Wow, what a weekend! Fantastic weather here in the bay area, a nice double race at my favorite track, and some intense competition … awesome, just the way I like it!

Starting from the beginning, Saturday morning started bright and early with the group 5 practice session at 9:00 am. I really didn’t touch the car at all since the Thunderhill race, other than to fill up the gas tank and the tires … which were totally flat when I rolled the car out of the trailer. The session went fine, but I never really pushed the car very hard. In fact, the best lap was a 1:55.1, which is over 2 seconds slower than my best lap at Infineon.

After that session, Rod’s stepson Dylan did a fantastic job of cleaning up the car …
it hadn’t been cleaned or washed in many months. Thanks Dylan! But other than that, really no changes, just headed out for the qualifying session at 2:00pm. Although I headed over to the grid 5 minutes before the 1st call, I still was something like the 25th car there. That meant that I was doomed to be stuck in traffic for the entire session, which meant that I’d have a very hard turning a fast lap.

I played the game as best I could, by passing someone and then trying to stay right in front of them, hopefully allowing myself enough of a gap to get a whole clean lap the next time around. But, it just never worked out. The drivers of the slower cars were generally very helpful, but I didn’t get to take my preferred lines, and ended up 1st in ITR but 2nd overall, to, who else, Doug Makishima. Oh well, we were both on the front row, and this is one track where it’s not clear which side is the better one to start on. I hoped I could make it work for the race on Sunday morning.

Sunday was another early day, as our race was to start at 9:15am. Got to the track in plenty of time (despite the 90 minute trip from home) and got the car ready … which pretty much means topping it off with fuel, it’s a pretty maintenance-free car.

Okay, race time! It was a very fun start. Doug started on the left (to be inside at T1), I started on the right. I think I got on the gas a fraction of a second sooner than Doug, but I had a longer distance to travel, so we ended up approaching T2 side-by-side, he maybe had a slight lead. I didn’t feel comfortable with that inside approach on cold tires, so I backed off and got behind Doug. But I got a much better exit off the corner, and went ahead and passed him on the left approaching T3! Yes, got the lead! But it didn’t last long. He pressured me for the rest of the lap. I made a half-hearted blocking move going into the final hairpin, T11, but he went down inside me anyway, and passed me back to lead the first lap.

Still, I stayed on his tail for the next couple of laps, and surprisingly, he waved me by going into T11. Later he told me that he didn’t want to burn up his tires and brakes trying to race with me, fearing that we’d basically slow each other down and 2nd place in ITS, Eric Knudstrup, might be able to catch up and pass him. So, he gave up the idea of racing me, an ITR car, to ensure that he could win ITS. Probably a good wise safe move as far as points are concerned, but what’s the fun in that?

About halfway into the race, after lapping only 2 backmarkers, we went full-course yellow behind the pace car due to a Miata that had spun into the tires in the esses. We restarted a lap-and-a-half later, Doug right behind me … well, not RIGHT behind me, he left a pretty big gap on the restart, not challenging me at all. I was pretty surprised and failed to really take advantage of it, so he got a pretty good run on me and had closed most of the gap by the top of the hill.

But then we hit turn 4. As I turned the corner, I saw the pavement glistening … oil! Lots of it! Too late to react to it, I found myself with almost no traction on any corner, the car doing a funny little dance as I just waited it out and hoped for the best. I regained control and quickly checked my mirror … I figured there was no hope that everyone would get through that without crashing, and it wouldn’t have surprised me much to see Doug, in my rearview, spinning off into the dirt. Sure enough, I watched him get VERY VERY sideways, but then I had to make the turn. I didn’t know if he’d make it or not. By the time I was able to see him in my mirror again … he was in control and still there! Heck of a save.

Naturally, about a half-lap later we went full-course yellow again to put down some oil-dry.

Two laps under yellow, and another restart. Doug did the same drill, holding back approaching T11. This time, I just got on the gas as I followed the pace car around T11. He veered off and I had a huge lead as I got the green flag. Doug was basically trying to control the restart with Eric, his competition, at his own pace instead of mine. Makes some sense.

So, with just a couple of laps left due to the laps behind the pace car, and a good lead due to Doug’s restart, I pretty much cruised to the victory. 1 race down! Fastest lap: 1:53.1xx, which isn’t as good as the 1:53.0xx I found here back in March. Oh well. I really wanted to get into the 52s!

The qualifying session for the 2nd race was at 3:20pm on Sunday afternoon. Prior to that session I put on some brand new Hoosiers, with the hopes of dropping that lap time, and, of course, getting the overall pole. And this time, I learned my lesson. I got to the pre-grid well before the previous group had left, so that when they DID leave, I was there, ready to take their spot. As it turned out, I ended up starting qualifying in 3rd position behind Doug and an ITA car. I knew that I’d be able to get behind Doug on the outlap, thus giving us BOTH an essentially clear track for at least a couple of laps until we caught the backmarkers.

On the first hot lap, we caught up to a tow truck that was on the track at T2. I don’t know why he was out there during our qualifying session, but we had to throw that lap away and try again. I followed Doug just a little too closely maybe, but together we got 2 good laps in. Doug then waved me by on the front straight and I went for a third. It was a pretty clean lap as far as traffic was concerned, but then I caught the field and really didn’t get any more good laps, although I tried.

Fortunately, I was able to out-qualify Doug, this time with another 1:53.1. Still not in the 52s where I wanted to be, but on the overall pole.

One of the big decisions to make as the polesitter is which side to start on. We do two-by-two rolling starts, and at most tracks, it’s obvious which is the better position to be in. But not at Infineon. T1 is a lefthander but because the front straight is so short, and because we start the race at a slow speed, it’s easy to stay in formation on the first turn. T2 is a righthander, and you’d think that being on the right would be better if you’re approaching it side-by-side, but it’s a really tough uphill approach and the turn falls away big time at the apex, and if you’re way on the inside, you have to be very slow.

Well, I had the night to sleep on the decision.

Monday morning arrived and it was race time. What did I choose? Well, the front row was going to be the same as it was Sunday morning … Doug and me. I started the first race on the right, and it didn’t work for me. So, I chose to start it on the left.

As the pace car led us around T11, we were going very slowly … 2nd gear. That’s really slow for me, I NEVER use 2nd gear on the track. I’m not sure but I think it was probably around 25mph.

Well, I was right in the powerband in 2nd gear, not too high up there, so I decided to start the race at that pace. So, we crept towards the starting line, and the moment I saw the green, off we went! Like Sunday, I think I got on the gas a fraction of a second before Doug, but clearly my gearing worked out better, as I essentially got a full car length ahead by T1, and Doug pulled behind me as we went up the hill. Well, that worked out!

I led the way for 3 laps or so, but Doug was REALLY pressuring me. Finally he got a great run out of T10, and made a pretty easy pass in T11. Crap!

I stuck right with him though. I was definitely faster than him on the exit of the carousel, finding it easy to get alongside going into T7 but not easy to pass. I tried inside, I tried outside, I tried everything I could think of, but I couldn’t make anything stick.

Several times we caught slower cars and it was quite a challenge for us both to get through and for me to maintain my position. At one point I got myself totally boxed in approaching the carousel, with an ITC 510 in front of me and a Miata to the left of me, and nowhere to go on the right, and I watched Doug just drive away. Fortunately, there was more traffic ahead and closed the gap back up.

The race flew by this time, it felt like it went much faster than Sunday’s. I was pushing REALLY hard. So was Doug.  He said after the race that he thought he had flatspotted all four tires and had no brakes left, and I had to agree.  We were racing, and racing really hard. A very memorable race. But now there was only 1 lap left, and I was still in 2nd place. The only place I could really pressure a move was into T7, but like every other time I tried something, I just couldn’t make anything stick. I figured once I failed that, it was all over. The only other normal braking zone, T11 … well, I just didn’t seem to have anything for Doug there. He is always just slightly quicker through T10 and I was unable to get alongside.  I had gotten a decent run out of the esses leading up to T10 on the last few laps, but … no one passes anyone in T10!

But then as we came out of the esses, there it was.  I got a great run.  I gritted my teeth and went alongside him in T9, me on the right, the inside for T10. For those who don’t know this track, T10 is the scariest turn on the track … very very quick, very little runoff on the outside, zero runoff on the inside … lots of crashes there, and at high speed. And the approach requires only light braking, from maybe 110mph down to 80 or so, and for me, a downshift from 5th to 4th. And here I was, on the inside, attempting a pass … in T10. T10!

Turns out it went pretty smoothly. Doug saw it coming and decided to try the inside-out move, but really he lost a lot of speed and we went into T11 nose-to-tail, not side-by-side.  I thought I had it made!

Then it happened. Too much speed, maybe in the marbles, I don’t know, but I got into a HORRIBLE understeer, the same situation that let Doug get past me in an earlier pass attempt in T11. I was off the gas all the way around the turn, just trying to keep the nose off the wall at the exit. Doug, of course, had the inside approach, not the best for speed … so by the time we got straight, there we were, side-by-side, in an all-out BMW drag race for the finish line. I had a VERY slight lead, maybe by a foot or two, but then … I had to shift. The lead shifted by about the same margin to him, and he ended up crossing the finish line 0.045 seconds in front of me … I think about 5 feet. The 0.045 is hard to assess as it really would depend on where in the car our transponders are mounted … in reality the first car that crosses the line wins, no matter where the transponder is, and I agree with the timing system … he crossed first. Barely. Crap.

The video for that second race is in the site gallery, here.

But hey, it was a blast, in reality we both won our classes. When all was said and done Doug ended up with the faster lap, but neither one of us got into the 52s. I still had adrenaline pumping for probably an hour afterwards, it was really intense!

Next race is the first weekend of October at Laguna Seca. It’s another double. Last time I was there, in May, was another really close race between the two of us, I ended up on top that time. Hopefully it’ll turn out the same way!

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 5:45 pm and is filed under Race Reports, SCCA.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.