Two idiots calling themselves Shed
Racing made their amateur racing debut at NASA's May
14-15 event at Thunderhill
Raceway Park, in the GTI Cup class. The weekend had an excellent
turnout, with 7 GTI Cup cars running, for the largest GTI field
in the past several years.
Grid for Sunday's race
Ron and Tom split the driver and crew duties, with Tom driving Saturday
and Ron Sunday. We got to the track Friday night, found an excellent
parking spot next to the track exit and pre-grid, and set up shop,
installed the air dam and connected the brake ducts. This was the first
time with the race car on the full Thunderhill track, as our previous
visit for the SCCA licensing school was run on only the front half.
Miller
Motorsports was next to
us in the paddock. We admired their nifty aluminum racing floor jack,
immediately causing it to fail . They mocked us for forgetting to bring
jack stands. We mocked them for waiting until they got to the race
track
to do their routine maintenance.
Saturday was clear and hot, up to about 90º, with the asphalt
measured at 116º. The first session of the day was a combined
warm-up for race groups A and B, for a total of 54 cars on the track.
Between getting the feel for the track and trying not to get run over
by cars turning ~30 seconds faster laps, Tom improved every
lap, finally getting down to 2:23.7. His only off track excursion of
the
weekend was minor, 4 wheels barely off on the exit of 14, Qualifying
was much better, with more familiarity on the back side of the track,
lap times
improved to 2:21.8, putting us 5th on the grid, ahead of a
Dan Pina with
a rough running car, and David Pina, who didn't show up until after
qualifying, but hey 5th is 5th . The class pole was Joe Craven with a
2:16.9. The
overall pole was a Robert Stefanovich in a monster turbo Porsche with a
1:50.7.
After two 20 minute sessions, the fuel gauge was between half and 3/4.
Thinking our right turn fuel pickup problem was fixed Tom
opted not to fuel the car. He would regret this decision.
The race began from a standing start, with all the GTIs grided together
at the back of the pack. The flag fell, Tom got a good jump thanks to
the
"GREEN-GREEN-GREEN" radio call from Ron and passed a few cars into turn
one. He had to lift briefly for traffic, and gave up both his momentum
and the places he gained. Hold steady through turn 2, downshift to 3rd
and turn into 3, and as the car settles into the right turn, it
sputters. It sputters again in 5a, the next right turn. Looks
like the fuel pickup problem wasn't fixed after all.
Carlos Suarez and Scott Neville go 3
wide passing an MR-2, chasing Joe Craven and Dan Piña. Don
Bailey is close behind. The MR-2 driver is listed as Stephen
Singley.
There wasn't anyone close behind, and Thunderhill is mostly left
turns, so Tom kept going and completed the first lap, (so he would get
credit for starting the race if we retired) then hit the pits at the
end
of lap 2. We weren't sure if we would be allowed back on track if we
refueled, but figured we would throw in some gas and give it a shot. We
reentered the race 2 laps down from the rest of the class. The rest of
the race was uneventful, except that after taking the white flag the
race winner passed Tom on his cool down lap. He figured he was
going
to finish last anyway, so to hurry things along he followed the
winner him into the
pits without taking the checkered. We finished last in class, and 40th
overall, listed on the results ahead of two guys who didn't start the
race and 2 DQs. GTI class winner was Joe Craven, followed by Don
Bailey and Scott Neville.
Sunday was much cooler, overcast with sprinkles of rain throughout the
day. It was Ron's turn in the car, and Tom took his position on the
roof of the motorhome. Ron ran
similar to Tom, improving each lap finishing at 2:23.05. He was lucky
enough to be able to follow some of the other GTIs for a while and
learn their lines.
Tom on the RV
Ron's qualifying run started a little shaky, with 2
wheels off after T6 early in the session, followed by a half spin in
the dirt outside 12. He got his head screwed on straight and put some
solid laps together, finishing with a 2:19.78, which still put him last
in
class, but within a half second of the next two faster Rabbits, Calvin
Wan and Scott Neville. GTI class pole for the Sunday race was Joe
Craven again, with a
2:15.52, overall pole was again Robert Stefanovich's Porsche, with a
1:50.9.
Ron near the bridge on the back
straight
(Tom can be seen in the top left corner, in the yellow
shirt)
For the race Ron got a good start, but about 2 laps in a Ford Capri
blew it's engine and dumped oil all over the T5 bypass. A handful of
cars spun in the oil, and the pace car came out while the cleanup crew
did their thing. Two of the GTI class cars (Joe Craven and Scott
Neville) retired with broken hubs,
and David Pina was a DNS, putting Ron 4th in class. He was reeling in
Calvin Wan in the 3rd
place car in the last lap when a RX7 got in the way, preventing any
attempt at making the podium. We don't know if Ron could have got
around
him, but he was a full second per lap faster the final 3 laps, running
consistant 2:19s. He got a great run on Calvin going up the hill
to turn 9, expecting the RX7 to make a move and hoping to follow the
RX7 for the pass, but the Mazda never made the move.
He took the checkered 27th overall, 4th in class. Don Bailey took
the class win, followed by Carlos Suarez and Calvin Wan.
Ron crosses the Start/Finish line
Calvin, Don and Carlos on the Podium
I won't go into details on the trip home, except to say it involved
pulling most of the fuses in the RV's fuse block, zip ties, unplugging
one headlight on the RV and turning on the parking lights on the
racecar on the trailer.
We shot 2 rolls of 35mm, courtesy of the Walgreen's
photo
CDROM: 35mm Gallery
Ron gave his digital camera to his daughter Catherine with
instructions to "Fill
it up", and she made a valiant effort to do this, taking over 300
pictures and running the batteries dead. Her photos can be seen
here: Digital Gallery
