My First WIN!!!

July 10-11 at Summit Point

It was a pretty good time, it was a lousy time – hmmm – doesn’t have quite the same ring.

BLUF – on Saturday I scored my first win; on Sunday I got my second mechanical DNF.

(Key: BLUF = Bottom Line Up Front; DNF = Did Not Finish)

It had rained over night, the track was wet and there were a few puddles. But the outlook for the rest of the day was good. The track steward asked for people in road cars to go out and run laps to help dry up the track. Race cars generally don’t dry the track very well because of the slick tires – they don’t throw up water like treaded tires do. So – while it messed up the schedule a bit, the dampness actually gave me an opportunity to take the Corvette out on track for the first time – and that gave me the opportunity to take Mary on track with me to give her a little feel for what driving on track is like. We didn’t go at race speed, but we did get up over a hundred a few times. Mary McKiel, a good friend who works at EPA, and who is also an enthusiastic and talented photographer, came with me for the weekend to try her hand at race photography. You can see some of the shots she took over the weekend at PHOTOS

With the track nearly dry and the sun warming and drying the racing surface we went out for our first practice session. Nothing particularly special about the session – my best time for the session was 1:35.00. That’s not too bad for a rookie, but I knew that I’d need to better that if I was to be competitive even with the one other Tyro (from Medieval Latin meaning young soldier – in other words – a rookie) driver. We had one other short practice session where I lowered my time to the 1:33s, but when I went out for the “timed” session (where we determine starting positions) my best time was back up to just over 1:35. While tweaking some adjustments on the car and waiting for my race time to come up I got some good coaching from both AJ and Dani (see previous posts for who they are) and I was determined to do better during the race.
Race time came late in the afternoon. We were out with the Formula 1600s (racers in cars similar to mine but with more experience) and Formula Fords (similar cars, experienced drivers, and some mods allowed to the cars including better tires). The other Tyro had the pole position and got to choose where he wanted to start – he chose the outside which put him in a better position for entry to turn one. At the green flag I slotted in behind him but stayed very close through the rest of the lap. Then on the long front straightaway I was able to power by him on the inside and I never saw him again. Twenty laps later I took the checkered flag for my first win! I also lowered my lap time to consistently being in the 1:30 and 1:31 range with two laps down into the 1:29s. AJ congratulated me on the win, and especially on taking 5 seconds off my lap time. He also told me it would probably take me two years to get the next 5 seconds. But that’s for another day. Who woulda thunk it that two days before my 60th birthday I scored the first win of my fledgling racing career. I was really pleased. Thanks AJ and Dani.

Sunday was the lousy time. I went out for the first practice session and was again in the 1:30s – good but not great. With some coaching from Guy Frank (again, see earlier posts for who he is) I was pretty sure I could drop at least another second off my time. But, it was not to be. I went out for my second practice session full of confidence. I followed Guy for a three laps to make sure I was driving the correct line, then a couple of laps later as I came out of a very fast right hand curve (probably around 85 MPH) to the hardest braking zone where I needed to quickly slow to about 30 MPH, I stood on the brakes and my foot went to the floor. The car is designed with separate master cylinders for the front and rear brakes. This allows you to adjust how much braking you get from each end, and ensures that even if one of the systems fails, you still have some braking power. We determined that the master cylinder for the front brakes failed. As I slid off the track and into the grass the front wheels were still turning; we surmised that the rear wheels had probably locked up. With the rear wheels having no traction, the rear end came around and I nearly backed into a tire wall. Fortunately – I missed hitting anything. Got the car back in gear and limped back to the paddock area. The rest of the day we spent trying several different things before deciding that the master cylinder had failed. We swapped out the front master cylinder (Chris and Bobby did a heroic job of getting this done in the one hour we had before I had to report to the grid for the last race of the weekend). I made it to the grid, took the pace lap and took off for my second lap. I was in front of the other Tyro driver and I believe I could have gotten another win, but on the second lap my brakes again went to the floor. I brought the car in, we fiddled with it some more and made another attempt to go get some laps, but it just wasn’t to be. We concluded that the other master cylinder must have also failed. So – my second mechanical DNF.

There are a few issues with the car, now. The brake failure was the only “terminal” issue, but before the next race Chris and AJ will be working to replace a crank seal that’s leaking oil, making another adjustment to the gear shift gate, working on a slight stumble in the engine when accelerating from low rpms, and of course they will also replace the other master cylinder and do some testing to make sure that fixes my brake problem.

I’m getting much more comfortable in the car, and much more comfortable with driving closer and closer to the edge of the car’s limits. I’m also gaining a lot more respect for the quality of the information that a driver has to communicate to the “crew” in order to make the right adjustments. I mentioned that we tweaked some adjustments on the car. Here’s what that was about. AJ wanted to lower the ride height a bit – he told me that I needed to pay attention to whether the bottom was rubbing under the hardest braking (it was, so we backed off the lowering by a very small amount). I told him that the car was a little tail happy in the esses after the carousel. What that means is that the rear end was breaking loose sooner than the front end. He quizzed me on whether that was happening under braking, neutral throttle, throttle lift, or acceleration. Depending on my answer, the fix would have been different. Now, imagine – you’re trying your damndest to go just as fast as you can, you go into a turn and the rear end starts to come around on you so you have to immediately correct and get back on the gas. And then you have to remember precisely what you were doing when the rear end started to break loose. Well, I was pretty sure it was under neutral throttle (throttle position intended to maintain current speed – not slow down, not speed up). Any other answer and the adjustment probably would have been with the driver, not the car. AJ directed softening the rear anti-roll bar just slightly. It did seem to help, so I think it was the right answer. But I now know that before I can ask for any change to the car set-up I need to be sure that it really is the car that’s the problem. The only way to know that is to note exactly what’s going on when the problem happened. Much harder than it sounds.

Looking forward to the next race. It will be a New Jersey Motorsports Park’s Lightning track. It looks to be a very fast 1.9 mile track. It is also a track that most of us have never seen before. We’ll have about 35 minutes of practice to get up to speed before we race. Should be really exciting.