April 8, 2000 at Gingerman Raceway
Snow? It had snowed the night before. Saturday morning we arrive and where is the track? It was covered in 3-4 inches of snow. At the drivers' meeting, 30 plus anxious racer participants ready to lynch me for not canceling the event. All had the look of "how are we suppose to run on the track with race tires?"
As the track was being plowed, I didn't waste time and took my rental Subaru Outback and did some rally practice laps on the snow covered 1.88 mile 11 turn track. By late morning, we had our first parade lap. Then the sun began to peak out from the dark clouds and race participants who had left upset, came back with a smile.
As the sun warmed up the day (but still cold), and the wind sped up the drying process all race participants continued their practice laps. By mid afternoon, all the snow had melted. The morning and afternoon looked like two different days as you can see from the photos below.
Although the track never really got warm enough for the tires to reach maximum adhesion, it was a great day to learn and practice car control. This event has been the most incredible close call we have ever had. And this will go down in our history books. Thanks to luck and the hard-core road race buffs of the Midwest folks, the event was a success.
Special thanks to our sponsor in the Midwest, Speed Sport, the Saturn Performance Club for the on-site tech, operations, and the awesome pics and everyone else for the spectacular pics. And also special thanks to all the driver instructors for your great assistance. Sorry for all the others that did not make it to this wild and exciting day. We are definitely looking forward to the next event, see you all then.
race-on, Tommy