Club Arnage

The word on the street is that there's a chance Champ Car will run at Sebring the same weekend as the 12 hours.  Either Friday (unlikely), or Sunday.  That makes a great thing even greater in this guy's book, especially considering a possible 5 days of raceycars is only $80!

Now you didn't hear that from me, because I'm not one to gossip.   :-X

See you there!

Wicked! I once missed the CART racing at Brisbane Australia by a matter of hours and always wanted to see how it compares. Looks like I'll be in FL again next March.

That would be most excellent.
Makes sense too because most of the CART teams test quite a bit at Sebring over the winter.  Reason number 1,000,001 to go to the twelve hours.
Fax

This would be awesome!  When CCWS tests there, they only run the short course.  I don't believe they run the Fangio Chicane, down to Turn 10.  That will be a spectacle!  

I would like to see them run on Friday  

I reckon they'd be great on a big enough circuit.  The race on the Brands Indy circuit the other year was rubbish - they were tiptoing round the whole time  ::)

Well, Sebring is becoming very tempting indeed now ::)

People, I think you are missing one major fact here though.

Bringing Champ car back to Sebring will no doubt mean that they will have to put up big mesh fences at the track. I for one don't want to see that happen as it would kill off what i love about the place. Think about it, photography would be sh*t at Sebring forever more !

If they agree to run without the fences though, then I am all up for it !

We may have to charter a plane?  ;)

Anybody know if there are dates yet for the 2006 Sebring race? Smokie, what about Bike Week in Daytona, any dates on that yet?

Sebring is March 15-19

http://www.sebringraceway.com

4-day Superticket - $80 before Feb. 28, $90 thereafter.

thanks for that, chop!

Whey hey, can start planning now!!!  8) 8)

Smokie or anyone else interested, I just checked out the Bike Week 2006 official home page and much to our luck the official dates for Bike Week 2006 are  March 3-12. Looks like we can kill 2 stones with one bird again this year  ;D

Not to mention that you can hang with the gang in Turn10.And a good time was had by all. ::)

It most certainly was Randy...we'll be back!


George, I thought we'd decided to go to the Keys for 2006 and be surrounded by babes in bikinis  :P not grubby bikers  :-\ !!?



Although for anyone who hasn't been to a Bike Week, it is a lot of fun...

Did I say I was in Sebring in March?  ;D ;D

Hey Chris,
Good point about the debris fencing.  I'm not certain but I don't think Champ Car has any specific regulations regarding fencing, I think its just up to the venue (as I said, I'm not sure about this).  Mid-Ohio erected some in the early ninties after a wheel got torn off an Indy Lights car and launched into the crowd (without injury) in the esses. They put up a little more along the back straight after Michael Andretti's monumental shunt during the 1998 CART race.
Fax

As a side note, once I was working turn 10 at Mid-Ohio on an SCCA regional weekend when a wheel from a Mustang cleared the fence by 5 feet!  On a pro weekend, there are campers back there.   :o

Thats where a few buddies & I are camping in a couple of weeks for the AMA Superbike weekend.  Don't have to worry about the wheels with them...the whole damn bike will come over!
Fax

They put up new catch fencing all round Brands Hatch when the Cart boys came over a few years ago. >:(

That sure is some souvenir to take home though...  :)

Smoke, you`re right Keys it is  8), check your box you have a PM.

George / Geoff - yes, the Florida Keys it is.  My scuba diving gear is all packed and ready!

I dived a wreck off Key Largo a couple of years ago that had been purposefully sunk as an 'artificial reef'.  The ship was cleaned up and sunk with the idea of ending up in 30 metres of water resting on her hull bottom.  Anyway, the ship rolled over when it was sunk and ended up resting on her starboard side.

However, during last months Hurricane, there was a large sub sea surge of water that rolled the wreck over the right way up.  Remember. this is a 510 feet long ship in 100 feet of water, that's some movement of water  :o

My wife is going to Key Largo in 2 weeks time and hopefully she'll dive the wreck in it's new position and report back.

http://www.spiegelgrove.com/

(http://www.unterwasser-bild.de/USA%201/Spiegel/Spiegel-01-k.jpg)

I'm assuming you've been to Pennekamp already.  If you've never been to Crystal River, give that a shot.  I've heard the Manatees are a blast.  90 minutes N.W. of Sebring (opposite from the Keys, naturally  ;D ).

http://www.florida-scuba.com/Crystal_River.htm

Thanks Chop, I've done the Pennekamp wrecks (Spiegel Grove, Duane, Bibb, Benwood etc) and I've dived from Key West also.

Frankly, apart from the wrecks, the coral and reefs in the Keys are shite.  I've considered the Gulf coast before (Tarpon Springs etc) so this may be a good alternative.

Crystal River? You mean right by the nuclear power plant? The two headed Manatees? The glowing sludge spewing from the outflows? That Crystal River?

Yep!  You don't need a wetsuit to stay warm, no dive lite,  and every Manatee is 100% cuter than normal!  ;)

Fine by me - I assume you're just going for the mojitos  ;)

The Sun and the BEER. Well the bikini's too  I guess ;D
Canada Phil