George and Steve’s 1965 Mustang.

One Lap of America April 30 to May 7, 2005
Article provided by David Goodman.

Introduction | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8

Monday May 2, 2005 Day 3
Well 3.5 hours of sleep was about all we could get last night. I dragged Sam out of bed an hour early so we could get to NHIS to ensure that we got a garage space. Last nights ride was uneventful except for an interesting incident with Tony Swan, Car & Driver magazines official entrant and long time One Lap correspondent. We were following George Batejan and Steve Smotrich in their 1965 Mustang as we often do, communicating over a set of two way radios. While driving through one of the many small New Hampshire towns the familiar headlight pattern of a new Mustang coupe approached fast and hung in a tight position off my rear bumper.

I was in no hurry to let this guy by, as we were in a 30 MPH zone trailing 2 cars behind an 18 wheeler. As we crawled through town, we all pulled over as an ambulance whizzed by on our side. In a classic city driving maneuver, Swan (as we recognized the car) pulls out to follow the rig, completely cutting me off as I drove back on the road. He was not so lucky with the 65 Mustang as Steve got the drop on him and pulled back on the road, No big deal I thought, if he’s in that much of a hurry let him go.

I radioed to Steve as much and he agreed so after a few minutes of Swan crawling up Steve’s tail pipe, he pulled out and stepped on it. No more that a minute later I get a big signal on the radar detector and sure enough I see the blue lights come on and the trooper pulls in front of Steve to pull over Swan. Sometimes I guess justice is served. The final note to this story is that standing in the lunch line the next day, Tony’s co-driver Mary came just short of an apology by stating he was being an ass with the ambulance.

When we got to the hotel I checked the Lancaster results and to my pleasant surprise I finished 14th on the paved oval to propel me to 19th overall in the standings and 1st in the Vintage Foreign class. Not bad for a days work.

Mary Seelhorst said Tony Swan was “being an ass” in his 2005 Mustang.		The visiting NHIS posse from left to right: My brother Joe, Me, My girlfriend Kelly Hough, co-driver and brother Sam, Ed Hull, Justin Kababik, Larry Leff, Ryan Catucci, the Ibarguen clan - young Ryan, Christine, Young Lauren, and Keith.

The weather was beautiful at NHIS and I was excited because a whole posse of friends was coming up to visit and watch the fun. These guys are friends but also consummate constructive critics who know the track well and can analyze even the subtlest mistake. Given the chance they’ll descend on you like Dr. Phil at a trailer park. Anyway after the first run these guys all chimed in on how much fun it was to see me go into turn three a little too hot and emerge from the tire smoke unscathed.

Later it was my friend Ed Hull who checked the morning run standings and broke it to me over lunch that I had placed 10th overall in the morning. I was absolutely elated. The afternoon session was equally satisfying with a finishing position of 14th overall. This combined performance propelled me up 5 places in the cumulative standings to 14th at the end of Day 3.

Another interesting note from Monday was that I did an interview for Royal Ford at the Boston Globe as well as for the producers of NPR. Royal said that the piece was tentatively set to run on May 21.

Sam and I packed the car and made the 10 hour run to West Virginia, arriving at 1 am. We will get good sleep tonight. continue>