Road Atlanta ALMS Trip

[Liz]

The trip to Road Atlanta was a smashing success with the exception of missing an interview due to my new cell phone acting up (groan) ... I have a smashing interview with David Brabham and it will run this weekend in the newsletter as soon as I get it transcribed. He sends his best wishes to all you Aussies and was delighted to be interviewed on your behalf. I also have a good interview with Sascha Maasen and Lucas Luhr at Alex Job Racing, and that will appear in due course. Other articles to appear in days to come include "A Blonde at the Races" which concerns the difficulty of telling guys in race suits apart, among other things (Andy Pilgrim now wears a little label that says I AM NOT RON FELLOWS), and a first look at a new movie called "The Science of Speed" that will be appearing on IMAX screens in October 2002; among other things, it stars Lucas Luhr of Alex Job/McKenna Racing.

I had a great time and the credentials I received courtesy of Audi and 10-Tenths were a great help to me; many of the people I met were familiar with 10-Tenths, believe it or not!

Among other adventures I had this weekend were the chance to see Elliott Forbes-Robinson throwing large paper darts at the Audi boys (who never caught him) during the autograph session, and narrowly escaping being run down by both the Panoz 50 car on its way back out after a 40 minute rebuild job (I have that on film) - and by a very disgruntled Ron Fellows who was pulling his Excluded 3 Car off the grid and not pleased to have to do so either.

I will write about all this in due course, but wanted you all to know we are home safe and sound and good things are coming!

[Emfa]

Glad to hear that you had a good trip Liz. And that you got there and back safely. I'll look forward to reading those interviews & stories!

It would be interesting to know your thoughts (or anyone else's) on the 'position lights' that were tried this weekend. Did they work? Was it worth the effort?

[Liz]

I personally found them not to be any use. I noticed the McKenna (Alex Job) 23 car had one light on most of the time, but I kept forgetting that it meant they were in 3rd place ... it did help me tell which one was Sascha&Lucas, that's all. If you were sitting up in timing & scoring where you got a view of the cars from above, perhaps it would be useful; however, in the dark you can't tell one car from the other anyway, and in the daylight you don't notice the position lights.

I think it's silly. I'd rather have them put luminous car numbers on all the cars like the Cadillac and the Dick Barbour car had.

[Heeltoe6]

i agree on the lights deal, they need to rehtink the system. who's gonna remember what lights stand for what and whether its certical or horizontal for each class, etc

liz is right, they need luminous numbers, same for the class stickers, and then and only then will the lights be usseful, 1 for p1, 2 for p2, 3 for p3. you won't have to worry about them being vertical or horizontal for whatever class cause now you'll have the class sticker and car number lit up to identify that.