Tribute To Le Mans POC saturday 5/20

[TRE Cup]

POC is holding its last annual Tribute to Le Mans race weekend at Fontana/ California Speedway. (it will return to Willow next year where we can race at night at reasonable track costs)

There will be a car show/ special parking areas for the Porsches with parade laps available at noon saturday ( I think $20 donation to Juvenile Diabetes Foundation is accepted)
There will be time trial practice, race,and the 4 hour enduro that starts at 3:30 this year (all run in daylight due to costs)

C'mon out and spectate some awesome Porsche machinery and driving- these guys have gotten VERY good!

[CHILI]

As usual, I worked the pits doing fueling for Anders Hanier and Steve Cross. What a blast! If you missed it, make a point to come next year. Cali Speedway is cool, but it does need to be run in the dark with lights to get the full affect. Willow springs is a longer drive, but worth it to get to run in the dark.

BTW, we ran in the GT2 class and finished 5th overall and 1st in class. Not too bad for a 72 tub that's been around the block many-a-time! Everthing ahead of us were Cup cars and Turbos.

[TRE Cup]

the "ol yellow " car! that is terrific performance- but then again so are the drivers- both very talented
so.. give more info- there is so little posted about it

[CHILI]

Yea, not too much info this year for some reason. Didn't anybody take a camera? I was too busy to take pics, obviously. Aside from THREE "incandesces" it went pretty smoothly for us. I was surprised at the # that finished. I believe I heard 26 cars started and 21 cars finished. Not too bad, esp. for the turbos. Our car looks a little tattered to say the least.

Randy Beck had the best story. He was running a huge turbo and in the switch-back broke an axle. A 993 turbo axle none-the-less. That's some serious horsepower. I'm assuming he's running an LSD and got on it in the turn. So, he pulled into the garage and drove back to his shop to get a new axle. Came back installed it and sent the other driver back out for some seat time. Class act. He could have (and most would have) called it a day.

I got the privilege of hanging out with TK after the event. He's a cool guy. Very down to earth. I left the track after midnight, so it was a looooong day. But fun as always.

I also heard that someone had donated $10k. That was a nice gesture. There was also a silent auction and a bbq afterwards. Anders had some good stories about his other ride with Boris Said (M3, Grand Am Cup, Rolex series) and being pushed off at Laguna Seca. I believe they are 4th or 5th in the points.

[ttweed]

Originally posted by TRE Cup
so.. give more info- there is so little posted about it

Dave- did you miss this thread? Lots of pics and some race stories.
Friday results are here.
Sat. results are here.
Sunday results are here.
Tribute enduro results are here.

One of the better stories I heard was this one by Tim Comeau, last year's 944 Spec class winner, posted on the PCA-SDR forum:

"There were around 8 944 spec cars there, but only 3 were entered in the Tribute to Le Mans. The others were entered in the TT or cup races. My team was looking forward to a great challenge in the 4-hour race. Unfortunately, my Zebra 924S was crashed and destroyed during qualifying on Friday. It will be dismantled and have it's parts live on in other 944/924S's.

My co-driver, Chris O'Connor, was driving at the time of the crash and he's fine. Chris is a solid driver with a lot of experience. We co-drove my car to a 944 spec class win at this same event last year. Anyway, we towed the hulk back down to San Diego and got some sleep.

Saturday morning, Chris shows up at 9:30 or so and says, "We can still do this thing. We'll take my track 993 back up there." So after a barrage of questions from me followed by many satisfactory answers from Chris, we started re-packing everything we needed. I'm not kidding here, we got his car to the grid about 2 minutes before the roll off! ( Thank you to John Rickard of Black Forest and my new buddy, Jim Hicks). We finished the race and gained even more endurance racing experience. That was a much more satisfactory ending to the race weekend than just sitting at home looking at my wrecked car. Not to worry. I know exactly how to build a winning 944 spec car and I have 3 more chassis here. Anybody want to buy a 944 spec car? LOL!"

I think it's great that Tim can laugh about it. I don't know exactly how I would feel if my co-driver put my car into a tire wall.

TT