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    • #58328

      Great weather and a huge GT2 field took to the track July 11th and 12th.

      The track had just been repaved and track records were dropping so Team Tiger’s lap record was vulnerable. Saturday’s race had a bad start as the 2nd place GT1 Corvette missed a gear on the start and resulted in us falling to 4th in class from our starting spot of 2nd. After a few laps the car was coming alive and we closed in on the top 3. I had a good run into the turn 4 left hander but the Cup car looked like he was not aware I was there and I spun off to the inside. No harm got going and caught up to the group. Under a full course caution I radioed Janet to check for grass on the splitter blocking the radiator. She said there was grass and no splitter, it was taken off on leaving the track apparently. Car had no turn in and we struggled to stay in third but finally retired after another lazy spin.

      Sunday’s race was different as we had made repairs and changed the rear gear to give us more off the slower corners. My start was much better and kept the other GT2 cars behind me except for Saturday’s winning BMW M3. He took off and had a quick 4 second lead. The Tiger’s tires came in and we started chasing down the BMW catching him on lap 10 (capturing the track record). The BMW over drove turn 6 and put 2 wheels off and we were gone. On the next lap I saw 4 lapped cars that were running together and had gotten by 2 of them before turn 1. That is where it all went bad, the GT1 Camaro pointed me by as we entered turn 2. He kept coming out and I was in the marbles and this video will tell the remainder of the story.

      Right click the link and open in a new window

      http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link … load_owner

    • #66163

      Ouch ๐Ÿ™
      Very sorry to see that.
      It sorta looked like you were out for a Sunday drive in the country up until that point… then looked like a pretty hard hit – you’re OK?
      How bad is the Tiger?
      Good luck in getting everything sorted back out.

      Mark

    • #66164

      Sorry to see you out like that. Are you out for the season
      or its repairable. Nice view from the drivers seat.

      Dave

    • #66166

      Thanks everyone

      Mark yes I am sore but quite OK. Now the wallet is not though!

      Doug Jennings came down today and helped me strip the car down so it can go on the surface plate. Should be starting the rebuild yet this week

      Dave as far as my quest to win the Northern Conference and the National Points Championship yes we are done. Our next race was to be Road America next weekend. I do hope to get the Tiger out early fall to start getting it back to that sweet spot again.

      Will no more next week on how bad the chassis is. The Tiger was an original car that has tube frame on the front and rear, this time we did push the drivers side frame rail down and back at the firewall. Barry is working on the body work for me so we will be back.

      Tom

    • #66167

      Sorry to hear your out for the season.
      I’m sure if there is anything from the tiger community
      To help just ask.

      Dave

    • #66169
      quote tpatton:

      …The Tiger was an original car that has tube frame on the front and rear…
      Tom

      I’ve been wondering about that, not sure if I knew and forgot, or simply never heard?
      I had asked Merlin Miller (at the B.A.S.H./Pagoda Hillclimb in 2012) how much of his GT2 car is actual Tiger…. "the taillights" he told me ๐Ÿ™„

      Glad that at least you are OK and have "only" the car repair$ to deal with. Sorry that you lose out in your quest for the National Points title ๐Ÿ™

    • #66205

      Hope the repairs are going OK.

      Sorry that I missed you at the United, you looked pretty busy. I didn’t catch up with Barry either.
      i was hoping at least to shake your hand and wish you well, but this will have to do…

      Mark

    • #66206

      Yes we are sorry we missed you also but it was quite a turn out! Speaking of Barry I just met up with him today and got the body work that he and Tom Smith did over the weekend, he is the best teammate ever!

      Good news got the car back from the surface plate August 7th and they did a great job of getting it straightened out (if I can figure out how to post pictures I will). I spent the next week getting everything back together and getting the Tiger back on it’s on 4 paws. We took the car to Performance Alignment this past Saturday and my crew chief Bill Braucksick did a great job (all day effort) getting the wheel base and corner weights where they needed to be. Now all we need to do is hang the body work and we will be able to go testing, hopefully 9/10 at Mid Ohio. It may take a few test sessions to get the Tiger back into form but I am confident we will get there.

      Thanks to everyone for your support,

      Tom

    • #66208

      Tom,
      Thanks for the update and keeping us all in the loop! Robert

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