- Left Toronto
Saturday afternoon (week before the race) - arrived in Sebring 26hrs later, non-stop driving minus a 'detour' when we missed a turn near Pittsburgh and an intentional bikini-hunting detour at Daytona Beach (only thing we saw were Canadians!!, could have seen that at home!...at the pool).
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Monday&Tuesday - these were 'test' days for the cars - in the past the group of us Canadians that travel down for the event work these days - last year we got a few weekend passes as 'remuneration'. This year things were different and only 'employees' of Sebring Raceway would be compensated, and $60/day at that - minus income tax at the end of they year. Being Canadians, we could not work in the USA. We would have 'worked'(volunteered) for free had they asked in advance but this was an insult (last year we got $350 worth of tickets for 2 days 'worked'). Our fellow American friends who work our 'Eh-Team'(get it?!!) also refused to work, based on principle. A bit of a downer... but being Canadians, we look on the bright side of things ----> TWO WHOLE DAYS OF DRINKING INSTEAD!! Woo-hoo!
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Wednesday - I worked up by the drive-over bridge. Awesome spot, you flag right from the painted line at the edge of the track.
WHERE IS THE LOTUS?
Thanks to McGruff for providing 'refreshments' for the entire crew at the end of the day.
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Thursday - WHERE IS THE LOTUS?
Working driver's right from T3 to T5; nothing major, but quite a few spins exiting 3 that needed our assistance to direct traffic. Found out after that lots of photos were taken this afternoon that include us in the background!
Here's a pic of me (I'm in white, left side of photo), taken on Thursday afternoon by 'ShelbyGuy'.
- Dinner break (fajitas grilled trackside for us!), followed by night practice. After eating, I hopped over the fence in search of the
SebringFans.com party. Found it! Met TDDWest & Sack-U, and Guido, and a few others. Went up on the trailer and admired the view I was missing from down below! Couldn't stick around long as the ALMS night-practice was just about to start. Got back to T4/5 and the cars came out. Had fun demonstrating to an experienced blue-flagger that looking directly into oncoming headlights makes for very difficult blue-flagging. Took notes and came up with a way to determine & differentiate at least 35 of the 46+/- cars in the field based primarily on headlight colour/intensity/position and any other minor visual 'cues'.
- Thanks to both sets of fans who provided refreshments at the end of the evening. In fact thanks to the 2nd fan who insisted that the 1st stuff we got was 'shít' and that we each deserved a bottle of Grolsch instead/as well. No better way to return to camp that double-fisting it.
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Friday - WHERE IS THE LOTUS? Ah... finally, some laps. Shoulda stayed at home!
I worked T3 for the morning ALMS session, then headed to the paddock for my ALMS Pit Reporting assignment. After a brief meeting, I headed to the pits where a Vintage session was wrapping up. Then the big boys came out, not much happened, but working in the pits was a different & welcome perspective.
- Got a few autographs on the 'PARK IT HERE WE KEEP IT <-->' banner that we had made up (and that was posted on the fence under the bridge at 6 on raceday!), then took a quick tour of the paddock before the mandatory autograph session started. I was on a mission - get as many drivers as possible to autograph the banner. I was successful, the only guys I missed in the session were the Corvette Team, but they had signed it the day before. All the drivers thought it was the funniest thing they'd seen all week, which is saying a lot, as this was Sebring!!- Headed back to Turn3, mission completed. Worked the Speed World Challenge Touring & GT races, and the Cooper open-wheel race, where some stupid fan tossed a beer bottle on the track during the 1st lap from the drive-over-bridge.
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Friday night - GREEN PARK HERE WE COME!
After much alcohol back at camp, my friend Dineen offered to take me & a couple of others on a tour of 'the Zoo'. She is an ultra-cool chick and takes no shít from anyone. We parked at Marty-the-Mayor-of-Corner-2(of Mosport)'s camp, and first stop was the
Tiki-Bar. Was that ever cool! Saw the Fountain (also cool), and the
F-Troop camp. Went to the road to the drive-over to watch beads being thrown and breasts being bared. Very disappointed that most the trucks were full of guys only... though did get a laugh that these trucks would be lit by 1TRILLION candle-watt-power of flashlight-light in the hopes that there would be a female cowering in there somewhere!
- lost one of our friends shortly after arrival at Green Park. We sent out a search party, but no luck. In the end I went up on the F-Troop concert stage and got someone to make an announcement: "Dave H.. if you're out there, the 'Eh-Team' misses you very much. Please return back to base immediately .. (whatever that means??)" haha, that was classic -- too bad Dave had stumbled all the way back to the SCCA building outside the gates on foot already so he missed it!
- returned back to base, slept -- had to be up by 6:15 for a morning meeting at 6:30
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Saturday - Woke up, no hangover- awesome!
We go out to the corner (T4/5 again) and just as we are about to start, there is a delay - SHERIFFS ON THE TRACK. They were down at Turn7 examining the tire-wall. Then after about 10mins, they go to T8, then T9, then T10. Time is ticking... then they come visit us. They are **LOOKING FOR A BOMB**. "Seen anyone suspicious??" they ask. ("Duh, this is Sebring, EVERYBODY is suspicious!", i was thinking). They checked every stack of tires in our tire wall, then went across track and did the same. Shít that's pretty scary stuff. General concensus was - let's get on with the racing, if shít happens, shít happens.
As TeamTampa says:
- First session finally underway. Not much happens. I head to the pits for ALMS pit-reporting meeting. On the way back to the corner, I pass a demolished Panoz(GT)-- seems I missed the excitement - shoulda known, T4/5 is a magnet each year for Panoz destruction during their race!
- Race start! Woo-hoo - can't believe every made it through with no incidents! Continues as such for most the morning. Had a Porsche spin at T5, sitting duck, decides to drive forward just as another car passes by, ripping off a few inches from his front-end. Other cars spins to DL towards 6, but is able to continue. Later a Panoz spins in the same place, is high-sided and we have the FCY of the day.
- Around 3:45pm, I head to the pits. Change into a firesuit and go to my pit-in assignment. This was kinda cool - my job is to radio in what cars enter the pit-lane, and at what time. Great viewing location under the walk-over bridge! Great view of a Dyson turbo-fire when it came in (twice!).
- Around 7:30ish head to my pit-assignment. At this point only left cars in my 'zone' are the #10LMP2, the #30%Intersport, and the #63Saleen.
All the cars come in a few times with problems, except the #10. It finally pulls in some time after 9pm. Driver change, no fuel, no tires. Team looks very happy. They are so far ahead in their class, their going to sit and let the clock run out. Over in the Intersport pit, I interview Larry Connor whose hand in bandaged -- turns out they had a steering alignment issue when he got in earlier and the wheel was 90 degrees off! He'd been fighting the wheel all stint and his hand is now 'hamburger' to use his words! Later, on his next stint, the car stalls leaving the pit, and then comes back in 2 laps later, this time permanently (cylinder gone).
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End of the race! Head down to victory podium area. Riff-raff are kept outside the white pickett fence, fortunately I'm let in! I interview Johnny Herbert, David Brabham and JJ Lehto. Get sprayed with champagne a couple of times then once all interviews are done, I head off to get changed. Return to the Media Center, hand in my reports and then head off to a party at the Pirelli trailer. Ribs & Beer -- that hits the spot, thanks, Charlie! Got to bed around 2am! long day!
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Sunday - Take my sweet time getting up. I deserve it!
Pack up our tents, say goodbyes to fellow Canucks and our hosts at the SCCA campsite, wash the car, then we head off for Toronto.
- find a all-you-can-eat brunch in Lake Wales for $9.99 including alcohol (peach/orange & champagne!). Stuff ourselves silly.
- Just north of Ocala on the US301, we came upon a nasty 4-vehicle crash at an intersection. It had happened less than 2 minutes before we got there. 2 cars upside down, 1 guy visible upside down inside not moving. Traffic barely slowed as it weaved around the crashed vehicles blocking the intersection! Hope it was not fatal, but gut says it was.
- Virginia - snow! damn, thought it was Spring already!
- W. Viriginia - BLIZZARD. could not even see any tire tracks on the road it was snowing so hard. I continued anyhow, consuming copious amounts of chocolate-covered coffee beans to keep me alert.
- Got home just after 4pm Monday afternoon. Away for 10 days(inclusive), 2950MILES travelled, and a ton of fun!
Bring it on, Sebring 2005!!P.S. if anyone finds a pic of our 'PARK IT HERE WE KEEP IT' banner, please email, PM, or post here!!You can see it hanging on the right-fence here (again courtesy of ShelbyGuy):
