took terminally damaged the rear suspension and may have done damage to the gearbox attenuator." Balto and Jan both were uninjured, thankfully. Neither, however, were pleased with what happened. Yet they didn't know about the dropped oil in the braking area at the end of the backstraight. The next stop for both of them was the Kudzu's pits. They both demanded to know exactly what happened. Balto stormed toward the Downing pits with Jan following him, pleading with him not to do anything irrational. He may have been just as mad as Balto was, but he clearly hoped the situation wouldn't get too out of hand. En route to the Downing Atlanta pits, Balto passed his own team's pits. Jenna saw her boyfriend walk by with an angry look on his face and became worried. Even more so when she heard Jan's pleas. Boris had also heard about the accident, and was also concerned. "Balto?" Jenna called out. "What are you doing?" Balto didn't hear Jenna's question. "What's going on, buddy?" Boris asked, having to elevate his voice in hopes that Balto would hear him. Drowned out by the engine of the Fox/Ridgemount 962 as it pulled away from its pit stall, it went unheeded. Concerned, Jenna and Boris took off after Balto and Jan as they headed toward the Downing Atlanta pit area. Not finding the car there, they headed for the garage area. Eventually, Balto arrived at the Downing Atlanta garage, where the damaged Mazda Kudzu was being worked on. He spotted Howard Katz talking with his co-driver and team boss, Jim Downing, about the accident. By now, Jenna and Boris had caught up with him and Jan. But by then, Balto was already on his way in to the garage. "Balto," said Jenna, pleading with him. "Balto, don't!" Jan followed him into the garage. When Balto reached where Jim and Howard were standing, he shoved Downing aside and lunged aggressively at Katz. "Hey! Hey, hey, HEY!" Katz called out for help as Balto had him around the throat with his paws. "Don't you know how to use the brakes, you wanker!" Balto yelled right in Howard's face. "Hey, guys, someone get this loser off me," Howard said in a very sarcastic and demeaning tone. Balto drove the sole of his right shoe's heel area hard into Katz's toes, causing him to scream in pain. A few more verbal exchanges were made between the two combatants before Jan Lammers reached the scene and joined in the scuffle, trying to separate Balto and Howard. Jim Downing stepped in and finally kept the two from trading further blows. "What is the matter with you?!" Howard yelled, demanding an explanation. "You screwed my race, you son of a bitch!" Balto exclaimed as he lunged at Howard even more aggressively than on his first attempt. "You screwed my race, too!" Jan added, pointing at Howard. He, however, did not lash out as Balto had. But it was hard not to get caught up in the moment, which explains why he started yelling at Katz. Back in the Fox/Ridgemount pits, Stan Ridgemount noticed the melee happening in the Downing Atlanta garage on the TV monitor on top of the pit box where he was sitting. Immediately, he got off the pit box and ran toward the garage complex, where there were already television cameras trying to capture the drama taking place. Reinhold Joest followed as well, as did the entire Fox/Ridgemount pit crew. By now, the incident was on the brink of erupting into a full-scale brawl between the two teams. Even some members from Jan's Castrol Jaguar team went in to rescue their driver. This incident reminded the TV commentators of a similar garage brawl involving Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna at the 1987 F1 Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorshamps circuit. That scuffle was initiated by an on-track tangle between Mansell's Williams-Honda and Senna's Lotus-Honda as the Brit attempted a pass on the Brazilian in the Fagnes esses out in the countryside. Both cars made contact and spun off into the gravel trap. Senna was out on the spot, while Mansell continued only to retire soon afterwards. Later on, Nigel went to Lotus garage to have it out with Ayrton. At one point, he had the Lotus driver by the throat. With his team intervening, Balto finally exited the garage after being "rescued" by his crew. By rescued, he was separated from his nemesis by his allies. He walked away from the garage, his face red from rage and hot tears of anger coming from his eyes. He couldn't believe the race had gotten away from him. He'd never lost the lead of a race due to interference from a backmarker before, so he didn't know how to handle it. He went to his own team's garage to cool off and hopefully forget about what had just happened. Back on the track, Kyle Fox was fighting hard to get back on the lead lap. Speedy-dry had been put down on the track to help clear up the oil. Once the mess was cleared up, the racing resumed. By this point, both Nissans were out of contention, as was the #60 Castrol Jaguar. Only the #61 Castrol Jaguar and the #16 Dyson Racing Porsche 962 were in a position to challenge the #67 Busby Porsche, now with John Andretti at the wheel. Before the next round of pit stops, the yellow flag came out due to a spin and stall in turn 1. Fox had managed to stay ahead of Andretti before the caution came out. As a result, he got back on the tail end of the line of cars. He had a ways to go to get back to the front, but at least he still had a shot. The green flag came back out and Kyle Fox began charging toward the front. Despite having to thread his way through the traffic, he was up with the leaders within 15 laps of the restart, as he used available overtaking opportunity that he could get. But as the saying goes; "Catching somebody is one thing. Passing them is another." And so it was, as Fox could no better than third, having passed the #61 Castrol Jaguar to make it an all Porsche podium.   Balto felt a little relieved when he heard the news about his car taking another top 5 on a street circuit. His perfect top 5 record on such tracks remained intact. But he was still disappointed because he really felt like he could've won the race. And it showed all over his face. He spent the remainder of the race in the garage, sitting in a chair, drinking some Gatorade. Jenna and Boris stayed with him, trying to make him feel better. For the most part, their attempts only made Balto feel worse. The accident had knocked him down the points standings. He and Kyle were both doing so well in the drivers' championship. He still didn't know the full story behind the accident. After the race ended, Reinhold and Stan entered the garage area to see if Balto had emotionally recovered from the accident. It was quickly apparent that he hadn't gotten over it in the time between the accident and the checkered flag being waved. "You okay?" Stan asked his driver. "A little better," Balto responded, still sounding depressed. "I tell you, Balto," Stan continued. "If I had a dollar for every time I had a race ruined by backmarker interference, I'd have enough have retired from full-time racing a lot sooner than I did." Stan was speaking from his own racing experience in the pre-GTP era IMSA GT Championship. In those days, he ran in the GTO class. Back then, there were four production-based classes: GTO, GTU, TO (Touring Over), and TU (Touring Under), as GTP prototypes would not come into existence until late 1981. The latter two classes were for touring cars. The engine displacement regulations were exactly the same as they were for the current season. "This may be the first time it's happened to you, but it probably won't be the last time," continued Stan. This fact holds true in all forms of circuit racing. The leader's race can easily be ruined or ended prematurely by a car running several laps down. "You did great out there before the accident," Rhinehold put in. "I can definitely say it was a great call by Hans to recommend you for my team." "So, you're not all put off by what happened between me and Howard in the garage?" Balto asked. "Not really," Reinhold replied. "I know all too well about being in the heat of competition and sometimes not being able to control yourself. It's not always easy to do." A long pause followed. As Balto was still fairly young as a racer (25), there were bound to be many new experiences along the way for him, both good and bad. In three years of GTP racing, what just happened was a new occurrence. What happened today was just another step up the learning curve. "I've got another test for Le Mans coming up at Hockenheim early next month if you're interested," Rhinehold added. "We've still got a few kinks to work out. Those Sauber Mercedes creamed us in the World Sportscar Championship opener. We're gonna see if we can get more speed out of our cars before Le Mans comes around." "Okay," said Balto. "I'll see if I don't have any conflicts here with Fox/Ridgemount. My next race with them isn't until Memorial Day Monday at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut. But I have any sponsor appearances or have to be at the shop that day, I may have to miss the test session." "Alright," Reinhold put in. Stan checked his schedule for such things and found nothing on the day of the test. "Actually, there's nothing major scheduled for that day, Balto," said Stan. "If you want to go to the test, you can." "Alright then," added Balto. "I'll go." The deal was quickly settled and everyone left the garage.   That evening, Balto, Boris, Jenna, and Kyle were sitting down at a table inside a West Palm Beach bar & grill. They were just talking right now, their meals hadn't arrived. Right now, the focus of the discussion seemed to be the race and

Previous Page

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Next page