And just like that...it's 2012.
The rest of my 2011 season was a little...bumpy. My 5th race weekend of the year was at Carolina Motorsports Park during the third weekend of October. I was really excited about the event due to the long break from racing I had taken over the summer. My results during the season had me in second place in overall points, with a slim lead over third place. I was ready to push hard to try to pick up a couple of wins and stretch my gap in points. Unfortunately, some of the mechanical gremlins that had plagued my last weekend at CMP came back to visit.
The car seemed normal during practice, although we spent most of the time driving around behind the pace car because a couple of guys felt that practice was a great time to spin and get stuck in sand traps. I went out in qualifying ready to put down a flying lap. I went out near the end of the field and set up a perfect gap to the traffic in front of me. I got off to a great start and was flying. As I turned into turn 4 (a left hander) the steering became really stiff for a couple of seconds. Once I turned back to the right, the problem went away. I wasn't sure what the issue was but I expected a power steering issue. Regardless, it seemed to have fixed itself by turn 5 and I continued on. When I reached turn 11 (another hard left hander) I was only able to turn the steering wheel to the left about 90 degrees. It simply wouldn't go further than than. As a result I was unable to get around turn 11 correctly and ended up bounding off through the dirt off the track at the exit of the turn. While bouncing through the dirt the steering freed up and I was able to get the car back on track.
Now slightly mentally frayed by the stuck steering, I sawed the wheel back and forth through turns 12 and 13 still trying to diagnose the problem. All seemed fine and I continued on to try to get another good lap. Another car spun in turn 1 and stalled in the middle of the track bringing out a local yellow flag. While that meant I wasn't going to set any record times, it also meant that everyone else would have to slow down there as well. I concentrated on getting the rest of the lap right and fast. The steering felt great for the rest of the lap and I pulled in happy with my efforts. Back in the pits I began looking for the reason for my steering woes. I immediately noticed that my driver's side engine mount had failed. This mount was located next to the steering column. When the mount failed, it wedged itself between the steering column and the frame rail, effectively locking my steering in place. I was extremely lucky that the failure did not take place at a more dicey time and place on track. I did not have any spare engine mounts with me and was unable to locate any replacements. My weekend was over almost as soon as it had begun. To rub salt in my wounds, my qualifying time was first in class and third overall. I packed up and headed home as frustrated as ever. That, as they say, is racing.
I finished the year by instructing at at Chin Motorsports event at VIR in December. It was an enjoyable, low stress event until I went off track in turn 10. My trip through the bumps and jumps beside the track surface tore off my front splitterand part of my front bumper. I wasn't amused.
2012 began with a new edition to my pit crew. My wife gave birth to our first child, our son Caleb, on January 22. He is the most perfect thing ever and we could not be more proud. I know my time on track is going to be reduced now that he is here, but that time with him is something I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.
Since my schedule is going to be a bit different this year, I have decided to bounce back and forth between the Southeast and Mid Atlantic regions of NASA. While this means I will not be able to compete in the overall season points race in either region, it does give me the opportunity to race when and where I want to race rather than being held to the season schedule of one region. It also gives me the opportunity to race at Virginia International Raceway, which is located in the Mid Atlantic region.
My first event of the season was NASA Mid Atlantic's second event of the year, their annual "March Madness" at VIR. This was a three day event, featuring a test-n-tune day on Friday and two days of racing over the weekend. The forecast leading up to the event showed a high likelihood of rain for both Saturday and Sunday. Just in case, I bought a set of rain tires and had them mounted on a spare set of wheels. This decision turned out to be very fortuitous. In true racer style I had to scramble a bit to get the car ready. The biggest thing was repairing the damage from the excursion above. It was taxing, but I got her ready to go.
The Friday test-n-tune came and went without much drama. The weather was perfect and the car ran great. I discovered a wheel spacer issue and was able to figure out a fix with the help of some fellow competitors. I was glad to have the stress-free extra day to figure things out rather than waste race time. I was also able to begin to feel out my new tires for this year, the BF Goodrich R1. I decided to step up from the Nitto NT-01's I used for the past few years to an even more aggressive race tire. I was not disappointed as I was able to immediately knock 1.5 seconds off my lap time at VIR. I know there is even more time advantage to be found but I'll need more time on these new tires to find it. Sadly, I wasn't going to be able to carry over much of what I learned on Friday into the race weekend as the weather conditions deteriorated rapidly.
Saturday morning I rolled out of bed at the Sleep Inn in Danville, VA and took a look out of the window. The parking lot was soaked and it was raining hard. I turned on the TV and changed the channel to The Weather Channel to check out the local radar. The size and speed of the storm made it appear as though we would be dealing with rain all day. We packed up and headed back to the track.
For this event, the racers were broken into two groups. My class was put into the Thunder race group. Our group's practice was one of the first sessions of the morning. In the midst of heavily pouring rain, I took off the dry race tires and changed over to my rain tires. Apart from being soaked, the car and I were ready to go. Only about one third of the racers in our group braved the tough conditions of practice. I spent the entire 20 minutes just trying to keep the car on track and get the brand new tires broken in. It had been several years since I had driven in the rain at VIR and I wasn't quite ready for how slick it was. My knuckles were white long before the checkered flag came out to end the session and I pulled into the pits happy to have an undamaged race car. Qualifying was scheduled to take place only a couple of hours later. A quick review of the radar (what would we do without smart phones?!?!) showed there was no chance of the rain letting up by then. I left the rain tires on and retreated to the comfort of a fellow racer's enclosed trailer in an attempt to dry out. Only 33 of the 54 cars in our race group lined up to go out for qualifying, the rest unwilling or unequipped to deal with trying to put down a flying lap in the rain. The rain was coming down hard and there was standing water all over the track. Certainly not ideal for trying to go as fast as possible. I did four laps in qualifying, mainly in an attempt to continue to learn the car and the track in the rain. I ran an incredibly slow best lap of 2:47.xx, some 30+ seconds slower than my normal times in the dry. While quite a bit off the pace of the guys up front, this was good enough for a 5th place in class starting position for the race. Most importantly, I didn't wreck.
The three hour break between qualifying and the race was exactly what we all needed. The clouds decided to stop raining about an hour before the race and the other groups on track during that time were doing a great job of drying up the track. About 20 minutes before the call to grid, I took off the rain tires and put the dry tires back on. I was taking a risk that the rain would stay away during the race but the radar had me convinced. I got in the and headed out to grid. This was my first race in Thunder group and I knew I had a new challenge ahead of me. When the racers are split into two groups, typically my class is the fastest class in the "slower" race group. This event had our class in the middle of the "faster" race group, meaning there were going to be plenty of faster cars on track during the race. This meant that traffic management, especially dealing with being caught and passed by faster cars, was going to play a big role.
Alright...enough talk...on to the video:
So I started 5th in class and finished 4th in class. I was fine with that finishing position since I had kept my nose clean, but other than a couple laps battling with the silver BMW M3 in my class, I spent most of the race driving around alone because the rest of my class had checked out. It was immediate proof that I am going to have to step up my game to be able to stick with the pointy end of the field when racing at VIR. The car ran great and all the off-season repairs and maintenance seemed to have held together. I spent the evening reviewing data and video in preparation for Sunday's race, determined to be more of a factor and looking for a spot on the podium. The big question on everyone's mind that night, however, was what Mother Nature was planning for Sunday.
