13 Hour 2011

Race Update for the 13 Hour Virginia International Raceway Charge of the Headlight Brigade!

Thanks everyone for the kind words of encouragement on here Facebook and Twitter! It was a long drive too and from the race so I am a bit tired writing this. I have a large coffee next to me so I am sure I can get through it!

I arrived in Greensboro NC on Tuesday around 12 noon at the SRI Racing headquarters. The crew were diligently working on the #66 ITR BMW getting it ready for the event. I jumped in and gave a hand getting the car set up and ready for the event. I put my Trevor Project stickers on the car and had it embroidered on my drivers suit and was very excited to be displaying this very worthy charity! Wednesday we did a bit more and were pretty well ready to go. We loaded up Wed night and headed to the track for the Thursday test day.
I had brought my bicycle up from Florida as I am training for The Smart Ride mid November. When I woke up on Thursday morning I got my spandex on and stepped out of the trailer to find 30 something degree weather! It was also very dark but I got a great ride in around the VIR race facility. Nothing like the NC/Virginia countryside! The crew got to the track as did my co-drivers and we got ready for the test day. I was first in the car and the set up seemed pretty good in the dry weather but we had a fuel leak and the fumes were getting to me. We had to come in and fix it so I only got 2-3 hot laps in the car between coming in and going out trying to fix it. Other than the brakes giving us a few problems the car was great. The other drivers tested the car through the day as we had one session each and everything went really well. It turned out to be a great day but there were clouds looming on the horizon…
The next morning we woke up to cooler temperatures and a cloudy and misty day. It seemed to just get worse as the day progressed. We put a compromise setup on the car (making it handle better in the rain as there is less grip which makes it not as fast when its dry) as it was looking like a downpour during qualifying and the first half of the race. We had some glitches with the brakes locking and were trying to figure that out right up to qualifying time. We heard cars out there so I suited up and jumped right in. It was pouring but the SRI Racing BMW had the measure of it. I got in 8 good laps then the brakes started to lock on me going into T1 and off I went! I got the car slowed pretty good before hitting the tire wall drivers side first. I was able to get away from the wall but got stuck in the wet grass. How embarrassing! Sri came on the radio and told me we were 4.5 seconds ahead of 2nd place in qualifying! Good thing the car wasn’t really damaged other than minor cosmetics after pushing a few dents out! The alignment was still good and the car felt great for the remainder of the evening. We came in 10th overall and 1st in class by a big margin! I love the rain! Now we just need to get the brakes to stop locking…
Race day!! We woke up to miserable rainy and cold conditions Saturday morning and got the car prepped for a rain start. The weather showed big green blobs of rain and more on the way so on went the Hoosier rain tires. The crew got the car to the grid in a timely manner and the rain slowed. As soon as I got out on track for the start it stopped and my windshield fogged up from the lack of airflow. Ugh! I didn’t get the best start but tried to hold my position. The second place ITR car got by me (he was on intermediate tires…the right call) and I tried my best to keep the rains cool but it just kept drying out. Eventually they got so hot and slick I went off turn one again! This time I got the car slowed enough and spun around so I didn’t slam the wall…maybe just a touch but I only lost 10 seconds getting it out of the mud…I came in 27 seconds behind the now 1st place ITR car and early for my stint as we were losing too much time with the rain tires on in the dry. We refueled and put the dry tires on and tried to get the rear anti sway bar reattached but it was a bugger and cost us a few minutes on track. Dan Parker was the next one in and he has proven to be a very quick racer and was able to keep on track and did a great job in the seat setting the fast lap for our team. Catsby was in next and cranked out many good laps until the front ball joint let go stopping us just out of the pits. We were able to get the car towed back, ball joint replaced and back out on track in 22 minutes! Unfortunately it put us back to 5th. The drama continues!
Endurance racing is fun and unpredictable because you have so many variables. Lots of different drivers, crews and lots of time on the track and anything can happen. As we were getting towed back in 2 of our close competitors were in the pits fixing their cars! We went out on the same lap and it was race on! Now we were in a heated battle for 3rd. Craig Lippe was next in and did a stellar job trading lap times and positions with the #99 BMW Z3 ITR car. He had the longest stint in the car at 2 hours and 40 minutes! He was easy on the tires and brakes driving the car into the darkness. We had to stop early for dry tires and our mechanical gremlin put our pit strategy off. If my stint went on a bit longer and we didn’t have the ball joint failure…..anyways, it was Sri’s turn at it and he pulled his stint without incident but the extra pit stop put us back to 5th. It was now my turn to try and reel in our competitors!
I got into the car not knowing what to expect as the brakes were iffy for all the drivers and we had to brake in a straight line (no turning in on the brakes as they would just lock and flat spot the tires) so we had a bit of a compromise in our lap times. The car was surprisingly good considering the problems we had! The tires had a few minor flat spots causing some weird vibrations but it seemed to handle fine. I got out quick and we got word that we had a 90 second penalty for a minor (less than 12 inch) fuel spill! Noooooooooo! Oh well I came in and served my time and got out there to try and do something with our competition. Virginia International Raceway in the dark is a fun and different experience. The corners come at you quicker and you tend to turn in too early so it took me a few laps to acclimate myself to it. It was also the first time to really lap the car in the dry conditions. I caught all the ITR cars in our class and passed them. Then there was a call for oil in Hog Pen (the last corner on the track…a very fast right hander down a hill) I had just passed the Z3 and was trying to put some distance on him when I found the oil. It launched me off the outside where there was another car stuffed into the wall from said oil. I was able to get it back on without losing too much time but they threw a full course caution anyways so I was able to catch up. After the restart I was going back and forth with the #99 again and was ahead when going into turn 4 a Miata that we had passed on the straightaway before mad a bonehead maneuver and passed all of us stopping in my left rear door. I saw the lights coming and they were coming fast! I figured it was either the Prototype car that was vying for the win or the eventual winner in a very fast BMW M3 so I gave him room on the inside. It didn’t matter. He spun me 180 degrees and now I was facing oncoming traffic at night on a blind corner! I was able to restart and get the hell out of there! Luckily the car was undamaged. We all did our best and our 5th place finishing position was a hard pill to swallow after all that work! Our consolation was we still finished 18th overall out of 59 starters!

There is always next year! Thank you to The Trevor Project, SRI Racing, our crew and drivers! Hopefully we will get it next year!