After a thoroughly ugly race at Road America in July, we came to Road Atlanta with two new cars.
Edward Sevadjian and Jim Kitzmiller hustle down the back straight at Road Atlanta Our number 38 black roadster is the first of hopefully a long run of new old 1969 Corvettes built from the ground up by Duntov Motor Company. While this car was under construction, Jim Kitzmiller came by our shop and asked us to make a coupe just like it. Atlanta September 2010 was the maiden voyage for both these cars, and was Jim’s first trip to Road Atlanta in anything.
It is a really tough job to have to learn Road Atlanta in a car as fast and powerful as Jim’s. He got the weekend behind him, and is looking forward to his next round at our favorite track.
Due to a severe cold, Edward was far from 100%. Our Crew Chief, John Farnsworth was also ill with the same bug, and on Saturday we sent both Edward and John to the hospital. For the first time ever, John was too sick to watch the races. He just slept in the toter home.
As is often the case with a brand new car, the black #38 car showed a few gremlins the first time out. We used all four sessions of Thursday’s test day along with every other session of the weekend tweaking on the car. We even entered the enduro an hour before the race to use it as an expensive additional test session. Edward was at the hospital, so Alan started from the pole and led the first 6 laps before retiring, happy to declare the car race ready!
At the front of the false Grid prior to the American International Challenge race Edward won both Group 5 races, but he was not feeling up to running the American International Challenge. Alan pinch hit, and led every lap right up until Dennis Olthoff rammed the side of the #38 car under the bridge on the very last lap. Here is the in-car video of the last lap from the exit of turn 7 to the checkered flag.
Other than that, the weekend was a great launch for Duntov’s new racecar. It is no small task to win the first time out, but we knew as we left Road Atlanta just how much faster we would be when our car is fully sorted and developed. This race was our first race with Tony Dowe as our Chief Engineer, and we gave him a great platform on which he would no doubt apply his magic!
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