GTS Weekend Update -- NASA Great Lakes Mid-Ohio, April 14-15

[JSG1901]

The races at Mid-Ohio a little over a week ago provided some early indicators of the kind of racing we're going to be seeing this year and if past performance is any indication of future results, it's going to be fantastic.

 

Having said that, there were a lot of seats in the bleachers (okay, technically, on the hill in Madness, but whatever) filled by butts that oughta be covered in Nomex, but that's coming, too. Over the course of the weekend I saw Sean Tillinghast, Paul Hamm, Carl Picelli, John Graber and a few others who'd come to check out the competition because their cars weren't quite ready for the opening bell, but what they saw, if they saw what I saw, was they're going to have their hands full this year.

 

The weekend was run on the longer Club course and Friday's practice was dry and nice but Saturday we awoke to spitting rain which stayed with us pretty much all day, meaning everybody was racing in the rain for their first weekend out. Sunday, fortunately, the rain was replaced by wind and racing conditions were back where everyone wanted them to be.

 

GTS1

 

A field packed with racers over the last couple of years, GTS1 is actually a little light this year after losing several drivers, most notably John Graber, who's moving his 944 up to GTS2, and Ed Baus, who sold his 944 off for parts and replaced it with a very pretty 2004 911 Cup Car for GTS4. That left Brant Giere (Porsche 944), Jim Ginter (BMW 325), Bill Edwards (Porsche 944) and Greg Panik (Porsche 944) to fight it out for class honors.

 

In Saturday's rainy race, it was all Giere, and I mean that almost literally. Ginter skipped the wet race entirely, Panik dropped out after three laps, and Edwards after just one. To his credit, watching Giere coming through the Carousel in the wet from Race Control he looked very fast even without much competition.

 

On Sunday, GTS1 had the race nobody wanted to win.

 

It all started after qualifying when Giere, who had posted the fastest time, managed to forget how we do this and skipped post-race impound altogether, going straight back to his garage instead. That handed the class and second-start pole position over to a delighted Greg Panik. As his first official pole position, and with all the responsibility of pacing the second start (which had no pace car of its own), he was both detailed in his questions and highly focused in his concentration as we discussed the starting procedure only to come up to me after the race understandably upset after almost the entire left line of cars jumped the start.

 

I've seen the video and Panik and Edwards, behind him, along with the cars behind them on the right side, all motored carefully and slowly--as instructed--until the green flag was waved. Unfortunately, the first five or six rows of the left side were already long gone, including Giere and Ginter, both of whom apparently very excited to be racing on a dry track. A little too excited, methinks. Both Giere and Ginter were assessed 30-second penalties for jumping, which might have made a difference except poor Panik (who was turning good laps) somehow made a pass under yellow and was disqualified.

 

Sunday's race ended with Giere in first, followed by Ginter and Edwards.

 

 

GTS2

 

Todd Sloan showed up with his brand new Provisional License and a beautiful, newly painted, newly prepared 944 S2 with a fresh coat of silver paint looking like it was ready for concours judging. Purchased just a few months before from somewhere out East in a color that could only be called Kermit The Frog Green, Todd had thing updated, stripped, painted and basically built a car capable of winning in GTS2.

 

The prior weekend, he took it to Putnam Park to knock some of the winter's cobwebs off, shake down the new car and, hopefully, to get enough air on it to get the paint to dry. Brad Waite, who was also there, swears he could still smell the fumes from 5 feet away. Remembering his own first race car and the show car quality "signal orange" paint job he put on it (before totalling it in the rain in the 2008 National Championships), he offered some friendly advice about not keeping it TOO nice by suggested Todd just go ahead and hit his car with a hammer now and get the inevitable first ding over with.

 

Fast forward a week (to last weekend) at Mid-Ohio and Todd and Brad are sharing a garage and both laughing about the hammer comment.  At one point the air hose was leaking and in an attempt to fix it, Todd pulled on the head and it flew off the hose with the full force of compressed air sending the it and the metal coupler like a rocket into the side of his pretty silver car. Looking at the fresh new dent, Waite, always the helpful garage-mate, quickly proclaimed, "There you go. You're safe now."

 

It turns out there was also racing going on in GTS2. On the track, along with Sloan and Waite, the GTS2 field included Enzo Campagnolo (Porsche 944 S2), Mike Ward (Porsche 968), Breck Lewis (BMW 3-series), and Sam Mammano who'd come all the way from Rochester, NY with his own copper-colored 3-series.

 

In Saturday's wet qualifying, it was all Mike Ward, who qualified fastest of ALL the GTS cars, and second-fastest of all the Thunder Group's cars. With a 2:10.553, he and his new Hoosier H20s were unstoppable. The next-fastest GTS2 driver was Campagnolo, five seconds back with a 2:15.4, followed by Waite, Sloan, and Mammano.

 

In Saturday's rainy race, it was more of the same with Ward winning easily over Waite by a little over a minute. Waite was followed just six seconds back by Campagnolo, then Lewis, Sloan, and Mammano.

 

On Sunday, dry conditions mixed the seats a little and the boys qualified with Waite in the lead (1:41.679) with Ward a second back, Campagnolo another half-second behind him, followed by Sloan, Lewis and Mammano.

 

The race itself promised to be a great one. Waite's time in the overall GTS field put him on the outside of row 3 while Ward sat two rows back with Campagnolo a row behind him. All three of these drivers are capable of turning very fast laps and so it was not without a lot of hopeful anticipation that those of us on the hill watched the start. Early on, the race was Waite's as he put slower fast cars between himself and the red Porsches of Ward and Campagnolo. But Waite was in traffic of his own and over the course of a handful of laps the other two fought both each other and traffic and eventually closed up on Waite.

 

Game on, we thought.

 

Somewhere in there--it's a little unclear--Campagnolo made it past Ward and then eventually Waite. Then, on a run down the backstraight, Waite guessed wrong and got stuck behind a slower AI Mustang while Ward slid past. Waite tried to get around, too, only to discover that the driver ahead--for reasons one can't imagine--decided it would be fun to see if he could keep a lowly 944 behind. The offending Mustang's best lap of the race was almost three seconds slower than Waite's but his superior straight-line speed combined with aggressive blocking in the braking zones meant the much-faster-overall Porsche languished behind the plodding yellow Detroit iron while Campagnolo and Ward pulled out by as much as six seconds PER LAP, absolutely ruining any chance Waite may have had of contending.

 

Eventually, they finished Campagnolo, Ward, Waite only to have Campagnolo's win negated after a pass under yellow at the end of the straight.

 

GTS2 promises to have some great racing this year--racing which will only get better when John Graber gets his car running and into the fray, as Sloan gets a better feel for that new ride of his (he knocked about six seconds off his lap times from Friday to Sunday) and as a few other new drivers yet to appear work their way into the series.

 

 

GTS3

 

Saturday was a cake-walk for Korey Deason. Over the past couple seasons, Korey has put a lot of effort into learning to drive fast in slippery conditions and the results of that effort showed themselves beautifully when he qualified second overall in GTS (behind the flying Mike Ward) and then dominated the rainy race, winning GTS3 by over a lap from Shea Burns (BMW M3) who was followed by Paul Davison (BMW M3), newcomer Robert Wisen in his Boxster S, Sacha Clark (Porsche 911), who pulled in after one lap, and Kevin Ogrodnik (BMW M3). Actually Ogrodnik drove much better than his last place finish might suggest--a missing dyno sheet caused him to be moved to the back of the field after the fact by yours truly.

 

Paul Davison's third place finish may have been partially attributable to a clever new approach he was, um, testing. It seems the divine Mr. Davison accidentally mixed up his tires, running with 275/35s on the front left and right rear corners and 245/35s on the left rear and right front. A little unconventional. On the other hand, it earned him a podium position so you can be sure there will be a few others trying it for themselves at Putnam in May.

 

Sunday found Deason again at the top of the GTS3 leaderboard after qualifying, fourth overall in GTS and fully 2.4 seconds faster than second place Burns. In the race, an early green flag caught Deason napping but he recovered and quickly gained the lead and began gapping himself from the field, but then there came traffic and soon Ogrodnik was right on his tail, itching to find a way past.

 

Exiting turn one behind a group of slower cars, Deason guessed wrong and was pushed wide by a lapped car and into the grass outside turn 1. Ogrodnik pounced and assumed the lead but Deason wasn't done. He quickly caught up to Ogrodnik's white M3 only to find himself caught behind one of the newly-90-horsepower faster Factory Fives who would hold him up in the corners before outpacing him down the straights.

 

Reminiscent of Brad Waite's war with the AI Mustang, Deason found himself stuck and then, worse, his brakes started to go off, forcing him to pump them up on the way into every braking zone. Eventually, with a great run out of the Keyhole he got alongside into the braking zone only to have the brake pedal go flat to the floor, sending him and his orange and white M3 into China Beach for a quick excursion. Fortunately, his damage was limited to the splitter but that also marked the end of his day.

 

Eventually, GTS3 finished with Ogrodnik winning but then sent to the back of the field again for his dyno infraction. He was replaced on the top step by Joseph Fawsitt in his 911, followed by Burns, Clark, Davison, Wisen, and the stranded Deason.

 

 

GTS4

 

I can sum the GTS4 weekend up with a sentence I don't think I've ever written before: GTS4 had the best racing of everybody.

 

Well, at least for a while.

 

Two years ago we were lucky to have two GTS4 cars on the track. This weekend we had SEVEN and they had all come to race. Among them was Ed Baus in his shiny new (to him) 2004 911 GT3 Cup Car, a beautiful, pristine thing that he assured me was only driven to church on Sundays. Regardless, bucking the odds, he took it out for a day of shakedown and practice on Friday the 13th, tempting the gods of carnage and frustration. Sure enough, in one of his sessions one of the CMC cars lost control under braking at the end of the backstraight, spun, and managed to put a beer keg-sized dent in the 911's "passenger" door.

 

This is why we can't have nice things around here.

 

 

In Saturday's wet qualifying, Baus thought better of it and stayed in the garage. Jamie Frauenberg (BMW M3) posted the fastest GTS4 lap, third overall in GTS. He was followed three seconds back by John Hansen (another driver with a dyno sheet problem) who was sent to the back of the group. Taking Hansen's place was Matt Wilcoxon followed by Denny Pedri. In Saturday's race, Frauenberg ran off and hid from the rest of the field, finishing 3 laps ahead of second place Pedri. Baus and Wilcoxon both took the start and then parked it, saving their cars for later, and Hansen (because of his dyno sheet) was moved to the back of his field after finishing slightly ahead of Pedri.

 

I mentioned good racing, didn't I? Well, that didn't come until Sunday.

 

Kinda.

 

On Sunday, the game was on, starting with qualifying where, for the first time in memory, GTS4 cars filled the first, second, third and fifth grid spots. Those drivers were Frauenberg, Pedri, Baus, and Joe Magalotti (Porsche 911), respectively. I've mentioned Baus and his new car already but Denny Pedri's winter had included a bunch of work on his M3, improving aerodynamics, lowering weight, raising power and generally getting it very close to his target minimum weight.

 

When the race started, those of us on the hill were shocked to see the GTS hoarde charge into the first corner with Pedri in the lead, followed by Frauenberg and Baus. But, while it's one thing to get a good start, it's quite another to actually stay in front over the course of the race. The problem here is Pedri didn't know that was a problem. While Frauenberg and Baus fought between themselves, Pedri pulled out a little gap. Baus got by Frauenberg on lap 2 only to be passed back on a couple of laps later. Eventually, Frauenberg pulled himself up to the hard-charging Pedri and then, on the fifth lap, found his way past.

 

This, said those of us watching, who knew about such things, would be the end of Denny. We were ready to watch him fade back into the middle pack.

 

But apparently Denny didn't get that memo, either.

 

Pedri was having none of it and gave an impressive demonstration of late-braking at the end of the backstraight to chew up Frauenberg's fragile lead a few car-lengths at a time. Somewhere on lap eight, Pedri made it back around and into the lead and the next time they came into the braking zone at the end of the straight, Frauenberg was taking another shot. He ran down the inside with Pedri on the outside and, if memory serves, traffic in there somewhere, too. Pedri's late-braking served him well again and as the rounded the right-hander toward Madness the two ran side by side, less than three feet apart, with Pedri most of a car length ahead. But then it happened.

 

Frauenberg's tail started sliding sideways, toward Pedri's car. It was one of those long, lurid slides, the kind that happen in slow motion and we were all hoping for him to catch it. Catch it he did, but then the nose bit and the blue camouflage colored M3 snapped back to the left, its nose touching Pedri's right rear tire, spinning him. Both cars slid helplessly off track and into the wall at Madness, Pedri's going in backward, Frauenberg's in nose-first, with the two left sitting side by side, drivers' doors together like a couple of gossiping State Troopers and, unfortunately, both were done for the weekend (and left with some damage to repair before the next event).

 

Baus, who had been in close attendance, inherited the lead but drove through debris in the process, which sidelined him a few laps later with a cut rear tire.  

 

Eventually, the win went to Joe Magalotti who was followed by Wilcoxon and Tim Haines (Porsche 944 Turbo).

 

All of us were heartbroken to see the end of Frauenberg's and Pedri's race but I'm hoping this is an indication of the year of racing we're going to see in GTS4 for 2012 because it promises to be fantastic.

 

 

Next up: Putnam Park

 

Putnam Park is already looming, just two and a half weeks from now. If you're not signed up, do it now and remember...Putnam also provides the option for either a 90-minute or a 3-hour enduro. If you haven't done an enduro yet, you don't know what you're missing. It is great fun, requires some pit help (you have to put in at least 5 gallons of gas) and is a FANTASTIC way to improve your driving. Seriously. Find a co-driver (or, do the whole thing yourself) and sign up.

[kgd571]

Nice write up Scott.

[Eric W.]

Awesome writeup.. like I was there.

 

I'll come play in July

[brant giere]

Great recap Scott! Thanks so much for writing these up, even if I have a gaff or two in the story!