The second one-day event at Charlotte Motor Speedway, picture perfect weather and a good turnout (12 cars in qualifying). Having repaired the damage from last month’s accident at CMP, the car seemed to be in good health and was running well, at least when it wasn’t too hot. I hooked up with my pal Evan in qualifying and was able to get a 1:28.0 which put me solidly in second place. Woohoo, I’m on the first row! Which meant that I and pole sitter Eric Palacio were responsible for pacing the group before the green flag was thrown. New experience for me and a fun one, but after that it was sheer terror. I’d never been at the sharp end of the field before and was more nervous than I had been for any previous race. Evan and Brian Jones (who qualified 3rd and 4th) made sure to let me know that they’d be gunning for me and I took it a little too much to heart.
In the first race Eric got in front of me as expected and I did my best to keep him in sight while fighting off hard charges from Jones and Evan from behind. They kept the pressure on and eventually got by when i overbraked for turn 1. Then thunder roadsters came zooming around like mad hornets, with my relative lack of traffic management skills it was difficult to keep the front runners within reach. With their light weight and sticky Hoosier tires they tended to be quicker on the infield but topped out slower than the Spec E30s on the oval. At one point they were three wide in front of me and I had to lift, throwing up my hands in frustration. That allowed Robert Patton to get behind me and make a…um…creative pass to get by in turn 3. I stayed behind him hoping to get the position back but wasn’t able to before the race ended with me in fifth.
In race #2 I got the jump on Eric who mistakenly was in third gear instead of second. For about ten seconds I was leading the race! That didn’t last long as Eric got beside me and we were two-wide for most of the infield and entering the oval. In a trick apparently learned from Johan he pinned me on the apron while three cars queued up behind him and the entire group bump drafted their way past. Evan snuck in at the last minute too, suddenly I’m in sixth place! I was *pissed*, but in a way slightly relived as I’m more comfortable following a fast car than trying to keep one behind me. Several laps later Jones spun in turn 1 which opened up a few gaps. I was chasing Evan and he was chasing David Walsh, at one point I got past Evan on the oval then immediately braked too late for turn 1 and he took the position back. A few laps later, a swarm of thunder roadsters descended upon us and David and Evan tangled in turn 2, putting them both in the wall and out of the race, allowing me to cruise in for third place and my first podium finish.
All in all a great day of racing, I learned several important lessons that will hopefully enable me to continue my development as a driver. Congratulations to Eric for winning both races! Coming up next is lots of VIR stuff – instructing with Chin Motorsports this week, Ferrari club the following week, and what is shaping up to be a huge race at with NASA-MA in late July!
This was a last minute thing, I hadn’t intended to do this event but since it looked like a lot of Spec E30 folks were going and I got $50 off for attending the HPDE at NCCAR, what the heck. Plus I had never driven there before, or on any banked oval for that matter, so it would be a good experience. It was only one day but with practice, qualifying, and two sprint races it was a busy one.
I arrived the evening before and barely got there in time to drop off my trailer in the paddock. Fortunately Scott Lusted and his family was kind enough to let me stay with them overnight which ended up being a huge relief since camping at the track wasn’t a possibility. All hands meeting Monday morning at 0700 and practice at 0800 meant we got an early start.
The first couple of laps were intimidating. You can’t get a sense of the size and banking of the track until you see it in person, video just doesn’t do it justice. After a couple of laps I was comfortable enough to take the oval flat (full throttle all the way around) since I heard that’s how it was done. Even with the steep banking and the modest speed of a Spec E30 (about 125 mph) the g-forces are significant, I felt almost like a fighter pilot between the compressive force of the banking and the lateral load provided by the tires at the limit of adhesion. The infield portion of the track was relatively straightforward, it even had some elevation and camber change which was a pleasant surprise. After a short break we headed out for qualifying which put me at a severe disadvantage – many of my competitors had driven this track before (NASA-SE ran at Lowes in 2009) whereas I had barely 20 minutes of time on it. Not surprisingly I qualified ninth out of ten drivers with a 1:29.8 (four seconds faster than practice) but the good news was that the next five cars were less than 0.7 seconds faster so I was only slightly off the pace.
Race #1 was just before lunch, we got a clean start but the car one spot ahead of me (Fred Switzer) spun in turn 4 forcing me to lift slightly. I caught up to the next pack of cars but after several of them teamed up to draft in the oval I was left behind and drove the rest of the race solo, finishing eighth.
Race #2 was after lunch but since we used the same qualifying time I still had to start in ninth position. Again we got off to a clean start and I spent the first half of the race mixing it up with Fred; we traded positions a few times and had a couple of driving oopsies but kept it clean and had a great time. Eventually I was able to open a bit of a gap and cruised the second half of the race. A couple of guys didn’t finish (Alex Reznikov was black flagged for an exhaust problem and Al Taylor had an unfortunate encounter with a concrete barrier) so I finished in fifth position.
At one point I spotted former Cleveland Cavalier and current NASCAR analyst and NASA racer Brad Daugherty walking past my car so I asked him if he’d pose next to the Kirk Key (located just outside Cleveland) logo, which he graciously did without a moment’s hesition. In fact Brad was running in the same group as me (meaning we were on track at the same time) but in a different class.
Beautiful weather, friendly people as always, and great racing (my good friend and fellow rookie Evan Levine, also in his first time at this track, qualified sixth and finished fourth and second, a fantastic result). Coming up next: the Pit Bull Brawl at one of my favorite tracks (CMP). Let’s get it on!
2010 Season, Race Results, Video | jtower | 
July 3, 2010 12:13 | 
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