NASA Race Weekend
October 29-30 2005
Shed Racing competed in NASA's
final points event for 2005, October 29-30 at Thunderhill Raceway Park,
in the GTI Cup class.
There
were only 2 cars in class this weekend, with Ron Swett driving the
whole event. The only other competitor was GTI class points
leader Carlos
Suarez. GTI Cup regular Joe Craven was also present, but
wasn't competing. Joe was testing in his Ford Capri for the
upcoming 25 Hours of Thunderhill.
Ready
to go, Friday morning.
Ron, Cindy and Catherine left Fremont for the track about 2 PM on
Friday, and made it about 30 miles before a rear tire failed on the
RV. Luckily they were still in a populated area, and a quick
phone call to Ron's coworker Joey, followed by a brief Internet search
located a tire store 2 miles away. Ron limped the RV into Big-O
tires where 2 new tires were sourced for the RV, and they were back on
their way after a two hour delay. They made it the rest of the
way to the track without incident, and unloaded in the dark.
Changing the tires
The run groups Saturday were limited to
only two, qualifying and the race, as most of the afternoon was taken
up by a 3 hour enduro. Ron made breakfast for Cindy and Catherine, then went out for to
get a feel for the track conditions, and qualify. Carlos set the
fast time of the session, with a 2:16.5,
followed by Ron with a 2:17.7.
After the session, Ron noticed the camber on the left side of the car
didn't look right, and discovered the bolts for adjusting the
camber had become loose, allowing the alignment to change under
load. He also discovered cords starting to peek through on the
left front tire. He rotated the left side tires, to put the
corded one on the left rear, the corner than is least loaded at
Thunderhill.
Joe Craven and his ITB Capri
Cindy, acting as crew chief for the weekend, made an air pressure
adjustment, and Ron went out for the race. The race was scheduled
for a standing start, but instead of the usual single green flag for
the whole group, there were three green flags for different classes,
confusing everyone. Ron started to go on each green flag, but
stopped when nobody else started. On the third green, Ron got a
bit of a jump on Carlos, and led into the first corner, with Carlos
right on his bumper. Ron held the lead through turn 7, where
Carlos got enough of a run on Ron to get inside of him, and take the
line away through turn 8. Ron ended up going wide on the exit of
8, and hit a couple cones, denting the front valance. Carlos
ended up going wide in turn 14/15, giving Ron a higher exit
speed from the turn onto the front straight, allowing Ron to pass
Carlos for the class lead. Ron spent the rest of the
race chasing Marcus in the Miller Motorsports RX7,
driving as fast and mistake free as
possible with Carlos doggedly on his rear
bumper. On the last lap, Carlos made a move in the esses
and again in turn 14/15, but Ron managed to hold on to the lead for his
first class win,
crossing the
stripe about .3 seconds in
front of the 42 car. Ron's best lap of the race was
2:14.278, slightly faster than Carlos, who turned a 2:14.398.
Shed Racing gets its first win!!!
Ron on the Podium
Ron's First place medal, and sticker
for the car
The
only crew chief to wear kittie-cat jammies.
Sunday
morning Cindy made breakfast, Ron beat the front valance back into
shape for the morning practice session. The warmup was
reduced to only two laps, when a Spec Miata went off in turn 8 and
rolled
several times. The driver was OK, but went to the hospital to get
checked out, just to be safe. The Miata was totaled. In the
shortened session Ron turned a
2:24.7 and Carlos 2:22.5.
Wrecked Miata
The next
session on the schedule was the qualifying race. Ron noticed in
the formation lap
that there was a lot of dirt to the left of the racing line just after
the turn 5 bypass, and made a mental note to avoid this area for the
first few laps, giving it time to get cleaned up some by passing
cars. The green flag fell, and Ron tucked in behind Carlos when a
RX-7 stalled in front of him. Ron stuck on Carlos's rear bumper through
turn 4, when Carlos passed a Honda Challenge CRX on the left. Ron
tried to stay with Carlos, and also went to pass on the left over the
bypass, right where he didn't want to go, where the dirt was on the
track. Ron spun when he hit
the dirt, and went of the track into the infield on the left.
Once it was clear, Ron pulled back on track. With no real chance
of catching back up to Carlos, Ron treated the rest of the race as a
practice session, just trying to be consistent and hit his marks, and
save the car for the points race. His best time of the session
was a 2:16.0 and Carlos pulled a
2:14.8.
Ron faces the wrong direction mid-spin
When
Ron returned to the paddock, he discovered the boot for the right front
CV joint had torn open, spreading grease all over, and allowing dirt to
enter the joint. He also found one of the front sway bar mounts
had broken where it bolts to the left A-arm, as well as beating up the
front valance again on yet another cone. Ron did a temporary fix
to the sway bar mount with a hose clamp, but there wasn't anything that
could be done for the CV boot in the time he had before the race.
Battle
damage.
Crew Chief Cindy again made an air pressure adjustment, and Ron
went out for the points race. On the out lap, he noticed the
right front felt a little strange, probably due to the CV joint, and
decided to try and take the start easy to try and make sure it lived
through the race. The green fell, and once again Ron tucked in
behind Carlos, with the intention of following him in traffic for the
first lap and see what the 43 car had left. This turned out to be a bad move. By the
exit of turn 2 there were three cars
between them, and Ron was trailing by about 10 car lengths. A
pair of RX7s went off and back on between 3 and 4, bottling everyone up
behind them. By the time Ron crested the turn 5 bypass, Carlos
was already through turn 6, and pulling away. By the end of the
first lap, Carlos had pulled a 6 second lead, and Ron abandoned the
"take it easy" approach and started pushing to try and catch up with
Carlos. Unfortunately Pro-7s spinning off track in turns 2 and 9
the next lap, plus being stuck behind some slow Honda Challenge cars
allowed Carlos to stretch his lead to almost 9 seconds. Once
clear of traffic, Ron put together a string of fast laps, and started
reeling Carlos in. In laps 7 and 8 alone, Ron cut the lead by 5
seconds. When the white flag came out indicating the last lap,
Carlos's lead was down to 3.7 seconds. Ron knew he was almost out
of time, and pushed even harder, to try and catch Carlos at the
finish. Unfortunately, he pushed a little too hard, and took the
turn 5 bypass a little too hot. When the rear suspension unloaded
as he crested the hill, Ron spun again, sliding through the dirt off
the track on the right side, coming to rest on the pavement, facing the
wrong way, with the car stalled. Ron got the car re-fired and
pointed the right direction, and finished his last lap to take the
checkered flag, some 40 seconds behind Carlos.
Marcus
Miller has some "incidental contract" on the way to his first Pro-7
class win.
Ron set the best lap time for the Sunday, with a screaming 2:13.567,
setting a new GTI Cup class record for Thunderhill.
Congratulations Ron! Carlos's best lap of the race was a 2:14.617.
Ron, Joe and Carlos
The
weekend ended with Shed Racing's first win, Miller Motorsports first
win, both teams set new personal best times at the track of 2:13.5, and
Shed racing finished Second in the points for the 2005 season.
Congratulations also to Carlos Suarez,
for clinching the GTI cup championship for the 2005 season. Good
Job Carlos.
