Racing at VIR

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The 2006 season got off to a start with the Charlie Gibson 300 held at VIR.  We practiced on Friday and everything seemed fine as temps were in the upper 70s.  But February returned with a vengeance for Saturday as a thick wet snow fell just in time for the sprint races.  Dan and Harry sat out the sprint races since it wasn't for points, but Bobbie ran in the rain to finish a strong 12th.  The snow screwed up qualifying for the Sunday enduro, so qualifying ended up using the practice times.  That was great since it gave Dan and Harry the pole over what were, frankly, faster cars.

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Racing in wet
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Just starting the enduro with the Daytona Coupe was a bit of an issue since we were having fuel pick-up problems.  Fortunately, we had a *really* strong pit crew and Bill Lucy came up with a smart way to get inside the fuel cell and fix the problem.  Without the hard work of guys like Mr. Lucy, Doug Lucy, Bud Verstynen, Mike Morris, and others, we wouldn't have even been able to start the race.  We really can't say enough about the great help we got.

Unfortunately, we still had more problems and ended up being an early retiree from the race.  Adding to our woes was the fact that Harry had lost a wheel while driving in the instructor session on Sunday morning.  No significant damage to the car, but it could have been really scary.

Bobbie's 944 Cup series raced the first 45 minutes of the enduro as a class sprint race.  She wisely stayed out of trouble and ended up finishing 10th - her best career finish.  Bobbie continued to drive in the enduro with Dan driving the last third of the race in her car.  Together they ended up finishing 13th in class and 25th overall.  Very respectable in the grand scheme of things - especially since the car last an alternator early in the race.

Not the best start, but all the cars were intact with no major damage. Certainly an improvement over previous years.