RSTPerformanceRacing

ok here is another stab at this, and adding more detail!!!

What a long weekend. First I went to load my racecar after a long week of rebuilding the car trying to find the "bug" that caused problems at the last race. I thought it was fixed and as I went to load the car onto the trailer I heard the sputter (bug) again. I worked on the car all Thursday night and was finally packed at about 3:00am. Amanda (my girlfreind) and I left for Lime Rock feeling that we had accomplished nothing. Friday morning came and they we were still on the road as the sun came up. I pulled into the track just before registration opened, so we were first in line!!! Once registered we got the car unloaded and started to prepare for the weekend with the rest of the team (who had come down earlier on Thursday).

In the morning practice session it was obvious that the bug was still in my car. The crew worked on the car all day changing out all additional parts that could be the issue. They found a potential problem; the negative feed on the coil seemed to be loose inside the coil. After deciding that could be the problem everyone got excited for qualifying. Stephen ran well, but not as fast as he would have liked, placing 8th in class on the grid. I was very happy that the "bug" was gone however a new one had come... every time I went around a right hand corner (which their is a lot of at Lime Rock!!!) the car would shut off. On the cool down lap going around the last turn, pulling into the pit lane the car filled with smoke, and it was apparent that it was on fire. I shut down the car and got out quickly. To end this long story the problem was the positive feed leading to the starter had fallen off the starter and was grounding out onto the engine block. In the last turn it welded itself to the engine and caught the wire on fire. That night we spent several hours re wiring the car. Despite the car shutting off I was able to turn in my fastest lap ever at Lime Rock wich was only one tenth of a second behind Stephen (that put me 9th in class on grid, 13th overall)
The Race on Saturday, Stephens decided to prove why he should be the 2003 NARRC Champion. By the end of the first lap he was up to 3rd place in ITB. He continued to pressure the 2nd place car (long time racer Rick Pocock in an Alfa Romeo Spider) until Rick spun off the track in the left-hander. This left the door wide open for Stephen as he went on to pursue the first place car. The leading ITE car lapped Stephen, just as he was catching up to the first place ITB car. Just after Stephen was lapped a full course yellow flag came out, and the leader in ITB (who was not lapped) went around to the tail end of the field 3/4 of a lap ahead of Stephen. When the green flag dropped Stephen held on to his position for a solid 2nd place finish.

I didn't do quite as well... We had made an adjustment to the suspension and the car was not handling as well as it had in qualifying. After the first lap I had moved up and was battling for 5th and 6th place. On lap three however I tried to out brake 2 other cars on the inside going into big bend (turn 1). Unfortunately they didn't make the turn wide enough and I didn't quite make the turn. I did slow the car enough as to not hit anything however I fell way back into the field and had to work my way back up (this at least is fun!!!). I was up to 9th place in class when the full course yellow came out. Unfortunately 6 cars past me after the yellow was displayed, and none of the corner workers or stewards saw the passes, so I once again was forced to fight my way back to the front. I crossed the line side by side (inches behind) with Tim Mullen (VW GTI). I ended up finishing in 8th place when the results came out. I did protest the "passing under yellow" as it was blatantly illegal and on in car video. However because the protest was not handled correctly bye the stewards, final results were posted before the protest was resolved. Because of this the only option of penalty was to place drivers on probation and/or worse. Because I am understanding of mistakes I did not pursue the protest any further and let it go as a final warning to all (Their was 3 similar cases last year as well).

So anyway we had a tough weekend but finished ok with one 2nd place and one 8th place. Stephens 2nd place hasn't quite locked up the NARRC championship yes but with another 4th place or better finish he will win!!! So as a team we are very happy with the season thus far.

oh I forgot to mention that we had 21 ITB cars show up!!! Lots of tough compeditors.

Anyway thatnks for all the support!!!

Raymond Blethen
RST Performance Racing

Liam in Montreal

good writeup