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> Speed > Stories >Mid
Ohio 2003 Race |
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MidOhio.2003 |
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Nope,
can't say it was a sterling weekend for the Alpine Motorsports racing effort.
At least if you define it by the results as printed on the time sheets. But
that's not how I measure the success of a race weekend. What happens off the
track is just as much as why I love doing this stuff.
As the slogans
go, It's the people, stupid.
I've been
fortunate to have met a lot of great people in this racing game. The bench
racing; the meeting of old friends; the dinners and beer drinking after
the track is cold; are all part of making a race weekend a success. All
of the Delaware group made it there and back again reasonably
intact. More on that later. |
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Enjoy
the crazy antics of those wacky E & F drivers in Group 3. No picture gallery
this time, but enjoy some in-car video of spins: |
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| same video,
just better quality, for you guys with T1's 10 megs click
here |
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By the time the
race started, I was 9th in class, 14th on the Grid, surrounded by F cars with
not an E car in sight. That's because they were all at the front.
This didn't augur well for me. The only hope I had was that Ron Savenor wasn't
on pole, having been out-qualified by David Schardt.
Yesterday, during
the Fun Race/Practice starts, Ron was on pole, and he set a blistering
pace at each of the starts. I wasn't too far back from the front,
but even so, I (and everybody else) was pretty close to a full racetime pace
coming through the Carousel, doing all I could, not to slide into the car
next me. No chance in hell of improving my position on the starts. |
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So,
with David Schardt controlling the race start, there was some hope that
the start would be a little bit slower. Alas, this was not meant to be.
Once again, after bumping along in Thunder Alley at 5 mph on the pace lap,
I had my foot to the floor coming in and through the Carousel. Still no
E cars in sight, just my little car lost in the shuffle of dicing
F cars. And of course, even though I was faster than a few during
the first several laps, nobody was willing to let me through in fear of
letting a competitor through at the same time. |
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Meanwhile
at the front, on Pole for F class, in only his 3rd race, was my fellow Delaware
racer, and former protégé, Mark Weining. After
generally just doddering around all weekend, putting in times similar to mine
- including a nice spin in turn one just in front of me, see in-car
video above - Mark put together a blistering lap and landed on Pole, mystifying
just above everybody, including Mark. With a gaggle of E cars just ahead of
him, sure to be battling all race long, Mark looked to be a lock for
the win if he keeps his wits about him. |
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So
it was quite a disappointment to see a car off track just before the right
handed entrance to Thunder Valley on the first lap. As I passed the car
struggling to regain the track I noticed it was Mark's 911. "Damn,
Mark's thrown away the race" I thought and then I was
gone, locked into my own battle. |
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The
cause of Mark's off track was simple, but some historical background is
needed here to put it into context, Please indulge me. If you remember,
back in March I crunched my valves by shifting from 3rd to 2nd while looking
for 4th. Well, last November, both Mark and Tom Holmes did the "Money
$hift" at the Carolina's race. So, out of the 4 Delaware region
racers, 3 of us had Harry Hall put in a Wevo shifter - in the hope of preventing
"driver error" in the future. In my view, this was the modern
day equivalent of sacrificing a goat and wrapping the entrails
around my fuel cell. But what do I know? Harry's a magician with my motor
and does magical things to the car - remember I'm a software engineer, and
the car's a "hardware problem". |
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Mark had been having some issues with his new Wevo shifter. Namely, the reverse
lockup pin was sticking. This prevent a busy driver from downshifting
from 5th into reverse while looking for 3rd. Normally the loud grinding of gears,
and the heavy resistance to this act should prove enough to alert the driver
that this is not a maneuver with high degree of success. However in the heat
of a race, with all the driver's blood being diverted to the gland
that produces testosterone, drivers can succeed in making the car do things
that the original designer didn't think about. (I can personally attest to this.).
The lockup pin on the Wevo physically prevents this, as long as it doesn't stick
open, like on Mark's car. |
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So
it's time to bring this somewhat pointless digression back to where the
main narrative lies abandoned. On race day morning, Mark had removed the
lockout pin, retrued it - a large hammer was involved -
and reinstalled it. Where it worked flawlessly. Unfortunately, he forgot
to remove the large screwdriver from the car that was also used in this
process. Yup, you guessed it. First hot race lap it rolled out from
under the seat and jammed under the gas pedal preventing it from
being used. After leaving the track and letting the gaggle of racers past,
Mark gathered the car in and headed into the pits where he discovered the
errant screwdriver. There are reports that the hapless tool is now located
in low earth orbit. |
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After
checking the car for other loose items - the chain saw and ladder
were properly secured - Mark headed back onto the track, coming out a lap
down. But Mark's focus was gone, all he hear in his head was Homer
Simpson: Doh! Stupid Screwdriver! Next lap around Mark
spun off the track just after the esses. Not wanting to screw up the race
for the others, Mark pulled off the course and headed for the paddock. |
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Meanwhile
in my little world, an E car was in the middle of the battle
of two F class drivers, Cal Calamari and Keith Clark. This battle was slowing
down all three of them and I was gaining, reeling them in.
The E car had gotten by me before when I went a little wide for a corner and
I was itching to get that spot back. Steven Schardt, who had started last because
his qualifying time had been DQ'd, caught up with me and rocketed past
like I was an I car. Just blew past me in his E class 944 turbo. |
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F car got a run on me and closed up and followed through
Madness and the esses. There's no real room to pass and with me closing
in on the E car in front of me, I wasn't going to let up in the back section
and lose that time. I'll give him a point by in Thunder Alley where it won't
hold me up. |
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But
the 944 driver decided not to wait but to force the issue.
On the right hander entrance to Thunder Valley, he attempted a inside pass.
I had the corner but as I started turning in I noticed that he wasn't
backing off. To avoid having him end up in my passenger door, I went
wide giving him room in the corner. As I went wide, my car crested up over the
hill, unweighted and slid into the marbles on the outside of
the turn. With the concrete walls looming very close I lost a huge amount of
time and speed collecting the car and keeping it off the walls. And that
was that for the pursuit of the E car in front. |
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Time for another
digression. I have to tell you that forced pass pissed me off and still does.
If I stood my ground and closed the door on the other driver,
I would've been in the right, but chances are both of us would have been talking
to the stewards, with a he said/she said tale, and the likely outcome would've
been two 13/13's and bent cars. As it was, the other driver
wasn't in my class and wasn't racing me. At the time of the pass there weren't
any F cars that close to him, just the little group in front of me that I
was hunting down. By waiting a few seconds he could've had a clean
pass with everybody happy.
By acting in an overly aggressive manner he spoiled my race
and also put me in a potentially dangerous place. My two choices were to contest
him and maybe make contact or go wide and perhaps into the wall. There are
lots of places to go off at Mid Ohio, but that corner is not one. Hell, I
don't mind aggressive driving, remember I love starts and restarts. But there's
a time and a place for them. What happened in that corner is the "win
at all cost" mentality, what I call the "fuck you buddy!"
style of racing. Luckily, I've encountered that behavior rarely
in PCA club racing. Usually I'm in a hard fought battle that sometimes I win,
sometimes I lose, but know that the other guy won't hurt the car or me. <end
of rant>. |
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The
rest of my race was anti-climatic excepting for my spin
in the esses on the penultimate lap. My car was pushing through them
so I've been doing little lifts to get the car to rotate and once I let
it slide just a little too much. Up over the apex curb, and across the track
in a haze of Michelin tire smoke and off into the grass.
Didn't even knock off a brake duct! I'm getting good at this. As I crawled
back on the track I got lapped by Ron Savenor, on the way to a hard fought
and well deserved victory. Congratulations Ron! One of
these days, it's gonna be me in your mirrors :) Cal Calamari, who I'd been
chasing all weekend, lost his clutch toward the end of the race and pulled
off for the final laps. Sorry Cal. |
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Final tally for
the Delaware region: I started 9th, and finished 11th out of 17. Not the
greatest result, but fun nonetheless. Mark W, well ...
he's young and learned some valuable lessons this weekend. Tom
Holmes had the bolts spin out of his CV joint during the fun
race and after some in-paddock surgery, was able to start the race. Starting
5th, Tom had an excellent and close race, climbing up to 3rd and
the podium. And whatever happened to Gregg Wilson,
that ole race dog? In the fun race, Gregg locked a tire coming into the
Carousel and got all squirrelly. Leading to a trip into the grass, that
is, the "wet" grass, leading to a nice slow slide into
the distant tire wall and a 13/13. |
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Now as much as I admire Gregg as a race driver, Porsche mechanic and a person,
he does have these "non-mainstream" ideas. He
actually drives his racecar to and from the races. Can you believe
it? No trailer, no tow vehicle! I'm surprised he doesn't have an
hand starter for his car. It wouldn't surprise me to find him one day doing
driver's ed event wearing a leather helmet, goggles and a scarf.
He say's if he buys a trailer, then he'll have to buy something to tow it
and he doesn't want to go into debt. "doesn't want to go
into debt"! Somebody check his birth certificate, doesn't
sound like an American to me. If we go into a recession, I know who I'm
gonna blame ... |
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Anyway,
with a generous helping of duct tape and some heavy duty bungee cords holding
Gregg's spoiler (wind tested at 90mph on the PA turnpike!),
the Delaware racers, family and crew made it safely back home. Another race
weekend, once again, a success. Because, remember, It's the people,
stupid. |
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See ya'll at
the Glen!
Cris Brady
#88 Class E
1973 911 RS clone |
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(c) 2003 Cris
Brady - All Rights Reserved
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