Another fantastic race in SCCA SFR Group 5. This switch to group 5 was actually a very good thing for me. The competition is tighter (even if it’s with cars in other classes) and I feel like it’s raising my game by quite a bit. Group 5 is about the same size as group 1 (50+ cars this weekend), but the difference is that there are more cars at a very similar performance level, and we’re at the front of the group instead of mid-pack.
The race this weekend was at the world famous Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. I’ve been frustrated with the new changes to Laguna Seca the last few times we’ve been there, because the gravel traps that they put around the track for motorcycle safety have made things very difficult for cars. If a car goes into those gravel traps, it simply cannot get out on its own and that means that the session usually gets halted or goes full-course-yellow with a pace car in order to retrieve the stuck car. Fortunately, this weekend, the gravel trap gremlin didn’t bite anyone during the race and we were green for the entire 30 minute race.
My biggest competition, Mike Courtney in his E36 BMW, had a problem on Saturday … he forgot to fasten his hood pins, so the hood flew up on track, damaging the hood and severely cracking the windshield. So his weekend was done, unfortunately.
That meant that ITR was like last year, left to me and James. Qualifying was frustrating for me, as I had some difficulty adapting to some different brake pads I was experimenting with … but more on that in another post.
Anyway, I ended up qualifying 1st in ITR, and 3rd overall in the group, behind the two drivers I had such a blast with at Infineon, Doug Makishima in his ITS BMW E30, and Donna Gilio in her ITA Integra. She really gets that ITA car around quickly, especially considering that horsepower is a definite advantage at Laguna Seca.
The race was on Sunday morning, and Sunday didn’t look anything like Saturday. It was cold and wet. Temps in the low 50s. The wet was not from rain, it was from the fog and low clouds that blow in from the ocean and hang over the track, enough to make the surface wet and to require windshield wipers from the mist.
Fortunately, our race didn’t start until 10:50am, and 2 hours of cars driving on the track dried it out, for the most part. The racing surface was dry by then, except for underneath one of the bridges, which continued to drip. We did have to use the wipers to clear mist off the windshield for the first 15 minutes or so.
Doug had the pole and led us fairly slowly down the front straight. At the green I got a pretty good jump and stayed right on his bumper, passing Donna in the process. In my mirror I could see James and Donna having what appeared to be a pretty good battle, with Donna ahead. I stayed on Doug’s bumper very close for the first couple of laps. In fact, I felt I was definitely faster on the first lap, but I chose to lift to stay behind him rather than force something that early in the race, given the unknown traction with the cold, damp weather. He stepped up the aggression level quite a bit on the 2nd lap, but I stayed very close. Donna, although clearly not able to match our horsepower, used her car’s lighter weight and great brakes and handling to catch up in the braking zones and made it a 3-way battle for the overall lead for the first few laps. I was maintaining a very tight gap to Doug. Donna’s gap to me was a little more variable, opening up bit time on the straights but very close in the slower corners.
On the 4th lap, I think, we caught the back of the field. Doug got himself bottled up in turn 5 and I was able to get a good run and pass him up the (wet) hill going into turn 6. After that, for me, it was an exercise in not making mistakes, and watching my mirrors a lot! There was quite a bit of traffic, but Rod (acting as crew extraordinaire this weekend, since he left his Spec Miata at home) reminded me to turn my headlights on when I’m in the lead and trying to get through traffic. I did it the first time after he suggested it at the season opener at Infineon. It worked well, most drivers saw me coming and I found that the flaggers also seemed to show the slower drivers the blue flag just a little quicker. I remember Scotty White and Cindi Lux doing that when they had the T1 Vipers on track with all of us slower Showroom Stock and Touring cars, and I know it got my attention, so I knew it worked. I used the same strategy this weekend.
On the next lap after I took the lead, or maybe one lap later, we came into turn 11 to find a yellow flag. Turning onto the straight, there was Donna’s car, parked against the fence, driver’s right, well off the track. Something must have let go. I have yet to get the story. But then there were two.
I had a hard time getting through the traffic a couple of times, but fortunately, in most cases Doug didn’t fare a lot better and so I was able to maintain my gap. On the second-to-last lap, Doug made a strong push in the corkscrew, but carried too much speed and bounded over the curb, causing him to lose about 10-15 car lengths and making my life a bit easier. Next time past start-finish I got the last lap signal, and I started to get excited. The last lap was the easiest of the whole race and I took the checkered flag with a comfortable gap over Doug for the win in ITR and the overall group 5 win. Found out later that I set a new ITR track record, with a 1:43.3xx. The time continues to come off, even in less-than-optimum weather conditions, so I’m feeling pretty good about everything.
I’m going to skip the next two SCCA race weekends due to other obligations, so I won’t be back out on the track until the end of July at Thunderhill, which also happens to be the race that counts towards the IT Triple Crown. Can’t wait!
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Congratulations Josh!
You’re my # 1