The Mitty
Road Atlanta

Thu Apr 25

We brought only two cars to Atlanta for the Mitty; Jim Kitzmiller's killer AP Corvette and Clair's red, white and blue BP car.

We got our favorite paddock spot for this, one of our favorite races.

Test day this year at the Mitty was only going to be three sessions.  Initially the cars both ran OK, but Clair's was a little light on oil pressure.  We turned up the bypass adjustment. 

Jim's car was loose, so Edward started tweaking on it.  We removed one leaf on the rear spring, put a galvanized pipe sleeve on the front sway bar and turned up the rebound on the rear shocks.  That did it, and he was set to break all records!

Edward drove the #37 car in the first session and laid down a 1:33 for Clair to shoot for.  Edward said there was a 1:31 in the car with new tires and another session or two. Clair only got one session in his car, and that ended when the shifter all but fell off, and caused him to get first gear when he was looking for third on the back straight.  It hit 10,000 RPM.  we checked the valves and the in-line filter and everything looked normal.

Fri Apr 26

Rain was forecast most of the day, and it was raining big time early. Clair went out on a wet track in Qual 1 to see if the engine was OK, and decided it was. After the rain, it began clearing with a north wind of 20 knots, gusting to 40!

The second qualifying session saw Edward run a 1:30.6, 3.9 seconds clear of Jody, the next qualifier. Clair ran a 1:36.3, good for 7th.

Clair let a couple of overeager Porsches by in Turn one, but quickly passed them back. The race had 43 starters and only lasted four laps but there was already lapped traffic for the leaders as ten cars only got in three laps!

Clair eventually finished sixth with a fastest lap of 135.1.

Sat Apr 27

Edward didn't run the last Qual session as he was comfortably on pole. Clair lowered his time to 1:35.0, for 5th overall! Pretty great for a small block! he did, however have an exciting session...

The new car of Scott Borchetta lost it approaching turn 10A and literally flew into Clair's right rear fender, knocking it off and in pieces. Both drivers were OK. We fixed the missing fender in the usual manner (left), but Scott was finished for the weekend.

Jeremy Clough of Vette Magazine (and Superior Court Judge) introduced himself and then spent the rest of the weekend photographing and 'interviewing' us for an article he had been asked by his editor to write.

In the first Sprint race, Edward left Jody and turned the fastest lap ever run by a Group 5 car at Atlanta, a 1:29.083 on Hoosiers. Clair made a good start, finished fourth, and got down to a 134.6.

Sun Apr 28

Alan was to start the 0800 enduro third, and he was a little nervous about that as he had only one short session in the car.

He lost one place at the start and then stayed in fourth for his whole stint. He eventually got into the 1:35'sand 25 minutes into the race the car belched out of turn 7 and had to be nursed it back to the trailer. The post had broken off the one-wire alternator, and the MSD wouldn't work on the battery. We bought a new alternator.

In the Feature Race, Edward did his usual thing and again blew away everyone, opening up a 14 second lead by lap three.

Clair turned a 1:34.2and was in third place half way through the race with a good lead on Mike Donohue when he lost it in Turn 2 and went a couple hundred yards down the hill on the grass before finding a tire wall.

We had it and it slipped away. We almost won both ends of the Mitty, AP and BP.