| Race: Spring Warm-Up Date: 3-7-2004 Location: Richmond, Va. Track: 360 West Shopping Center Temperature: 82°F |
| March 7, turned out to be a gorgeous day as competitors from near and far converged at VORRA's "360 West Shopping Center" race site. It was the first race of the year and it showed. Both local drivers, and some as far away as New York, came to smell the nitro in the air and hear the sweet sound of gas cars. Being the first race of the year exposed some early problems for club members to deal with. Track setup was lengthy and once set-up was complete, some pesky water kept seeping up thru the asphalt due to rising tempertures and a high water table. Club members tweaked the layout to avoid some of the moist areas and used good ole speedy dry to help absorb others. While track grooming continued another problem arose. Due to a medical emergency, VORRA's racer director was absent, which in turn, pressed other club members into unfimilar duties. While entering drivers into the computer, the power source became unattached (somebody's big foot), and the subsequent power failure caused a total loss of memory so to speak. All data previously keyed in was lost which in turn required everyone to re-submit their information for computer setup. This took some time to complete and therefore pushed back the starting of qualifying to about 2pm. Once the 60+ entries were divided into the respective heats, qualifying began. No results were available for this posting but may be supplied in the future and posted on this site as well as VORRA's main website. With the late start in qualifying and the large attendance, only one round of qualifying was held and mains were run directly following in a attempt to beat the oncoming darkness due to daylight savings time. I think everyone is grateful to Casey & Chuck for filling in at the scoring computer and helping this event to its conclusion. All drivers I spoke with said they enjoyed their visit and had a good day racing.
Everyone worked together to get it all done and several drivers stuck around to help with track tear down after dark. |