I had the car sitting on the old Toyo RA-1’s that had proven themselves as the tire to run at Mid-Ohio. I wanted to try running the higher pressure theory in the new R888’s, though, to see if I could get them to work and slow their wear rate. So, I ran the RA-1’s in practice, but ran qualifying on the R888’s, trying out the new pressures. The tires gripped better and the car turned much better than before, but they were very “skatey” and the car was oversteering more. Qualifying was short, though, as a car had hit a barrier and landed on its roof. I don’t think that anyone else got a decent flying lap in, as my qualifying time was over 2 seconds faster than the other SpecE30’s.
In the race, I was starting on pole for SpecE30, with 3 guys behind me, including reigning regional champion, Simon Hunter. The track was still damp in the beginning and as the green flag dropped, I put the gas down and had a full-on drift through Turn10, while Simon was waiting behind me to see if I’d spin. I drove out of it and continued down the straight, but traffic about came to a halt as a SpecMiata had spun in Turn1. Continuing past that, a Civic went spinning off before Turn4 and I almost had another SpecMiata fishtail into me through Turn5 as I passed him. From there, I kept working through traffic as the conditions began to dry until I couldn’t see any SpecE30’s behind me. From there I enjoyed racing with the PakistanExpress Civic and I’ve found that we’ve been closely matched in every race so far this year! I hung in there for the rest of the race and, on the last lap, though the last turn, an RX-7 and I raced hard to the finish line, side-by-side through Turn10, just for fun (for the record, I crossed the line first ; ).
So, I had finshed the race in 1st, with a healthy margin of space between Simon and I. Coming off the track, the SpecE30’s were impounded and checked for weight. We all must weigh over 2750 lbs, including ourselves, after the race. At Mid-Ohio, I had weighted 2753 when starting on a full tank of gas. I had started this race also with a full tank, but weighed in a 2744. That was 6 lbs under the mininmum weight, and so I was disqualified from that race, handing Simon the win. OUCH. That was a 9 lb difference from Mid-Ohio, which only accounts to about 1.5 gal of gas. I think that my average rpm was higher at Putnam, increasing my fuel consumption.
At the time, I didn’t think much of it, as Simon had handed me a win at Mid-Ohio since he had hit another car, so I felt like we were even. But I’ve more recently found out that I cannot “drop” a disqualification from my season points. See, we get to drop our 3 worst finishes (or no-show’s), but this will not be dropped. So, I will have to spend the rest of the season trying to make up the 100 points that Simon got for winning while I got a 0. Truly, my only chance of winning the championship is if he misses a race other than the weekend at Grattan that neither of us are attending. Oh, and I have to win every other race! Man, its so easy to screw up big.
My video camera was zoomed in on the windshield wiper (d’oh!), but here’s Simon’s in-car video. You only see me for the first few laps, but at least the first lap is pretty entertaining.
Simon's Race 1 Video.
On Sunday, I added a spare tire to my trunk so I would make weight and I ran qualifying on my RA-1’s. I ran a time of 1:22.3, which was almost a second faster than the SpecE30 track record held by Simon. In order for it to be official, though, it must be set during a race. I was starting on pole, with Simon in 3rd, since his tires had given out during qualifying and he hadn’t been able to set a great time.
The race was quite exciting. Once I cleared some traffic on the start, though, I realized I had forgotten to turn on my camera. D’oh! I continued on with Simon visible in my rear view mirror. I never gave him the chance to race me, but it wasn’t easy. As I approached traffic on different occasions, I more than once committed to passes that I wasn’t 100% sure I would come out of. 2 of which were, in fact, made with 2 tires in the grass. The most exciting one was passing 2 cars at the same time going into Turn 9 with only my left side tires on the pavement. I knew that I would need to be efficient through traffic so that I wasn’t slowed down, allowing Simon to close the gap and attempt a pass. Once I pulled out of the last large group of slower cars, I pulled away while Simon was still negotiating them.
Other than that, I was actually having some great racing with a Civic in the PTE class. I got by at one point, but he later got back by as I approached a corner worker who I was unclear as to whether he was displaying a yellow flag or not. I slowed in caution and the Civic did not. After that, though, I couldn’t keep up, as my left-front tire was toasted and began to cord by the end of the race.
Simon’s in-car video, which keeps me in view for a while and shows some of the passes:
Simon's Race 2 Video.
I won the race with room to spare, and had, in fact, beaten the standing lap record by a few tenths of a second. Simon, however, ripped off a lap that was .014 seconds faster than mine, resetting his own record!! That shows you just how close we are!
Eric Waddell on my tail with Simon Hunter close behind.
So, as for season standings, Simon and I are currently even on number of wins, but my DQ will be next to impossible to recover from. Our next race was supposed to be at the new Bluegrass track, 25 minutes from my door, but the track will not be ready in time, so our race was changed to Grattan, in Michigan, 6.5 hours from me. I won’t be attending that race, and it seems there will be only one SE30 in attendance. The next race will be Mid-Ohio in July. Stay tuned…
Here’s the OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE.
Left to Right, Dave Nalley, Henry Schmidt, Jason Kohler, Christian Schwier, myself, and Denny Barker.
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