Archive for year: 2023

You are here: / / 2023
, ,

2024 NER DE Season Dates:

The PCA NER track committee has been hard at work this fall getting us all ready for the 2024 season. More details will follow next month, but please be sure to mark your calendars for the 2024 DE season. NCR dates will also follow shortly. For those asking about our Canada trips. We are looking to co-sponsor a date at Mont-Tremblant with another PCA region. For the Calabogie event, we need at least 30 committed sign-ups to allow this event to happen. Again, more to follow on all of this.

Please note that all track days run for 3 days, the ground school is returning to its Original format at the HMS motorsports shop in Danvers, this event is for folks who have never been to a track day, but all are welcome. It will include a classroom session with breakfast and lunch served. 

Event LocationEvent Date
Ground School @ HMSSaturday, March 9, 2024
ThompsonFriday, May 24, 2024
Palmer CWFriday, June 14, 2024
CalabogieWednesday, July 3, 2024
Watkins GlenFriday, August 9, 2024
Palmer CCWFriday, September 27, 2024

Keep an eye out for more details in the following weeks. We look forward to seeing you at DE in 2024!

/by
,

Shift Happens (or Doesn’t)

My faithful readers will recall the clutch cable problems the Puddle Jumper had last year at the Catskill Drive for our 356 group. The cable was replaced in a parking lot in upstate NY using a borrowed spare from another traveling member (thanks Jeff). It was a little shorter than the correct one and prevented the use of a second locking nut on the transmission end but worked just fine the rest of the year. I thought about replacing after I got home but under the “if it ain’t broke , don’t fix it” policy I left it alone. A few hundred enjoyable miles in the spring and summer kept it on the list for the 1100 mile run to the 356 Registry East Coast Holiday. The engine in the Speedster was back up and running (boy these old cars break a lot) but didn’t have enough miles on it for a long , steady speed , trip. That looked like a great plan when the departure day began with heavy rain. The Speedster would’ve been awash while the coupe kept me dry.

The plan was to drive the 410 miles to brother Bill’s house in Maryland, pick him and Beverly up for the second day drive to meet a bunch of friends in Wythsville, VA for dinner, then another couple of hours to  Blowing Rock, NC. I asked WAZE to plot the shortest route and it director me out the Mass Pike to Rt 84 and to the Merritt Parkway into NY. Not the way I would normally go but I’ve contested the WAZE instructions before and always been wrong so I went with it. I figured that since it took real time traffic in to account maybe the rain was backing things up on Rt 684. I needed to make a pit stop so when the rain slowed down a bit I ran down a short exit ramp on the Parkway to bail out. As I depressed the clutch pedal to downshift to third gear it went quickly to the floor and didn’t come back. I had lost the clutch cable again.

After you drive these old cars long enough, when something mechanical fails you tend to know exactly what failed. Throwing the gearbox into neutral I rolled to a stop to decide what to do. There was no doubt in my mind that the nut on the transmission end of the cable had fallen off and so the cable could no longer move the release bearing to operate the clutch pressure plate (TMI). I looked at the odometer to see that I was 212 miles from home and WAZE said I was 198 miles from Bills house. I was clearly out of AAA tow range. And it was still raining.

I have driven standard shift cars without a clutch before and even did a drive from Cape May, NJ to Boston with two kids in the car back in the ‘80’s. That was in a BMW 535is when the hydraulic slave cylinder failed. Since I figured that all I needed for a fix was another 8mm nut and the ability to install it, a drive to Maryland was the answer.

Old guys in old cars all know how to drive a standard shift without a clutch. It does depend upon a good strong battery and a well running engine. I will share the secret but know that this trick will not work with a modern car. They are wired so that the starter will not engage unless the clutch pedal is down which will disconnect the engine from the transmission and they needs to be connected for this to work.

The engine needs to be warmed up before attempting this procedure so with the car in neutral, just start the car and bring it up to operating temperature first. Then shut it off and secure everything in the car including passengers. With the ignition and hand brake off put the car in first gear. Turn the key on, release the hand brake, depress the gas pedal down half way, wait a moment and then engage the starter. The car will act like it was hit in the rear as it hops off and begins to move off in first gear. Now you have it moving in first gear how do you go to second gear? Lift off the throttle and pull gently and it will “fall” into neutral. As the engine speed slows a little pressure on the gearshift lever will drop it into second gear. If it doesn’t drop in just raise the engine speed a little and try again. Light pressure is all that is needed so don’t force it into gear. It gets better with practice and higher gears are easier. Downshifts are the same but with a higher , not lower, engine speed. Remember that if you stop the car you’ll have to start over so don’t stop.

On the remaining miles I only had to stop three times, once for gas, once in a traffic  jam and once to go to first gear to drive into Bills garage. Don’t try to downshift into first while moving, it’s too hard to match the engine to transmission speed while moving.  You will be surprised how slow you can go in second gear and still keep moving. It was a bit tense a few times but EZ Pass really helped on the Delaware bridge and the Baltimore tunnel. Bill was waiting with garage space and tools so I pulled up the floor boards to see if my diagnosis was correct, it was. The nut on the front was in place, the one on the rear was missing. 

We pulled the right rear wheel to allow access to that side of the transmission where the cable was mounted to measure the size of the nut we needed. Off to dinner and Ace Hardware and back to the garage. We bought a threaded sleeve (metric of course) to extend the cable length thinking that would let us use an additional lock nut for a permanent fix. When  it was all back in place it appeared that the cable was way too long so it came apart again. That time I couldn’t get any resistance on the pedal and the cable still seemed way too long. What was going on here? With a spacer on the cable I finally got some resistance but it didn’t seem right. With the car up on jack stands and in neutral, I started it up to test the fix. It made terrible noises. Sounded like metal scraping on metal in the area of the clutch. Our night and my ride to NC was over. We deduced that somehow the release bearing, with no pressure from a connected cable, had dropped off the yoke that held it and the shortened cable had pushed that yoke into the pressure plate. Ouch.

It was midnight and Bill suggested that we pull the engine out to find the problem. No chance, I suggested we go to bed but before we did we needed to push the car out to put Beverly’s car back inside.  With the wheel back on and the Tub on the ground we started to push it out of the  garage. As I walked over the spot the transmission covered I looked down to see a small C shaped clip laying on the ground. It was one of two clips that hold the release bearing onto to the yoke. The only clip like that used in the entire car. I had new clips at home waiting but that was a long way away.

That find told us that our conclusion was correct but left three questions unanswered:

1.   How did the clip get out of the transmission housing

2.   Why didn’t the clip fall out somewhere in the last 198 miles   

3.   Why did it wait until it was in Bills garage to drop the clip       

These cars never cease to amaze me, I swear they are alive. See last months column.

It turned out to be a great weekend as I took Bill’s Acura (2006 – 147k miles) and followed his Speedster to NC and had a great time. There were lots of Tubs from the eastern states and the weather was clear and sunny all week. The Puddle Jumper missed a great Holiday but I didn’t.

A good friend who attended the Holiday was heading to Boston from NC  with an empty trailer to pick up a 356 so for the cost of a dinner he scooped up the Puddle Jumper in Maryland and brought it back to Mass for me. Aren’t car friends great?  Repair report to follow.

-Tom Tate

/by
,

2023 Martha and Charlie Dow Rally

Another successful Dow Rally is history! Our decision to switch from Saturday to Sunday turned out well as we had a perfect early Fall day for our 25 cars (we lost a few due to the day switch and maybe we were competing with the Treehouse Cars and Coffee!). The Dow family was represented by Eric, Daryl and Hannah who not only competed buy helped with the set up and scoring.

The gimmick questions this year were particularly tricky and I was amazed that 3 rallyers got all 25 correct. (Example:  One question asked for the name of an airfield.  The airfield was for model airplanes and the very small sign announcing it was parallel rather than perpendicular to the road.) The three way tie required the winner to be determined by the “distance travelled” tie-break.

So the winner is…”Team Trouble” (Matthew  Disanzo and Adriana Cabrera).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second place went to the “Haulin’ Halls” (Jen and Steve Hall – Jen who is on the NER DE social team and don’t forget to vote for Steve for Membership Chair).

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other team with a perfect score (but too many miles on the odometer) was Laura and Mike Dugas.

Honorable mention goes to Bob and Donna Metafora who, after 40 years of PCA membership, came to their first event and missed only one question.

The other contest this year was “Best Car Origin Story.”  As the cars were sent off every two minutes, rallyers had the opportunity to tell me how they came to own the car they were driving. There were some good ones!  A number of folks mentioned a pandemic inspiration (Jen Hall – “Therapy on Wheels”). One driver pointed to his navigator and said “The car is stolen and she’s the hostage.” But the trophy went to Rob Ruffin who told the elaborate tale of purchasing his European spec 911 from Tom Frisardi.

Many thanks to Minuteman Airfield in Stow for hosting us. And thanks to Anker berg-Sonne for all the heavy lifting, Matt Labovites for route planning and Dave Berman for clever question creation.

/by

Palmer Goes the Proper Way

NER’s final DE of the season took place September 23-25th at Palmer Motorsports Park (our home track). This time we went counter-clockwise as god intended. Your loyal scribe (the job is called “DE Crier” like “Town Crier”) was there only on Friday (he is on the PUP list) but his spies filled in the details of the whole weekend.

Friday, the day I attended, was for signed off drivers only and featured two special training exercises plus a classroom on proper passing technique. The purpose of these exercises was to get people comfortable driving off line, handling late passes and passing in the corners.

The first exercise involved pairing up drivers who then drove the course at 50-70% speed but side by side maintaining a distance of no less than 4 feet between them:  the inside car would hit each apex but will not track out at all. The car on the outside would stay wide at the apex and maintain the 4-6 feet distance between the two cars.

The other exercise, also with drivers paired up, was taking late passes. Again cars were paired up but now with one in front and the other trailing.  The front car would give a late point by (late meaning towards the end of each straight). As usual, the car giving the point would stay on line and the car taking the pass would go off line. Typically, that means the overtaking car is on the inside of the turn. Because the pass is late, the overtaking car will hit the apex and then stay tight to the inside of the track. Once the overtaking car can clearly see the other car in their rear view or side view mirror and verify there is plenty of room, they can get back on line. The car being overtaken stays wide of the apex.

All of those I spoke with thought the exercises were well designed and useful. Thanks to Dave Berman and Charlie Kenney for putting this together.

As usual your Crier chatted with (and probably bored to tears) a number of participants in order to get some human interest stories. Oddly enough all of these involved folks not driving Porsches.  Eric referred to his Corvette as “a poor man’s GT3” and I think he may have a good point. Brand disloyalty aside he was very complimentary of the organization of our events, saying they were better managed and organized than DE’s by other clubs.

Ana, who drives a track prepped VW GTI, seconded Eric’s comments. She has been doing DE’s for three years and has moved up the ranks quickly – was getting check out rides for promotion to Black. She particularly felt our educational work (classrooms, the training exercises, run group system) separated our program from others, particularly the SCCA Track Nights in America which lacked our structure.

 

As a BMW E36 driver, I had to drool over Christophe’s heavily modified example (engine from an E46 among other goodies). He also was highly complimentary of our DE program (although I suspect he showed his heels to a few GT3 and GT4 drivers). He runs with other PCA regions and likes us best.

 

And certainly one of the highlights of the weekend was our club’s participation in the Just Hands Foundation program (https://justhands.org/.)  As per their website…

“The Just Hands Foundation will give anyone who uses hand controls to drive (usually people in wheelchairs) the opportunity to get on to a track with an instructor!!

Few (if any?) sports give the disabled the opportunity to compete with the rest of the world. Yes, we can ski, do marathons, play basketball, and myriad other sports. But unfortunately we are held to a small group we can compete against. More so, options like arrive-and-drive and racing schools only have pedal cars. 

Motorsports makes everyone equal, no matter what appendages you use to drive!!”

Just Hands brought a car for Carol to drive.   With support of the “pit crew,” Carol was able to drive a 2015 Cayman for her first event.  With the help of Kristin as her instructor, she was driving consistent laps by midday on Sunday.  The smile at the end of each run session says it all.

 

Finally, the mandatory dog picture – our ambulance crew from National Ambulance (thank you for your service and thankfully you were not needed!) Brie and Liz with the Binder’s dog Blue.

And promotions…

Green to Yellow

Lev Tabenkin

Jim Martin

 

Yellow to Blue

Kyle Seaman

 

Blue  to White

Scott Stawas

Stephen Hall

 

White to Black

Ana Malone Oliver

Paul Skinner

 

 

 

/by

2023-09 Board Meeting Minutes

September 2023 Board Meeting Minutes
The September board meeting was held on the 12th at 6:30 PM via Zoom video conference.
In attendance:
Robert Jacobsen – President
Bailey Bishop – Treasurer
Kristin Larson – VP Driving
Lisa Burke – Membership Chair
Erick Aubin – Secretary
Glenn Champagne – VP Administration
Betty Mae Mosley – VP Administration
Luis Rivera – VP Communications
Bill Seymour – Past President

The August Meeting Minutes had been posted to Freedcamp prior to the meeting. A discussion
of club activities, events, and general business followed.


Motion to accept treasurer’s report.
Approved.

General Business
The nominating committee has selected potential successors to fill all open roles for
2024. The slate will be published to all members by two forms of communication by
October . Ballots by start of Nov. Email blast with election slate or nominees in next
week. Gala, Dow, Treehouse in blast.

Treasurer
Year to date revenue discussed. Last month’s numbers experienced timing delay in
clubreg. Reviewed HPDE profit and loss so far as well as subsidized social. Discussed
Calabogie revenue loss. VP driving to share subsidy sheet with the board (has not
increased in 6 years).

Administration
Yet to get date from Paul Russell – aiming for November.
New Porsches and coffee Oct 8 th set up at Treehouse Brewery in Charlton, potential for
food truck offered. Hope to set up monthly event.
Gala ticket price will remain at $95 each.

New location being sought for annual newcomers meeting – ideally there will be 2 per
year, with typical late March early April timeframe. 95-100 people.
Winter warmer discussed.
Event strategy meeting will be set for new year, possible target demographics by event
type.

Membership
Membership numbers stable. Plan to transition to new board representative and consolidate
roles that were rearranged previously for email blasts.
Discussed need to organize Red book including digital asset documentation and prepare for
2024 board member transition plan. Board members who are leaving to make sure access rights
and platform info is in red book.

Driving
Talk of cancelling Calabogie to be continued in DE meeting.
Autocross on track. Ramble, Dennis optimistic in effort to find new ramble-meister.
Dow rally moving along.

Communications
September events posted.
Larry and Paul Soares continue to help with social engagement.
Comms seat candidate on still interested.
Google, traffic trend analytics will be partial until G4 catches up for a full year. Seeing
80% of traffic vs last year. Discussed whether related to change in email frequency last
fall.

The Club’s monthly Board meetings are planned for the second Tuesday of each month at
6:30PM.

Club members may attend any of the monthly Board meetings. Please contact the Club
Secretary ([email protected]) in advance of the meeting to confirm your attendance
and the meeting time and place.

/by

NER’s Annual Trip to Watkins Glen

 

Greetings track fans and those who live vicariously in their easy chair. The words you are reading are from a pinch hitter for your DE Crier Bill Seymour who is unfortunately nursing a bad back and was unable to attend the Watkins Glen event this year. I know this was a big blow to this “seasoned” track driver as this is his favorite track (as well as mine). It is a hike to get there for my wife Pam & I but the seven and a half hours it takes us to get there hauling the trailer is worth every mile. We actually had one of our first dates in 1973 coming to WGI for the Formula One. This year may be the exception as our car broke on Friday afternoon of the three day event. Despite that disappointment, we were able to spend time with many of our dear friends that we have met over the years participating in this unusual way to get an adrenaline rush. And, of course, a night at the “world” famous Seneca Lodge restaurant and bar. A must see attraction every year for us. We missed our good friend Stan Corbett this year who was having cataract surgery so he could drive faster! He has been a fixture at this track ever since I started doing DE events. He’ll be back at Palmer.

 

As it turned out, despite an iffy forecast, the weather was great for all three days. As a regular participant at this event this is not the norm. The only session affected by the weather was the last session of the day on Sunday when the track shut down due to lightning in the area. The NER track committee did it’s usual fantastic job of organizing and running the event with all it’s moving parts. The Saturday evening dinner at the Iroquois Lodge in the state park was amazing. The social committee, Judy Mansing and Pam Mascetta delivered once again with a fabulous meal catered by Dinosaur Barbeque from Rochester NY. They brought in their big trailer and smoked ribs, brisket and chicken wings for 7 hours on site. All who attended left with full bellies and smiles.  

 

Other shoutouts go to Dave Berman and Tim Canfield who ran three classroom sessions addressing 1) General Safety, 2) Passing Etiquette and 3) Better Braking. These efforts reflect an increasing emphasis on providing not just good in-car instruction but also general knowledge for all driver levels. Dave also led a well-received track walk on Friday night. Oh, and Charlie did a good job too.

 

A number of drivers were promoted over the three days and two new instructors were brought into the corps. Chris Braun and Buzz Bean are now going to wear red wrist bands and impart their knowledge and experience onto novice drivers for years to come. It takes years of DE experience and passing a rigorous development program to reach this goal. Congrats! More instructors mean we can accommodate more drivers in the novice run groups. If you aspire to become an instructor seek out and talk with Bob Hollis and/ or Matthew Wallace to be put on their radar.

 

Advancing two levels, Yellow to White 

  • Matt Murphy
  • Chris Kanner

White to Black

  • Jesse MacKoul
  • Stephen DiCato

Blue to White

  • Brandon George
  • Benjamin Zendejas
  • Raphael Kouyoumdjian

Yellow to Blue

  • Catherine Monoxelos
  • Ted Nivison
  • Suhas Chavannavar
  • Joseph Groom

Green to Yellow

  • Ian Forman
  • Michael Skinner
  • Rafael Jennings
  • Jim Freiman

Dennis Mascetta

Temporary DE Crier

/by

Four Speeds and Drum Brakes – An Amish Country Drive

I joined a group of 356 owners who were treated to a great weekend hosted by Cliff and Jean Murray in Lancaster PA. We shared some perfect Porsche roads with the Amish in their horse and buggies. Passing was allowed and extra power wasn’t needed as we followed routes set up to see the best of the PA countryside.

The first day had the group passing through 6 covered bridges with leisurely stops along the way.

We rolled past many one room schoolhouses and Amish fields and gardens so perfect that they would make a Concours Judge gasp.  We learned why there is always clothes hanging out to dry (with 6-12 kids every day except Sunday is wash day) and spotted solar panels on farms that are not connected to the PA electrical grid.  

Local restaurants were a joy with low prices and excellent food. The produce was from the nearby farms and had spent no travel time getting  to our plates.  

The second day was more of the same but with even better views of the Susquehanna River valley and even more covered bridges.

Dinner on Saturday night was in Mount Joy, PA at Bube’s Brewery just a short drive from the hotel. Some diners were treated to dinner in the Catacombs 46 feet below the street level, the rest of us were upstairs next to the 5000 gallon barrels used to store beer since 1876 when the Brewery was started.

Breakfast Sunday morning was provided free by our hosts (did I mention that they did it every morning?) as we set off onto the Interstate to do battle with modern day traffic. A big difference from the welcoming roads in Amish country. All in all a terrific, relaxing weekend drive without a single breakdown by our Tubs.  

 Nice report, huh? That was the one for publication on the 356 Registry site. Of course there was a little more to it than that.

 I took the ’57 sunroof coupe since the engine hasn’t been completed for the Speedster. Besides, some weather was predicted and the coupe is more weather tight. Especially for a 800 mile drive.

Faithful readers will remember that this is the 356 that snapped a clutch cable in NY last Fall on another drive and was repaired in a parking lot. It got me home and I did put it on the Winter Projects List since the clutch needed additional adjustment but I didn’t get to it. A week before leaving for PA I did get a chance to pull up the cocoa mats, floor mats and floorboards and tighten the cable but didn’t have time for a  test drive. How bad could it be? It felt OK up on the lift with its wheels in the air.

 As I rolled down the driveway I did detect a slight chatter in the clutch but it was only in first gear and how often do you use first gear on an 800 mile road trip? I knew what the problem was so it really didn’t bother me. There is a heavy cable covering called a Bowden Tube that protects the clutch cable and requires a bit of a bow in it to reduce chatter when the clutch is released. I had adjusted the cable but not the tube. I figured I could put up with it since I knew what the problem was. It’s amazing what you can put up with if you know what the problem is.

 I had the Puddle Jumper on a trickle charger all winter but somewhere in March the little light came on that said it wasn’t taking a charge. I tried the lights and horn, they were fine and it started up just fine so I figured that the connection to the charger was just corroded. It wasn’t until I was in Lancaster PA the second day that the starter went click, click, click instead of vroom, vroom. I had a jump box along so I just jumped it and drove over to the local Tractor Supply store.

 I keeping with the good experience I’ve had with the ‘72 911 I just bought another garden tractor battery for $30 and off I went. I knew the expired battery was old but it wasn’t until I got home that I found the 2011 receipt. Great service.  Car batteries have doubled in cost the last 5 years and a regular car battery was $130 so it was good to be able get away for cheap, and it fit in perfectly.

 The return trip on a Sunday afternoon was smooth until Waze told me to take the GW Bridge to get home.  I have tried to outwit Waze before and have never been right but the GW Bridge in Sunday afternoon? There had to be bigger problems on the Tappen Zee or Newberg route so I followed instructions. Remember when I said the clutch chatter wouldn’t be a problem on a road trip? This was not a road trip now. It was a walking trip that went across the bridge one car length at a time, stopping every 17 feet and starting again. An hour and 20 minutes later I went into second gear. I wasn’t easy but I made it. The 5 hour ride down was a 7 hour ride back.

 Two  days later I pulled off the left rear wheel, adjusted the Bowden Tube and we’re friends again. No trace of a chatter. Live and learn (again), test drives are important.

-Tom Tate

/by
, ,

The Wrong Direction at Palmer

Palmer Clockwise – NER’s Second DE Event June 9-11

Ok, I’m a bum.  My car broke at Thompson and I wasn’t sure I would be ready for Palmer so I didn’t sign up at first.  By the time I knew I was OK my calendar had filled up (or “been filled” to be more accurate) so I could only go on Sunday.  Fortunately that turned out to be the best weather day – another perfect 70 degree and sunny day just like Thompson.  Then I got there and was really busy being slow.  I really don’t like the clockwise direction and – despite pedaling as fast as I dared – I was almost 4 seconds slower than my best going counter-clockwise.  No excuses and I still had a fun time chasing others and having some good rides as part of the check-out/advancement process.  I’ll do better at the second Palmer when we go CC.

 

 

So I didn’t take any pictures, didn’t get any good stories (well maybe one) and have no idea what happened on Friday or Saturday.  The pictures are courtesy of Melanie Randall, the text below is from Charlie Kenney and the advancement from Dave Berman…

 

 

“Team, Another excellent event by this team at Palmer! Thank you!!!

All TC members contributed to a great event. Pre-event registrations, Tech, on the track, Instructor Development, in the classrooms. [Note from author:  lots of classroom – even for instructors – it was nice and cool inside and someone I know fell asleep.]

Judi, Pam and Jen set a high bar for the social and dinner!!! You had me at Palm tree.

 And Social Media!!! and now our T-shirt’s are collectors items!

Shout out to all who researched and compiled and delivered the training materials and the classroom education! We are getting good feedback on our classes from all groups. Green to Red. This is a LOT of off hours work. It shows. Videos are making an impression!

Where would we be without Sally and Buzz managing Worker Assignments? The answer is ‘lost’.

Dave and Mike:  awesome job on management of the instructor corps, the promotions and sign offs and the Mentoring.

We are seriously underpaid for the level of professionalism in this team!

Calabogie – ADAM SCHWARTZ makes a return as Track Chair and overall event manager. 
Please contact Adam for all questions on Calabogie and you are welcome to cc me.

Have fun in Canada for those going!  Charlie”

 

Advancements…

Placement in White (first time driving with us)

Dave Veracka

New Instructors: 

Jim Daley

Green to Yellow:

Bobby Lemieux

Alexis Regan

Yellow to Blue:

Ted Emerson

Blue to White:

Jason Loy

White to Black:

Kurt Drottar

Niket Anjaria

Christian Lesuisse

Final story:  Bad luck of the weekend award to Aaron Walker and good Samaritan award to Mike Woodward.  The story… Aaron tows his new (to him) GT3 to the track on Saturday with his Rivian pickup.  Throw out bearing goes south early in the day.  Rivian is out of charge so Aaron puts it on a charger near Palmer and takes an Uber home.  Drives back same day in second GT3 (who the hell has two GT3’s?  sometimes the world is not fair!).  Rivian is charged and Aaron uses it to bring home GT3 #1.  Aaron hooks a ride to track Sunday morning with Mike (who also is his instructor and a very brave soul).  In next to last run session GT3 #2 has a water hose split.  [More author note:  I was on the track at the same time, smelled anti-freeze and had a slight dance.  When I looked at video it became cloudy at that point and I had apparently run threw a cloud of mist despite the fact that Aaron was not immediately ahead of me.  Odd.] Aaron with help from Mike and Dave Berman wraps split hose with duct tape and zip ties and nurses it home while Mike follows with trailer (in case the wrap doesn’t hold plan is to take Mike’s car from trailer, put Aaron’s car in trailer and drive Mike’s car – which has a plate – home on the street). Aaron claims he got 20 miles per gallon of water which is better than his gas mileage. You can’t make this stuff up.

 

Fine German Engineering!
/by