Race Weekend at BeaveRun Motorsports Complex

Hey there fellow trackhounds!

I realize that I just posted a blog for some of our June events that didn't include anything about our race weekend June 25-27!  We had an awesome weekend filled with adventure and quite a bit of drama (more so than I would have liked but that's racing...), so I thought that this topic deserved it's own post.  Our most recent stop on the racing schedule brought us to BeaveRun Motorsports Complex in Wampum, PA (about 40 minutes north of Pittsburgh, PA - my hometown!).  The 12-turn winding road course is a challenging circuit filled with sweeping curves, tight corners, and two straights long enough to get some serious speed.  Turn 9 is a high speed corner and can be taken flat out for those with "large attachments" (stealing a quote from David Hobbs).  I had never driven this track so it was was fun learning a new circuit, but made for added work to prepare for racing.  One thing working in my favor was that NASA GreatLakes has not raced at BeaveRun in 4 years so the track would be new to many (but not all) of my competitors.

IARG's Doug Livingston (crew chief) and Geoff Eaton (crew and data) made the trip, providing excellent support and camaraderie for the race weekend.  Things got off to a bit of a bumpy start.  Pulling out of Indy we were rear-ended while sitting at a stop light less that a quarter mile from the I465.  Fortunately it was a low speed impact.  The rear trailer door sustained some damage which was not cool, but the trailer contents were unharmed.  It was hot waiting for the police and the incident report.  In the end we lost 2 hours getting underway which was bogus.  Regardless, Doug managed good time to Beaver Falls, PA.  We pulled in with plenty of time to get checked into our hotel and get a good night's sleep.

 Friday was a testing day for the #09 IARG/Project 6 Racing BMW Z3 M-Coupe.  NASA had not rented the track for Friday testing.  Instead we hooked up with John Wojnar and the Viper Club of Ohio that were hosting an open lapping day.  Great group of folks who play well in traffic.  :-)  The day was productive working on car setup and learning the fast way around the track.  As this was my first trip to BeaveRun I was on a steep learning curve.  Many thanks to John for introducing me to Grand Am driver Jim and Kathy Stout.  Jim took me for a ride in one of the Stout's Competition Viper Coupes.  Just a few laps with Jim greatly accelerated my preparation for the race weekend.  One thing that did crop up on Friday was an electrical gremlin that caused sporadic misfiring.  Doug made a quick fix that kept us on the track, but this issue would resurface later in the weekend.

Overall we were quick, improving our lap time by over 12 sec through the course of the day.  We finished the day with a track walk to better scope out track/corner conditions and discuss race strategy.  This is the time when Doug and I really get to the details of a race.  To anyone doing track events (whether HPDE, open lapping, time trial or racing) the "track walk" is a key part of driver preparation.  Think of it like this; you would study before taking a test when you were in school right?  So why would you not study when preparing to race?  Much can be gained (visual markers, surface condition, camber, elevation, etc...) by standing on the track looking at all aspects of a corner, something you can't do driving the corner at speed.  With some helpful nuggets of knowledge from our walk we headed out for a well deserved beer and dinner.  It was during this time that the NASA group began to roll in and assemble.  The scene is kinda like when a concert or the circus comes to town...  :-)

Saturday we arrived at the track and quickly got prepared for our race day.  Given the results of Friday I was confident that we would race well, but being a newcomer to the GTS-3 classification I still didn't have a good index of where we stood versus the competition.  Doug did an excellent job and had the car prepared perfectly.  We were scheduled to race in the Thunder Race Group, which consisted of the Super Touring (ST) , American Iron/American Iron Extreme (AI/AIX), Camero-Mustang Challenge (CMC), Factory Five (FF), and German Touring Series Challenge (GTS) race series.  Following a morning practice checking track conditions, and testing the extra nuggets from the track walk, we were set to qualify.  With a set of sticker Hoosier A6 tires we qualified 4th in class and 16th overall in heavy traffic with a total field of 30 cars.

The race proved to be one for the archives.  Doug called an excellent race!  With the exception of one mistake (a mis-shift), I drove the best race of my life.  At one point I put the #09 IARG/P6 car to the front, leading the GTS-3 classification.  Unfortunately our electrical gremlin (possibly a sensor or ECU issue as the stock engine temp gauge was pegged while our oil temp, oil pressure and water temp gauges all read normal) caused engine overheating and made me back off a bit resulting in losing 2 positions.  To make matters far worse as I was battling to maintain 3rd position in class a GTS-4 Porsche decided to get racey with me on the final lap of the race.  The guy put his nose in too deep and hot into Turn 1, lost it and hit me.  The impact sent the Porsche off track and out of the race, but left me with an injured car (some body panel damage and knocked the toe out on the left side rear wheel) to pilot for the remainder of the lap all while being hounded by a GTS-3 BMW M3 (the white/blue one pictured in 3rd place above).  The car and rear wheel (the left rear tire sidewall was cut into the cords from the body panel rubbing) held together long enough for me to bring it across the finish line.  You can check out the race video by following these links:  Part 1 (start and mid race) and Part 2 (close battles and finish)

When the race was over we had finished 3rd in class and 6th overall!  Getting a podium under these conditions was an excellent result for the team!  I must say I was really proud of the work that Doug and Geoff had done giving me a car that I could drive to the front!  The results told us and everyone that we were a team to keep an eye on.  Making the podium was SWEET, especially considering our performance at Putnam Park just 4 weeks prior.  Unfortunately, Doug and Geoff had no time for celebration and worked hard to get the body work and the rear suspension repaired in time to race on Sunday.  Worse yet, the overheating issue crept up again on Sunday during qualifying and the car simply shut down and would not re-fire (no the motor did not go kurblamo!).  We packed up and headed home high on confidence about the our race performance, but concerned as to what was broken in the car.

So that is about it.  Currently Doug is working to diagnose and fix the car to get it ready for our race weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Park the end of July.  I am confident that Doug will get the car repaired and ready to do battle!  I am excited to repeat our performance from BeaveRun this time at Mid-Ohio.  Our biggest problem remains financial.  If you like what you see and read consider sponsoring our program.  Visit our website today and pledge your support!  You will get a team shirt and proceeds will go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  Your support will keep us racing and go to finding a cure for diabetes!  Many thanks to all that have joined our effort this season!

Until the next post...

Cheers!
Michael S.