VIR had its ups and downs, but basically, I was not performing to my expectations. I had to re-learn the track, as I had only been there once (I was driving 911's and an M Roadster when I went last July), and I was having braking issues throughout the weekend. They were very unconvincing and providing little feedback.
On Friday, the initial practice and qualifying were not so bad. I actually qualified 2nd out of 8. The race didn’t go quite as well, though. As I was defending the whole time, I was lured too deep into the braking zones on 2 occasions, which both resulted in me heading off the track. Despite the lost time, I came in 5th out of 8. I was disappointed and frustrated by my mistakes. Oh, as a reminder, I don't have ABS working.
Saturday morning, I was trying to push certain braking zones and one in particular was the right hander before Oak Tree (Turn 11), which required a lot of trailbraking through the turn in order to maximize speed, which is generally dangerous. I made my brake application point later and found myself to have plenty of room to go. The next lap around, I felt like I entered the same way, but the car just wouldn’t slow. I didn’t see any tire smoke from a locked wheel and it felt more like the brakes just weren’t adequately slowing the car. In either case, I went off before making the turn-in for Oak Tree. This time I had an impact. Straight into the tire barrier. The tires did a good job of absorbing the impact and after I bounced off, I was able to drive back along the track and pull out on the back straight pits. There was smoke in the car and I was dreading having to pull my newly installed fire suppression system, as the foam makes a huge mess. It looked like oil was just burning off of the exhaust and I noticed that I was dripping from the front.
Damage from Tire Wall
Oil Cooler Damage from Tire Wall
The damage was mostly mild. The left front fender was a bit mangled and the hood and bumper were scratched, but the lower valance support bracket had punctured my oil cooler. Fortunately, I had a mechanic, Sumpter, from Grass Roots garage (a shop local to VIR who sponsors me) there on Saturday to help me. I pulled the front valence and he pulled the oil cooler while I searched for another one. Miraculously, the first E30 guy I asked said he had one. How much? $50…. Sold! It was at his house… Where was that? Only 5 miles from the track! After a quick drive, I returned and had Sumpter installing another oil cooler! I actually lost no track time and got out for qualifying. Unfortunately, I was now so timid in the braking zones that I had slowed down significantly. I qualified last in class.
That afternoon we had a 60 minute enduro, which paid 150% points. Through the first part of the race, I did well in traffic and picked up several positions. I got crossed up in traffic coming out of Oak Tree, which leads onto the very long back straight, and lost everything I had gained. I fought back and was trying to make a pass stick when I went off in the braking zone of Turn 1. …Again. I got back on and kept going, but was very frustrated that I could not stop as well as the rest of these guys.
The rain was teasing, dropping a few drops here and several there... I was strategizing my mandatory 5-minute pit stop... My plan was to wait for it to downpour and do it then, while everyone would be turning laps 10+ seconds off their pace, hoping that they were doing their stops in the dry. That didn't happen, but a yellow flag did. There was a bad wreck in Turn 7.
I had learned (the hard way) at Watkins Glen that I couldn't pit under yellow, but as far as I knew, once the green flag dropped, the pits were open. 4 of the 6 cars ahead of me were in my class and so as soon as the flag dropped, I didn't head for the start/finish line, but pulled straight to the pits. I had nothing to lose. I figured that they all had a slow run onto the front straight and were battling each other out for the next 2 laps, so they’d be slowing each other down significantly. A couple laps after I came out of the pits, I saw the previous KP leader... 2 turns behind me! It worked!! Every time from then on, when I approached the start/finish line, I was praying for the checkered flag! It didn't come soon enough and the leader closed in on me quick. First it was a gained distance. Then he was only 1 turn behind. Then in my rear view, then on my bumper, then he got by me cleanly on the back straight when I missed a shift to 5th. I was able to hold off the next guy until the checkered, though, so I got 2nd overall.
It was a great finish for me, as I certainly wasn’t the 2nd fastest car. I got a good points payoff, which was the purpose of attending this particular race, and I get $150 towards more Hankook tires through their contingency program. While I certainly wasn't the 2nd fastest guy, I may have been the 2nd smartest on this day ; ) Bimmerworld hosted a biergarten (beer garden) that evening that brought everyone together for a good time. The highlight was probably one of the racers challenged to sit in a trash can filled with ice water for as long as possible… Yeah, some of these guys are pretty crazy. He was in there for somewhere between 5-10 minutes!
Sunday wasn't really eventful for me, which was probably a good thing. I was trying to get a fast Bimmerworld guy to drive my car, but it kept not working out. During practice, I warmed up the car and brought it in for Dave White to take it out. As soon as he got buckled in, the checkered flag dropped. Then in qualifying, I ran 4 qualifying laps and turned it over to him. He got an out-lap and an in-lap, as the checkered flew his first time around. On top of that, the data acquisition equipment didn’t record anything and my video camera ran out of tape as soon as he had gotten in the car!!
It turned out that part of the braking problem was actually OVER-cooling, since VIR has such long stretches with no brake application. Needing to keep my pads up in their temperature range, I taped over the cooling ducts and it helped out. I was gradually getting a little better in the braking zones, but I still have a lot of work to do. I need to simply re-learn how to brake and get the most out of a non-ABS setup. I’m not going to cop out and fix the ABS.
The race went ok. I picked up a couple positions by midway, but then lost them again in the braking zones. I finished 5th out of 6, but I was glad to be able to take an only mildly-damaged car home. There were MANY totaled cars through the weekend. A fellow K-Prepared racer smashed up his car in Sunday Qualifying and my friend who I traveled with smashed up his Spec E36 in the last race. I guess it was party due to the fact that the weekend started out with a 90 car field, it was the first race for many people for the year, there were 2 150% points races, and it brought out a lot of the bid dogs, pushing everyone to drive harder. For my incident with the tire barrier, I received a 3-month probation. While many of us don’t like the penalties assessed for single-car incidents with an impact, that’s the way it is. It seems like its kicking someone while their down, though. Since part of my incident could be attributed to a mechanical issue, I decided to appeal the decision. I’ll have to wait to hear what the final verdict is, but I hope its overturned, as I have 2 races in the next 3 months and another incident would result in suspension ; )
