Coming through Turn9, onto the NASCAR straight.
Friday practice went ok. I wasn't the quickest KP car out there, but I had narrow, old practice tires on. They were definitely taking a long time to warm up. While the previous days’ weather had been perfect, Qualifying on Friday afternoon for our race group was fogged out, so we substituted our Saturday no-points Fun Race with a Qualifying session in the morning.
The Qualifying session was very wet, so I took it easy and qualified 4th in a class of 13 and 17th overall (in Race Group 2). I would start the race with KP racer Keith Hammitte right in front of me, while John Negus and Michael Norek were 5 rows ahead. Considering that the other guys were running on Hoosier wet tires and I was on cheap Kumho Ecsta V700’s, going easy, I was satisfied with the result of qualifying. But, I had some ground to make up on these fast guys.
Saturday's early race began with everyone on wet tires. My Ecsta V700’s are not very good rain tires, but it turned out that they were pretty good intermediates! The weather had cleared and the track was merely damp by the time the green flag dropped.
On the race start, with Steve Shardt (founder of Forgeline Wheels) on the radio, I got a huge jump on the field. I was on the gas well before the green flag and I got a run past Hammitte in front of me, practically scraping my passenger side mirror down the pit wall in the process. We must’ve been 5-wide on the front straight! I had gotten all the way up to Norek by Turn 1 and went in side-by-side. I had picked up something like 8 spots on the start! Over the next several laps, I raced my way by Norek and eventually by Negus.
Just after I got by Negus (my nemesis) between Turns 9 and 10, I defended going into 11, which leads onto the front straight, and I dropped out of my power band. He and Norek got a good run and I saw them coming on our way into Turn 1. Norek was WAY on the inside and I could see by his speed that he was in way too early. Knowing what was about to happen, I backed off, let Norek slide across T1, meanwhile slowing down Negus since they went in together, and I powered out with nearly full exit speed, passing Negus before the top of the esses. On the following lap, though, Negus lost it coming out of the Outer Loop (T5d) and hit the armco, but fortunately was able to continue racing.
Leading Hammitte and Smith into the Toe of the Boot (Turn 7).
In the following laps, my friend Tim Smith, in his Spec E36, attempted a total Hail-Mary pass on me into Turn 1, but I had already committed to the turn, as he didn’t have a bumper on me by my turn-in point. I knew I wasn't leaving him much room (if enough at all) and tried to widen my line as I heard his tires howling next to me. I got a bit of a love tap that didn’t take any more than a brief correction to recover from. It was all good! There was yellow flag a couple laps later, though, that bunched up the field and so I had them behind me again, but the race ended under yellow. Unfortunately, my good friend Vivek had been spun by a KP driver coming out of the bus stop and hit the wall hard, putting him out for the weekend.
Overall I took 1st in class and 7th overall!
Momentarily opening a lead into the Toe of the Boot.
So, that’s where I started for the feature (200% points) race in the later afternoon. I was now running my new Hankook Z214 C51 tires, which I had just heat cycled on Wednesday. Leading the KP pack, when I had won the previous race partially due to lucky tire selection, was daunting, and especially knowing that the guys behind me were on Hoosiers.
Waiting on grid for the start of the Feature Race. Photo by Franco Culietta.
The race was fantastic. I had Hammitte all over the back of my car while I was running with the 2 points leaders in Spec E36 (Tim Smith and Mike Gilbert) through the entire race. The battles went back and forth relentlessly. I didn't want to interfere with the SE36 race, and in-fact had Gilbert motioning to me to leave them alone, but I had my own problems to deal with!! If either of them screwed up and left the door open, I was taking the position. And we swapped several times. The SE36 cars had bit more power, better aero, and could out-brake me, but I was quicker through the turns and their fastest lap times were within .1 sec of my 2:19.118 fastest lap! Hammitte even got by me at least a couple times through the race, but never for long. The back-and-forth was incredibly fun and, at one point, Gilbert even launched so far out into the runoff of T1 that he had to cut straight through the grass, foot flat on the gas, to get back on and keep his position!
Towards the end, a JP and a JS E30 M3 got caught up to us and the JS car made his way by. The JP car was David Hill and he got by me on the back straight, but I forced him to enter the bus stop on the right. He went in too hot, pushed wide to the right, and I passed him back as he drove off into the grass. Hammitte got by him, too. Hill re-passed Hammitte on the next lap and started pressuring me. Steve had been giving me updates on the radio whenever he could and had informed me that we were on the last lap. I frantically waved Hill off, both trying to keep him between me and Hammitte and also hoping he wouldn't try to force a pass that could give Hammitte the opportunity to get by me! Thankfully, he complied and I crossed the finish line 1st in class and 10th overall!! It looks like these Hankook tires really can run with the Hoosiers! Tim Smith also managed to finish in front of Gilbert and take 2nd for SE36, while Fred Furguson had won SE36 with a healthy 28 second lead.
Tailing Tim Smith into Turn 11, onto the front straight.
On Sunday, it was raining again, so I swapped to the rain tires. When I got out on track, I realized that my left rear spring was cocked out of its perch. The car was driving the way you might expect if you had a solid spring in your left rear, but with the addition of some funky noises in right-handers. I figured I had to do the best I could with what I had and just get through the race. I was starting in the lead for KP and knew I wouldn’t be able to fend off the guys on Hoosier Wets, but was hoping to minimize my positions lost.
I lost a couple of positions by the 2nd lap, as the lack of compliance in my left rear suspension was compounding the lack of grip of my Kumho tires. As it turned out, the spring was wedged against the CV Axle and the heat being generated snapped the axle on the 2nd lap. I heard the boom and immediately dipped the clutch and put the car in neutral. As I pulled off to the run-off area of T9, I heard a loud clanking and figured I had broken the axle. I watched some of the race from there and was picked up by a flat-bed truck and then towed in when the race finished. I received a DNF for that race, while Michael Norek picked up the KP win with 9 cars in class.
Very wet, trailing behind Hammitte.
Overall, I am hugely satisfied with the 2 hard-fought wins!! It was great to have my family and some friends with me and to come away with the results that evaded me at the Glen last year. The win in the 2nd race resulted in the highest possible points finish in any single race for the season, as Oktoberfest is the BMWCCA’s premier national event (10 points for the win x 200%, plus up to 10 points for cars finishing behind = 30 points). As I’m trying to recover from a 20 point penalty incurred at VIR at the beginning of the year, this result was critical for me. I’m now back in the running for the KP national title with races at Mid-Ohio, Barber, and Roebling Road left to finish off the season. We’ll see what happens!
Pipino, Pipina, Michelle, Christian, Franco, Papa', e Mamma.
Photo by Franco Cutietta.
Motioning about some move made on the track... looks kinda gay, though = P
Photo by Franco Cutietta.
