Calabogie Report - July 2009 Mark Marquis #313

The weatherman called for rain all weekend and we were fortunate enough to see very little. We never needed the wets but sure had an interesting sprint 2 with showers coming and going throughout. More on that later.

Sprint 1 -  This race was a great drive but is fairly boring to watch as there is not much action and no lead changes. I was Allan's camera man for the race. Got close at the end when traffic helped (alot). We  both broke the track record in this race but I couldn't match Allan's pace.

I had qualified 2nd with a 2:13 something although I thought for sure I had pole. I did my best time in the 2nd lap of qualifier and came off shortly thereafter. Allan was behind me and I guess took longer to warm up or was seriously sandbagging. He did a low 2:13 and took pole.

During the race Allan did almost 2:12 flat and I did 2:12.47. Last year John Dimoff set a track record at just into the high 2:12.9xx. with Allan at very low 2:13. I think Allan's set up is the same so I'm not sure if the track was faster or the drivers were faster. I'm going to do a comparison lap with John to see where we made and lost time. 

Here's the funny part. I did all of Friday including Sprint 1 without my front splitter. The crew had forgot to put it on! Imagine what I could have achieved with that thing in place. I scolded my six year old twins and my wife for forgetting to do this and then went after the crew chief (yours truly...). Louis made me laugh when he said " why don't you do sprint 2 with only 3 wheels?" The sticker may be gone but I'm still a rookie.

Sprint 2 was one of the most fun races I've ever had (except for the final outcome!). Lots of action. Lead changes. Rain and more. And the racing was nice and clean. Peter is very capable in the wet and taught me a thing or two about what slicks are capable of. Great driving Peter!

I combined Peter's video and mine as it makes for some interesting viewing. I couldn't figure out how to do side by side in iMovie so I had to go with picture in picture. Between the 2 videos and 2 rear view mirrors there is lots to watch. Sometimes a challenge to remember who is who!

Sunday Practice was interesting. Allan set a blistering lap of 2:11.2! I understand he was on newer slicks and had gone wider up front. It was a new setup for him and clearly it worked here. We were going to have fun in Sprint 3 as Allan had to start on the 3rd row based on the finish from sprint 2. Then it got more interesting. We had a torential downpour 30 minutes before the race. Would it keep raining? Would it dry? Do we need wets? It quickly became apparent that there wouldn't be more rain and the track would dry over a 45 min race. Wet at the beginning and dry at the end was the way it would be.

When it finally came to pass Sprint 3 was disappointing for me to say the least. Peter started on pole as he had won sprint 2. I was able to get traction on the wet side of the straight and take him into turn 1. A little extra HP will do that when you can get it to the ground. On the second lap the track was drying quickly but we were already well ahead of our class competition and then - disaster. I blew my 4-3 downshift and went 4-5 instead. My 4-5 had a nice throttle blip but when I finally picked up 3rd I had not rev matched and the rears locked. What was I thinking? Rather than having slowed from the 4-5 error I was probably running at a higher speed. The result, a wickedly fast spin. The video tells the story. Dumb mistake. To make matters worse my car would not restart, otherwise I might have recovered. The little Oddysey just won't crank the car over when it's hot. It cost me the Enduro at Mid Ohio and now this. A bigger battery is in the works. I'll suffer with the extra weight.

So the funny part is Peter and I had a plan. We were to get as far away from Allan as we could before the track dried. He was starting 5th and can be rather cautious in the wet. I didn't know if I'd be following Peter those first few laps or he'd be following me. Either way we were going to go like stink. The last thing Peter said to me on the grid was "let's not take each other out"....  Sorry Peter. But don't worry. My wife tells me all the time I don't listen to her either.

Sprint 3 with some slo-mo action. Enjoy.

I had a great time at Calabogie and wish we could race there more than once a year. I used the race to focus on cleaning up my driving and conserving tires and I think I've made some progress. Lot's more to learn.

See you at Mosport!