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MG Midget and Sprite General - Midget 50th track tour

A bit long, but you can watch a variety of Spridgets buzzing along.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXFS0Yb0Voo
Trevor Jessie

What an awsome video...it was like watching a video race car game for ps3 or xbox 360


Prop
Prop

Thoroughly enjoyed that, Trevor! I recognized Bill Young's V6 and Lee Fox's yellow 1500 in there... maybe David Lieb too, but it didn't look like his head. :-)

Thanks for the ride in your Sprite, which I admired back at Spridget 50 at the Lake.

By the way, I noticed the safety truck out at one part of the circuit. What happened?

-:G:-
Gryf Ketcherside

Safety Truck was out because a couple of people had to pull off with minor mechanical issues. They both got back under way. There were no incident sat the track and everyone had fun.
Trevor Jessie

Trevor, thanks for that. My GoPro battery died and I didn't get any of the track time, your video is great as we ran along pretty close together for most of the first 3 laps. I don't know why people said I was speeding, you certainly were keeping up pretty well, even passed me at one point and definitely keeping me in sight when you were behind me. What fun.
David Lieb was definitely in there, I was running side by side with him in the carosel on the 3rd lap just before the safety truck came out further down the track and Trevor was just behind us.
Don't know what happened, just mechanical, no damage or anyone hurt though.
B Young

Gryf,
That was Phil Burke's Midget you saw, not mine. For some reason, Trevor didn't seem to be passing enough people ;-)

I have never had so much fun on a track tour! For once it was almost all Spridgets and the ones you caught up to in the corners you could pass on the next straight. Last time I did this I got stuck behind a Heavey Healey; I was on his bumper in every corner, but he would take off when the track straightened out and never let me by, although it would have been the last he saw of me.

I had a couple issues with vapour lock due to the heat, but not to the point of stopping. It was hot enough that everybody was picking up stones when we pulled off the track onto the gravel! I looked at my all-season radials and found melted rubber between the treads.
David "Track Day at Blackhawk Farms on August 5" Lieb
David Lieb

"Trevor didn't seem to be passing enough people" ... there was a bunch of sight seeing going on (myself included) and I'm a rule follower. I was going to start bending the rules on the last lap, but my car was already running hotter than I expected and I didn't want to press my luck. But it was all great fun. I wish I could be at Blackhawk for the track day, but it is a little to far and I've used up all my "car fun time" for the summer. Now it is back to family obligations.

BTW, I ended up replacing the alternator on my trip home. The intermittent charge problem became a permanent one. :(
Trevor Jessie

I tried very hard to follow the rules. I was a little foggy on what constituted a "corner" for not-passing purposes. Did it only apply to the ones with numbers posted? Only the ones numbered on the map? I am familiar with corners 1 through 7, but I lose track (pun intended?) after that. What number is Canada Corner?

I did get passed a couple times in corners while maintaining a safe distance from the car ahead of me, but I would have had a clean conscience if they had stopped the session because of infractions.

Here is one of Tim Michnay's photos of some of the field heading into turn 5.
David "back to work tomorrow" Lieb

David Lieb

I think the rule was "You can NOT pass the pace car Corvette." I tried to break the rule but, he was right. You CAN NOT pass that guy...in a Spridget anyway. Did anyone capture those 360's Lieb pulled on the autoX track? Perhaps too much contradancing, eh?
Deikis

What the heck? I just posted something and it ended up under Mike Cook?! Anyway, I would also like to add that we had a great time and got home safely last night. Kudos to everyone involved with making Midget 50 a reality. I have a couple of more track tour videos for your entertainment. We got to do about 5 laps at about 5+ mins/lap (for me, anyway. Works out to about 48 MPH ave.) Enjoy. Jack
http://youtu.be/VcH19V9ayDU
http://youtu.be/s_bYtzreEBo
Jack Orkin

Thanks Trevor, it was great watching that.
Made me remember the fun we had, and I saw our green Frogeye Midget several times. Peter and I really enjoyed the time on the track, and seeing it from your car is great because we can see our car and us in it.

Here's a shaky cam my son Peter took while on the track, you can go up to 1080p if your connection is good.
Looks like you will have to copy and paste the URL's into your browser.

At the start:

https://picasaweb.google.com/rbastedo/Midget50thTrackDayBJul202011#5631708903937052034

Probably the best of what he shot, he was trying to do video and stay in the car at the same time:

https://picasaweb.google.com/rbastedo/Midget50thTrackDayBJul202011#5631723158866088434

Another, a bit funny to see the inside of the car and him in the side mirror - but you do get to see the other cars a bit:

https://picasaweb.google.com/rbastedo/Midget50thTrackDayBJul202011#5631724864877103954

Rick Bastedo

Rick, enjoyed meeting you and Peter and reading your blog. Glad you made it home safely. A long trip for sure. For our English friends, Rick's trip was like going from Land's End to John O'Groats about 3 times each way. He missed out on the long distance award by only 1 mile to another friend of his from Washington.
B Young

Yes, I missed out on the award.
But I know I drove my car all the way and his was towed due to break downs several times.
I feel pretty good about that.
I also feel pretty good about getting 40 mpg.
Rick Bastedo

Good point, Rick. Had the awarders been aware of that discrepancy, it might have made a difference. Have you any idea how difficult it is to try to figure out who won the award when no one had the foresight to have people log the info at sign-in??? To say nothing of not coming up with rules about side trips, etc.
David "it is a dirty thankless task trying to run one of these events!" Lieb
David Lieb

Hey - I have been thankful, publicly and privately - and please don't mistake my words for any sort of complaint, I have the most respect and regard for those of you who volunteered your time and resources to make the event the absolute best!!!
You yourself know how hot and merciless that day on the track was and without abundant cooling of AC or Ice water supplies you ran the best Auto-X many will remember for some time.
My son and I wanted to stay for it but it was just too hot for him and he had to get back to some AC and the swimming pool.

We are truly humbled and grateful to all of you who put in so much effort for all of us.

So hear it loud and hear it clearly - Thank you!
Rick Bastedo

Rick, there was an email discussion among the people that helped organize/run the event and one place that we dropped the ball was with the long distance award. Truthfully, I hope everyone remembers the experiences and personalities and forget the awards. The awards are just so we can pretend to have an excuse to do the crazy things that we do.
Trevor Jessie

Thanks Trevor, I couldn't agree more!
BTW I totally appreciate you and your efforts to help make the 50th great too!

Also I found Angel's Envy online and ordered some.
It should arrive here by Friday!
Rick Bastedo

Trevor and Rick, I will cherish my "Best Bodge" award for years you know! LOL Personally I couldn't care less about the awards, I just mentioned the long distance as a way to let our British friends know what a trip it is for many of us to attend this event. I lived relatively close and it was still nearly 600 miles one way for me. Takes a lot of commitment to our hobby to make that kind of a trip in the weather we had this summer. My wife thinks I should be "committed" just for wanting to drive in that heat.
It was between 32C and 36C every day that week but we all made it.
B Young

Gee, it was less than half that distance for me. Next-door-zickers! Only 131 miles (by Google's route, not mine!). I just noticed that the vector map for google actually shows the track layout with the turns labeled as well as the Kink, the Carousel, the Hurry Downs, etc. You have to go to the satellite view, however, to see the track layout for the Motorplex.
David "the Road America Straight was wasted on us Spridgets, although it did make a good place to pass" Lieb
David Lieb

David, this map from the Road America web site has all the corners marked, the elevation, and the length of the various sections of the track. It also shows the Motorplex pretty well, but your diagram you posted at the event was better. http://www.roadamerica.com/userfiles/file/Competitor%20Map%202009.pdf



B Young

David, how many wrong-turn DNFs did we have? I kept saying at the start, "Go straight through any intersection." but it started to sound like Yogi Berra's "If you come to a fork in the road, take it."

I should have run my Mini. Now I'm wasting my clutch on regular streets.

Peter "I coulda been a contenda" Caldwell
Peter Caldwell

I had the map of RA printed and hung on the wall in front of me at work for several months.

People would come into my cube and ask "What's that?".
Big mistake on their part as I'd then have a "willing victim" for talking about all the Spridget stuff we were going to be doing etc...
Rick Bastedo

I made two wrong turns, the first on the trial lap and then again on my second of three runs. First and third runs were clean but slow as usual. LOL
B Young

Peter,
My rough count is that we had 12 DNFs, I believe all were route issues. Not too bad out of 95 runs by 33 drivers. Heck, the Miata Club usually has more than that with simpler courses. Good thing you didn't drive the Mini in it, we cherish our illusions about Spridget handling.
David "shoulda bin 'When you come to a fork in the road DON'T take it'" Lieb
David Lieb

I think the issue was the crest of that hill. It was not obvious that it was a cross road so your eye was drawn to the cones on the left. In my first run (that I have a video of) I let off the accelerator way too early because I was thinking "left". Fortunately, I saw the rest of the track before turning.
Trevor Jessie

Tied in with the fact that, even more than usual, the track looked vastly different through the windscreen vs on paper vs from the pits. I am glad that Neil offered to lead groups of cars for a track tour before the runs started (while Trish and I were getting frustrated with the timing lights). As usual, it was a good idea to do the first run slowly and make all the right turns prior to doing a run "to count".
David "best 180" Lieb
David Lieb

I've been playing a little with the video I shot in Wisconsin and made this 4:34 minute video of my drive on the Road America race course with views both from inside my car and from behind. (Thanks Trevor for the use of your video.)

http://youtu.be/nRyFdWezHBI

or

http://tinyurl.com/4x4p3u3

Enjoy
Lee Fox

This thread was discussed between 24/07/2011 and 30/07/2011

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