Conference oass::racers

    
    A bit quiet in here.
    
    Mercedes won in Dijon and Nurburgring recently(ish), so nothing much
    changes.
    
    Re a few back - It hasn't rained properly at Le Mans for about 10
    years!
    
    Re Nissan Vs Toyota at Le Mans. I think the 24 Nissan actually took
    out the 'back-marking' Toyota in a rather foolhardy move.
    
    Next race Donnington, UK on the 2nd of September.
    
    Mark

    Does anyone have the date of the Group C race in Montreal ?
    
    
    Steve

    
    	The race will take place September 23rd, with practice and
    	qualifying the 21st and 22nd.  When I spoke to the business
    	office at the track last Tuesday they still had not confirmed
    	what support races would be held.  Let me know if you need
    	more info.
    
    	Nate
    	DTN 381-0719
    

    Did Anybody else go to this race ?
    
    I don't think so as attendance was very poor. We were in the East
    end hair pin bleachers in the top row (row 12) we had the front
    row seats also.
    
    Clear but cool weather on Friday, Rained on Saturday and only a
    few teams saw fit to run. Sunday had a ray of sun and actually turned
    out as good weather.
    
    The Schlesser/Baldi Sauber Mercedes had it thier own way and could
    go faster at will. WSC 1:25's, F-1 was 1:22's.
    
    The Peugeot of Rosberg/Jabouille added that excitement with the
    sound of F-1. The sound should be really good next year. They started 
    12th up to 7th and back to 12th after a shunt. The race
    ended for Keke when the engine stopped dead at the end of the main
    straight maybe lap 50.
    
    The show on the whole was disappointing as the only support race
    was the GM Series (only 15 cars in the rain). Seemed like the
    organizers ran out of time for this one.
    
    The race was called short due to a man hole cover coming off and
    hitting  the 17 car of Sigala causing a chain reaction between teammate
    Larrauru and somebody else I'm not really sure who. The 17 Porsche
    caught fire and nothing was left when all the smoke cleared. Nobody
    hurt 
    
    The race was red flaged never to start again because they couldn't
    get the man hole safe ????? We felt sorry we only got to see half
    a race to finish off a low weekend anyway. 
    
    I had a look at the manhole for myself. There was another manhole 
    about 20 feet past the one that came off and the weld points looked 
    polished. I think the cars were bottoming and sanding down the welds. 
    The cover that came off may have been sanded all the way. Only my guess.
    
    I had never seen this type of racing before and enjoyed what I had
    seen. I will go back next year if they have it, I hope they do.
    
    Finish from my memory: (bad)
    
    	1. Schlesser/Baldi Mercedes
    	2. Bailey/Blundell Nissan
    	3. Schneider Kremer Porsche
    	4. Reuter Richard Lloyd Porsche
    
    	Jaguars out early with half shafts, both right in front of us.
    
    Sucker for a good race
    Fred
    

    We also went.  We were at the hairpin, on the grass.  I am certainly
    glad we didn't spring a few hundred $ for bleachers - not much return.
    IMHO, the program didn't justify the pricing schedule. 
   
    Also our first "C" event but we have been there for F1 many times.
    We took our 5 year old to her first car race.  She enjoyed the first
    half hour, until the first full course yellow. 
    
    I was confused about the full course yellows (there were three).
    I don't recall there ever being one in a F1 race.  Is this a "C"
    rule or new this year to all racing?  Or maybe my memory is bad.
    
    The new Peugot is certainly a beautiful car.  The program noted it was
    a '91 spec car but didn't note what the differences are between a '90
    and '91 car.  Keke was bumped and spun 180 just in front of us (at the
    hairpin).  He gunned the engine and flipped it around in a crowd
    pleasing maneuver.  A few laps later he parked it, again just in front
    of us so I got a good look at it.  It did not appear to be as smooth
    around the hairpin as the other cars.  They made Saturday slightly
    bearable by running many laps. 
    
    Interestingly, all three major road races on Sunday were red flagged
    with only Elkhart Lake restarted. 

    Gary

    	I think some of the full course yellows/red flags are due to an
    increased amount of caution by the stewards re. protection of corner
    workers. This as a repercussion of the Vancouver fatality. (although
    it would have taken a red to prevent that one; when you are on the
    track, you look at oncoming traffic before you move/run!)  The
    reasoning is partially humanitarian and partially financial: insurance
    rates go up when people are hurt.  - Chris, who has spent some time on
    track pushing cars (delete "some", add "lots of")

.47>    The show on the whole was disappointing as the only support race
.47>    was the GM Series (only 15 cars in the rain). Seemed like the
.47>    organizers ran out of time for this one.
    
    I think part (maybe more) of it may be that Canadian motorsports has
    been in tough shape this year, thanks to JMB and the FIA feud with
    CASC.  I took a look last spring at trying to put together a program in
    the GM/Players series and decided that it was just too much of a
    political zoo to be able to justify selling a prospect on sponsorship. 
    At that time there was no firm decision as to who would sanction races
    and licence the drivers for the GM series, and I believe the same
    situation was true for all the (semi-)pro supporting series.  The
    GM/Players series would be the one with the most clout and
    professionalism, so it's not surprising to me that it's the only one
    that you saw at Montreal (and with a low turnout at that).

    I agree, the CASC struggle (CASC has always been a problem) was the
    main part of the problem.
    
    Another problem I heard was the race was tentative until June or
    so and all the other series had their schedules in place. The FF
    guys have 3 local series, each with a differant tire sponsor, so
    they couldn't get together. F-Atlantic was locked in and not very
    good turn out at that. F-2000 was scheduled to capcity. etc.. we
    could have put in a kart race but I guess they didn't go that low
    in their look (we were booked too).
    
    Everybody was booked.
    
    The other problem was sponsorship. Players seemed to be on their
    own.
    
    I think every racer wants to run at this track and up until now
    could only get on it once a year. Now we have two chances.
    
    Next year if all goes well, all the Series will be vying for this race
    and package. I see it can only get better from here as long as players
    doesn't give up or is put out (no smoking), and the group "C" guys
    want to come back (?).
    
    Lots to be done this winter before next year.
    
    Fred
    
                                               

    
    Does anyone have results of the WSPC race at Mexico City?  Another
    Mercedes bash no doubt...
    
    Nate

    Is there a driver in IMSA, I believe by the name of Elliott
    Forbes (something). I can't remember his last name. Any help would be
    appreciated.
    
                                Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!
    
                                                       Mike

    re: .53
    
    >    Is there a driver in IMSA, I believe by the name of Elliott
    Forbes (something).
    
    	Elliott Forbes-Robinson, I believe...

    Yea, thats it! His sister is a bridal fair publisher down here and I
    met her for breakfast the other morning to discuss some business and we
    got on the subject of racing and she told me he was her brother. I had
    no idea who this guy was, only that his name sounded familiar. She kept
    telling me all these things about him, so I thought I would ask you
    guy's if you had heard of him. Is he any good, what does he drive?? I'm
    meeting her again friday morning.
    
    Thanks for the help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
                                                               M.J.

    re: EFR - what he drives...
    
    Hmm...I had no problem remembering the name, but I can't seem to
    remember what he drives. I may be wrong, but I think he may have
    driven in the {now defunct} Can-Am series about 5 years ago; more
    recently I believe he drove in IMSA GTP and maybe in the SCCA 
    Trans-Am series. I also seem to remember him being on one of
    Paul Newman's teams at one time. 
    
    	Can anyone else help on this? 
    
    
    Steve
    

If I remember correctly EFR drove a 924 turbo in the early 80's. It
was probably an IMSA GTO car. There were usually pretty bad reliablility
problems. I seem to remember the car crawling around Watkins Glen making
horrible noises for the first few laps of the race. After about 5 laps
it's race was over. From what I remember many of the races in that car
ended in DNF's.

    I think I remember EFR being a front runner for maybe two decades now. 
    I know he drove for one of the contending teams in the recent IMSA
    GTO/GTU event at Lime Rock last month but I can't remember which one. 
    I think he has driven for various factory teams including Nissan (or
    Datsun) way back when he was a club racer, also CanAm, GTP, etc. etc.
    
    In other words, he is a very well established competitive professional
    driver.  A recognized talent, if not a household name.

    It would take someone like you to come up with that. She's way too old
    for me(I take that back, not too old, she just don't interest me).
    Anyway, Scott and Chris were there also. B.A. you will soon be wishing
    for that kind of "business". :-) :-)
    
    On a more serious note........Thanks guys for replying, I will ask her
    more when I see her and let you guys know what he's been up to.
    
    Later!!!!!!!!!!
                                                                  M.J.

Well, I missed Del Mar. Does anybody know what happened?

that's what happens when you take night classes

    we had friends coming over for dinner so I taped it, haven't viewed it
    yet though.  I did catch one brief portion after I got out of the tub,
    nothing very interesting, just a spin by the leader (seemed to be out
    of contention) followed immediately by a pit stop by the new leader,
    who suffered a pit fire that knocked him out.  Sorry I wasn't paying
    enough attention to remember details, like who was who...
    you'll just have to wait for the tape (I'll loan it out, but only after
    I get to view it myself).
    

    Juan Manuel Fangio won GTP, Parker Stevenson (?) in Camel Lights.  Was
    not a terribly exciting race.  Cochran (the owner of the car the Little
    Al was to pilot after winning the pole) pulled a dumb stunt trying to
    pass the Camel Light Ferrari.  He did this in a corner with an enormous
    lead (approx. 20+ seconds) over his closest GTP rival.  Geoff Brabahm
    wrapped up the championship
    
    

    IMSA will allow Group C (1990 spec) cars to run in the Daytona and
    Sebring races next year, with unrestricted engines but also with the
    Group C fuel flow restrictions.  So, the C cars should be much faster
    than the GTPs in qualifying, but will not have much persistence at
    design speed against the GTPs and will have to back off to finish. 
    Aerodynamics will be an interesting area of comparison: the GTPs have
    higher drag and downforce, which should help at Sebring and in the
    Daytona infield, but the C cars have much lower drag and a much higher
    terminal speed, which might make the difference on Daytona's banks.

    Already, Nissan Performance Technology (which almost swiped the 1990 24
    Hrs. of Le Mans with its US-prepped team) has announced its intention
    to run the Group C R90 twin-turbo V-8 in the two races, and TWR is
    expected to bring along its Le Mans-spec XJR-12s, while some of the
    European Porsche teams are expected to show up as well.  Should make
    for an interesting opening act for the 1991 US racing season (11 weeks
    and counting).