Victory!!! Our final race of the season was a good one. We clinched the championship with a victory at Portland International Raceway on September 10, 2006. It was a splendid day for racing, the weather was perfect, the track was in good condition and the car was running great.
We qualified 2nd for the
race, behind Mike Smith of
When the green flag dropped we made a
decisive move to the inside of the chicane to establish our position in front
of the field and thwart any first lap attempts to out-brake us into the first
turn. That proved to be the right move as we then slowly pulled away from the
field. We ran about a second faster for our fastest lap than Bonham, who came
in in second place.
The championship is now guaranteed, which is
a good thing, since our season is over with two possible races remaining.
The car was back together very quickly,
thanks to the good work of Jess Heitman. Mission is
always a challenging track, as it is very hard on brakes and the driver. It is
a very short track with lot's of braking, shifting and
turning. As usual, the car performed beautifully. With Jess Heitman's
help, we dialed in the handling of the car, and tuned it for the track
conditions.
Qualifying went well, starting second behind
Al Ores, ahead of Craig Curtis and Scott Arthur. When the race started, Al and
I jumped out to an early lead, although not able to challenge him for the lead,
I was fortunate enough to hang onto his bumper for the first few laps. Bad news
was, we were on old tires, with 8 heat cycles on them. Once we started sliding
around, we had to back off or we may not have finished the race.
Eventually, Scott Arthur was able to catch
us. Scott is a great driver, and
While disappointing, the race was a blast,
and we learned a lot about the car, the track and the driver - so overall, it
was a very successful race weekend.
Next up -
The
In the battle was Craig Curtis, Chuck Boyce
and us. We were in front for most of the laps, and as a pack seemed to run
faster with me in the lead, however - who can resist dicing for second, despite
the possibility of maybe catching the leader. So we started draft passing, and
dive bombing each other into corners.
Eventually, Chuck and Craig were both in
front of me, and I hung back a couple laps to rest my tires and brakes. Then I came flying up on them to try to pass them both for good. As
I caught them coming into turn 5, I knew I had a shot at Craig up the hill
between 6 and 7 and would try to get into Chuck's draft to pass on the main
straight.
That's when disaster struck and Craig spun
right in front of us in turn 6. With no where to go, we
nailed him. At about 70 MPH, we T-boned him. We
were able to finish the race, limping along for the final couple laps. Craig
however had to retire.
A broken nose cone, bent front beam, bent
wheel, bent frame, and broken steering box later, we will be ready for
Having never been to
The Saturday race was going extremely well,
with what the spectators described as one of the best FV battles of recent
memory. Bill Simer and I battled back and forth
for the first 3/4 of the race, exchanging the lead for second place two
or three times every lap. The problem was, my
draft pass of him was happening about 20 feet past the start finish line - in
other words, I was going to finish third if something did not change. I
decided to lay back and get a run on him in the back stretch and use my
momentum to break away before the front stretch. All was going to plan until I
entered turn five with a little too much speed and spun off into the
gravel trap. Our race was over and our first DNF of the year was a reality.
The race on Sunday went much better. Starting
fourth, after a lackluster qualifying session on old tires, we brought home a
third place finish after running a consistent and conservative race. After a
DNF on Saturday, nobody wanted us to push too hard and end up with another. So
we settled for third. Next up,
Qualifying went well. We qualified 2nd
during provisional qualifying on Saturday, knocked down one spot in final
qualifying Sunday morning. Starting 3rd on the grid, the race was rather
uneventful for us, finishing 3rd, taking home 20 championship points.
Portland International Raceway is one of my
favorite tracks. We had a very good race weekend on June 3rd and 4th. We were
fairly evenly matched withone of our competitors
while another was running his national level car to get ready for the next
weekends national race - so naturally he was quite a bit faster than us.
Qualifying went well. We qualified on
Saturday at 1:36.475, nearly a second faster than our competitor. (4 seconds
slower than the national car) During Sunday's qualifying run however, disaster
struck when we stripped out the splines on a rear
brake drum. After a lot of hard work, we got the rear repaired in time for the
race. With no time to test the new setup after the failure, we started the race
pretty cautiously. After falling back by a couple seconds, it seemed everything
was okay, so we pressed the pace and ended up spinning in the Chicane. By this
time we were about 13 seconds behind the second place car.
However, we were able to make up about a
second a lap on him, until finally we were within striking distance coming into
turn 10. However, the second place car spun with us on his tail. Needless to
say, we finished second and took over the lead in the points
championship. Next up is 3 races in 9 days in
Pacific Raceways was the site if the second
conference race of the season. Again, we ran in two groups to maximize our
track time before the race on Sunday. That means five sessions on Saturday, and
an additional two on Sunday.
Saturday started well with us testing some
setup changes we made on the suspension. We went through some final
tweaks during the first two sessions. Lap times were pretty consistent with us
running our fastest lap of the day in qualifying (1:48.316). We qualified
third, for the race on Sunday.
The race started great on Sunday with us
starting second, due to the polesitter being
unable to go for the race. Craig Curtis started on pole in his place, with us
right behind him. For the first several laps we chased him, right on his tale.
By the 6th lap we got in his draft and was able to
pass him down the front straight. We lead for the following two laps until
disaster struck and we spun out entering turn two. Luckily, no contact was made
and we were able to get going again, but by then Craig was
too far in front of us. Craig ran a pretty flawless race, and we did not.
There are a few changes we are going to try
on the car for the
The first ICSCC Conference race of the year
was a good one. Weather was not a huge factor for most of the weekend, with
only one wet session. The weekend was hectic, as we ran in two groups on Saturday,
totaling 5 sessions. However, the extra track time definitely had a positive
effect, allowing us to qualify 3rd, ahead of several veteran racers, including
Craig Curtis of
Craig did however have the last laugh, going
on to win the race on Sunday afternoon. We came across the finish line in
second place. A good solid start to a promising year.
The car again performed perfectly, with the motor being very strong. With the
assistance of several senior racers, I got some setup help on the suspension,
and was able to improve lap times by nearly 2 seconds. Mike Smith was kind
enough to loan us a pair of shocks to test the difference, it was shocking
(cheesy pun intended) how big of a difference it made.
The season opener! The opening kickoff! The
ceremonial first pitch! All conjure up images of crisp spring or fall air,
bright blue skies, maybe some green grass and the excitement of what is to
come.
Well, the season opener at
We arrived Saturday morning and got setup for
our weekend of racing. With only one practice session for Saturday, we had
plenty of time to prepare the car. Practice was scheduled for 6pm. We got the
car prepared and waited patiently for our turn. Finally our session arrived and
we pulled out onto the track.
On lap four, we came down the front straight
and started to brake for the chicane, but we were not stopping nearly as fast
as we should be. When I put the clutch in to downshift the RPM's
shot up, by this time I am turning into the Chicane with the clutch in, as we
were running out of road. As I eased the clutch back in to avoid over-revving
the engine the car took off and I realized we had a stuck throttle. This sudden throttle burst caused throttle induced oversteer and caused the car to spin around the
second turn of the chicane. Luckily, we spun on the road, and did not end up
off track. I was able to get the throttle pedal back out and that seemed to
back the throttle off enough that I could baby it back to the pits.
Unfortunately, we had to go around the entire
track before we would be able to get into the pits, and every time I gave
it gas, it would stick again. When I got it back to the pits, we discovered the
root of the problem. Now, a stuck throttle is theoretically rather hard to have
happen on this car, as we had 2 throttle return springs on the carb, plus a third on the pedal. Come to find out, the
throttle return on the pedal had broken, plus the pedal had seized somehow over
the off season, perhaps due to over tightening of the bolt with inadequate
lubrication. So tomorrow's Qualifying session will be done
with only 3 real laps on the track.
Sunday morning comes early and we arrive at
the track for qualifying. We do our normal routine and watch the weather. The
rain is still coming down, and as we are watching one of the race groups before
ours, we think the track is starting to dry off. However, one of the cars goes
by and I notice a cloud of spray behind him. So much for the track being dry,
we decided. However, the next set of cars go by with
no spray. The next time the car goes by it sprays again, this time the car
behind him is frantically pointing at him so the start finish corner marshal
can notice that this is not rain, but fluid. Now in racing, there is a flag
lovingly referred to as the "meatball" flag, it is a black flag with
a big orange circle in the middle which looks sort of like a meatball. When
they wave that at you it means, 'come into the pits, you have a mechanical
problem'. After he comes around for a third time, they give him the meatball
flag. Now because the meatball is only at start/finish this weekend, he has to
make a FOURTH lap spraying fluid all over the wet track and then come in.
We later found out it was transmission fluid
that he had sprayed all over the track. They closed the track down for close to
30 minutes to clean the track. The problem with oil absorbent material is it
does not work real well in the wet. It basically clumps together with the
water, and then is too heavy to be vacuumed or blown from the track.
When our qualifying session comes around, I
begin to wish I had some prior dirt track racing experience, because it was
like racing on oily wet sandy roads. The advantage to us with that situation, is that the slippery conditions allow us to out
qualify several faster classes of cars. Which does nothing for points, but
shows that you out skilled someone who should have been significantly faster
than you.
After lunch, the clouds broke and the sun
emerged, and the track started to dry. About 3 hours of racing went on under
the nice partly sunny skies of
When the race started the track was even more
slippery than before. The car was actually able to spin it's
rear wheels under acceleration on the straights in 3rd gear (I have never seen
this before) But we battled through spin free to take the checkered flag for
victory. This was our first SCCA first place finish ever, and that was
very exciting. During the parade lap - the lap you drive the checkered flag
around the track - My only thought was DON'T SPIN ON THE PARADE LAP! That would
be highly embarrassing.
All in all, it was a very successful weekend,
and we are very excited for our next race in