Folks-
The official version will be out shortly, but for now you can look at the Griggs site (
www.griggsracing.com) for Bruce's view and enjoy the story below from my co-driver Tim Nichols. Sounds like I missed a hell of a race and I can't wait for Willow.
-JWL
Lightning's First Weekend with Uncle Tim-by Tim Nichols
To begin, Thunderhill is truly a breathtaking venue. Both the scenery and the Turn 5 bypass do a great job of completely knocking the wind right out of you.
Having only driven Lightning once before during a test day at Buttonwillow the previous Friday, I didn't know what to expect. To make matters worse, I hadn't driven at Thunderhill since 1999. Because of those two strikes, I was expecting to simply drive around safely to accumulate some points for the team and have a good time. I was not disappointed.
When I finally got comfortable with the car and the track I was able to lay down some seriously fast laps. On Saturday I was able to put the Maximum Motorsports White Lightning #22 on the AIX pole just behind the AI polesitter Guy Cunningham. I attribute most of the speed to the car, but we truly seemed to be working well together. Everyone was surprised, including me. Unfortunately, we lost some competition when Bruce's #40 car popped a head gasket in qualifying leaving him out of the race on Saturday.
In the Saturday race, Vageli and Guy got in front of me at the start. Having never done a standing start before I thought 5000 rpm is what I needed to launch at. That's what the drag racers do on ESPN2, right? Wrong! When the green dropped, I was going up in smoke while everyone drove past me. With Bill Daffron suffering from carburetor trouble and Bruce out of the race there wasn't much of a race for AIX. I didn't want to interfere with Vageli and Guy's race so I was content to drive behind Vageli and try to push him up to Guy. We ended the day with polesitter points and a First Place. Not bad for the first time out of the gate.
Sunday qualifying was one session I won't forget. I only got one clean lap and still put Lightning on the overall pole. Was I happy? Is a frog's ass watertight?
In the race on Sunday, I got a great launch off the start. I then moved to the outside to late apex Turn 1, which was rookie mistake #1 and allowed Bruce moved inside of me to take the lead. Then we all ran into a wall of F-body Camaros. Bruce jumped right in and started picking them off. Vageli and Kevin then both moved around me as I was being conservative and not wanting to bend body panels that are not mine. At the end of the first lap, I had made my way through the CMC field and was on the prowl. I think Bruce was holding back until I got through traffic as I am sure he could have made up alot more ground as I worked through traffic. I was slowly catching Bruce with Vageli running between us. I was just about to set up Vageli for a pass when the car quit running. Rookie mistake #2. I was so excited about the pole I had earned that I forgot to gas up the car before the race. I sputtered to the outside of Turn 2 and watched the field continue. I did manage to do half the race laps, so I ended up with 3rd place points. I was also able to set the fast lap of the race, probably due to the light load and my motivation to catch up to Bruce. All in all it was a great weekend for Team Perfectly Legal and the Maximum Motorsports White Lightning #22.
To end, I would like to thank Bruce and the rest of the Griggs crew for their hospitality. I was flying solo for the weekend and I had many questions for Bruce in regards to the fast line around the track, which I am sure he now regrets showing me. Vageli and Ernesto also gave me some very helpful pointers and offered me some much needed support. We're looking forward to the next race at Willow Springs and now John and I just have to arm wrestle to figure out who gets to drive.
AI TH Report 
