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 was initially for rain but in the end we only got about 15 minutes of it during the first practice. I was hoping to use the first practice to scrub new tires and bed new rotors. Bob Gore missed practice because of an alternator problem and my car was showing low voltage in sympathy. I figured the battery was just tired. I got maybe 2 laps in before the voltage read 7V and I shut it off. At least I got to bed the brakes behind the tow truck. Turned out I had a broken electrical terminal on the alternator. Thanks to Isi I had exactly the right parts to fix it and I was back in business.

Details of the races can be found at: http://pcarroll.mylaps.com

Sprint 1

I qualified well and barely made pole. Jean-Luc Bergeron qualified behind me by a few hundredths of a second. Good thing he is not in my class. I was doing better than Ike who was out with a broken diff subframe on his GTR. 

The race was almost event free for me. Jean-Luc got me on the start but I gained the position back quickly. Then I worked to put some distance between us - not sure why - but it seemed to be the thing to do at the time. Jean-Luc had backed off substantially while he tried to evade the noise police. Then something broke and I lost 5th and 6th gears. Everything was fine up to 4th. I'm sure the Spec E36s wondered why they were gaining on me down the back straight. But with my susbstantial lead I was able to hold onto my position and finished 1st overall. Not the most exciting video but here is is anyway...

BMW CCA @ Mont-Tremblant - Sprint 1 - Aug 7, 2009 from Peter Carroll on Vimeo.

Thanks a bunch to Jean-Luc for selling me his spare transmission, and also to GT Racing who made the time to install it, I was back in the game for the remainder of the weekend.

Sprint 2

Ike was back in the game with his repaired subframe and qualified a couple of seconds faster. Then Jean-Luc also out qualified me by a second. So I was starting 3rd this time.

Ike and Jean-Luc won the drag race on the start and I fell into 3rd. After a couple of laps I got past Jean-Luc and proceeded to chase Ike around for the duration. In my defence I would say I was not overdriving (mostly) but just pushing very very hard. I had the brand new tires on this time and took every short cut I could find. One dramatic moment was passing Dave Ryan in corner 10. I went down inside clipping the curb as usual. Except on the inside you are not loaded much and the right wheels must have been 18 inches in the air. Apparently I drove on two wheels all the way to the white line at the edge where the other two finally touched down. I did manage to close the gap again by the bridge.

Fortunately for me Bob got stuck in the gravel trap and they brought out a full course yellow. The race was running out of time but they gave us one last lap after the restart. From 2nd, I passed Ike in corner 3 and maintained the lead to the back straight. At that point he passed me back (like I was standing still). He doews have an extra 80hp... I cloosed back up by the bridge and we were almost side by side through Namerow. He of course won the drag race to the finish line and toook the win. I am really anticipating my new motor...

This is one of the most entertaining videos I have. Especially if you are a fan of Ike's bumper. He is feature prominently in the video. In fact they have me the Spirit of Club Racing award for putting on the best show for the spectators. It was serious fun. I think I used 60% of a set of tires in that one race.

BMW CCA @ Mont-Tremblant - Sprint 2 - Aug 8, 2009 from Peter Carroll on Vimeo.

Sprint 3

There were no points for the 3rd race so I put on my older set of tires. I qualified 3rd again behind Ike and Jean-Luc - both of which had identical qualifying times!

Jean-Luc and I both got the jump on Ike at the start and for the next few laps I ran 2nd. Then Ike woke up and passed us both after 5 to 7 laps. I ran 3rd for most of the race until suddenly Jean-Luc got black flagged by the noise police. I finished 2nd, a mere 30 sec behind the leader.

Over all is was a great weekend for me. I had some of the closest racing I have ever experienced. I also came away with 3 First in Class wins and a nice award for being a show-off. Now if I can just find another 50hp or so in that new motor...

BMW CCA @ Mont-Tremblant - Sprint 3 - Aug 9, 2009 from Peter Carroll on Vimeo.

 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.

Race results for the weekend were remarkably consistent. In each of the three races, it was RAVEN, RAVEN, RAVEN: Allan Lewis 1st, Mark Marquis 2nd, and Peter Carroll (me) 3rd.

Once again I had reliability problems. It's amazing that a brand new race car can be tired and unreliable after only a single year of racing. Certainly I need to up the preventative maintenance. We relocated the oil cooler and removed some grill mesh to drop the oil temperatures 15 degrees C. I also finally broke my diff mount. I was the only RAVEN car not to break one yet. Then I ripped the arm off the throttle body. I guess I was full throttle after all. And finally I blew the header off of cylinder 6.

I am especially thankful to the guys from Raven Performance and German Motor Werks for all of their efforts to keep me running all weekend. I started all three racers and more importanly finished all three races. Thanks guys.

The fans should be happy. We put on quite a show. The Track Photographer commented that I really drove the wheels off my car but it was apparent that I did not have enough motor to catch the other two. We'll see what I can do about that...

30 min Sprint 1

Some good racing here but I did spend a lot of the race chasing myself.

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.

I finally got around to editing my video from Sebring this year. This was delayed by my upgrading to solid-state video (twice in one weekend). It took me a while to figure out how to edit the videos.

Friday was the 90 min enduro. The enduro was a PBOC race with no points for BMW CCA. The enduro saw all of the cars, from Vipers, Corvettes, and Radicals, all the way down to spec-Miatas. All on the track at the same time. The traffic was unbelievable. I started 60th out of 79 but managed to finish 10th overall. It's hard to get a clean qualifying lap with all those cars on the track.

On the restart I was probably 1km away from the green flag. When my radio man said "green. green. green". I must have passed 20 cars that were still swerving to warm up their tires. Radios work!

Saturday's Sprint saw half the cars wiere the faster cars moved to a separate group. The Sprints were also BMW CCA points races. I started 6th. I ran as high as 3rd, then blew a power steering hose and fell back to finish 5th, 2nd in class.

For the Sunday Sprint the track seemd to have a light spray of oil. Several cars including mine slid off. I did finish 3rd and 1st in class. There was not a lot of traffic so it's not the most exciting video. And I ran out of memory in the recorder so I missed the end.

I wish to thank RAVEN Performance for building this spectacular car. I also wish to thank German Motor Werks for the superb track support and all their hard work maintaining the car this winter. Sorry I keep breaking things but I like to go fast...