It turned out to be a weekend of attrition. Of the five cars in my class, two of the Datsun 510's broke in qualifying and a third 510 ran on his rain tires after relating vibrations in warmup to tire problems. For the race in Group 2, I beat that 510 and a Mini that broke in the race. Whatever, I'll take it – gotta finish to win!
I raced nose-to-tail with a 390hp Mustang (Group 5 – he says he can't win his class because the other Mustangs have 490hp!) and Bruce Fernie’s Duetto (Group 3). In the Volvo series, you tend to race against who's in front/behind you. I'd qualified pretty well so I was ahead them both, although they'd eventually have a faster race lap. The Mustang would pass me on a straight then I'd repass, either braking or in the turn one oval. We did that for several laps while Bruce was catching up. Our two little Alfas were torturing that 'stang! Finally, Bruce got by and started to close on me. With about six laps to go, we changed position twice. He'd pass me on the brakes at three and go wide so I could pass back going up the hill. Then we’d do it again at turn six – too much fun for words! He made it stick and finished second in his group, two seconds ahead. The Mustang pulled alongside at the finish, officially 0.9 seconds behind.
Paul Newman was there, racing his #77 GT1 Camaro in the race group after us. His last national championship was in 1986 and he apparently wants to do it again. My wife went to stargaze after his race and reported that Joanne Woodward was there to greet him after his race. Celeste got to see Paul and Joanne, my son Reid (3) got to see turtles at the infield pond, and I won my race – what could be better?
