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See ya at the track... |
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Every November since 1994 the
Atlanta Region SCCA has run the American Road Race of Champions at Road
Atlanta. Over the years it has become the unofficial "National Championship"
event for folks that run non-National classes. And while that has primarily
been Improved Touring since the beginning, the open-wheel and big bore classes
have been growing rapidly the past few years.
Besides running Cuervo in GTA, this
was our first weekend supporting Grant Leadbetter and his ex-Cup Dodge Charger
in SPO (Super Production Over 2500cc). Grant has been running HSR for the
last ten years so he's not new to racing or Road Atlanta, but a 750+
horsepower, 3400 pound piece of Detroit Iron is a WHOLE lot different than
even a nicely turned out Porsche 914-6 (which his is - it's also for sale,
BTW). At first he was not going to do the Thursday test day, but after
thinking about it overnight he decided he'd rather not have his first laps in
a new car happen when 50 other guys were trying to qualify for arguably the
biggest regional race on the SEDIV calendar.
We ran three of the four test
sessions on Thursday as we learned the car, got up to speed with a best lap of
1:36.9 (faster than he'd ever gone at Road Atlanta) and experienced what it
was like to spin under braking for 10-A without hitting anything (whew!).
That spin flat-spotted three of the four tires, so we skipped the last session
while Goodyear mounted four new ones.
Friday dawned early and we warmed
up both cars (Cuervo and the yet-to-be-named #50) for the first of two
qualifying sessions. Mike (Eakin) had shown up to crew chief for Grant while
Dennis, Data & Gramps were there to provide support for both cars as needed.
Grant turned a best lap of 1:39.7 (unfortunately at 104 db - the exhaust exits
on the left side of the car and sound control is on driver's left at Road
Atlanta) while having to hold the car in second gear coming out of the
corners. I ran a warm-up lap of 1:47.1 before the car quit on me going into
Turn 6 on my second lap. After the session I got back in, cranked it up and
drove back to the pits, so OBVIOUSLY the problems at VIR weren't the master
switch as we'd all convinced ourselves.
Mike & Dennis got busy installing
the CAD/CAM designed "muffler" that we'd developed for such a contingency on
the #50 while Data, Gramps & I headed to Port City South for a new battery,
better battery clamps and a new helmet shield while we were at it. Once we
got back I crawled under the #50 to adjust the shifter, Mike worked on
additional brake lights for it and the rest of the guys installed the new
parts on Cuervo. This time we KNEW we'd found the problem!
Second session Grant finds the #50
will now stay in second gear but still hits 104db (103 is the limit) on the
sound meter while improving to a 1:37.822, good for 22nd on the combined
grid. He came into the pits after getting black flagged (for sound) to have
Mike bend the deflector a little higher, but the track had been oiled and he
chose not to go back out after the stop.
Cuervo, on the other hand, didn't
even get to Turn Five before shutting off! I went into the cut-through
between Five & Eight and the car started again, so I rejoined at Turn Nine
after the field had done a couple of laps but it quit again as I got to 10-A.
I coasted into the Drifting Loop just before Turn 11 and waited out the rest
of the session. Sure enough, it restarted after the session was over and I
drove back to the paddock.
By now we were ALL committed to
finding the real problem even if we had to jack up the radiator cap and roll a
new car underneath it. Data, Dennis and Gramps jumped into the fray while
Mike & I did a de-brief with Grant, then Stevan Davis stopped by to help out
as well. By the time I changed out of my driving suit and finished talking to
Grant, the guys had found the problem and were working on the fix. Given that
all of us are "plus-sized", Stevan (who is all of 5'4" and maybe 130 pounds?)
had jumped into the cockpit and was standing under the dash taking the fuse
box apart <g>. Seems the hot lead to the fuse box was loose, but it was hard
to find because it was tie-wrapped to the exit lead and THAT nut was tight.
By the time we left Friday evening we were confident we had found the problem,
but unfortunately my single lap in the morning session had left me 42nd of 44
cars that had gotten times that day.
We ran the warm-up session
Saturday morning to check out the fix (best lap was a 1:36) and saw the
checkered flag at the end of the session but then Cuervo cut out yet again as
I got to Turn 7! This time, however, it was simply out of gas, which was easy
to fix. Grant also went out in the session, practiced a NASCAR pit stop to
put the window net up and still turned a 1:38 on a VERY cold track and didn't
get busted for sound this time. It was also the first time we'd both been on
the same channel on the radios and that was kinda neat. I passed Grant on the
warmup lap and told him I was coming ("on your left"), which was confidence
inspiring somehow. I know other teams do that all the time, but this was my
first experience with it.
They decided to do a split start
with the TCC cars, so I immediately moved up 14 places before ever taking the
green (the TCC cars started behind the non-TCC cars). I lined up in the 28th
grid spot, but apparently one person didn't show up because I rolled off on
the inside of row 14 - - inside is good if you're going to be passing people
up the hill toward the bridge or in Turn 12 because they don't know that (a)
the green flag is out and/or that (b) under SCCA rules it's legal to pass
before Start/Finish once the green is out. More on this later.
Bummer of the race was seeing the
#50 parked on the outside of Turn 7 on the pace lap. After all the work and
anticipation, Grant didn't get to race because the car just shut down on him!
Ends up (after getting towed back after the race) the quick disconnect on the
battery had come loose. The Cup guys use that because they want to be able to
change batteries in a hurry if need be, but that doesn't buy us anything in
what we do. New item on the checklist for the #50 car will be "tie-wrap the
connector" to keep if from coming apart in the future. Grant was pretty cool
about missing the race - particularly after watching it from Turn 7 and seeing
the TCC guys tear the crap out of their cars through there - but I/we wish he
could have raced rather than watched.
Short story on the race is that I
started 27th, passed a bunch of cars on each of three starts (initial start
and after two full-course cautions) because I knew when the green was being
waved even though I couldn't see it. Radios are a GOOD thing, and the folks
are Racing Communications (770-429-8783) are great to work with. In total I
passed 11 cars on the track and another five that either wrecked or had
mechanical problems, set the fastest GTA time of the race at a 1:33.746 and
finished ninth overall (third in GTA), less than two seconds out of SIXTH
place. After getting by David Daniels BMW after the second restart I
gradually ran down Bryan Dobyns and Todd Carter who were stacked up behind Lee
Arnold in his SPO stock car. I don't know that I would have caught Bryan and
Todd if Lee hadn't been holding them up - they/we were all over him in the
corners and he'd pull us on the back straight - but it sure made an exciting
finish to have sixth through ninth place covered by 1.879 seconds!
That finishes our 2005
season with the February 25,26 SARRC at Road Atlanta being the next event on
our schedule. Data has posted our tenative 2006 plans on the website (www.B-K-Racing.com)
and if things go well we hope to contend for the first ever GTA SARRC
Championship.
As always, thanks to Atlanta
Region SCCA for a first class event. Additional thanks go out to the BK
Racing crew - Dennis McClintock, Eric Bartel ("Data"), Eric Roberts
("Gramps"), Mike Eakin ("Purple Frog") and especially Harriett for putting up
with all this foolishness. As I try to tell them as often as possible, thanks
for all you do and I hope I didn't let you down.
We didn't win the 2005 ARRC, but
"they knew we were there!"
See ya...
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