Year End Racing at Summit Point

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The final race of the year turned into a breakthrough performance for Bobbie.  After some near misses and flirting with finishing in the top half of her field as she suffered through some mechanical problems, Bobbie laid down some blistering laps in qualifying.  When two competitors times were disallowed for illegal car configurations, that moved Bobbie up to start second in class and from the outside pole.  Considering her best-ever position was 9th and then didn't get to race, it represented a pretty substantial leap.  The competitors in the paddock were a little shocked and not sure whether it was a fluke or whether she was real.  For the race, she left no doubt as she ran in the second and third position for most of the race until a tremendous crash took her out of the race.

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IMG_0145 - Bobbie Elam Girl Racer
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Bobbie ended up being hit four times in one corner and the car came back with some pretty major damage.  As usual, our mechanical guardian angel, Mike Morris, put together a plan with Bud Verstynen and others to make repairs.  With a telephone pole on one end and the broken car on the other, they used pulleys and hammers to beat the car back into a semblance of shape.  It was a truly remarkable job and let Bobbie get back on track for Sunday where she qualified 5th.  With spectators all cheering from the sides, Bobbie even got so excited in the car that she knocked her own mirror off! In the race she proved that she has made it to the next level, by finishing in fourth place for an all-time best performance!  This time there were plenty of believers.  Combined with hanging on to finish in the top 10 for the season points, it was a nice way to finish the season.

Dan wasn't as fortunate as her drove the Daytona coupe.  Despite being the fastest car in practice and leading the early laps of the race, the car experienced more fuel problems and just managed to finish half the laps.  Harry drove the #66 Cobra to a 7th place finish on Saturday and hard-fought sixth place finish on Sunday.

On Sunday, Dan let Bud drive the Coupe in hopes that he could nurse it around the track.  No such luck for poor Bud.  Dan drove his CMC Mustang around the track but it had a problem with the axle and he was lucky to finish the race.

The real story of the weekend was Bobbie and it was a nice way to end the season!