Forza Amelia 2001

Forza Amelia 2001
Day Two... let's play !

Rallying is fun, but playing on a track is even better and that's something Vintage Rally's Rich Taylor knows and each Vintage Rally event include at least one speed session. On this Forza Amelia 2001, they rented out the testing track at the Gainesville Raceway, a nice smooth track which could be configured in many ways.

To make things interesting, the track was cut into 2 smaller section, each under a minute, yet one of them had a straight in which speeds of over 60 could be reached, enough to shift into 3 rd gear...

mvc-822s.jpg (45435 bytes) But before we got to the track, we faced two stages through the Ocala National Forest which offers some of the best roads in Florida. We all know that Florida is mostly flat, but the region north of Orlando is actually made up of rolling hills which makes driving interesting. After leaving the Lakeside Inn in Mount Dora, the first hour or so took on various county roads to the entrance of the Occala National Forest. Once in the forest, the roads got even nicer and it was very easy to forget that we were on public roads and that we must respect the speed limits... One close call occurs when I came across a pair of park Rangers patrol cars, pulled over along the edge of the trees and hard to see. One of the entrants later noted that they looked like alligators backing off into the bushes to ambush their prey... No radar on, it seemed that they were just talking to each other but after seeing a few exotic cars flying by, they did showed some interest and flashed their blue lights to remind participants that they shouldn't mess around... like gators opening their jaws... no tickets though...

The end of the first stage ends in the rain, with a perfect score for me, and a 1 second penalty for the Glace brothers... More rain for the second stage, on the way to an historical farm just outsde Gainesville, and a perfect score for both Russel and I.

From the farm and its park, a short transit stage leads us to the track for some fun... no make that some serious fun...

As usual, I am one of the first one on track and I run both courses a few times. This was the first time I got to push the car with the new suspension set up and I love the result. Cornering is much flatter than it used to be and the car handle really well. The only glitch is a slight misfire when the car is hot and in left hand corners, which puts me at a disadvantage since most of the turns are left handers, including one long 180 degree final turn, laid on the track skid pad. Pushing the car to the limit of grip on that section was great because I was really able to feel the car how it could be pushed. I was having so much fun that I didn't pay much attention to the time sheets...

Lunch was served in a tent next to the staging aera, quickly swallowed like a kid eager to go back and play.

During that brief interuption, Russel and I decide to swap cars for the fun of it. After one run in the passenger seat I slide behind the wheel of his XK 140 MC and what a feeling it is... My E-type, despite being almost 30 years old, almost feels like a modern car. The XK on the other is a totally different breed of cat... The seating mvc-815s.jpg (29875 bytes) position, the steering wheel, the gear box, the brakes, are all totally different and it took a while getting used to, especially the stock gear box with its not so smooth shifting.... The brakes too are very different, they work well but require heavy pressure to slow the car... Handling on the other is pure pleasure and very predictable. I had fun driving this car around on a few run as this was my first time driving an XK.

Then Russel drove my E-type around the track a few times, and pushed really hard, much harder than I had pushed it... Of course, he got a big grin on his face when he learned that he had beaten my own time by just around one full second. Since I couldn't let this stand, I took over and pushed much harder that I had in the morning and regained my honor by beating his time by over 2/10... A third run would improved that by a few hundreds before we called it quits. Such childish behavior using vintage cars could escalate out of control and there was still 500 miles to cover in the rally, and another 400 to get home.

I didn't bother trying to re run the other shorter course, since things hadn't gone very smoothly for Russell with one big spin in the third corner... one full turn but skilfully keeping it on the track... Spining and off road excursions were common sights that morning, with some entrants clearly pushing the cars beyond the limit... new or old, even the Rentech Mercedes 600 or the modern Ferrari entertained us with smoke and dust...

By the time we were engaged in our own private challenge, most of the other entrants had left, and satisfied with just a couple of run and it's the turn of Rich Taylor to play with his racing Stingray, entertaining us with a nice display of gradually faster runs.

Following this fun session, we left the track on a Transit stage, untimed, to our overnight stop in rustic Cedar Key, on the west coast, north of Tampa. An uneventful stage which was interesting because of the good company. I spend a lot of time running with one of the Stingray, fast of course, and then catching up some of the other cars and passing them.

While Vintage Rallying isn't about speed, it's always fun to catch up other cars and passing them as you get to see a variety of cars in their natural environement, the open road...It also provides the unique opportunity to enjoy the sounds of the cars, especially the Ferraris...

Once in Cedar Key, we washed the cars and then head to the old town to take a few pictures in the last minutes of daylight ( left ). Cedar Key is a very small island, linked to the west coast by a small bridge. It's a relaxed and small place, with just a couple of street downtown including a portion which belongs more in a New England fishing village. I used this as a background for the pictures to enhance the beauty of the Jaguars. On a funny note, I tried to make Russel gather a nearby flock of birds in front of the cars, it didn't work and only a few end up in the background... nice try !

The night ends in a local restaurant for a fabulous dinner. It turned out that the Chef / Owner of the Island Room used to own a renowed New York restaurant until he decided to leave New York behind, relocate to Florida and open a smaller place... well done, the food was absolutely terrific !

Standings at the end of the day, I'm now tied for first with 5 others... the Glace Brothers slipped a little bit further in the midle of the field ...