Willow Springs International Raceway September 10th & 11th 2005

It’s been two long months, a new clutch, clutch assembly pedal, (the funnest thing you don’t ever want to “have” to do to your car), and a rebuilt tranny since my last visit to the race track.

It just so happened my birthday was Labor Day weekend and my daughter showed up to our family get together with the news that she wasn’t feeling well and had a temperature of a 102. “But Dad, I couldn’t miss your birthday,” she squealed.

Two days later I’m hating life feeling like a piece o-crap...

I wasn’t gonna let it get me down. I figured if I ignored it and didn’t say a word to anybody I might have a fighting chance. With a bottle of vitamin C in one hand and a case of aspirin in the other I had my challenge before me. The day I loaded up for the track it took me five loopy hours with thoughts of, “Didn’t I already put this in the truck?”

It was Friday morning and I knew it was morning because the sun was up. We climbed aboard my truck and started on our journey to Lancaster California. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you my wife was sicker than snot so it wasn’t hard to keep my little secret from her. We pulled onto the freeway in my big ol Dodge Ram V-10, at 3000 rpm the motor sounds like the low hum of a freight train so it put her right to sleep. As I drove, I racked my brain trying to think if I had forgotten anything. I kept a close eye on the road doing a consistent 55 concentrating on the task at hand. There was absolutely no traffic and it took four hours to the minute when I found myself turning onto the Willow Springs entrance road. I remember thinking, “Man, this has got to be the easiest drive I’ve ever done.”

We parked the truck climbed out to go pay the track and garage rental fees when my wife threw her hands up in the air and shrieked, “Oh my God, where’s the trailer . . . where’s the race car!” I stood there with my mouth wide open, absolutely speechless. I couldn’t believe I . . .


TRICK!! Just making sure you guys didn’t fall asleep! I mean I’ve got to do something different in these commentaries to keep them interesting . . .
Anyway, the parts about being sick and the easy drive are all true, and I did remember to bring the car.

It was a beautiful 72-degree early afternoon and the smells of racing permeated the air. We had expected 110 suffocating September weather and were ecstatic to be greeted with the cool breeze. The track was like a ghost town with only a dozen or so trailers and maybe a couple of cars testing on the track. We figured a lot of people assumed it was going to be way too hot so they blew it off.
We went to our garage, unpacked, and pulled the car off the trailer. This was the first time that I had a place I could actually drive the car around to make sure all my clutch and tranny work functioned. With total success we spent another hour talking to some die-heart racers then drove to our hotel.

Saturday Race Day

Waking up to a desert sunrise is always awesome to me. I sit outside in the hotel patio with a cup of coffee and wait for my wife to finish her girly girl thing. It was amazingly cold that morning which was only another sign of a good weekend to me. I was feeling ok, not great, just ok.

We made it to the track by 7AM and I got my race car log book signed. We do a self tech sheet that states that all systems are good on the car. There are categories for engine, brakes, tires, fluids, hoses, safety equipment, etc. If you have a surprise inspection by NASA officials and your self tech sheet shows all is good and they find something wrong, you get fined and loss of track time until it’s fixed. They busted two guys that day.

It was almost 8 A.M. and time for my 20 minutes of warm up laps. My agenda for the weekend was to break in the new clutch and tranny parts, and finish both races with the car in tact to race another day.

I drove the car onto the track seeing a double yellow flag from the first corner worker station. This means no passing is allowed and everybody should take it easy and warm up your tires. I went through the gear’s nice smooth shifting at a consistent 4K rpm. The car bogged a bit going into 4th and 5th because it likes it in the 6K to 7K range in those gears. My lap times were crap with cars flying by me but I ignored them doing my own thing. With absolute success I garaged the car, checked my tire pressures, and calmly waited for my qualifying session that was an hour and a half away.

Qualifying

I basically did the same thing in qualifying that I did in my warm up session taking it nice and easy with smooth shifting and consistent rpms. I qualified last. Everybody came up to me afterwards and asked if there was something wrong with the car. I explained my agenda and some people understood while others just walked away and shook their head.

Race Time

We had the “American Iron” race series running with us. If you remember this is a group of V-8, high horsepower, race prepped, Mustangs. I think there was a total of 10 cars in running (AI) this weekend. My “Super Unlimited” class hosted (3), 600-hp tube framed Pro-trucks, a full race 280Z, a Dodge SRT-turbo, a 427-Shelby Cobra, and my little yellow DSM, which put the entire race group at 17 cars. Our run group was so small the NASA officiating body decided to do a single start with one green flag.

We slowly came around the track behind the flashing blue lights of the pace car while the low rumble of the V-8s echoed over the valley. The pace car exited onto the hot pit lane and we crept forward toward the starter tower. Green, green, green! We were off in a frenzy of exhaust and spinning tires and I maintained my stance in the back of the pack. Turn one came up and clouds brake pad dust filled the air as cars squeezed side by side through this the first hurdle of the race. The sweeper at turn two still had cars blasted along side of each other. The little buttonhook up toward the Balcony insisted the cars break into a single file line and then it was every man for himself.

I could feel myself pushing the accelerator down a little too far in the excitement of the moment and I immediately lifted remembering what I needed to accomplish. The cars began to thin out as the more aggressive drivers pushed to the edge. My lap’s times were almost 10 seconds off what I normally run at this track and the Shelby Cobra was just begging to be passed, but I kept my cool. Whatever sickness I had felt was filled with the adrenalin of the moment and a small smile cracked onto my face, I’m sure.

By the middle of the race I was by myself going through the gears checking out all the different race lines out on the track. It was kinda cool. I noticed at one point a Pro-truck had crashed off the track and I thought to myself, “Well, there’s one position I just gained.” All in all I did what I had to do, breaking the car in and protecting my first place points.

I finished 5th and the car performed well. Yes I actually finished a race at Willow Springs. There is a God!
We celebrated our good fortune of the day and I’m sure everybody thought we were nuts.

Sunday Race Day

It was another beautiful and cool morning at Willow Springs Race Track. We checked all the engine fluids and tire pressures. We set up the Hoyttech G-Box camera system in the car. If you remember the G-Box shows lateral and braking g-forces, a GPS controlled lap timer, and MPH all recorded on video. It’s a great tool for enhancing your driving skills.

With the car at temperature I took to the track for my warm up laps. Again I took it nice and easy running the whole session maintaining my weekend agenda.

Qualifying

It was 10 A.M. and time for the 20 minute qualifying run for Sundays race. Both groups (AI and SU) pulled onto the track and began their balls out driving trying to achieve their best single lap time for the grid. I think it was lap four that I noticed that I and another car were the only two cars on the track. There were no flags being waved at the corner worker stations so I figured everyone else had done their best qualifying times. It didn’t matter to me because I was getting as much track time on the car that I could. I began pushing the car a little harder but nothing too extreme. It was about my eighth lap and I was coming down the front straight about a 100 mph. Turn one was coming up so I braked and downshifted to 4th, but I entered the turn a little too high. Next thing I knew the car is heading for an off track excursion. In that split second decision making process I knew if I went off the track right there, I would have broken the front splitter and filled my hot sticky Hoosiers with 3/4 inch gravel. I had already looked in my mirrors prior to the turn and hadn’t seen anything behind me so I turned the steering wheel, tapped the brakes, and executed a perfect 360-degree spin out ending up in the middle of the track. The car stalled, I restarted it, I hit the gas and swung back into position and blasted toward the next turn. The corner worker at that turn gave me a big thumbs up and I finished my lap and took it to the garage.

I immediately jacked the car up and pulled the wheels looking for flat spots. The rears looked good with just a clean swipe across the tires that removed a patch of track marbles. (Track marbles are small bits tire rubber that comes off soft race tires and fall onto the track, exclusively at turns. When your hot sticky tires go over these bits of rubber, your tires suck them up like glue) I pulled off the front wheels and the passenger side looked good but the drivers side reveled an inch and a half of cord around the inside edge of the tire. I took a deep breath and blew a sigh of relief. If I hadn’t spun out I may have never checked the tires, (a dumb thing to do), and had that tire blown during the race it could have been bad news. I brought four spares with me so I changed that tire/wheel and prepped for the race.

Race Time

FYI- At this point of the race season I happen to be about 125 points in the lead for first place for the championship. The Dodge SRT is in second and James Chen’s Axis 350Z is in third. Had I not DNF’d (did not finish) those past races my lead could have been about 325 points (a bit more comfortable). If I DNF one more time I’ll lose the championship for sure, that is if the SRT doesn’t DNF. So I need to be calculated and on the ball in my last five races to maintain my lead.

Green, green, green, and we’re off for the second race of the weekend. I maintained my position in the rear while a bunch of cars missed their shift. It would have been so easy for me to pass a mess of cars on this the first lap of the race. But then I would have had to go balls out to protect myself. I didn’t! I began my methodical driving bound and determined to continue to break the car in and finish the race.

It was an absolute frenzy at turn one with people trying to go in three wide. It was like a pack of angry red ants all trying to be in the same place at the same time. Fortunately everyone made it through without crashing into each other and the mad dash began. I took it nice and easy for the first couple of laps watching all the guys battling for position, and I mean battling. It was the middle of the race when two (AI) Mustangs blew by me on the front straight toward turn one. Door to door they made the turn heading for turn two when one of the Mustangs went straight off the track skidding into a tire barrier, a hundred feet off the track. I maintained my pace when I saw another car off the track, then another, and another one. At this point I figured if I just keep on driving everyone will crash and I’ll take first place. I wasn’t that far off. The checker flag waved and I took my final cool down lap. Each corner worker waved and clapped as I went by them, six in all. As I pulled into the hot pit, I was signaled toward the top three winner’s circle. I took third place.

As I stood on the podium, a cute little model girl put the third place medallion over my head. Pictures were being taken and my wife stood there with this not so happy look on her face. Later I asked her if she had gotten a picture of the awards ceremony for the Tuners site, and she said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with the dam camera, it just stopped working... right then.”

Epilogue

I only lost 10 points for the chase to the championship this past weekend. The car seems good to go with only four races left in the season. By Monday morning all the weekend’s adrenal was gone and I was burnt out, but I think I’m gonna be ok. It’s only three and a half week’s until my next race at Buttonwillow Race Park and I need to keep my head on my shoulders. Another “Super Unlimited” road racing championship would be cool! But, I know I can’t start counting my chickens...

Oh yeah... if you’re married and a pretty girl wants to put a medallion around your neck, move back and just grab it out of her hand!

Now I’m gonna hear, “Oh, you thought she was pretty... huh?”

Greg