Weekend recap, Mid-Ohio July 16-17, 2011

[JSG1901]

Greetings,

 

Apologies for not getting this out sooner but better late than never. There's a heck of a lot to tell.

 

If you weren't at Mid-Ohio on July 16 and 17, you missed out on a great event with a TON of cars. GTS alone was nearly 50 strong, with cars in all six classes (GTS1-U) and drivers here from the east coast, Maine, California, Colorado, Canada and Texas.

 

And, probably more.

 

With Nationals looming a mere six weeks away (as I write this) drivers from all over are starting to want to get some preparatory laps in on our favorite track. If you read no further than this, get yourself registered for August before those same guys (and gals) shut you out.

 

Fair warning.

 

With all those cars, it was fun and it was busy. GTS had our own run group, Storm. Well, almost our own group. We shared it with 944 Spec and Spec E30, but they are all German and for that matter, all potential GTS cars, so they were a welcome part of the weekend.

 

Also welcome were a number of faces we haven't seen on the track this year. Scott Berkowitz, Sean Tillinghast, Paul Hamm, Brad Waite, Wellborn Jack, myself and even Sacha Clark were all there racing for the first time this season. plus we saw several of our annual visitors including Chris O'Donnell, Teddy Worrell, Eric Wong and a bunch of others. It was like Old Home Week on the GTS grid.

 

 

GTS1

 

The boys in GTS1 came out in force, with ten of them in Saturday's qualifying led by Mike Mallais and his very wide, very bright green 944. Mallais posted a 1:41.327, besting Paul Milligan by a mere 0.2 seconds for pole. Behind Milligan were Brant Giere, Ed Baus, Jean-Pierre Verbunt (with his new wing), and John Graber, all in the 1:42s, followed closely by Greg Panik. The first seven places were covered by less than 1.6 seconds, promising a heck of a race.

 

John Graber had a new camouflage wrap on his car covering a new wide-body kit, the camo so effective it was almost impossible to read his numbers!

 

Further back were the non-winged cars of Greg Coward, Jim Ginter and Dan Davis who were covered by just 1.5 seconds in, for all intents and purposes, their own race. Ginter said, "Greg Coward, Dan Davis, and I have found ourselves in close proximity in GTS1 for at least six years, and we enjoyed the chance to resume the competition this weekend. I think each of us led the other two in at least one of the sessions or races."

 

At the start of the race, Milligan took advantage of an excellent start and the amazing braking ability of his BMW 318i to leap into the lead at the first turn.

 

"I led about the first three laps and then fell to 2nd," he said. "I had second for a few more laps. It was an all German grid and we were mixed with a lot of cars including a lot of the slower GTS2 and GTS3 cars which made it difficult with track position. I got tied up in turn 1 behind a couple of faster-class cars, letting Baus catch me and get a run up the hill to the Keyhole."

 

In fact, Baus went for the pass on the outside of the Keyhole and, although there are varying opinions on blame in this regard, the two of them touched at the exit. Milligan managed to stay in front (2nd place in class) for the next couple of laps but then, "...there were a series of corner cautions and traffic and the next thing I know, Ed and I are both freight-trained in the middle of a corner by the 4th, 5th and 6th place cars" (Verbunt, Graber and Giere).

 

Ultimately, they finished Saturday's race with Mallais in the lead followed by Verbunt, Graber, Giere, Milligan, Baus, Panik, Ginter, Coward, and Davis, in that order. Amazingly, the first five cars were covered by just 1.454 seconds (and Baus was just another 1.3 seconds back). That is CLOSE racing!

 

Somewhere in the middle of all that Brant Giere, who has been working like a mad man on both his aero and suspension setup this year, set a new GTS1 track record of 1:40.733, the only car in the field to drop under 1:41.

 

Sunday, we woke up to a foggy track. So foggy, in fact, the first hour of festivities, including all the race groups' practice sessions, had to be cancelled, making qualifying our first on-track session and, for whatever reason, the field shuffled itself with Graber taking the pole with a quick 1:40.955, followed by Verbunt, Giere, Mallais, Milligan, Baus, Panik, Coward and Ginter.

 

At the start Milligan, in spite of his mediocre qualifying, made the most of a messy start and an early green. Still coming out of the Keyhole when the green flag few, he got a run down the hill onto the straight then managed to blow past half a dozen cars on the straight before passing a few more on the outside of turn 7 and settling into 2nd place behind Verbunt where he stayed until slower traffic from a faster class created a passing opportunity on the way into the Keyhole, letting him slide into the lead.

 

Verbunt, in the transaction, had contact with the backmarker, giving Milligan room to roam until his 14-session tires started complaining. Soon, Mallais was on it, closing the gap until he spun going into Thunder Valley, and then it was Graber with the bit in his teeth, reeling Milligan in corner by corner.

 

At the white flag, the two were separated by 100 yards or less with no immediate traffic, but near the end of the lap they caught a couple of back-markers who momentarily blocked Milligan until he was able to make an outside pass in the Carousel to secure the win by a mere 1.1 seconds.

 

Paul Milligan's videos...

 

 

 

GTS2

 

GTS2, normally one of the Great Lakes region's largest classes has, this season, seen surprisingly sparse fields of cars. Until this weekend, anyway, when ten cars answered Saturday's bell.

 

Things started slipperily (if that's a word) when Peter Grant, the driver of the nice E30 318i with 2.0L carbureted swap performed an oil change before Saturday's race, left oil cap loose and lost PLENTY of oil. Breck Lewis came to his rescue Sunday morning with a cap stolen at 4am from Kevin Gibson's (GTS1) e30 325is racecar, which was sitting peacefully in his driveway.

 

In Saturday's warm-up, Scott Good led the field with a 1:38.551, which wasn't much of a surprise. What was a surprise was the immediate speed of Wellborn Jack, also out for his first race of the season--and only his second time on track this year--who posted the second-fastest time, just 0.2 seconds in Good's wake.

 

Jack's winter was spent making his car more competitive--adding new Lexan, a new wing and splitter, removing the dash and other parts to make it lighter, and miscellaneous other work to bring it closer to the class limit--and apparently it worked.

 

In qualifying, Good nearly matched his warm-up time with a 1:38.624 which was good enough for the class pole. He was followed closely by Mike Ward, a mere .056 seconds back, who in turn led Brad Waite, Wellborn, visitor Michael Dayton (in Eric Wong's GTS2 car), then Jim Khoury, the Lewis's Breck and Gregg, and Peter Grant. Don Sullinger missed qualifying.

 

With 49 GTS cars mixed by time, Saturday's race started busily. Here it is from Wellborn's seat: "So the race starts with a cluster of German cars all high-tailing it for the turn-in at the end of the straight. At about the number two cone I saw four or five cars abreast, breathed out of the brakes, and said a prayer. I picked one of the cars and followed it up the hill only to see it lose its rear end. I tucked under, looked down the hill and saw rear ends weaving this way and that as a few cars bumped and a rear bumper cap became dislodged. I successfully made it into Thunder Valley without any contact and it was still a dogfight, all hell was still breaking loose, and cars were everywhere. Online, offline, in the grass...it was a schmazel. Coming into the carousel I was grinning from ear to ear and having a blast. As we ran down the front straight, order was finally coming back to the group. At least, kinda."

 

At the front, Good made a clean start and was able to distance himself early from Ward and Waite but just a little further back into the field, the same issues mentioned by the GTS1 cars--namely, slower drivers in faster cars--were taking their toll.

 

Ward's car had a mysterious lack of power from the moment he'd first turned it on. Later, after the race, he decided it was something with the computer or the ignition switch but he was basically racing in limp mode. Eventually, with four laps remaining in the race, he pulled off completely.

 

Brad Waite, normally a front-runner and out for his first race of the season, fought brake fade for most of the second half to the point he took a very scary ride off the end of the back straight and into--and across--China Beach. At one point in the ride he was certain he was going to hit the tire wall but managed to miss it and continue, albeit a bit more slowly.

 

Breck Lewis had a new rear wing which, as he said, "without proper adjustment, helped me to get rid of my front splitter in Saturday's race. Shortly after my off-track excursion my restrictor found its way in to my throttle body, jamming the throttle open -- but only on left-handed sweepers... fantastic! Bouncing off the rev limiter, left foot braking and trying to lift the gas pedal back up with the right! I used better tape in Sunday's race!"

 

In the end it was Good with a 17-second margin over second place Dayton followed by Waite, Khoury, Jack, Gregg Lewis, Grant, Ward, Breck Lewis and Sullinger.

 

In Sunday's qualifying, there was an uprising of the people of sorts as Ward, with his ignition problems clearly ironed out, managed to out-qualified Good for the class pole, the first time since 2009 that Good hasn't qualified first. Brad Waite, his wayward brakes renewed, came third, another half second back, followed by Dayton, Khoury, Lewis (G), Lewis (B) and Grant. Wellborn had bailed for a family commitment.

 

Ward and Good started 14th and 15th overall in the GTS field with Ward a row ahead. Good got an excellent start and passed a handful of cars with two wheels in the grass, followed by Waite who did the same thing, making up his two-row deficit by the first turn. Ward somehow managed to late brake the first turn and overcome Good's initial advantage, reasserting himself into the class lead and, to add insult to injury, dragging three GTS3 and GTS4 cars between himself and the Good/Waite duo.

 

Ward was flying, his high-mounted wing bending under the pressure of its load as Good picked off one then another of the intervening 911s. Eventually, on the sixth lap after a particularly good run through turn one, Good managed to get himself inside Ward's 968 under braking into the Keyhole, making the pass that would determine the win.

 

In the end, the people's revolt was ended peacefully and the natural order reinstated with Good finishing first with a 5-second margin over Ward, who was followed by Waite, the last GTS2 car on the lead lap. Khoury, Dayton, Lewis (B), Lewis (G) and Grant filled out the rest of the field.

 

 

GTS3

 

Of all the classes this year, GTS3 has consistently had the biggest fields in GTS. This weekend was no exception with FOURTEEN GTS3 cars vying for top spot.

 

Among them were Scott Berkowitz in his long-awaited return after an 18-month hiatus and ex-expat Sacha Clark who has traded the comforts of France for the humidity of Houston. Joe Fawsitt was here for his first GTS race of the season, as was John Haas, among others.

 

So, we had a lot of cars, many of them from other regions, but there was really only one question on most observers' minds: Could Korey Deason, who has pretty much had his way with GTS3 over the past year-and-a-half, hold a candle to the newly returned Berkowitz whom everybody know is blazingly fast?

 

In Saturday's warm-up, Korey took the fight right to the front, laying down a best-of-class 1:36.331, a full second better than second place Christian Maloof with his pretty new wing who was, in turn, six-hundredths ahead of Berkowitz, just inches ahead of Jim Stevens, Jack Money, and Eric Wong. It was close at the front.

 

In qualifying, Deason proved the warm-up was no fluke by laying down a cool 1:35.405, third fastest overall, a full 1.5 seconds better than runner-up Berkowitz who was followed by Wong, Maloof, and Stevens.

 

At the start, Deason and Berkowitz immediately distanced themselves from the rest of the GTS3 pack with Deason in the lead. Wong made a great start, moving up to third in class but separated from the leaders by a couple of GTS4 cars. Maloof slid back early, running with Stevens and Burns briefly before moving up into third on the second lap, dropping Wong to fourth.

 

Stevens was running maybe his best race to-date when, on lap 10, an oil hose to his turbo split, eventually spinning him off the road in a trail of fire, right at the top of Madness. Of course, from there, sitting just inches off the outside of the track, just over the peak of the hill, at the end of a trail of oily track, well, you know what happened next.

 

The unfortunate soul was John Amardeil and his very pretty red 911. It was he who found himself inextricably sucked into the oil and, from that, into the nose of Stevens' parked and wounded car. The hit came between Stevens' front right corner and Amardeil's passenger door (mostly), crushing it badly, and ending both drivers' races.

 

Meanwhile, Deason extended his lead as Berkowitz's motor started acting up. In the end, it was Deason by 6 seconds over Berkowitz followed by Maloof, Wong, Burns, Fawsitt, Bob Smith, and the rest of the crowd.

 

Sunday saw Deason again on the pole with nearly a full-second margin over Wong, followed by Maloof, Berkowitz--still fighting his motor--then Burns, Clark, and the resurrected 911 of Amardeil who declared it "merely a flesh wound."

 

Korey got another great start and, braking deep into turn 7, managed to get himself ahead of both of the GTS4 cars starting in front of him and managed to work himself into the 2nd place spot overall before turn 10.

 

Solid racing prevailed with Berkowitz pulling out after 13 laps, leaving Wong and Maloof to fight over the second- and third-place Hoosier contingency tires. Eventually, they finished Deason, with a 17-second margin over Wong, followed closely by Maloof, then Burns, Amardeil, Fawsitt, Clark, Davison, Haas, Smith and Sam Mammano.

 

 

GTS4

 

GTS4, this weekend, had what is the largest field in (my) memory for that class, with ten cars registered.

 

In the warm-up, things looked very racy right from the start with Coloradoans Mark Klenin and Scott Bove bracketing Joe Magalotti, all three within 0.3 seconds of one another all all three in the low 1:35s.

 

Next back was Sean Tillinghast in the inaugural run of his (and Paul Hamm's) very trick M-Coupe. In this case, maybe a little too trick. The car has Porsche 935 center-lock hubs somehow attached to customized BMW Motorsport hubs. If you're already seeing dollars and thinking, "that's going to be hard to find spare parts for," well, you've got the right idea.

 

Short version of a long story is the drive pins came loose on one side during a Thursday evening test session and during the Saturday warm-up, all 5 of the front left pins unthreaded themselves from the front left hub. This left only the aluminum center-lock hub flange and the aluminum brake hat to fight the twist of the wheel against the braking forces of the car and the aluminum didn’t win. Once the wheel could twist against the hub the center-lock nut loosened and all was finished. The safety clip on the center-lock held the wheel on the car but in a slow attempt to get the car off track the damage was done.

 

"Since the parts are all pretty rare (unless you’re a factory Porsche race team from circa 1999)," said Sean, "we were unable to make an effective repair. Tom Hatem was kind enough to let us tech his #002 GTS2 car an enter it into GTSU for the weekend so Paul Hamm and I (SP-Racing) could at least get qualifying events for Nationals. Thanks Tom Hatem! Paul would also like to specifically state that he ran a faster lap time in the #002 than I did."

 

So, Sean's triumphant return was a little shorter than originally planned but I think we can all be sure he and Paul will be back in the game shortly.

 

In Saturday's qualifying, Magalotti took the bit between his teeth and set the early standard with a 1:34.284, more than TWO and a half seconds clear of John Hansen in second. Magalotti was aided by Bove who was fighting car problems and Klenin who had to sit qualifying out due to a Passing Under The Yellow penalty in practice.

 

Hansen was followed by Mike Mammano (brother of Sam in GTS3), Ralf Lindakers, John Van Houten, Marc Ruhling, Tim Haines and David Irish.

 

Ignoring Magalotti's flying outlier, positions 2 through 5 were covered by just over half a second, promising good hard racing in GTS4, particularly with Bove and Klenin both starting from the back.

 

In the race, Magalotti proved his qualifying was no fluke, running wire to wire and finishing with a nearly 15 second margin over Lindakers in second. He was followed by Hansen, Mammano, Van Houten and then Bove, Klenin, Ruhling, Haines, and Irish.

 

In Sunday's qualifying it was again Magalotti in the lead with a 1:35.2 but Klenin, back at full strength, was nipping at his heels with a 1:35.3. They were followed another second and a half back by Hansen, Bove, Van Houten and Lindakers.

 

In the race, Magalotti had work to do this time with the BMWs of Klenin et al chasing for all they were worth. Magalotti's Porsche was loose in 7, then over Madness, then again at the bottom of the hill until he lost hold of the rope as he crested the hill into Thunder Valley, spun, and put right rear tire into the outside wall ending his day. Considering it was the first lap, all Joe had to say was, "Thank God, I didn’t get bounced around like a pinball with 50 cars barreling up behind me."

 

Ralf Lindakers had a slow start, relegating him to a battle with the almost-front-runners in GTS3 which lasted much of the race. Eventually he broke himself clear only to have his brand new pressure plate disintegrate at the end of the back straight, leaving him stranded on the side of the track.

 

Eventually, the race ended with Hansen in the lead by 16 seconds over Klenin, Van Houten, Haines, Irish Lindakers, and Ruhling.

 

 

GTS5

 

As has happened each of the last three years in July, Chris O'Donnell brought his very pretty and very fast 911 to Mid-Ohio to join us for the fun. Unfortunately, he was the only GTS5 car at the event but he was also the fastest GTS car overall, setting poles both days and winning both races overall, a nice compensation for running solo. Chris's best lap of the weekend--a weekend when nobody was posting spectacular numbers--was a very respectable 1:32.785.

 

GTSU

 

GTSU was comprised of Maine resident Kurt Hissong--who brought both his fire-breathing sequential-shifting BMW and a slightly less fire-breathing GTS3 BMW--and the back-up car for aforementioned SP-R Racing, Sean Tillinghast and Paul Haam's team. Unfortunately, Hissong's real GTSU car had gearbox issues, relegating him to the slow car with ancient tires but, nevertheless, thanks to there being no prior GTSU track record, he managed to set new records both days.

 

 

Overall, it was a great weekend

 

Everybody had a great time, and I have to say it was terrific being back in an all-GTS (kinda) group again. We're expecting at least as many entries in August (just a few weeks!) so if you're hoping to be there, get your registration in soon!

 

Cheers,

 

Scott

[Winefool]

Thanks Scott, great summary. As an aside, I logged in to Race Monitor to 'watch' both Storm races and listened to Saturday on the web cast and both worked great - very cool!

[Eric W.]

Awesome recap Scott. Cant wait to come back in a few weeks

[pmcrespo]

FantastiK! Congrats to all!! Maybe next year I'll make it out there and go through the mandatory new people's schooling before I can start thinking of planning the next uprising

 

Cheers!

[Jimax]

Thanks Scott for an awesome write-up. I'm signed up to come back in August. Can't wait. I fell in love with Mid Ohio. It was my first time ever. GTS2 was a fun class. Can't wait to do it again.

 

Jim