It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Joy and pain. Then I am happy and sad for you. All sum up last weekend’s race at CMP.
Started off with beautiful (and hot) weather Saturday morning, practice felt good but I gridded late and didn’t get a clean lap in qualifying. Managed to get a 1:56.8, good for 12th of 17 cars. The race that afternoon was exciting, we did a standing start (my first) and everyone was clean, charging around the track without any first lap incidents. A lap later I got a little too aggressive in turn 14 and stuck a nose inside on Fred Switzer, spinning him out but doing no real harm. Sorry Fred! Eventually I ended up behind Alex Reznikov, I was a tad quicker than him but couldn’t quite get set up for a good pass, every time I’d get close I’d somehow goof and ruin my chances.
An exciting moment occurred near the end when my steering wheel popped off on the back straight at over 100 mph, the car veered off track but I was able to reattach it in time for the kink:
Chased Alex until the end and finished eighth with a best lap of 1:56.2.
Sunday was gonna be the day, I was raring to go. It was hot but I had my homemade cool shirt, car was running well, tires in good shape, got on grid nice and early for qualifying. Felt great in the morning qualifying session, I was behind Aaron Rankin in his E36, together we were turning nice laps and gaining on Brian Jones. Then this happened:
Aaron put two wheels off in turn 5 and spun, unfortunately I didn’t see it clearly since a miata was directly between us. The miata took evasive action, I did too a second later but not in time to avoid a collision with Aaron. Fortunately the damage wasn’t nearly as bad as it looked, a bent control arm and some wrinkled sheet metal but nothing that couldn’t be fixed.
Adding insult to injury, the lap I turned just prior to the accident (1:55.7) was good enough for 4th position! And since one of the top three cars didn’t finish I could well have been on the podium that afternoon. We tried to find a replacement control arm but nobody in the paddock had one, guess that’s something to add to the spares list. Oh well, such is racing.
Stopped off at my friend Mike Whitney’s house on the way home to check out the damage. Put it on the lift, removed the control arm and hammered out the body panels, got it looking as good as new (well not quite for good enough for racing).
Turns out the damage was a little worse than we first thought, the wheel was bent along with the strut and shock. But the strut isn’t so bad that the camber plate can’t compensate, might be a little bit off but I’m gonna try it and see how it feels.
Coming up: a few HPDEs, a trip to Mid-Ohio, and another race at Lowes. Keep those fingers crossed.
Whew, what a weekend! NASA-SE held their first event of the year, the Winter Meltdown at CMP. For me it included comp school on Friday followed by a full weekend of racing on Saturday and Sunday.
Comp school started Friday morning with a quick on track session just to shake the rust off and get reacquainted with the track, fortunately I’m reasonably comfortable with CMP so it went smoothly. We then alternated classroom sessions and track time for the next several hours, similar to the BMWCCA comp school I did in 2009 but more brief. We had a good group of about ten people and everyone drove well, no incidents of any significance. School ended with a short mock race that was gridded randomly, I was the lead Spec E30 car (my buddies Evan and Colin were also participating) and we all finished without incident. Once that was complete we were effectively issued provisional or rookie licenses and allowed to race that weekend. The three hour enduro started early afternoon, it started snowing towards the end but we figured it wouldn’t accumulate much if at all.
We went to dinner in Camden with several of our fellow Spec E30 drivers (Travis Wilson, Brian Jones, Steven Canterbury) and watched it snow. And snow. And snow. By the time we finished dinner there were several inches on the ground and it was coming down heavier than ever. Someone (probably Travis) suggested we go find a bar and no one objected, meanwhile the snow continued to pile up. The group consensus was that Saturday was almost certainly going to be a bust so we might as well keep drinking. Evan and I in particular were dismayed at the weather, we had been looking forward to racing for nearly a year and the thought of it being canceled was almost more than we could bear. His girl Christina arrived in town and joined everyone at the bar, meanwhile I called it quits and retired to the hotel.
The paddock on Satruday morning
The following morning the sky was clear but everything was blanketed by 4-6 inches of powder, virtually unheard of in South Carolina. Two weekends get canceled at VIR and now this! Evan/Christina/Colin were sleeping off the previous evening’s activities so I rode in with my roommate, we got to the track around 0800. Despite the conditions NASA-SE director Jim Pantas was confident that we’d still run that day, albeit with a delay. He announced that anyone with a truck or street car should get on track and slowly circulate to break up the snow so the sunshine could melt it. I ended up riding around with my pal Nash in his F150 and I’ll be damned if it didn’t work, pretty soon the track was wet but nearly ice free and Jim said it would go hot at 10:50. I called Evan to make sure they were en route since qualifying was at 11:10. They arrived just in time, we suited up and went out. I snagged fifth, and Evan managed to get third. Didn’t really matter though since rookies start their first race at the back no matter what. Still, we were really amped up and ready to race.
Evan, me, and Colin before our first race
That afternoon we gridded at the back of the pack (I ended up being dead last, Evan and Colin were in front of me) and rolled out of the grid. Suddenly Evan pulls out of line and stops in the hot pits. Oh no! Our first race and he’s out before it even started! Turns out all six of his left halfshaft bolts loosened up and it literally fell out of the diff leaving him with no drivetrain. Fortunately it was an easy fix and though he was heartbroken we got it patched up and ready for Sunday.
The Spec Miatas started first and had a car spin off in turn 1 (unfortunately it was Nash who got knocked out by another car) which led to four laps under yellow. Finally we restarted single file but being last I was left for dead when the field strung out, the leaders got green before I even rounded turn 14 leading to the front straight. Due to the delay the race lasted less than 15 min but I managed to pick up several positions and finished ninth. I also set a personal best lap of 1:54.2, beating my previous time by 1.5 seconds.
Sunday’s first session was a qualifying race, meaning that it didn’t count but the results would determine starting positions for the “real” race that afternoon. I started ninth with Evan directly behind me, we got off clean and he passed me in turn 14 and started dicing with Brian Jones, eventually getting past him too. A yellow in turn 8 caused him to slow and Brian and I re-passed him, I was glued to Brian’s bumper for the next two laps before executing a spectacular 360 degree spin in the kink. Despite losing several positions I managed to keep all four wheels on the tarmac and kept going, but the entire race was red flagged less than a lap later due to another crash in 8. I finished tenth but lowered my personal best to 1:53.3. The top five cars were all in the 1:52s so I still need to find some time! Unfortunately I discovered afterwards that my camera power supply wasn’t working and it stopped recording halfway through, which meant I wouldn’t get any footage of the afternoon race either.
That afternoon I started in tenth as expected, this time we were in front of the Miatas and got a clear start. After a few position changes things settled down and I found myself dicing with Steven Canterbury for the majority of the race. We had what felt like an epic battle, four position swaps and just a little bit of paint trading. I made one last pass on the final lap and held Steven off for eighth place. We gave each other a big thumbs up on the cool down lap but were later called in to explain our contact which happened between turns 2 and 3 in plain sight of the NASA officials. It was ruled a racing incident and no penalties were assessed which was the correct call. My biggest disappointment was not getting the race on video, it would have been excellent footage.
Rubbing is racing!
The car performed flawlessly all weekend and everyone finished with big smiles and no serious problems. Colin had to leave on Saturday but Evan kicked ass, finishing fourth in the final race. Safe to say he was on cloud nine for the next several days, and I wasn’t far behind. Next week I’m headed to Road Atlanta for my first race with BMWCCA, it will be my first time at that track so it should be interesting.
2010 Season, Photography Update, Race Results, Video | jtower | 
May 8, 2010 12:26 | 
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