A brief summary: A couple of poles, a couple of first places, killer standing starts, great fall weather, good friends, a punt in turn one and great racing. GTS Challenge along with NASA VA put on a great racing weekend.

Among the many other race series, NASA hosts the 944 cup series. Eric Rupert clinched the 944 cup championship on Saturday with a great battle with Joe Hrymack. That's a great series with close driving and impressive fields. I'm tempted to join in the fun.

My weekend wasn't for a championship but I had close and interesting racing action anyway. I was running in the German Touring Sportcars series (GTS) with BMW's, Audi's and Porsches mixing it up.

On Saturday, I started on the outside pole in the standing start. Across from me was Jay Mishtowy with a 4WD Audi with big brakes and ABS. He was running in the US Touring Car Championship (USTCC), which is a pro series running on the east and west coasts. The Audi has had a lot of development work over the season and I thought I would be toast. Especially with that 4 wheel drive quatro system on the starts. If you have watched Speed TV's Touring Car races the last two years, you would've seen the jack-rabbit starts of the Audis. They were just blowing everybody away. Their Achilles heel is the weight, with the car fairly hefty compared to mine.

Surprisingly, when the flag dropped I got a good launch off the line and stayed with the Audi. When I shifted into 3rd gear and got on the fat part of the cam, I started pulling away. By the time I was at the braking zone I had 4-5 car lengths on the Audi. Here's where the tables were turned. I saw the Audi coming up on the inside. I need to start braking at the 3 marker to make the corner. I'm hard on the brakes but the Audi (with it's ABS and big brakes) is still coming. As I turn in I realize I waited a tad too late and slide off the outside of one. The Audi flashes by on the inside and the M3 behind me also gets by. Meanwhile I got my foot to the floor playing baja driver out in the grass and dirt.

I'm finally able to rejoin the track on the outside of turn two, but the M3 is way up ahead and the Audi is out of sight. I managed to stay in front of the 2nd place GTS3 car, a prepared 911 C2 driven by Jeff Curtis. I jumped back in the fray trying to hunt down the black M3. I could see I was reeling him in and my radio confirmed this: "Gained another second..."

Halfway through race, the gap started to stabilize. We started catching the back markers. Chris Richardson in the M3 got by cleanly, but I had a driver in a Rx7 deliberately block me 3 times heading into turn 3. First he moved over on the inside to block me coming up. I moved right and so did he. I moved left and he followed. Finally I ran around him on the outside of 3, but by then the M3 had disappeared. That plus Chris starting to put lap times in the 1:26 's put paid to my hopes of catching him.

A couple of laps before the end, another RX7 dropped oil in turn 3 - do you detect a RX7 theme here? No flag was shown, my only notice was when my car got very loose and I had to gather it up. In the turn 4 flag tub they started waving a yellow frantically. As I came through turn 4 a poor miata was balled up at the bottom of the turn 5 flag station. The RX7 managed to travel halfway around the carousel on-line, leaving a nice oil trail before pulling off on the outside.

Now that you had to tiptoe from turn 3 until turn 7 the field started bunching up. My 7 second lead over Jeff's C2 was cut in half and by the next lap he was coming. The white flag fluttered from start/finish stand signifying the last lap. While braking in turn 1 I saw the white Porsche coming strong down on the inside. By turn 3 and as I was tiptoeing through the oil line, Jeff was on my bumper. As soon as I crossed the last of the oil I was hard on the gas exiting the carousel, but Jeff was hanging tough.

This was Jeff's last chance. If he was going to get me, it would be in turn 10. I took the defensive line into 10, going under the right side of the bridge and then crossing back across the track to driver's left. As I reached my turn in point Jeff was on the inside but not close enough to make the pass. I swept across and out across the rumble strips. Because he didn't have the clean line he came out several car lengths behind and that was that.

I ended 3rd overall and 1st in class.

Sunday dawned bright and warmer. By late morning it was t-shirt weather. Couldn't ask for anything better in November in West Virginia . While the weather was staring off great, I couldn't say the same about my driving. Out for practice I got offline while passing a car into 3 and dropped two wheels off into the gravel and dirt. I finished the session but discovered I was dragging my right side cool brake duct the whole time. Back in paddock, Mike Holmes and I reattached the now aerodynamic (i.e. ground down) brake duct back to the front strut.

Next up was qualifying. I had been disappointed with my times from my last race weekend, so I had been experimenting with new lines and techniques this weekend. I started left foot braking in various places and really liked how it balanced the car. One place I knew I could pickup time was the entry to turn 3, or Wagon Bend. It's a complex left hand turn with weird camber changes through the corner. I felt I was over-braking for the turn and could carry a lot more speed through it. By lap 3 of the qualifying session my tires were up to temp and I'm starting to push the edge to get that best possible time. Coming up to the braking zone of 3 I'm thinking "wait .... wait .... Now brake!"

Oops, it should've only been two periods between the "wait .... wait".

This time my car doesn't just drop a wheel, it jumped whole heartedly into the gravel trap. I slow down and gingerly ride it out, the car porpoising like Flipper. Eventually I make it out of the trap and ease back on the pavement, staying off-line. I'm sure I've ripped off at least one brake duct. Yup, as I ease into the pit road I can hear them dragging under the car. This time I got both.

Now Jeff Curtis had told me his car's handling was off during the race yesterday, but he made some adjustments to the suspension. He went out during one of the DE sessions and immediately picked 2 seconds. So he was looking forward to the race today. Expecting the worse, I picked the time sheets and was surprised to find that my aborted time was still quick enough to grid me 1st in GTS3.

With the championship settled, a lot of the 944 cup car guys were packing up and leaving early. Eric Rupert , seeing that both of us were running comparable times, decided to come race with the GTS racers. Eric avoided the gravel traps and gridded ahead of me, being a second quicker.

As I pulled up to the false grid, I found of all things, a Saturn gridded in front of me. Once again we were going to have a standing start. After we took our recon lap, warming up our tires, we lined up on the main straight. I was on the 3rd row with Eric right in front of me.

As the green flag dropped, I popped the clutch and zoomed around Eric. Chris' black M3 was in the lead. I found myself next to the prepared M3 of Oliver Raoust with the Audi right behind him. The four of us dragged raced down to Turn 1. I was on the outside of turn one and the two M3's and the Audi stayed on the inside and went by me. After several laps the front three started to walk away from me. Meanwhile behind me, Eric was stuck behind a fast VW GTI who battling a 240-SX. Jeff and his C2 was located somewhere behind him.

I wasn't in touch with the lead 3 anymore, so I was just turning consistent laps. I was watching my mirrors, enjoying the battle behind me. The battle behind me was keeping Eric nice and safe and bottled up. About 3/4 into the race, Eric was able to get by the 204-SX and started pressuring the GTI. My tires were going off and the gap was starting to come down between me and those two. I'm driving the left side of the front straight heading for the brake zone for turn one. Right behind me is the GTI. As I start braking, I catch a glimpse of Eric coming up on the inside. He's too far back to be a threat to me yet.

As I make my turn-in I more feel than see, the GTI pop out and head for the inside. I remember thinking that this wasn't going to end well. I go wide of the apex as I hear the tires behind me locking up. In the 944, Eric's thinking "Yeah baby! Here's my chance." Bam! And the 911 snap spins off the track. The GTI had gob-smacked me in the right rear bumper/quarter panel.

Meanwhile I'm staring up the track watching everybody heading into the turn 1 braking zone with me as the target. Eric, the GTI and about 4 other cars get past me before I can get back onto the track. Included in that group is Jeff in the C2, now the class leader. I hustle back on the track going gingerly at first, feeling the car out for any issues, straining all my senses before committing the car at 10/10ths again.

At this point we're catching traffic. I catch Jeff and run a pick on him behind two slower cars. He thought about coming over on me, but discretion won out. I'm committed to hunting down Eric. At start/finish I hear the radio reports: “You've gained another second on Eric”. But the laps are ticking down. I pass the Audi from the lead pack limping into the pits, his race is done. A lap later the white flag comes out and then the checker.

Chris's M3 came in one lap early leaving him a lap down. Oliver Raoust's M3 took the overall win. The 240-SX took 2nd, with Eric taking 3rd. The GTI driver who hit me was DQ'd for the incident. I took 1st in class and 4th overall.

All in all, a great way to spend a fall weekend. I should've been home raking leaves or walking the dogs. Nah, this is way too much fun.

See ya next year!

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