It was a bloody hot weekend. And almost everybody had mechanical problems. Sprint 1 I had the pole. I was sitting in the grid ready to go. With about 3 minutes left, I started the engine and noticed I had NO FUEL!!! What a moron! So I zipped back to the paddock so my radio man Steve could dump a couple of jugs of gas in the car. See? You need a radio even for a sprint... By the time that was done, everyone was on their formation lap. I started from pit late at the back of the pack and on cold tires. What a moron... I fought through the traffic eventually making it to 2nd. Then when I was within 5 seconds of the leader Allan, I buggered a downshift in 2 and the rear end passed me on the outside. !@#$. I only lost about 10 seconds but I never say Allan again. Not my best driving. Lots of pushing too hard and nearly falling off the track. But it makes for a fun video... Sprint 2 Nothing exciting here. I started on pole and ended where I started. No tire grip due to extreme heat. But my strategy of in slow, rotate, accelerate, paid off. This is how you're supposed to do it. Sprint 3 Started on pole but had Allan glued to my bumper for most of the race. Not sure I can call it "driving" as much as "running away"... Almost lost it several times. Luckily, after overcooking Mulligans (again) and nearly sliding off the track (again), Allan did manage to spin. So I could breathe. On the last lap, they flew the checkered flag right over my head so I kept going. I think they skipped the last lap due to the river of fluid that was spread around the track. While trying to keep it together and trying to keep out of sight of Allan, I kept sliding on the fluid until I came upon a cluster of cars that were trying to beat the crap out of each other for the last lap. It was ugly... but it was over. Too bad I didn't see the checker...
|
After my questionable performance at Mid-Ohio (I fell off the track 5 times), I elected to tear the car down and redo a bunch of stuff. The new wide body was done just in time for Mid-Ohio but nothing was sorted. Since then we finished the project by installing the new Moton 3-way suspension. We also rewired the car - deleting a substantial amount of wiring from past motors. The engine was new last fall but never really ran to my liking. After rewiring, it pulls like a freight train. The car also got a new bigger exhaust system and carbon airbox. These were always on the list but we never had the time. The first practice session at Calabogie was an eye opener. I had new suspension, new tires, new brakes, etc. I took it easy just scrubbing tires and bedding brakes. I figured I would need to learn to drive the car all over again. The car ran very well and was a pleasure to drive. After pulling off, the competition steward ran over waving timing sheets in the air. Apparently I had done a 2:10.4 and broken last year's lap record. Last year Allan Lewis had done a 2:11.2 in Practice4. Clearly the car was working. In fact I have never driven a car this well behaved. There was no compensation or correction involved. You simply tell it where you want to go and hold on. Sorry if the video looks a bit strange. I am experimenting with a new video logger and have not got everything sorted yet... Fun Race 1 For the Fun Race I took my new scrubs off and put and older set of slicks. Even with older tires, I qualified on pole with a 2:11.2. I over cooked the first corner which allowed Jean Luc Bergeron to pass me in the second corner. I tried pushing him around for 3 laps and eventually got the lean back in the same place. He doesn't make a lot of mistatkes... This included a very interesting side by side trip through Temptation Nascar style... I then opened up a bit of a gap and won by a margin of 1.8 seconds. Sprint 2 For Saturday's sprint race I put the new scrubbed tires back on and did a 2:08.497. This blew my mind. Not only did I break the lap record for BMW. But it seems I brooke the lap record for Touring and GT cars. At least I was trying this time. Fastest time I could find on mylaps.com was Michael Boekdrukker doing a 2:10.3 in a very modified E30 M3 in a Regional Race. Though I still have some work to catch Mike Kenny's 2:01 in his Stohr prototype... If I missed quoted the lap record somewhere, someone please let me know. Starting from poll I botched the start and Jean Luc got me in corner one this time. I chased him around the first lap until he locked up in The Beak. I opened up a sizable lead until we got a full course yellow mid way in the race. Sorry, I forgot to edit out the full course yellow. Please feel free to fast forward... One the restart I held onto the lead for a change. I opened up a nice gap and won by a margin of 5.7 seconds. Sprint 3 Starting of race 3 was determined by the results of race 2. I started on poll again but decided to try the other side this time. Once again Jean Luc got me on the start and sailed past me in corner 1. This time I got him back in corner 2. I then opened up a substantial gap with nobody in my mirrors by the end of the first lap. The race was pretty uneventful other than some lapped traffic and I won by a margin of 42.6 seconds. Jean Luc had retired early, Mark Marquis was having engine problems, and John Dimoff failed to start with a header issue. Conclusion... This is one hell of a race car. I raced it as it arrived. I did not fiddle with suspension setup, alignment, or even tire pressures. I just ran the baseline. I figure I need to spend some time getting to know it again before I mess things up. But the base line so far feels pretty good. Some of the faster cars I would have encountered were having mechanical issue and were probably off the pace. I look forward to seeing how it goes when they are working again. Mont-Tremblant is next. But the real test will be Oktoberfest at Road America. I can't wait. 
|
Sprint 1 With 70 odd cars on the track qualifying was not easy. I didn't really get a clean lap and qualified 5th. I got a good start and ran 3rd for a while. Someone dumped oil all over corner 14 and we all almost ended up in a pileup. After a botched restart where Allan Lewis got past me, I ended up 4th. I was clearly asleep at the switch. Between too much Pizza and Beer the night before and several mechanical and electrical issues, the day was not going so well. Sprint 2 Qualifying was based on the lap times of Sprint 1. Though I finished 4th, I had the second fastest time. So I started on the front row with Bassen on pole. We started on the back straight but Bassen chose the left side for some reason. This suited me just fine. Unfortunately, due to some electrical problems, my tach had frozen at 5500 rpm. I also had Bassen's side pipes blowing about 5500 of his RPM in my left ear. So I was ready to go except when the flag dropped, nothing happened. I was in 5th gear! People blew by me on both sides. I quickly recovered to 3rd and Mark Marquis, Steve Bassen, and I were 1-2-3 for pretty much the entire race. Most of the time we were nose to tail in an E30 sandwich. Mark ultimately won by .13 of a second. In all of my distraction, I didn't put new batteries in the camera. So I have great video up to and not including the start... This was some of the closest racing ever. Oh well. Enduro I started second on the grid with Steve Bassen on pole. Starting from the back straight, Steve chose the left side leaving me on the inside of the first corner - my preferred position anyway. On the start, we dragged down the straight and being on the inside, I took the corner. I them opened up a sizable gap ahead of Bassen. I held onto the lead for a long while. Then on the unlucky 13th lap, disaster struck. My accessory drive belt disintegrated on the back straight and I lost power steering braking into corner 7. Under hard braking, the steering seemed locked. I slid off the track into the gravel trap. I hate gravel traps. Not wanting to get stuck, I did a Dukes of Hazard donut and drove carefully back on after madness. I tried to nurse the car back to the pits slowly staying offline and out of the way as much as possible. Then suddenly in turn 12 the rear end let go and I spun out again. Unfortunately without the water pump my engine had barfed up a bit of coolant and John Dimoff also spun on it. Sorry. I only went through the gravel trap a bit this time. I hate gravel traps. I watched my mirrors for a hole in traffic and quickly escaped into the pits and retired the car... This is from a spectator's perspective but I think I was lucky to start where I did... Conclusion... This was the first outing with the new wide-body car. It was a rushed effort for Raven to get the car together, but they did what they could to make it road worthy. We had intended to put a new Moton suspension on it but we just ran out of time. I raced it setup as before with my JRZ 2 ways. Somehow the car ended up about 2 inches too high. It had a certain "off-road" stance. This turned out to be an advantage with my 4 unplanned excursions... I only killed 2 splitters! We were also unable to get the Pirelli DM slicks this early in the season so we raced on Grand-Am spec D2s. Bottom line is these cars are not heavy enough to put any heat into the hard as rocks D2s. It was a scorching hot weekend and I was pushing like hell. Still we only saw 160-180 degrees in the tires. On top of this I was fighting electrical problems all weekend. The battery could not hold a charge and it ultimately came down to some broken electrical connectors on the alternator cabling. All the messing around also fried a coil-pack and a set of spark plugs. Thanks to German Motor Werks and parts donated by my rival Steve Bassen, we got it all sorted out. Given all the problems I did what I could. I still bettered by previous best lap time by a second or so to low 1:34s. So I guess I can be happy in that. I did what I could with what I had. I didn't win but I sure tried hard. Hopefully the spectators enjoyed the show.
|
Sprint Sucks when the fast guys show up at a horsepower track. Not sure what happened here but I completely forgot to turn on the camera for the feature race. I had fun chasing but in the end, the horsepower won. I finished 6th overall and 2nd in class behind John Dimoff. Not too bad but I was sadly pining for my new motor... Enduro This was another race from Hell. Treacherous wet conditions with almost no visibility. I had a pretty good start and took advantage of the fight going on between John Dimoff and Asher Hyman. Coming out of the last corner I took an inside line and walked past both of them. Now that I could see, I opened up a big lead for the first half of the race. Eventually my window fogged up beyond what I could deal with so I took my pit stop. After the pit stop the conditions had worsened and I wasn't able to keep up the same pace. My older Hoosiers couldn't cope and I still couldn't see where I was going. Several times coming out of the boot I misjudged my brake point and drove right off the track. Luckily that's paved so I didn't lose much time. Initially I finished 4th ans 2nd in class behind John Hansen. Unfortunately for John, he had passed John Dimoff illegally in the bus stop and was penalized one position. So I won my class in the end.
|
This weekend was one of the scariest on record for me. I had high hopes. Seems I was also sufficiently distracted to forget to turn the camera on and off at the worst possible moments. First of all, this was to be the first race weekend with my new S54 motor. I've been flogging a Euro S50B32 for a couple of years and it was long overdue for retirement. Second, Allan, Mark, and I were all in close contention for the C-Mod Championship. With three 150% points races, there was a lot on the line. Friday lapping was wet and treacherous. For my first venture on track, the pit-out marshal said "Please be careful. We're written off 3 cars on the past 15 minutes". The conditions were like driving on black ice that had oil dumped on it. I did two short stints and decided to pack it in. Sprint 1 Saturday was less wet, but things did not come easily. Sprint 1 was mostly dry but the track was very cold. I was running slicks but they were outside of their ideal operating temperature. On top of that, this was my first race with the new motor and I needed to spend time getting used to the car again. I spent most of the race fighting carefully with Mark Marquis up until a couple of competitors came together in corner one. After a couple of laps with a local yellow in corner one, Mark got hung up with not being able to pass Louis Payant due to the yellow. I managed my momentum and slingshot past Mark just after the incident. Mark cot stuck behine Louis in the keyhole and I never say him again. By the end of the race I was really closing on the 88 car leading but I would have needed about 2 more laps to get him. I happily finish with 2nd overall as well as in class. Sprint 2 Sprint 2 was rainy and unbelievably slippery. Everybody was sliding everywhere. After starting second, the leader spun (a couple of times) on the start and I led the race briefly before being passed by an IP car of all things. Unfortunately Mark Marquis lost it going into Thunder Valley and slid his car into a concrete wall. After a lengthy full course yellow, we restarted. I was running second for a couple of laps until I repeated Mark's move almost identically. Thankfully the rest of the tightly packed field managed to get past me and I got back into the race near the end. I fought my way back through the field for a 3rd in class, 10th overall. Special thanks go to Bill Heumann for passing me on the wet grass just before I slid there on my own. Nice driving Bill! Enduro Sunday's race went much easier. I qualified 2nd to Mike Akard even with getting punted off the track during qualifying. On the start my new motor rocketed away from Mike's DM car (a complete reversal from Road Atlanta) and I saw very little of him after that. The German Motorworks guys provided a flawless pit stop and I cruised to the finish with a 19 second lead. Good thing too as something was breaking in my suspension no doubt due to being punted earlier in the day. Whenever I hit the brake the car would go clunk and slop to one side a bit. So I slowed down a babied it... Rookies take note: If a guy thinks he can catch you he will try his best to chase. But if you can build up enough lead on him, then they tend to back off a bit. So you only have to push hard to build that initial lead. Then you just need to maintain that gap. This allows you save the car in case you need it later. So with this win finally under my belt, I suspect I now have enough points to collect my 2nd C-Mod championship. Hopefully they update the web site soon. Other Incidents Sadly and unnecessarily, all 4 Raven cars present were damaged. John Dimoff was hit in the rear fender blind spot coming out of the Keyhole. Unfortunately he was penalized though we still don't fully understand how. Mark Marquis had his disasterous spin in the rain. Steve Gailits' 320 also had the side sheetmetal removed coming into Thunder Valley (not his fault). And of course my punt going through the carousel. During Sunday qualifying, I was coming up through a pack of cars on the back of the track. As we approached the Carousel, I was behind a slower Spec E36 car. Rookies please take note: This is a qualifying session and I have just been held up several seconds lapping traffic. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to calculate that this will not be a hot qualifying lap. So I am in no hurry. I am in the process of giving the Spec E36 some space while I set up to pass him coming onto the straight. At this point the 88 car decides that this is going to be his hot qualifying lap and smashes right into my right rear wheel arch spinning me and taking out a 3rd car with him. I wonder how his lap time was? My fender was dented but luckily nothing was rubbing. I checked the car over and went back out to qualify. After a lot of debate, the race Steward finally decided in my favour. Apparently my testimony was not sufficient, and that of the punter showed that it was my fault. Thanks in the end to the driver of that Spec E36, corner worker, and another car from behind, I was proven to be not at fault. Now I just have a repair bill to deal with. Below is a video requested by a fellow racer. A tight pack of cars was going into corner one for a pass gone horribly wrong.
|
The weather forecast for the weekend was originally bad. Saturday was light rain of only 20mm. Luckily, it almost didn't happen. Lickily for me, it did a bit. In the end I managed a 1st, a 2nd, and a 3rd (both in class and overall). The car was very reliable apart from a cracking header. RAVEN Performance had done an excellend job of preparing the car. And Steve Gailits welded the header back together for me in a snap. Thanks guys, Sprint 1 Friday's 45 min spring race was a bit of a personal disaster. Though I was tired and had not slept well the night before, I somehow managed to quality 3rd. This was a 45 min sprint, which is almost like running a 60 min enduro except without the pit stop. I specifically discussed fuel strategy, fuel consumption, fuel mixtures, and just about every other topic related to refueling with my fellow drivers. The one thing I missed was actually fueling the car. Starting from 3rd, I had a good start and managed to stay with the leaders for a couple of laps. I put in some of my best ever lap times (2:14s) before I got around to calculating that I did not have enough fuel on board to finish the race. I can't believe I forgot to fuel the car. I ran a few more hard laps then slowed my pace to try to conserve fuel while still staying ahead of my competition. My lap times fell from 2:14s to 2:18s, 2:20s, and soon until at the end of the race I was getting fuel starvation on every corner and was turning 2:30s. Though I had lapped many cars, the KP cars were reeling my back in. When they didn't show one lap to go, I was terrified I would not finish. Then the checkered flag. Thank God. The race was won by Allan Lewis followed by Mark Marquis. In a freak turn of fate, the cars running in positions immediately behind me do not catch up. I'm still not sure how that was possible. Jean-Luc had suffered a mechanical problem after only 6 laps. Louis Payant had his own freak miracle finishing in 4th after me with a rubber drive shaft CV joint completely disintegrated. I have not posted the video because frankly, it's not that interesting. Is shows a couple of interesting laps followed by my slow spiral into oblivion... Instead I give you my worst effort through Mulligans. I had just finished scrubbing a brand new set of slicks and was feeling pretty good about myself. I tried braking late on old tires and clearly it didn't work... Sprint 2 For the 2nd 35 min sprint, I qualified 4th behind Mark, Allan, and Jean-Luc. Though I had not used them for qualifying, I put on a freshly scrubbed set of slicks, and with a generous quantity of fuel onboard I headed for the grid. The weather was still cooperating but rain clouds were overhead. Everybody was on dry tires. The start went well and I jumped into 3rd after the start. The three of us were very close and there was a lot of side by side racing as we battled for position. Having way more power, they left me behind on the straights but their battle cost them time and I closed back up in the corners. Then the weather started to change. A few drops of water hit the windshield and Allan started dropping back as if he had suddenly lost 100hp. Turns out he had not installed windshield wipers and could not see. Apparently he kicked himself a few laps later when his windshield cleared and he realized it wasn't all that wet. Being wet, Mark slowed his pace a bit. With a couple of rain induced wiggles here and there, the lead changed hands a couple of times. We were both on slicks. Toward the end, Mark was in the lead but I was pushing him all over the track trying to induce a mistake. Finally the skies opened up briefly and Mark tried to defend the inside of corner 2. He went in too fast and almost slid off the wet track. I slowed early and too the corner and the race. The video from this race is really entertaining. It really shows how a little confidence in the rain can defeat much more powerful competitors. Sprint 3 Winning sprint 2 put me on pole for sprint 3. I was a little worried because the fast guys were right behind me and it had just rained again. It was not raining now and the track was drying - so we were all on slicks again. I did my best on the start but Mark easily out-dragged me into corner one. So I got back to business pushing him around a wet track looking for that critical mistake. That mistake cam a couple of laps later when he missed a shift and spun in Big Rock. Problem was I was right behind him and he wasn't leaving the track. I had nowhere to go except off the track onto the wet grass. I kept it together and almost drove out of it when I just touched the throttle and spun my car back onto the track backwards! With the entire field heading for a blocked track, I drove back into the wet grass, spun the car again and eventually got back onto the track. I had lost several positions and started to claw them back. As I was catching him quickly, Louis Payant made room for me in the Quarry - a bit too much room - hit a damp patch and slid off the track. Sorry Louis. I was going to wait for the straight. I do appreciate the gesture. Mark's car had stalled and refused to start. This caused a full course yellow and the pack bunched up behind the pace car. By this point I was back to 3rd. On the restart, Allan easily took the lead from 2nd leaving Jean-Luc and I to battle it out for quite a while. It was a real fight for a few laps then I eventually got past him in the Crown. I got inside him, grabbed the wrong gear, and somehow came out ahead? Jean-Luc chose not to contest it too hard as he was going to win his class anyway. I never did see Allan again. He finished some 20 sec ahead of me. I finished 2nd. This video is also very entertaining.
|
I didn't have my usual smooth and efficient weekend at VIR. I was plagued by car troubles throughout. It did make for some pretty good racing though. I went for the Thursday test and tune day with the plan of doing suspension setup etc. It's a good thing too because the car broke early on. First the clutch master was leaking and the clutch engagement point kept moving. After driving like that for a while, the clutch throw-out bearing exploded. Thank God Jon Behrns and the guys from German Motor Werks were on hand to keep me running. They dropped the transmission, changed the bearing, and put it all back together so I could be ready to race Saturday. Thank you also Jean Luc Bergeron for your infinite box of spare parts. Saturday wasn't so bad for racing. I qualified 4th with a 2:05.9. I had driven VIR several times but this was my first time racing or in a race car. I finished 5th overall and 3rd in class. I am very happy withthat result because the clutch problems continued to plague me. Throughout the weekend, the clutch pedal would continue to go soft and the engagement point would move. Some times it would move below the floor and I had to pump it to get it back. The GMW guys were bleeding it after every sessions just to keep me going. Saturday's Enduro did not go as well. The best I could manage in qualifying was a 2:08.2 even though the conditions were better. I seemed to have troble with IP cars pulling me on the straights. After consulting my trusty data logger, it showed I wos down at least 30hp at the wheels. Given the cold dense ait, I was probably down a lot more than that. I started 15th and was forced to retire after my pitstop. Starting mid-pack was quite entertaining. My car would go around corners like nothing else but it just refused to go down the straights. On top of that I had my floppy variable clutch pedal was doing a lot of damage to my synchros. My 3rd synchro by now was completely gone. The only way to shift was to leave a long pause between shifts and match revs carefully. Along the way I had a great time chasing Ray Korman. Without power I have no idea how to get around that guy. Wherever I go, he's already there. He's clearly been doing this a lot longer than me. In the heat of my battle with Ray, the #66 IP (driven by E Darling / C Lippe) hit me from behind sending me spinning within inches of the tirewall at Oak Tree. To #66: You know, you didn't need to do that. There was lots of room for everybody. Please take it easy. I also had a small off with Dan Fitzgerald when I tried to slingshot past after the climbing esses. Sorry Dan. My fault. Thanks for making room. Then as if that wasn't enough, my 02 sensor blew out of the header shooting red hot exhaust at my wiring harness. Time to Pit. Ray Korman was having so much fun racing me that he decided to race me all the way to my pit stall. That cost me some time but I was finished anyway. The clutch was on the floor again, the diagnostics showed the Vanos had given up and was in limp home mode, the headers were falling apart. That's enough. GMW again work hard get get me back running for Sunday. Sundays things were a fair bit better. I qualified 0th with a 2:06.6 and finished 7th or 6th in class. I somehow managed a 2:04.6 along the way. What is clear is the car needs maintenance. After last season I took it South for Barber/Sebring/VIR instead of taking it apart. That's a lot or running without refreshing. I've got some work to do before Mid-Ohio. Thanks again to German Motor Werks for the trememdous effort you put into my weekend. I know you had other customers and everyone's car chose to break at the same time. I can't believe you were able to keep everybody running they way you did. Unbelievable.
|
Here is my footage from the BMW CCA Club Race at Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant August 2008. I will try to add the other races shortly.
|
|
|
