Road Atlanta - Sunday's Race

[camaro_1le]

Confidence was high for the Santa's Toy Run on Sunday at Road Atlanta

 

The Sunday race at NASA-Southeast was one 55 minute non-point race with all racers involved. Your grid position was determined by random drawing. This year there were only about 65 cars griding up. I draw position 34, so that put me in mid-pack with a spec Miata on one side and Gregg in his CMC Mustang on the other side. Ron was 3 or 4 positions in front of me and Pete was gridded up in the upper twenty something.

 

So we were all pretty close.

 

Grid was surprisingly calm and organized. Those spec Miatas are an annoying car to have beside you in grid. I was trying to focus on the upcoming race, running the track through my head and running the different start possibilities in my head and all I could focus on was this terrible exhaust for the car beside me revving his engine. Personally, only the revving of a V8 is pleasant and a law should be passed to reflect that. As a matter of fact, V* drivers seldom rev their engines, the gentle rumble is a calming, peaceful sound that I personally would like to fall asleep to every night.

 

Ok, back to the race.

 

What a carzy and fun start!!!! I still get a little "excited" just recalling it. Words simply can not do it justice. We were two and three wide from the start until the back stretch. That includes two blind turns, the esses and turn 5. And at no point was there contact for me or anyone I could see in front of me.

 

I probably made up 8 spots on the start to get right behind Pete and his Mustang. Passing on the back stretch was pretty easy. I now had the balls to pass coming up the hill out of 10B and down the hill into 12 (sorry I referred to 12 as 11 in the Saturday race...guess I should of referred to the track map). After a few laps, I started to get into a nice rhythm. I was not worried about any CMC cars behind me and kind of focused on Pete in front. I just wanted to keep in touch with him.

 

A yellow flag for a 944 along the inside of the front straight almost got me in trouble. I had committed to pass a SE 30 (Spec E30) coming down the hill into twelve, pulled to pass and the yellow flag came out. I checked up a little and craned to see the station in T1, no yellow, so I dove to the inside of T1 and chased the car out track left. Luckily I had cleared the E30.

 

Now I had some clear track and had Pete up front. I could not make any distance up on him and honestly, probably was losing some. He got through traffic a little better than me. But he was there and we still had 40 minutes to go. No use crashing this early. The car was humming along, so no worries.

 

The RA crew through a full course yellow of the 944 on the front straight. We the ton of experience I gained from Saturday's race, I knew the pace car would collect us up. I was in the top 15 at this point and knew I would only be 3-4 positions behind Pete. What a lucky break.

 

We ran 1 lap behind the pace car and I think my mojo decided to leave. I see the lights go off, the pace car sped up more than I expected and the leaders take off out of turn 10B, leaving me behind with my thumb up my butt. Duh!!!

 

On big difference between Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, the pace for starts and restarts. The Southeast crew has a lot faster restarts. This might be due to the fact Thunder runs as one group in the SE and CMC is split into its own start group in MA. In MA I am usually taking starts and restarts in 2nd gear. In the SE, you had better be hard in 3rd gear or you get left behind. And I got left behind.

 

So naturally, lets driver harder to make up for the boned headed mistake on the restart. I hammered it up the hit, out of T1, slight lift into T2...I am flying and thinking look out Pete here comes Jim. Go to hit the brakes into T3 and the car decides it does not want to stop. The fronts lock up and start to slide. Damn. A little lift of the brake, a little more pressure on the brake, a little lift and then I felt the front tire bite and I make the right into T3. Welcome back to reality.

 

The full course caution had messed with my rhythm. It took me a couple of laps to get comfortable again. By this time Pete had opened a 12-15 car length lead on me. Nothing to do now, except hit the marks.

 

We started to close up on lap traffic.

 

Coming up the hill out of T1 and then into turn 3, I caught another E30. Ok, this guy was a little faster. I tucked to the inside of turn 5 and pulled the trigger. I got a great run out of 5 and he went far track right. The trouble is, we both came screaming out of T5 and caught a slower car (a green VW). I pulled him into T6 and then I learned how damn well a good E30 brakes. Thinking I had done just great and getting ready to turn into T6, here he comes screaming up the inside.

 

Here I am braking at the 200 marker and he brakes at the 100 marker and takes the inside line. So we are three wide in T6 and T7 with me in the middle. I powered out of T7 pass the VW and then hunt down that pesky E30. I catch him and pass him before the kink. He tucks behind me (people can catch a good draft behind the Camaro). There is another E30 that I am catching. I get beside him at the crest of the hill leading into T10. Decide to brake a little late to execute the pass, that works well and I move track right to set up for 10. A quick downshift to third, off the brakes, start the turn in and pow my car leaps forward. That pesky E30 with the good brakes, did it again. Dove to the inside and tried to out brake me. But he did not have the pass completed, but had more forward speed. Luckily since they are 1000# lighter he did not really move me too much Smile I got a good run out of 10B, down the hill and onto the front straight. I started to leave him behind...finally.

 

But he was not going to go quietly into the night. Any BMW hates to be passed by a Chevrolet, regardless. He out drove me out of 3 and through the esses. I am man enough to admit that. We both got runs out of T5 and I was probably 3 cars lengths in front. Enough that I knew now he could not use his lightweight and brakes as big as mine to get me into T6. He did not have to.

 

I hit the brakes late into T6 and something felt wrong. Made the right hander and the car would not get going. Something was broken. Luckily I was not carrying a whole lot of speed into 7 and had opened enough distance between the E30 and myself. Barely go the car turned out of 7 and kept it on track. By then, I knew I had a tire go down.

 

What to do? I knew if I parked it track right out of 7, there would be a yellow and a full course yellow. Naw, did not want to do that. I limped down track left looking for an opening where I would park the car in a large grassy area track right. Found an opening and headed towards that area and a work station. I figured I would pull close to worker station, out of harms way on the back straight.

 

The nice corner worker stepped out of his box and let me know I could get out of my car. I climbed through the fence and joined him for about 20 minutes watching the race.

 

By the way the car was sitting, I had a left front tire go flat. Not sure how. A theory was that I tagged some curbing with it and broke the bead. Some of the curbing is tall and it is a possibility.

 

So that was my Sunday....still a lot of fun. Would of I caught back up to Pete? Possible. I watch Ron get around Gregg and then close up on Pete. Maybe getting to 20 car lengths. He was driving like a man on a mission. Well, that is until every time he passed me, he waived.

[Al F.]

Very cool Jim, some serious CMC action there in the SouthEast region