C5 Registry at the 12 Hours of Sebring, 2002

Wednesday, March 13th, 2002

The car was bright and shiny in time to take us both to the traditional "before event" get-together the Atlanta area C5ers usually have. Click HERE to see those pictures.

As I was advertising the fact that Ol' Bob and I were going to Sebring, I asked if anyone wanted to join us and caravan down. A few days ago I got an email from Jack Jett saying that he and Bobby Tow were driving down and would like to join our caravan. He asked how many cars we had; counting on my fingers, carry the one....there were TWO (including Jack and Bobby)!

Thursday, March 14th, 2002

..and here's Bob and Bobby:

..and here's the entire caravan. They were parked this way because Bobby had Jack's Torch Red SpeedLingerie mask on his yellow Z06 -- and we didn't want anyone to think we were representing McDonald's....

Hey! It's a small caravan but it is a pair of Z06s!

The drive down was uneventful (but seven hours long...) Jack and Bobby broke away on the Florida Turnpike for their motel in Kissimmee. Bob and I continued on to Buzz & Jackie Nielsen's beautiful home in Lithia (near Tampa).

We had a lovely evening with the Nielsen's, Rick and Linda Berry, Ed and Tanya Marcelle, Gary Lathrup and Tom Crawford.

Saturday, March 15th, 2002

We all motored over to the track (about an hour and a half) and got there mid morning. We were able to easily park in the Corvette Corral but we saw that the "only holds about sixty cars" information was about right. Tomorrow is the big race and we're told we have to get there early if we wanted a spot in the Corral.

Here are a few of the cars in the Corral on Friday:

From right next to the Corral (and the tent provided by Chevrolet/Mobil 1/Ecklers) we had a pretty good view of the Yokahma bridge. Y'see that ramp down from the bridge on the left? That's the set of steps that I fell down - much to the detriment of my knees, hands and the camera lens cap. Bob was right behind me and insists that I imagined his hand pushing me in the back...

We spent most of the day in/near the Corvette garage. It was a big area with two elaborate race trailers with canopies shading the two checkerboard work areas:

Here's the (ultimately winning) #3 C5R in the garage. The C5Rs had qualified well and weren't going to run again until warm-up Saturday morning.

..and here's the (eventual) fourth place #4 C5R:

Directly opposite the Corvette garage was the Ferrari garage. The drivers told us that they had concerns about these cars (turned out to be unfounded):

Just down the way was the Saleen garage:

This is most of our gang. That's Chaz, Ed, Tanya (called "T"), Linda, Jackie, Buzz and Rick. "T" was apparently shocked to find that Bob could operate a camera:

It was hot. It was very hot. The only shade was under one of the trailer awnings (and not much shade at that). We lost track of Buzz for awhile; he eventually re-appeared. He'd gone inside the crew trailer -- where, of course, it's air conditioned! Just act like you own the place and you can (apparently) go anywhere!

Everyone on the crew was very generous with their time, posing for pix, giving us the run of the garage. Here's Doug Fehan who talked with us and signed autographs:

..and the lovely and ever sweet Robin Pratt (of Pratt-Miller Racing; the folks who build the C5R for Chevrolet):

..and the "also lovely but not so much" Gary Pratt:

Here are Buzz and Jackie, Ron Fellows, Gary Pratt and Johnny O'Connell:

Ron Fellows in "the office":

Andy Pilgrim suitin' up:

Jack Jett is Johnny O'Connell's next-door neighber in Flowery Branch, GA. Jack was able to arrange for Rob Fellows (Ron's artist brother) to meet us and hook us up with the drivers. Here's Bobby Tow, Rob Fellows and Jack Jett:

Here's Ron Fellows. He graciously (as always) signed just about anything presented to him:

Here's Ron and his best buddy Bob Hardt:

..and Ron with Chaz (I've really got to get more radios):

..and Rick and Ed with Ron:

Here's Johnny O in "the office" courtesy Buzz:

Speaking of "the office", here's the best view you're ever going to get (unless you're a driver). The coiled cable connects the steering wheel (you can just see the lower arc of the wheel in the upper right corner) to the electronics. It's removable so the driver can get out. Looks just like the interior of the stock C5, no?

Driver-wise, here's the "new kid on the block" Oliver Gavin. He got into the autograph thing pretty quickly!

Andy Pilgrim came out to meet the fans as well:

No, Bob and I aren't fickle; but who wouldn't want their picture taken with Andy Pilgrim; what a gentleman:

Here's Kelly Collins in a "race-prep" mood:

Here's Franck Freon (well half his head, anyway):

Here's another old friend, Chris Kniefel:

Jim and Charley Robertson won the NCM auction getting them into the hot pits for the race:

Here's Jim with Gary Claudio:

Our good friend and Registry member David Farmer was running in the American Challenge GT race this afternoon. David had qualified highest in his career at 5th. It was hard to find his garage but after walking a few miles in the sun, we found him just before he headed for the track:

David had a mishap on the very first lap (bumped off the course by another car) and managed to finish ninth.

Friday had several races; one of them was a Panoz GT class race with all identical cars:

After a full day at the track (did I mention it was hot?) we headed back to Buzz & Jackie's for the night:

Saturday, March 16th, 2002

Y'know what? That skinny was dead on. When we got there the Corral was more than half full -- at 6AM! The sun had just come up; these were shortly after we arrived:

Did you think I was kidding about Bobby Tow's yellow Z06 with the red mask? Look here:

In the Corral was this heavily customized C5. I'd seen pictures of this car on the internet; in person, it is really nicely done; never did meet the owner:

This was cool; this chap has a line of translucent graphics you can apply to the hatch glass in a C5 coupe. I thought this one looked fantastic. Bob got the guy's card; I gotta get it from him.

Even though my C5 couldn't be here, at least the BBS wheels were represented so I didn't feel completely out of it:

Here's Dave Hill signing Bobby's hood. I guess the red bra didn't throw him at all:

Our friends at Mobil 1 and Ecklers provided the tent and food; what great folks. Mobil 1 gave a case of Mobil 1 to everyone who came to the tent. Nahhhhh, I'm just kidding. Even the display was dummy bottles (they must know us pretty well)!

Here's Mike Wilson of Eckler's. He and his crew provided, cooked and served food all afternoon. Greatly appreciated! Thanks, folks!

Vangie Woody-Boswell of Promotion in Motion (who does lots of things for Chevy and Corvette) was there handing out souvenir small Corvette Racing stickers and selling larger ones to benefit charity:

There was a warm-up session early Saturday morning. Here's the #3 C5R returning after practice:

..and one of the Saleens:

Here's the #3 car with the business-end exposed:

Both of the C5Rs had much of the skin removed to check, tighten, adjust, lubricate and examine the go-fast parts:

Yes, and they have to STOP, too:

Here's a new innovation that the American Le Mans Series is trying. Since much of the race is run at night, they had the idea of fitting all the cars with three lights just aft of the door on both sides of the car. Unless the car is currently running in first, second or third place in class, these lights are dark. But the current first place car in each class would have the topmost light lit (by track telemetery); the current second place car would have the top two lights lit and the third place car -- well, you get it.

This actually worked pretty well. The color of the lights varied by class so, even in the dark, you could tell which cars were first, second and third in class. Pretty cool and very handy from the spectator's point of view during a long race. And most of 'em actually worked!

I hadn't heard but it's obvious that the C5R program has switched from BBS to OZ Racing rims:

I'm pretty sure this is Kelly Collins, psyching himself up for the battle:

Here's Andy Pilgrim, suited up and ready to go:

I took this picture of the Ford GT40 just before the historic race. I've always thought this was one of the coolest looking cars ever built:

Back at the Corral, our Fearless Leaders Dan and Jake were working the crowd as always:

We ALL enjoyed the tent:

There are people who come to Sebring (and have for years) who simply have too much fun. I'm not totally sure it has much to do with sports car racing. For example, these folks were playing a game involving a bowling ball, a small trampoline and a television set. The objective was to throw the bowling ball off the top of the trailer onto the trampoline and have the ball smash the TV set on the first bounce. Hmmmm.

And some of their transportation was especially colorful:

..and I'm not even going to speculate about what's going on here:

Racing? Oh, yeah, here are a couple of Bob's shots of the C5Rs on the track:

...and some people had great seats for the race:

I got really tired about mid-afternoon. So I found a shady spot (inside Bob's pink Z06) and made a few Zzzz's of my own:

..and, for the record, the pink color is caused by the reflection of a Torch C5 next to Bob's car. Riiiiight...

Those of us on the C5Net have been notified (a lot) that Mike Plummer is out of the office until March 29th. Well, here he is (and where he's been):

Dave Hill in his racing suit:

Rejected caption: "Is that a a Magic Marker or are you just glad to see me?"

Left to right: Oliver Gavin, Ron Fellows, Johnny O'Connell