Weather Related Stories

[Team_Tampa]

In reminiscing today about Sebrings past, I was wondering if anyone would like to share their favorite weather related story.  Anything from the Green Park mud bogs of the late 80's / early 90's, the red flagged race in 1993 to the No Name Storm of two years ago (2003).  Let's hear 'em!

[ezed]

Yeah I remember 93 that was the year I got thrown out! luckily I snagged one of my buddies ticket and a "pass out" slip. I was cowering under the trees outside the front gate trying to stay dry... I walked down the road toward 98 and hitched my way back in and kind of hid down in the back seat. Then I hid till nightfall. Man that sucked!

[KTJeffries]

I like to refer to two years ago as the monsoon. I dont remember many specifics about 93 other than it sucked. I was only 11 at the time...and remember the bitch fits my dad went on because sebring ruined another one of his highly calculated canopy structures...however, it taught me well...and when 2003 came around I was prepared. The big black sky rolling in like some heavenly plague. Standing outside under my canopy holding on just in case...me, my dad, and my friend zach soaked to the bone...holding a metal canopy in the midst of a horrid lightning storm...I was standing proud though, as I watched everyone else's shit get blown away...tents, easy ups, small children, etc...destroyed. The rain finally stopped, we all rejoiced and started surveying the damage...everything checked out...except one thing. I forgot to zip up my tent! So here I was...looking at a tent with 2 inches of water...the $350 eureka I bought because they're so great in bad weather...as long as you close the door. Everyone else was dry, everything survived unlike my dad's run in with '93. He was proud. As was I...but i'll never live down the bit with the tent.

[gulf917]

Oh there were some fantastic mud pits. One in paticular brings back great memories. The pit was huge, the rain was falling and a monster crowd created  a huge circle of drunks. As i recall the ring of people was awesome. Only large truck and jeeps could make it though. The occasional idiot in a car would try and of course get stuck and harassed by all the drunks. I rember jumping on the back of my buddies yellow CJ-5. It was full of my friends hanging on for dear life. We decided to blast through the pit and upon doing so lost one of our riders face first into the middle of the mud. She was a real cute chick too, but took it like a champ. We actually thought she was dead for a few seconds.

The red flag year was also memorable. The firehawk race was flagged Friday afternoon due to rain. They finally cleared them to start again after a few hours. The drivers were so amped up after sitting out for hours they restarted like crazy men. I have an RV in turn 1, and i have never seen so many drivers slam into the tire wall in front of us as the frist few laps of the restart. The cars would hit so hard, that water would splash up and hit us on top of the RV's. Honestly, there were 50 wall impacts in a half hour time period. Finally the track line dried up and the race continued. What a memorable experience. I will have to dig up pics of that.

[SACK-U]

I am right next to you and also saw that scene in turn 1.... It was cool.
Wasn't that the year when a car came down the S/F toward turn, and locked em up. The race car hit the wall so hard it knocked it back into a mercedes parked behind the wall and the speedchannel guy had to jump for his life off the camera platform.


I always love to watch the open wheel cars, (Barber, Saab, Mazda whatever) if there is a drop of condensation on the track, it makes for a good time watching those rookies hold on at turn 1

[DKWEST]

The "Mud Pit" was awesome.

I remember A.J. Foyt doing about 3 360's right in front of us on the front straight,.. there was about 8 inches of standing water in between the pit wall and the retaining wall. Foyt won that race in the Coca-Cola Porsche 962

Also remember open cockpit cars bailing water out of the car driving down the track.

But my favorite was a bunch of drunk chicks frolicking in the rain in their tight shorts and soaking wet and quite see-through tee shirts.

Two years ago, and guy from my krewe was jumped out of a friends motorhome, and was running in the pouring rain trying to get to his truck,... the top of his head hit the overhang of a 5th wheel trailer camper next door and it knocked him out cold. Had to go to the hospital and get a lot of stiches,... It wasn't pretty

[gulf917]

Sack,
i do remember the camera guy jumping from the platform. also a car stopped at the entrance of turn 1. Not a good place to stop as he was right in the line. He got out and started messing with the car. All of a sudden a group of cars came off the front straight and the driver had to jump on the fence and he started climbing for his life. My friend has a picture of him on the fence. I need to get a copy of that. Amazing

[racinaddict]

2003. I had my Airstream’s big side canopy up, but the ends weren’t tied down, so when the big gusts started I had to hold it down. I swear it just about lifted me off the ground. Meanwhile I watched my satellite dish go crashing down and my buddies EZ-UP Canopy go flying. We found it later, it landed on a new Corvette…….

[DKWEST]

2003. I had my Airstream’s big side canopy up, but the ends weren’t tied down, so when the big gusts started I had to hold it down. I swear it just about lifted me off the ground. Meanwhile I watched my satellite dish go crashing down and my buddies EZ-UP Canopy go flying. We found it later, it landed on a new Corvette…….

you mean it used to be a "new Corvette",... they tend to depreciated with the leg of a canopy embedded into it!!!

[ezed]

Sack,
i do remember the camera guy jumping from the platform. also a car stopped at the entrance of turn 1. Not a good place to stop as he was right in the line. He got out and started messing with the car. All of a sudden a group of cars came off the front straight and the driver had to jump on the fence and he started climbing for his life. My friend has a picture of him on the fence. I need to get a copy of that. Amazing

I was at that same exact spot when that guy was climbing the fence! Small small world. If i remeber right a car actually did slam into his as he was on the fence.

[racinaddict]

1993. I had a small dome tent. The monsoon hit. It sucked. I still stayed until Sunday. It still sucked.

[311unity13B]

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[DKWEST]

That bolt of lightning came right after I said,...

"Trust me babe,.. just come in the motorhome and keep dry,...Let lightning strike me down if I try to take your panties off"

[SACK-U]

and you said a wheel fell off the motorhome and got destroyed. I didn't know it was lightning!

was this one over 16?

[SACK-U]

Not sure if it was because of you or Guido, but if you notice Tom Green does not post over here any more :oops: