| Bayshore at Pocono September 8, 2001 | ||||
| Your Comments | ||||
| Comments by Bob Marlow | ||||
 photo by - C. Doerge Here is one part of Pocono you never want to se up close and personal.  photo by - C. Doerge The Pocono tower with the "BUD" logo of course.  photo by - C. Doerge At "pit out" home base for Charlie Doerge all day long, Bayshore members, Warren Edwards sees to final preparations for the days event while Frank Schmitt supervises from his position in the shade.  photo by - C. Doerge Since our "traditional" event control tower was no longer available, Bayshore set up it's own tower complete with hospitality tent.  photo by - C. Doerge Bill Doerge checks out the view from atop of the Bayshore control tower. Here he takes a break to click off a few photos of the days activities.
Get that T-shirt that you missed. There are a limited number of event T-shirts and sweatshirts for sale. Once the supply is gone, that's it ! More photos coming. Stop back often. Click on the "notify me" box (from Angelfire.com) here or in the upper right hand corner.  |
In total contrast to the NECC's Spring event at Pocono, the weather was PERFECT. 75 drivers, a sold-out field.
Alas, only six count 'em six Corvairs. John Egerton ('64 140 coupe), Kevin Johnson (late turbo coupe), Andy Sarkozi ('65 140 convertible), Tim Schwartz ('65 110 coupe), Terry Stafford ('64 Fitch turbo coupe), and me ('64 500 140 coupe). Bayshore uses Pocono's "North Road Course," which is the fastest course on which I've run -- it includes a 1900-foot-long straight. Well, not really fully straight, it begins in the NASCAR turn three and continues down the straightaway toward the Tunnel Turn, but you are on the power the whole time. Halfway through my first lap of the day, approaching the end of that straight, I said to myself, "I'm in over my head." It was the fastest I've ever run there. I was very pleased with the way the Plain Brown Wrapper was performing. The 140 engine hastily installed after Lime Rock was now running better than at Blackhawk. And I changed the rear springs since Blackhawk. At Blackhawk the car had stock '64 rear coils, cut one coil each. At Pocono I was using '64 convertible rear coils, cut two coils each. (The front springs remain stock '64 front coils, cut one coil each.) The car's handling pleased me immensely. With the late model front end and the FC rear axles, it actually understeers slightly which was a big help in the fast turn back onto the NASCAR portion of the track, a place where I usually spin on a regular basis. I mananged to spin there once, anyhow, having "charged" the corner a bit too much, but it was a power-on spin and I was later told that it was the "prettiest" spin of the day. The weak point was, as at Blackhawk, brakes. It's an early model with late model brakes, but the linings are stock, not performance. Braking was squirrelly at the end of that big straightaway. Once, later in the day, the car wiggled so badly when I got on the brakes there that I simply eased off and went down the "escape road" (the rest of the NASCAR track). Aside from brakes, the car still needs a better driver. I'm trying to learn! Near the end of the day Terry Stafford let me drive his 1964 turbo Fitch coupe for comparison. Terry's car is heavier than mine, and is running 14-inch wheels to my 13s, and uses stock '64 suspension (also with cut springs) and modest turbo tweaking. Well, now I want a turbo! (My car has a 140). Terry's car handled well, was easy to drive, had better brakes than mine (stock '64 but performance linings) and MAN did it cover the shorter of the two straightaways! (You come off the 1900-foot straightaway, make a sharp right-hander, and accellerate out of it in third gear onto the shorter straightaway. With the turbo still spun up from that blast down the big straightaway, wow!) The Bayshore event is unique in that it is a lapping day, only, there are no timed runs. Each driver was afforded four 25-minute sessions, but I never ran a full session and I skipped my fourth session entirely in favor of driving Terry's car instead. Most drivers similarly did not run every minute available, and there is plenty of time between groups to do things such as eat lunch or fix the car, which makes the day much lower stress than usual. But it's also somewhat less satisfying because you don't get that official measure of your performance. Brian O'Neill was timing my laps, but "clean" laps were hard to come by. Wierd cars show up every year for the Bayshore event. One year I discovered a race-prepped Yugo, yes, a Yugo, running in my group. A few years ago two guys each brought their retired Winston Cup cars. Last year a pair of Legends cars buzzed around the track. This year, there was a fully-prepared Beetle on racing rubber (an "Old" Beetle, not a New Beetle) and it was remarkably fast. It stayed right on the tail of a late-model Corvette for several laps. There was a 440-cid Plymouth GTX on 18-inch wheels and shorty-sidewall tires. There was a Porsche 914 with a small block Chevy where the original engine once sat. There was a guy running his leased Boxster. Actually, the place was lousy with Porsches. A Porsche organization was using Pocono's South Road Course at the same time, so there were swarms of 'em in both events. Plenty of Mustangs and Miatas, too. John Ryall, loyal Corvair guy and NECC volunteer, experienced yet another frustrating day with his F-500 single-seater. He has been autocrossing this car successfully all year, but whenever he takes it to a "real" race track it says "no way." It developed a glitch at Lime Rock, a bigger glitch at Blackhawk, and at Pocono it simply refused to start following tech inspection. All this despite John throwing time, effort, and money at the car to eradicate the glitches. Time to bring back the Corvair-powered Deserter, John. Shaun Galvin, another good Corvair guy, was there not with a Corvair but with a Mercury Capri. A pretty quick Mercury Capri, too, but with a few thousand Mustangs on hand Shaun was kinda lost in the crowd. John Egerton, faithful early-model racer, also has changed his car's springs since Blackhawk. Where John was racing on stock springs at Blackhawk and at the convention, he now has cut coils in the car. He also had his son's entire load of college posessions in his tow vehicle, they were leaving directly for the school following the event! Ken Klingaman, who registered for Pocono before his car's spectacular demise at Lime Rock, passed up the opportunity for a refund and instead served as an instructor for first-timers. This got Ken stints in a wide array of vehicles, ranging from a Miata to the above-mentioned GTX. Among the missing were Rick Stansbury, who we fully expected to see. Rick, where were you? The relatively small Bayshore club did (and does each year) a nice job with this event. Complete and informative registration packet, souvenir T-shirt included for each registrant, and a schedule that works. And if it's track time you're after, this one's hard to beat. ------------------------ Robert W. Marlow | |||
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