JD, Great report.
Just as I predicted last year when the comp board reduced the weight for the 493 engine, the 494 engine is now an also ran, and any one running one will just have to hope that the guys running the 493 will break or drive off the road if they are to have a chance to win. Richard Getting my 494 powered KBS ready to race. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 7:39 AM Subject: [F500] Road Atlanta National > I posted this on the forum last night . . . > > Whew!! It was a wild and crazy race today mixed in with the FE's, FF's and FV's. I even got to meet Amanda Hennessey who qualified next to Clint in her FE and promised to give Clint plenty of room at the start. > Back to the beginning. We had 6 F5's here - Clint McMahan (KBS Mk.5 McMahan Special 493), Eric Hellerstedt (KBS Mk8.5 494) , Rusty Cook, Jack Walbran (both Scorpion 493's), Chuck McAbee (KBS 494) and Jim Lyle (Sidewinder 494). Qualifying went as follows on a newly paved track: > Clint 1:32 (new Q record) > Rusty 1:34 > Jack > Jim Lyle > Eric > Chuck (who had to replace his 494 & Clint/Dan helped with another motor) > There were several FF's as far back as Jack, Jim & Eric. > > For the race, Clint ran in the middle of the FE's & FF's and pulled about a half lap ahead of Rusty. On Lap 7 (?) Rusty was immediately behind a FF going into Turn 1 when they hit oil causing the FF and Rusty to both spin and to land in the gravel trap and Rusty's nose in the same trap. Approaching this same turn Jack did a 360 degree spin and continued on with Eric & Jim Lyle all next to each other. Rusty got his car back on the track in pursuit. On Lap 9, Eric lost his brakes going into Turn 10A and launched into the gravel trap and then back out missing his nose and bending his left rear rocker arm. He came in the pits and retired with a brake leak next to the master cylinder. At this point, it was Clint catching up to Rusty with Jim Lyle running ahead of Jack a brief distance ahead of Rusty. Then, things went bad. On Lap 14, Clint came in with a stuck float bowl flooding the motor and while trying to fix this problem, the car caught on fire in the pit lane. The fire was ! > quickly put out with Clint being yanked out of the cockpit with his race ended. In the meantime, Jim Lyle had inherited the lead, with Jack and Rusty behind him. This is the way the race ended. Whew! Clint did set a new race record with another 1:32 but it was small consolation as he had the race locked up. > > I am sure others can add to this report so please do so. > > One last thing of special note - Mike Leathers, multi-national class champion back in the 1980's, visited with us in impound after the race. Rusty tried to get Mike hooked again on our class when he talked Mike into driving his Scorpion back to their paddock. It was a special treat to see Mike again after all these years. > > Jim ________________________________ FormulaCar Magazine - A Proud Supporter of Formula 500 The Official Publication of Junior Formula Car Racing Subscribe Today! www.formulacarmag.com or 519-624-2003 _________________________________ _______________________________________________ F500 mailing list - [email protected] To unsubscribe or change options please visit: http://f500.org/mailman/listinfo/f500 *** Please, DO NOT send unsubscribe requests to the mailing list! ***
