Chuck Christ and Ed Diehl Drive in the 2003 Sebring Endurance Challenge |
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Crews
Last Updated: Mar 26, 2006 |
3/26/2003 Chuck has captured his recent experience at the 2003 Sebring Endurance Challenge in these words: It was hot, cold, hot, cool, wet, very-very wet, and then hot! My first and only practice session was 45 minutes of shear exhaustion! I drove my ‘tushie’ off trying to remember where all the tough spots on course were. That was the easy part! The hard part was trying to dodge the Corvettes and Camaros, and some darn fast Porsches! I watched my mirrors and avoided the overtaking traffic turn after turn. Thursday came and we took our cars downtown for the re-creation of the original downtown technical inspection. It’s a very nice drive at speed with a police escort through the blossoming orange groves. The aroma of the oranges combined with burning castor oil is quite a wonderful aroma! Honestly, it's a bit intoxicating ... but soon it was time to go back to the track and prepare for the 1-hour endurance race. Ed Diehl started the race. Near halfway we switched and I got into the car. Accidents earlier in the day delayed our start. This put us getting dangerously close to sunset. Closer than we knew! It was getting darker and darker and the white flag didn’t come out when I was expecting it! I turned on my rain lights (taillights) with hopes of avoiding an accident. Racing in the dark with no headlights is a challenge to be polite about it! I nearly hit, or was nearly hit by, three different cars at three different places as I could not see them approaching from behind and, as I was turning into a turn, they passed me on my inside. That completely unhinged me! Finally, a white flag! In spite of the darkness, I had pushed the Saab mercilessly on. After taking the checkered flag and running the cool down lap I came in the pits and Linda Diehl flagged me into a spot along the pit wall. She was hooting and hollering! I had no idea what she was so excited about. She soon told me that I had bested Ed’s best lap time! Ed is a darn good driver and, last year, when we shared my car at the same event, he ran a consistent two seconds faster than my best lap time! Linda was ecstatic at my improvement. She reported that I was turning lower lap times every lap -- as it got darker and darker I was going faster and faster! Friday, I gave the car to Ed to run the 30-minute sprint race. He ran a flawless start to finish race. Ed is incredibly consistent and an SCCA driving instructor. My estimation of his ability is top notch! So, with our two races in the books, the car finished first in class in both the 1 hour enduro and the 30 minute sprint race! Not too shabby for a 43 year old car. In addition, it was the smallest displacement car running in the vintage or historic class at this year's event! Saturday morning we were to do three exhibition laps behind the pace car just prior to the start of the 12 hour event. That went off without any problems. The old and trusty Saab did what it does best -- arrive and run without hesitation. As of right now, until one of America’s other three 93's resurfaces from its peaceful rest, my 93 is the only racing 93 still being used in active competition. Our other car, the yellow 93F of Jon Ewing, is out with a damaged center cylinder piston. The harsh track conditions in Sebring’s ‘Sunset Bend’ and Turn #1 really beat my car’s front suspension bushings to death. They were not perfect, but still serviceable, before my departure for Sebring. Now I'm faced with a total front suspension rebuild prior to the Hershey Vintage Hillclimb in Hershey, Pennsylvania in late April. Chuck |