2012 GTS National Championships recap

[JSG1901]

Greetings,

 

Last weekend's championship races at Mid-Ohio proved to be exciting, eventful, and filled with surprises. And the competition? It was nothing short of amazing.

 

If you haven't been to a NASA championship event before, the format may be a little unfamiliar as it includes three days of racing. In this year's event, for GTS that meant a qualifying session followed by a qualifying race on Thursday, a second qualifying session and race on Friday and the final National Championship race Saturday afternoon. The finishing results from Thursday's and Friday's races were combined to determine the starting grid for Saturday's final race.

 

This was the first year I'm aware of where the Championships included no GTS5 cars as most of them waited it out on the west coast, biding their time for next year's nearer Miller Motorsports Park event.

 

 

Prior to the event

 

Both Mark "The Hammer" Siggelkow (our Race Director) and I (as Series Director) did our best to put the fear of a minor and vengeful god deeply into the minds of the drivers in an attempt nip last year's aggressive driving and damage in the bud. For the most part we succeeded but a few people got stupid on Saturday when everything was on the line. But lots happened before that.

 

Oh, yes. Lots.

 

Starting with Dick Hunter, the GTS2 BMW driver who, Tuesday night, while running to put a towel over his window on the dyno, stepped into a hole, fracturing and severely spraining his ankle. Somehow he managed to drive in practice Wednesday but by that night it was obvious the rest of the week was not going to be possible, so Dick packed up the car and trailer and began a very long drive back to Austin, Texas.

 

As it turned out, that wouldn't be the last ankle injury of the weekend.

 

John Van Houten, who'd pulled an all-nighter to make it to the track Tuesday morning, spent all day Tuesday and Wednesday fighting electrical problems which started with a not-quite-working electronic dashboard and ended with an electronic throttle issue that robbed him of high-RPM power. With a dyno sheet that expired mid-event, he may have been the first person ever to turn in a dyno sheet and plead for me to use a HIGHER number for his minimum weight than that shown on the sheet.

 

 

The fire

 

Despite our lamentations to the drivers regarding contact, arguably the worst incident of the weekend happened during Thursday morning's qualifying session. Southeast Regional Director Jim Pantas was driving his daughter's Pepto-Bismol pink BMW SE30 as a GTS2 car. Hurrying down Thunder Valley, a short straight along the back of the Mid-Ohio facility, he watched the traffic ahead of him scatter just in time to see the nearly-stopped GTS1 Porsche 944 of Greg Panik, busy fighting a gearbox problem, dead ahead.

 

Although Panik had moved well off the racing line, a gaggle of GTS3 and GTS4 cars around Pantas' slower BMW left him in the same place. Pantas had no time to divert and just managed to lock up the brakes before slamming into the back of Panik's limping car. Unbeknownst to either driver, the impact burst Panik's gas tank and fuel was gushing out beneath Pantas' car and across the track.

 

Several cars made it safely past before Mike Ward (GTS2 Porsche 968), assuming he was seeing coolant, drove through the river of fuel. The resulting splash sent gasoline misting up to his hot brake rotors and ignited the whole thing.

 

Ward continued on with flames streaking down both sides of his car. Meanwhile, the main part of the puddle--the part under Pantas' BMW--burst into an inferno. You know how it is in the movies when they light off gasoline bombs and there's an obscene dark orange flame pumping out an incredibly thick column of sooty black smoke?

 

It was exactly like that.

 

Exactly.

 

I've seen video of this from a following racer and the whole thing is absolutely sobering. Inside of what was probably no more than two or three seconds, Pantas' car became fully engulfed, surrounded on both sides by flames reaching ten or more feet into the air.

 

Of course, he unbuckled and exited the car, but as he told me afterward, "I started to take a breath but it was too hot so I held my breath but then realized I couldn't see anything and didn't know which way I should go. I knew the other car was over that way so I just ran the other way and hoped it was right."

 

In all, it took him nearly ten seconds to get out of the flames which, when you see the video, seems like a very, very long time. A scary long time. Miraculously, and thanks to the quality of his safety gear, Jim's only burns were on his chin and eyebrows as he'd skipped wearing a balaclava. He has vowed never to do that again.

 

The impact pushed Pantas' BMW's left front tire back into the passenger compartment, spraining his ankle. Once out of the flames, he limped over to the guardrail only to realize he could hear the other driver screaming, "I can't get out! I can't get out!"

 

Panik, it turned out, had a harness on which the central connector was attached to the submarine strap rather than the more conventional lap belt configuration. By accident, he had turned it the wrong way when buckling in and now the release handle was up against his body instead of facing away as he expected. In the excitement and fear of the moment, he didn't realize the issue and couldn't find the release as the flames licked ever closer.

 

Fortunately, and thanks to the incline of the track, the bulk of the fuel and flames remained in the rear of the stranded 944 and hadn't quite gotten to the driver yet. Hearing the screams, Pantas hurried across the track again as fast as he could on his bum leg, helping to extract the panicked Panik safely.

 

Thanks to Jim Pantas' quick thinking and bravery, both drivers ended up okay (small burns and the hurt ankle notwithstanding) but the cars are both write-offs.

 

Fortunately, that's not how the entire weekend went.

 

 

Thursday qualifying

 

Although Wednesday had a pretty well-attended day of practice, several of the fastest cars ran without transponders so as not to give away too many details about their exact speeds any sooner than they had to. So, it was in Thursday's qualifying session that everybody finally had to pull off the covers and show what they'd brought.

 

And, what they'd brought was a lot.

 

In the 2011 championship race, only one GTS4 car, Randy Mueller, lapped faster than second place finisher Jay Matus' 1:32.629. On Thursday morning, FIVE cars were under that mark.

 

In GTS3, the fastest of all in 2011 was Josh Smith's 1:35.070. Thursday morning, five cars were under that mark, too, with the fastest being Smith again with a 1:33.276.

 

In GTS2, 2011's final saw only one car (yours truly) posting a time beneath the 1:39s but on Thursday morning, SEVEN cars were in the 1:36s, 1:37s, and 1:38s.

 

So, it was fast and although the weather was hot and humid, track conditions were very very good. But qualifying was cut short by the Pantas/Panik accident and fire described earlier.

 

Meanwhile, five minutes before qualifying, Mid-Atlantic GTS Director Eric Wong was cooling his heels in the garage, not paying a lot of attention, and reveling in the very fast warm-up time he'd set when he heard the 5-minute whistle and realized in a panic he was supposed to be on the grid.

 

Grabbing his gear he...well...let me have Eric tell you:

 

In a panic, rushing to get my suit on, I asked my garage mate to take my car to grid. Just after he climbed into the car, I hear, "How do you stop this thing!!??"

 

A little confused because I hadn't heard the car fire up yet, I kind of ignored him until I heard a more concerned shout of "HOW DO YOU STOP IT!!!!!?? THE FIRE! THE FIRE!"

 

I ran over to see AFFF [fire extinguisher] foam spraying all over the inside of the car. Thinking it was the starter, he'd pushed the red FIRE button on the dash by mistake. Then I hear the 3 minute whistle, kick him out, hop in myself, strap in, and make it to grid, all while the stuff is still spraying. It seemed like it was going for an eternity! For the remaining minute or so on grid, I used my right hand to block the spray but still it wouldn't quit.

 

Eventually, we make it out on track, but it is still spraying! If you have ever wondered what this stuff smells or feels like, I can save you the trouble and expense of firing it off to test. Smells somewhat like dish soap and it feels both slippery and sticky, if that's possible. As you can probably imagine, it was quite tough driving with this stuff spraying all over. Probably me being overly paranoid, my skin felt like it was melting too, even though the stuff is supposed to be safe and non-acidic. About this time, I noticed that my traction control was still on but the fire suppression fluid shorted out my buttons and I couldn't turn it off. I ended up coming in early, having limped it to a near dead last position.

 

 

Thursday qualifying race

 

In the first qualifying race, Randy Mueller showed why he was the man to beat, finishing first overall and first in GTS4. He was followed two seconds back by Scott Bove, CEO of the Pirelli World Challenge, who led 2010 GTS3 champ Jay Matus by a mere 0.4 seconds. They were followed by Midwest GTS director Chris Streit, Ralf Lindakers, and Kris Von Sydow.

 

The race itself was shortened due to the time needed to clean up the earlier Pantas/Panik incident and the resulting schedule compression that required, meaning nobody had time to make a lot of big moves.

 

In GTS3, Josh Smith won, finishing seventh overall in the GTS field. He was followed by 2008 champ Scott Berkowitz, and Steve Ott, the ringer, a pro driver brought in to try to get a great finish on a very nice Porsche Boxster S to help with its sales prospects.

 

GTS2 was all Great Lakes/Midwest with John Graber winning by just 0.412 seconds over Zach Hillman's flying 944. Zach was followed by Brad Waite, Mike Ward, and Todd Sloan. Mid-Atlantic driver Jason Crist, who had been very fast on Wednesday and in qualifying was a DNF after the first of many mechanical woes that would effectively end his championship hopes before they could begin.

 

GTS1 saw Brant Giere win over Neal Agran's 944 Spec by 2.6 seconds. Agran was followed closely by 2007 winner JP Verbunt.

 

 

Friday qualifying

 

If Thursday's track was good, Friday's was even better and folks got down to business in a big way.

 

It was just a year before, in the 2011 championship race, when Randy Mueller uncorked a single 1:30.666 lap at a time when nobody else in GTS4 had EVER dropped below a 1:32. For the past year I have heard endless accusations regarding how obvious it was that he had an illegal car or a cheater motor or a juiced ECU.

 

I've had detailed analyses sent to me about how it is physically impossible for a GTS4 car to go that fast around this track and second-hand testimonials on why better--professional--drivers in superior cars can't do it, so, therefore, it is wholly and unequivocally impossible for him to have done so.

 

Blah, blah, blah.

 

I've studied Mueller's video from last year in detail and while I guess I can't absolutely, definitively, prove without any shred of doubt that there's no possible way there was any cheating involved, I am personally satisfied there wasn't.

 

His car was no faster than other cars he should have been running even with and, more important--vastly more important--the dude can drive.

 

I bring this all up not to put a stain on Mr. Mueller's reputation but, rather, to point out that, despite all the scientific and anecdotal evidence proving 1:32s were pretty much the lower limit for GTS4 cars, we saw drivers in the 1:31s (and lower) all weekend.

 

In Friday's qualifying, Chris Streit who, prior to this weekend, hadn't even seen the 1:32s, cranked out a 1:31.296 and as much as said he'd left a little on the table. Two others, Jay Matus (who'd run a high 1:30 the day before) and Scott Bove were both in the 1:31s. And even Steve Ott, the GTS3 ringer in the Boxster, threw down a 1:32.658.

 

Korey Deason (GTS3) set a personal best Mid-Ohio lap and then promptly blew up his transmission, something they figured out about fifteen minutes after Scott Berkowitz called dibs on an available transmission in nearby Columbus. Instead, Deason jumped in a borrowed truck and made the 7-hour round trip to Detroit to collect a spare tranny offered up by ex-GTS racer Jim Stevens (now in an LS6-powered 944 in ST2).

 

Mueller, for his part, calmly went out and lay down a jaw-dropping 1:30.198 causing more than a few of us to think a 1:29 was possible...and legal.

 

Damn.

 

 

Friday qualifying race

 

Forty-five minutes prior to the start of Friday's qualifying race, the track's PA system came alive with a worrisome and detailed report of severe weather fast approaching from the west. It spoke of 40-50 mph winds with heavy rain, hail, and an anticipated arrival in 40 minutes.

 

Just, in other words, as the GTS cars were to have received the 5-minute warning.

 

The entire facility went into emergency management mode with pop-ups and tents hastily dropped, while GTS racers worried about suspension and tire settings along with their tents and gear and all the rest.

 

Most chose rain tires and wet setups, but not all. Just as the GTS cars took to the track for the warm-up lap, the skies unloaded, drenching the track with nearly horizontal rain and leaving deep, standing water all around the course. A second yellow-flag lap was begun before Race Director Siggelkow called for a full-course black and brought the entire field into the pits to wait out the weather.

 

After the first lap, several drivers including Ott in the Boxster pulled off the track an into the paddock, either because of their choice of tires or their inability to see through heavily fogged windows. From John Van Houten:

 

...the qualifying race sucked. While the wiper worked great, there was no anti-fog provision on the windows. By the time we came out of the Keyhole the first time, I couldn't see a single thing out the windows. Not low visibility, it was NO visibility. I rode the brakes so people would figure out that I wasn't taking the start since they probably couldn't see my frantically pointing "go around" inside the cockpit. I couldn't even see the edge of the track, so looking out the side window, I went in the grass looking for the opening in the wall just past start finish so I could get out of the way. They ended up black flagging the session due to rain and the corner workers came down to let me know. I actually went off four times trying to make it back to the pits since I couldn't see a thing as was just happy to make it there without crashing. At that point I just parked it since I was blind as a bat in the car.

 

The cars sat in pit lane for nearly the entire 20-minute scheduled race length before the rain eased to a light drizzle. Maintenance trucks and a tractor with a blower hurried out onto the track to do what they could to remove the worst of the standing water before we once again released the cars for what turned out to be a pair of reconnaissance laps.

 

During the recess, GTS3 driver Paul Davison had been trying to wipe off hs window and somehow managed to lose his TAG/Heuer watch down the defroster duct, setting up two hours of vent diving for the next morning to retrieve it.

 

FINALLY, nearly half an hour late, the race started and, to the surprise of all the drivers, lasted the full scheduled 20 minutes thanks to some timely negotiations in the control tower.

 

Lap times, as you might imagine, were nothing like the morning session. Running in the rain, only one driver managed a lap under two minutes. It was, not surprisingly, Randy Mueller again who posted a 1:57.936 on his way to winning the rain-soaked race.

 

Second overall was the GTS3 E46 of Josh Smith (2:00.647 best lap) followed by Ralf Lindakers, Scott Berkowitz, and Jamie Frauenberg. Brad Waite and Mike Ward, both Great Lakes GTS2 drivers, finished 7th and 9th overall, respectively, in the 33 car field, fully six places and more than 22 seconds ahead of third-in-GTS2 Todd Sloan.

 

Everybody was fighting with foggy windows due to the quick temperature and humidity changes. John Graber said, "Friday was the scariest 40 minutes of my life. I somehow managed to go from 1st to 5th in class, but I'd never driven with frosted glass windows before...."

 

Neal Agran beat out John Mock for the GTS1 win after Brant Giere pulled out with no visibility on the first lap.

 

 

GTS Biergarten

 

Friday night saw beautiful cool weather, perfect for a wonderful GTS get-together hosted by Carl Picelle. Featuing bratwurst, German potato salad and some kind of unidentifiable but tasty purple slaw, a substantial portion of the GTS contingent and NASA brass found their way up to Picelle's compound to enjoy the free beer and food.

 

 

National championship race

 

The grid for Saturday's championship race was set based on the combined results from the two qualifying races. More than a few times did I hear comments that the combined set of conditions--Thursday's perfect weather and Friday's monsoon--meant that those who qualified at the front were better overall drivers and arguably more worthy of winning a championship.

 

Saturday dawned about twenty degrees cooler than the days leading up to it but the skies were still raining. By the time we got to the GTS race in the early afternoon, however, the day had dried and brightened and presented us with beautiful blue skies and a seasonal mid-70-degree day. It was lovely.

 

Unlike the past two years where cars were organized by class, this year's final grid--as were all of this year's GTS grids--were organized strictly based on results. Therefore, those who did well in the qualifying races had the chance to start ahead of others in their class--and some from faster classes--who hadn't.

 

Breck Lewis (GTS2) had spent the entire week not racing but wrenching. Fighting electrical problems, he and the crew at Tom Hatem automotive in nearby Columbus spent all day Thursday and Friday trying to work out the gremlins. And, although he'd missed all of the qualifying, Lewis was able to take Saturday's start from the back of the field, a small consolation.

 

With all worries about weather a thing of the past, drivers could concentrate on going fast. GTS2 driver Brad Waite's excellent finish in Friday's rain found him sitting tenth on the overall grid which, normally, would have been a great thing. One of three GTS2 drivers I considered favorites to win, Waite's drive was over at the first corner when Ott and his Boxster--starting four rows further behind after skipping Friday's soaking race--made a desperation move, apparently determined to get back everything he'd lost in qualifying before the first corner of the race. Ott made a wildly optimistic move for an impossible hole in traffic, slamming his rear quarter across Waite's front left fender as he shoved his way past. The impact destroyed Waite's front wheel and ended his race almost before it had really started. Waite struggled gamely another turn or two before parking it next to the Armco and watching the race from the corner workers' position at turn 9.

 

John Graber, who'd started several rows back from Waite and Ward, got a great start and, in the confusion around Waite's incident, managed to put himself into the GTS2 lead--followed closely by Ward--before the end of the first lap.

 

Meanwhile, up at the very front, Mueller was off on a tear. By the first time past start/finish, he'd already opened up a half-a-straight lead on second place Josh Smith (GTS3) who was leading Ralf Lindakers and a gaggle of GTS4 cars.

 

By the second lap, Smith had as big a lead on the following GTS4 cars as Mueller had on him but a huge, and race-long GTS4 battle was forming behind Smith between Streit, Bove, Lindakers and Matus, to be joined a few laps later by a hard-charging Denny Pedri, who was working hard to drag himself up and into it.

 

With Streit in the lead, Bove and Lindakers fought over position while Matus--who'd started farther back after a terrible Friday race--pulled himself ever closer. Soon, the three of them--Bove, Matus, and Lindakers--were going at it corner by corner until, on lap six, something happened that I don't think I've ever seen before in enclosed race cars.

 

Coming down the hill from Madness, Matus got a run on Bove and moved left to go around him on the outside. As they came through the right-hander turn 6 at the bottom of the hill, Matus was slightly ahead but pinched Bove to the inside. Bove's video shows he was well into the grass with his right side tires through the turn when suddenly the two cars touched ever so slightly. Unfortunately, the touch was between Matus' right rear tire and the rear of the turned left front tire of Bove.

 

In an instant, Matus' pretty black 911 GT3 went airborne and did a full roll across its roof and back up onto its tires upon which it slid across the remaining grass and came to a rest against the outside tire wall. The whole thing took less than five seconds from presumptive pass to hitting the barrier and Matus climbed safely from the car, understandably a little confused about exactly what had happened.

 

Matus' incident brought out a full-course yellow which wiped out the excellent lead Mueller had been enjoying up until then, and allowing Pedri to pull himself up to the back of the fight for the GTS4 lead.

 

With no pace car on the track yet, and Matus wisked away to safety, the course went back to green after only one lap of double yellow. Unfortunately for Mueller, it happened just as he'd passed the start/finish line and, wouldn't you know it, the one corner worker who was slow to drop his flags was the guy working turn 1. Accordingly, EVERYBODY got a jump on Mueller and he dropped back to fourth, briefly, behind Streit, Bove, and Smith.

 

By the end of the back straight, Mueller had already got back past Smith and began working on the others. Meanwhile, further back in the field, Carl Picelle (GTS2) got into the GTS1-leading 944 of Brant Giere taking both him and Neal Agran out of the race and leaving JP Verbunt in the GTS1 lead with John Mock in second but, as he was unable to identify what turned out to be Agran's car, without actually knowing it.

 

By this time, Mueller was back out in front but Bove had made it into second, followed by Pedri, Smith, and Lindakers. Ott was up to second in GTS3 and had a bead on Smith but behind him, Stefan Sajic, Korey Deason, Scott Berkowitz, and John Van Houten were running so close to one another you could throw a good sized bath towel over the lot of them.

 

Coming into the Keyhole, Smith was leading Lindakers but overcooked it and ran wide, leaving an opening for Lindakers' 911. Ralf went for it but hadn't quite completed the pass as he tracked out to the left, hitting Smith's front right fender with his own left rear. The resulting impact spun Lindakers' 911 and sent it rocketing across the wet grass and hard into the wall, expensive end first.

 

The resulting confusion allowed Ott to sneak past Smith before a full course caution came out for the next four laps.

 

From the start, John Graber had led the GTS2 field with Mike Ward working hard to catch him. Graber, running on the softer Hoosier A6s was slowly losing ground to the always-fast Ward but during the extended full-course yellow, his overheated tires had time to recover.

 

Eric Wong had made it up to a strong third place in GTS3 but a bad mis-fire had him hoping for a race ended under yellow so he wouldn't have to do battle with Stefan Sajic, a chart-climbing Korey Deason, and the others close behind them. However, much to Wong's dismay, once Lindakers' car was removed, the race was restarted under a NASCAR-worthy Green/White/Checker.

 

At the green, Mueller, again, checked out and Bove moved into a solid second in GTS4, leaving Streit chasing Pedri for the final two laps. Pedri's slicks were too cold for optimal traction and he was doing everything he could to keep Streit's 911 Cup Car behind him, while Streit was looking for a way around like a man possessed.

 

Wong, running on five cylinders, was doing everything he could to stay in front of the pack of GTS3 cars fighting it out behind him. At the front of GTS3, Steve Ott opened a lead back to Smith as time began running out. Behind him, Deason tried a move around a sleeping Sajic on the outside of the Carousel on the restart and was rewarded with contact (Sajic hadn't seen him) and a broken left shock which ended his day.

 

The full-course yellow had put Ward directly on Graber's tail for the GTS2 lead. On the restart, Graber was stymied by a slower car in the Carousel, letting Ward slip past for the run down to the very fast turn 1. Ward covered the inside on the way in, so Graber moved right and did his best Ricky Bobby slingshot pass, ducking under Ward on the exit and putting himself back in the lead for good.

 

With just two laps left, Jim Ginter caught John Mock and the two of them had a tough and close run to the finish for what would eventually turn out to be the GTS1 lead.

 

After several failed passing attempts, finally, on last lap, Streit attacked Pedri around the outside of the Carousel, just two turns shy of the finish. The two exited the turn together but now Streit was on the inside for the final, inconsequential left-hander and, with just feet left before the line, Streit's car pulled just slightly ahead, crossing with about a 3-foot advantage and a great third-place finish.

 

Ott finished first in GTS3, followed by Smith, Wong, and Sajic, but Ott was later disqualified at the dyno, handing the win to Smith and all three steps on the podium to the cars from Bavaria.

 

Graber took the top step of the podium in GTS2, followed by Ward and Hillman, making a complete Stuttgart podium. Fourth place finisher Sloan was DQ'd for a pass under yellow.

 

In GTS1, JP Verbunt crossed the line first but was DQ'd at the dyno, handing the win to a surprised but delighted John Mock, who was followed by Jim Ginter and the wrecked-but-rewarded Brant Giere.

 

 

The aftermath

 

Lajos Minic (GTS3):

 

This might sound like a cliche, but what I did notice at 'The Event' this year again, was 'Respect the Nationals and it will respect you back.' I learned a ton from trying to keep up with the tough competition, and made awesome new friends along the way. The racing and the socializing was so much fun that even my girlfriend who has absolutely no interest in racing (this actually works for us) had a blast last week at Mid-Ohio. She is now a proud NASA racing/Nationals/BMW/Porsche expert. Her closing comments were 'Honey, you'll need a big wing for next year so you can be competitive.' And I'm not going to argue with her on that.

 

 

Sacha Clark (GTS3):

 

I'm pleased to say that travel home was uneventful -- at least until the Tsunami wave of exhaustion hit early Sunday evening. As far as my racing goes, I don’t know when I’ve been happier about a set of mid-pack finishes - 8th place in each of the qualifying races and that was where I was shown as finishing in the Champ race too.

 

 

Shannon Matus (co-owner of both Jay Matus' rolled 911 and Steve Ott's DQed Boxster):

 

At dinner on Saturday evening we all decided that we did live up to our Texas tradition of Go Big or Go Home! I think that you would have to agree that we lived up to that.

 

 

Brant Giere (GTS1, whose Porsche 944 was rear-ended mid-race):

 

I will be debuting the new top secret short wheelbase 944 very soon. It promises to be a winner!

 

 

John Mock (GTS1 winner)

 

I had no idea where I finished, just happy not to be DFL. Coming up to the impound area, Eric Kaempfer (friend and excellent Grid Worker) ran over to point at me and showed me two fingers, meaning I was 2nd. Wow! I had no idea.

 

Pictures, handshakes, hugs, trophy, beer, and repeat.

 

Sunday morning Jim Pantas asked me if I felt any different today.

 

"Huh? What do you mean?"

 

"Well you should be doing a happy dance."

 

"What are you talking about?"

 

"They DQ’d the 1st place car in GTS1 last night."

 

"What! Double Wow!"

 

Happy dance…

 

Riding home Brandon Pantas suggested that I’m probably the oldest, (and I suspect the slowest) NASA National Champion ever. Not sure I want to do the research for that, but there you go.

 

 

Michael Gershanok (GTS3 and the Northeast GTS Director):

 

...on a high note, I learned a great deal...learned the track, improved my times and developed a great deal of confidence - hopefully building the better foundation for the future. 

 

The best part was meeting guys, sharing the track with them, and being a part of this exciting event.

 

 

John Van Houten (GTS3)

 

One highlight of the weekend was the GTS get together put together by Carl Picelle. It was great to hang out with the fellow GTS drivers eating brats and drinking beer. At that event, Scott announced that "someone" wanted to take pictures of two GTS cars with the grid girls and drivers after the morning warmup. I was honored to be selected by my fellow GTS drivers as one of the cars. I guess if you aren't going to be fast, you might as well look good

 

 

In closing

 

By all reports, this year's GTS National Championships were a huge success. Thanks to all who participated, both at the track and on-line though the Speedcast broadcast. If you haven't seen it yet, you can watch the entire event online, here: http://www.speedcasttv.com/#/races/294

 

The GTS race starts about 195 minutes into the broadcast.

 

If you haven't already, now is the time to start saving your pennies for next year's championship event at the beautiful Miller Motorsports Park facility in Salt Lake City. I hope to see you there!

[Brad Waite]

Great summary Scott. Hats off to you for doing a great job as GTS Director. I know all of us appreciate the amount of time and effort you put into helping individual racers develop and into building GTS as a whole. While I would prefer to see you out there racing, I am very grateful for all you are doing for our group and for NASA. Thank you.

[CARVAL Motorsports]

Ditto!

[JSG1901]

Thanks guys. Your kind words are much appreciated.

[ILIKETODRIVE]

In all, it took him nearly ten seconds to get out of the flames which, when you see the video, seems like a very, very long time. A scary long time. Miraculously, and thanks to the quality of his safety gear, Jim's only burns were on his chin and eyebrows as he'd skipped wearing a balaclava. He has vowed never to do that again.

I am honestly very glad to hear both drivers walked away with minor injuries. Seriously very happy knowing that after reading about this incident.

 

Rant: I hope everyone reads and re-reads this part. Do NOT skip wearing a balaclava until something happens to you and then you tell yourself that you will never skip wearing it again. I think many/most of you heard about Tage Evanson and his car fire he had last year. When I saw that in person and saw the aftermath of his injuries, I immediately vowed to continue to always wear my balaclava.

[sfteague]

Thanks for the recap, Scott! I wish we got these write-ups from every regional event, too

[JSG1901]

Thanks for the recap, Scott! I wish we got these write-ups from every regional event, too

You need to come race with us in Great Lakes! This is a slightly longer version of standard practice here.

 

[bmwjoon]

I don't need a balaclava but I think I'm going to start wearing one too !!! Scott thanks for the write up. I'm trying to go next year, too bad I'll have to drive a million miles and figure out how to get a high altitude tune