posted 04-11-2005 06:59 AM         

The Yellow 78 Vette Smoked the field on Sunday. Jimmy ran the Feature Race and took 1st Place with a "Pedal to the Metal" pass down the final straight away and a one car length win over Winston. Jimmy started the race on the pole for our class and led every lap with Winston on his tail until the very last lap. Jimmy would stretch the lead going down the straight away and Winston would narrow the gap driving through the curvy part of the course. This went on for the full 19 minutes until the last lap. On the last lap, going into turn #1, Winston went through the grass and passed Jimmy. Now, Jimmy was three to four car lengths behind Winston going through the curvy part of the course. Jimmy was around 3 car lengths behind Winston as they rounded around #14 going onto final straight and headed for the checkered flag at the Tower. Winston was trying to block Jimmy by moving to the left and than to the right. When Winston moved right Jimmy drove to the left wall and floored it and the drag race was on... Jimmy made up the three car lengths and crossed the finish line in front of the Tower with a one car length win....

I was in the Tower and screaming.... For whatever reason, I had decided to go watch the Feature from the Tower and that was the place to watch... I think Jimmy was hollering as well. Man, that was quite a race... Tom Walter & Johnny Walter were in the Tower along with a few other folks. Fritz was down by Turn #1 and from that point couldn't tell who had won. As Winston and Jimmy were going around turn #13 they got a standing ovation from the crowd. We had other close finishes in the other race. Mike Poupart (Viper) was dueling John Crosby (Porsche) in the Super Production. John Crosby took 1st place over Mike by three car lengths... John Centanni and Pete Alima ran their Vettes in the race. John was running good but didn't finish the race. Not sure what happened. Pete developed a fuel delivery problem and finished the race. Lori Vellutini was out watching the races.

We started the day having to fix the Yellow Vette. Jimmy had gone out on Friday and the car had an oil leak that was spraying on the headers and smoking. Jimmy & Michael replaced the oil sensor connection on the motor before the practice session. Jimmy ran the practice session and took his nephew (Joe) along for the ride. Jimmy ran around seven laps and got Black flagged. We were smoking and spraying oil back on the other cars (one of the cars radioed in that #78 was spraying oil on his windshield). So, back in the pits and back on jack stands we're still trying to find the oil leak. We tighten a lot of bolts around the oil pan. We drove around the drag strip area and still had some smoke and little leak. We decided I'd go out and run the Qualifying Race and at least make a few laps and try to get us a good Qualifying time. Than we'd have two hours before the Feature to try and locate the problem and fix it. Well, I ran three laps and going around turn #14 the cockpit would fill with smoke each time. I ran a BLT of 1.27.5 which was the best for our class and put Jimmy on the pole for our Vintage V8 class Feature race. Back in the pits and car back on jacks. Jimmy found the problem. The oil pan gasket had a little play (in one area, although the nuts were all tight). So, he took a tube of silicone and put some on each side of oil pan gasket and re-tighten. That solved the problem and we had no smoke or oil leak during the Feature. This was a new oil pan designed for Road Racing and was the 1st time we had run on the track... Jimmy got a new personal BLT with a 1.28.3 lap in the Feature...

It was quite a race... So, ROUTAL Racing has two wins for this season... Next Grand Bayou Race is in October. There will be two NASA races and an SCCA race in June at No Problem. Jimmy and I haven't decided if we're going to run in the NASA race. Laddie Roussel ...

Pictures posted at the Confederation site:
Http://www.ccc-la.com/gallery/index.php