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| Home
> Speed > Stories
>Lime Rock 2002 Race |
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The beautiful
road course at Lime Rock Park was where I started my racing career two years
ago. Nestled in the Berkshire Mountains in northwestern Connecticut, this
1.53 mile racetrack has been the home for many historic racing battles.
My
introduction to PCA club racing was marked by torrential rains with temperatures
possibly reaching 50 degrees throughout the weekend. CVR, the sponsoring region,
calls the weekend: Racing into Spring. In my case, it was more like Racing
into Hypothermia.
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Too
tired to read?
you'll find the Picture Gallery here
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An
uneventful trip from Delaware brought me safe to my hotel room. By 9pm the
sounds of pouring rain could be heard on the room's windows.
Ah yes, it's good to be back at Lime Rock in the spring. |
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#88
in the middle of the flood |
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Thursday
was a Driver's Ed day with the Schattenbaum region. Unlike Summit Point,
Lime Rock doesn't provide workers, so the participants must work
a two hour shift. I had signed up as an instructor but wasn't looking forward
to sliding around in the rain with a student.Even worse, if I didn't get
a student, I would have to work a flagging station in the pouring rain. |
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I lucked out and was assigned as a standby instructor. With all the club
racers, they had a 2:1 instructor/student ratio. So my job was to crawl
into the cab of my truck and stay warm all day. (The snoozing was
optional but welcome). The clouds finally cleared late in the day and I
was able to get a session on the track. The track was still damp in spots
but at least I was able to remember where the line went. |
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Friday
- Start of the Race Weekend
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Friday dawned clear, cool and definitely gusty. The rain had moved on but
left in its wake: wind, lots of wind. I watched a 20 foot canopy tied down
with several sets of tires and wheels, launched high in the air over a trailer.
It might be windy, but the track was clear and dry. |
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| Unfortunately
for me, the grass wasn't quite as dry. I don't have much track experience
at Lime Rock. And with the new suspension, it was like driving a brand new
car around a brand new track. In theory I knew where the line was.
In practice, getting there was a different matter. |
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Big
Bend (turn 1) is a double apex right handed corner at the end of the front
straight, leading to the only left hand turn on the track. The second apex
is a decreasing radius corner, tightening up as you get into it. Done correctly,
the car clips the 2nd inside apex on the right and tracks out on the left.
I've been flubbing this corner all day long, being pretty slow through
it. |
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Click for large map of Lime
Rock Park |
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| I've
been trying various lines, trying to find speed through this corner. During
one session, I tried a little too hard and dropped two wheels off the outside
left. Electing not to try to save it, I drove off straight. Remember that
not quite dry grass? It was like flooring the accelerator. I was doing fine,
motoring along, when I hit a giant trench in the grass. This shot
me off 45 degrees from my desired line, pointing me out to the middle of
the Lime Rock swampy area. Turning the wheel had no effect on my direction,
so I tried to ride it out. However, the car started going slower, and s
l o w e r, and finally came to a stop. Deep in the middle of what the locals
call, "Lake Lime Rock". |
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| After
the session was over, the tow truck appeared. And with the help of galoshes
and a 150 foot rope, the car made it back to solid ground. The only damage
was a knocked off brake cooling duct, easily fixed with some zip ties. We
cooked the 15 pound trout I found in the back seat for supper than
night. |
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Saturday
- Race Day
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Clear Blue Skies
at Last |
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You
couldn't ask for a better day for a race. A few light puffy clouds, sunny,
mid 60's with a gentle breeze.
Ah yes, it's good to be back at Lime Rock in the spring.
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| One
of the other joys of Lime Rock is the price of accommodations. Pricey
is an understatement. Because I had spent all my money on sticky tires
and Guinness, Brian Fugok (The Alpine Pit Crew) and I were staying at a
modest motel 30 miles away in New York. With no drivers meeting scheduled,
we arrived with 10 minutes to spare before the warm-up session. |
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| The
warm-up was short, only 10 minutes, but proved 2 things. 1) My long term
memory hadn't been impaired by multiple beers from dinner and I was able
to remember what direction the turns went. 2) Boy, do my very well used
practice tires suck! |
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| Coming
off the track from the warm-up, I noticed my clutch was getting notchy.
By the time I got to my paddock spot, it was hardly engaging. Figuring it
was a simple cable adjustment; we jacked up the car and crawled under for
a look. We cracked the nuts and added some tightening. I jumped back in
the car and had Brian watch. Down goes the pedal to the floor. Brian tells
me I can put the pedal down now. Uh-oh, this is not good. "Brian
the pedal is down." A couple of full up and downs and Brian tells
me that I'm only getting 1/8 inch of travel. A couple of more ups and downs
and soon the pedal doesn't come off the floor. |
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Red car in your mirror,
yellow next to you, and blue after it passes you. That's one way to confuse
people.
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Qualifying
is in 90 minutes. Not time to panic...yet. Here's where Brian earned every
cent of his pit crew salary, i.e. lodging and beer. Diving into the car,
Brian found that the pin that attached the clutch pedal to the pedal assembly
lever had sheared completely off. Somebody tell me again why I'm racing
a 30 year car? |
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| Brian
traversed the paddock and came up with a nice metric bolt to replace the
official Porsche roll pin part. We gingerly replaced the 911's 30 year
old plywood floorboard, which threatened to fall apart in our hands.
Adjusted the clutch, changed to the sticky tires, bled the brakes and we
were good to go with 10 minutes to spare. |
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| Getting
up to speed in the Qualifying session I discover that reasonably new tires
do make a difference. I'm actually able to stick on the inside around the
Big Bend corner. I get some clear laps and start working on my times. On
the 4th or 5th lap I do a 1:04.5, a full second faster that any other time
this weekend. This is more than 2 seconds faster than my last trip here. |
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| Coming
in hot into Big Bend, I hit the 2nd apex and track out when the dreaded
early 911 oversteer comes visiting. With my new suspension, I'm relearning
the car's handling all over again, finding that fine line between too much
and not enough. Now my brain tells me: This is definitely 'too much'. Thanks
Mr. Brain! |
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| The
rear end steps out and keeps coming. The only thing to do is 'both feet
in', there's no way to save this puppy. I lock up all four tires
as I slowly spin on the track. I manage to scrub off most of my speed as
I reach the edge of the track, bringing my speed down to 10-15 miles per
hour. Once off the track I transition off the nice grippy asphalt onto the
damp grass. It feels like I'm pushing the gas pedal instead of the brake,
as I go sliding through the grass. |
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| Finally,
after what seems like several miles of sliding, I lightly kiss the tire
wall with my front bumper. Damn! That's all I need, a 13/13 violation!
I won't be able to race and will have to go home. I'm sure I didn't hurt
the car, I was going so slowly. I certainly couldn't pretend it didn't happen.
The tire wall was right in front of a flag station, and in full view of
the paddock. |
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| Feeling
rattled, and pissed at myself, I eased back onto the track. I didn't see
a black flag, but I remembered that you're supposed to report to the black
flag station after an incident. I pulled into the pits and behind another
car at the black flag compound. The scrutineer was busy with another car.
I jumped out of my car and explained my plight. |
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| "An
honest racer!" he exclaimed. "Tell you what. Since we didn't
have to go hunt you down in the paddock I'm going to give you a break. I'm
willing to bet if you work on that bumper at lunch time with a little rubbing
compound, all those tire marks will come out." "Now get back out
there and don't make me regret this. Have a good race!" And I did
just that. |
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Mike Piera (green) and John Paton
(red) |
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The
Race |
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| My
race group was a mixed bag, consisting of B, C, D and E class cars. My class
(E) was supposedly the slowest of the group. I was 15th of 25 cars on the
grid. The next faster E class car was Harry Kintzi immediately ahead of
me. He was a full second plus faster in qualifying, so I knew my only hope
was to get him on the start and keep him behind me. Gridded behind me was
a C car driven by rookie Bill Walczak in his first race. Bill seemed a little
shell-shocked in the practices. I think he referred to himself later as
"fresh meat". He was easy to spot: a bright yellow car with
a fat "X" on the rear. Bill had a good race, stayed out of
the way and out of trouble. Right behind Bill, was Lou Betstadt in the next
E car. I had a nice
dice with Lou at the Summit Point race last year with Lou eventually
getting the better of me. |
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| The
pit marshals send us out on the track and I get split to the inside. Remember
the plan is to take Kintzi on the start. The pace car pulls off into the
pits and Green Flag! Engines roar and everybody flies down the front
straight and into Big Bend. The speed is high and everybody is clean, so
we all rocket around two wide through the turns. No chance to stick a pass
here. A quick jumble of cars around the left hander and I scoot around the
outside and stick my nose into the right turn leading onto No-Name
Straight. At this point the cars are settling into single file, sorting
themselves out. Kintzi is ahead of me and I'll never get another chance
to be near to him again. |
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Waiting
for the start |
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After
several laps, the pack had moved away from me in front and I have a comfortable
lead on anybody behind me. I begin to relax and just dial back a bit to
conserve the car. Eventually I start spotting Lou Betstadt in my
rear view mirror. Right behind him is Fred Staudinger in his 72 911. It
looks like they're having a good dice. Every time Lou starts pressuring
me, Fred does the same to Lou. Lou then has to fall back and defend his
position, leaving me alone. |
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Just
the way I like it.
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| Lap
after lap works like this: Lou comes down the front straight moves to
the inside hoping to out-brake me into the corner. I see this in my mirror
and move right to block. Over the next couple corners the driving line sweeps
back and forth across the track several times, leaving no real place to
pass. I'm painfully slow through this section. This is where I spun
off twice before, so I'm real careful. |
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| Though
I'm very slow, I am able to keep Lou behind me without a lot of problem;
there's no place for him to go. I get a good launch onto No-Name
Straight so he can't get close enough to try a pass at the Uphill corner.
I'm faster through the West Bend and Downhill corners, giving me several
car lengths onto the front straight. All of which means, Lou never gets
close enough for a real chance at out-braking. Plus he has to defend his
position from Fred attacking him from behind. |
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| Finally
Lou gets a good run on me. He's close behind me all the way in the back
section. I come through West Bend right at the limit, and maybe just
a little bit past it. This is the corner that Axel Shields stuffed his car
into during the Schattenbaum DE on Thursday. It's very fast but dangerous.
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| The
back end of the car starts to break loose with Lou right behind me. I frantically
counter-steer through several wild gyrations of the car, finally gathering
it up before starting down the Downhill. I'm sure Lou was thinking I was
going to lose it there, which is probably why he didn't pass me.
And I would have agreed with his thinking. Luckily I made to the end of
the front straight with enough of a lead to prevent a pass into the corner. |
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| On
the next lap, once again, I had several car lengths on Lou at the end of
the straight. He moved right to set up the pass, and I moved right to block.
We were both approaching the corner on the inside line when I looked back
just before turning in. Behind Lou, coming very fast, was a white D car.
And he's trying to go inside of Lou! I'm already in the corner, Lou's
about a half car length from the edge of the track following my line. "Where
the f*k is this guy going?" I think. "This has the look
of a bad situation". |
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Coming through West Bend,
Bruce Duff right behind me |
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turn in and hear the sound of tires locking up behind me. As I go through
the corner I glance at the mirror and see Lou and the other car spin
off the track. I keep going and quickly lose track of the incident. When
I come around next time, both cars are gone. I guess that both cars are
half a lap behind me. |
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| Well
that gives me breathing room. Nobody's close for a while. As the laps count
down, I catch a glimpse of a 944 catching up. Soon he gets close enough
for me to see the class. Damn, that's an E car. "Who is this guy?
I don't recognize the car." I keep him behind me for a while. He
keeps sticking his nose in the corners and I keep closing the door.
He's very aggressive. Finally he forces his way into the apex at West Bend.
I probably could've closed the door, but I'm respectful of the danger of
that corner. "If you want it that bad, you can have it." |
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| I
draft him down the Downhill and he soon disappears. I find out later that
it was Derek Tietjen lapping me. But in the car, I'm worried that I've
given up a position. Finally I take the checker. As I pull into my paddock
space, Lou Betstadt runs over and congratulates me. I found out that he
wasn't 30 seconds behind me on the track. In that earlier incident, he didn't
spin to avoid trouble; he was punted off the track by the D car.
His race was over and he came right in. Luckily, no one was hurt and the
damage wasn't too bad. That was a shame; we were having a fine dice between
the two of us. I don't know what that D driver was thinking. It was his
responsibility to make a safe pass. From my position, there was no way he
could have made it. |
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| I
ended up 6th in class, a position I was happy with. There was some tough
competition ahead of me which I didn't have a chance of catching. Ronny
Savenor and Mike Piera are always tough here. Bruce Duff, another racer
from Delaware, finished fourth. Usually Bruce is way ahead of me. So being
only 2 spots behind Bruce makes me pretty happy. |
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A
fine spring weekend in the mountains; good friends; a good race; a good
finish; an undamaged car on the trailer; and the Mid-Ohio race only a week
away ...
Ah yes, it's truly good to
be back at Lime Rock in the spring. |
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- Cris Brady
1973 911 RS - Class E #88
Delaware PCA Region Webmeister
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(c)
2002 Cris Brady - All Rights Reserved |
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