could do this.

By Saturday, my hands had found their way around the track, though my feet have a lot more to learn. I never got far enough off to pull the fabric off the seat, and I even passed a few cars (I do not count the rolling chicane in the Z). I’m going to do this again. Maybe next year I’ll even be willing to record my time. Thanks to all those who provided coordination, instruction, tips, and camaraderie during the event.

This year, I was looking forward to the AROC-CT event at Lime Rock for many reasons, personal and otherwise. I spent the winter doing the usual maintenance on the chassis, brakes, etc. to make the car as bulletproof as possible. The primary driving force (no pun intended) was to reclaim the Team Shoestring Trophy from one Guiseppe Lo Re of New York. He and I have been battling back and forth for the FTD Alfa honors for many years. For all but last year, I prevailed. He sneaked past me by .08 seconds last year with his wide-bodied, trailered and massaged 3.0L GTV6. This year, I was out for blood.

I left work at 6PM, having just prepped the LTS Murciélago for it’s upcoming press activity [Jonathan now works for Boston Sportscar, poor fella], only to face a ridiculous journey to the Berkshires. Rain turned to snow, the salt trucks were out – in short, I was not too happy subjecting my car to this atmospheric trash. I landed in Great Barrington around 8:30, wiped the car down, and went to the nearest bar. Soon, Eliot and Nick materialized.

Friday morning was notable, as what initially appeared to be frost on the roof was later determined to be that white detritus that belongs to the winter season, not spring. Oh, well. We got to the track after our ritual breakfast, got the cars set up, and away we went. There was a damn near white-out in our second session, but the afternoon improved. The beloved GTV6 of mine was beginning to groove. Saturday morning was great. Warmer and dry was the climate and, with an in-car lap timing system courtesy of Nick Fonte, I was able to dial in the car. In short order, I was clicking off mid-1:04 times in consecutive laps. The last lap time I got with a clear track was a 1:04.29. I was ecstatic, as closing in on the elusive 1:03 zone was certainly a milestone for me and the car.

The afternoon time trial session was not as rewarding. The track seemed to "go away," causing a rise in lap times. I exited out to the pit with an empty feeling that me and my macchina did not put forth a redeeming effort. Fortunately, I was not alone. Everyone’s lap times increased due to poor adhesion. I won the time trial for the Alfa class with a 1:05.59, good enough to beat Mr. Lo Re. I will be looking for the Team Shoestring Trophy to arrive at my doorstep soon.

To cap off the event, Nick, Andy Kress and I made it from Exit 2 in Lee to Framingham in one hour. We just can’t get enough.

Here's a parting shot of Delaware Valley Chapter's Bob Brady's gorgeous GTV engine compartment: 

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