I haven't raced my car since it was wrecked early this year nor have I posted in a while so I figured I would post a little race report from me this past weekend.

On Friday we had 2 qualifying sessions that took your fastest time to set the Grid for Saturdays championship year end race. I started to feel more comfortable with the car as the day went on but it was really really loose and I couldn't get on the power at all. It also ran super high oil temps (250-260) with water temps around 180-190. I was hesitant to keep pushing the engine but the crew pushed me on over the radio. I started to throw the car around a bit and see how it reacted. Got down to a 1:03.4 which was only .1 seconds faster than I ever went in my ITB car. (Much slower class) I though to myself yahoo finally that 20K building a new racecar was all worth it... Ya not in my wifes eyes . I was shocked to see that my buddy Tim in his corrado qualified at a 1:02 flat and 1st in class. I was pretty bummed that I didn't think I could ever catch him and I just kept thinking WOW did I spend a lot more to build my car... what the hell did I do!! (I went into the weekend really really wanting to go faster than him, in fact we cared more about our race against eachother than anything else) So after we came in to prepare for Saturday we made a ton of suspension adjustments to see if we could get it to handle a bit better.

Saturday Morning warm-ups went well and I could tell it felt like it would be better. I was very excited about the potential in the race and couldn't have been happier with the decisions the crew made.

Race time came and I had a terrible start. lots of locked up tires in front of me, everyone 3 wide into turn 1 and this was the first race since the car got fixed... ya I was a ***** and backed off a tad! So after losing a bunch of spots on lap 1 I found myself getting into a groove and took off. I really started to understand how the car drove, what gears I should be in, and how fast I could slide it around some of the turns. I passed all the cars that got by me and a few more. Oil temps still extremely high which is something that we need to look at before we get back on track again. I was still having a blast driving trying desperatly to catch Jay (who was 4th) in his Turner ITR BMW. I got down to a 1:01.6 which is only 1.1 seconds off the new track record set this weekend! I ended up finishing 5th in class and 6th overall by less than a car length! I will be honest that I couldn't afford tires so I was wearing old giveaways from other drivers. In fact the front had 225 tires and the rear was 245's that sat in the snow last winter that I got from a friendly competitor 2 seasons ago! With a new set of tires I really think this car has potential in ITR at a momentum track like LRP!

Overall a big success for me as the car ran well, didn't have any fuel issues (running an 09 pump which is working awesome!), and I had a blast driving the car! I wish I could go to the grand-am race this weekend and join the fun but I can't go as work has to pay these bills! HAve fun for those that are going!




Stephen

 

 

Good job out there. You've become quite a shoe. Now we need to do one together! Give me a call, I'd like to catch up. Lot's of funny stories from Watkins Glen.

 

I will give you a call later today! I bet we race together at the Glen at some point!
I wish I could do the ARRC with ya! That is a BIG event at an amazing track!

Stephen

Here is another picture I found on the web of my car, I think it makes me look fast.

 

Good to hear you are back at it Stephen! Gratz on the good finish!

 

Congrats on getting the car running again. I just ran on Lime Rock for the first time, great track.