Mid Ohio Post Race

[Ced Collins]

Darn it...Was looking forward to this race. Real world work and stress got in the way. Thanks to Pat for calling me since I had been working on a work project since 11:00 PM (PST) yesterday and crashed.....guessing about 3:00 Est. Then lost it big time and almost took out Tom...Sorry. Car was toast after that.

[JABowders]

Red Weasel Racing Reports

Mid Ohio

With the qualifying completed the only thing the Red Weasel Racing Team did is point fingers at each other over the fact that as normal we bring to the track a pair of slow cars. I did over hear Mister Jerry Rig the Car Chief say “Trust me it’s not the cars that are slow it’s the drivers!” So as soon as he gets back from his Team Building Training at Plateau Station, Antarctica we will get him working on continued support in the development of a new composite alloy we have been experimenting with we simply call it Acceleratediom. We are also manufacturing rumors that race car components made from this new and highly controversial alloy will in fact be lighter and faster than component parts made from standard materials made today.

Bob did a great job with his Q effort and with 0.03 of a second advantage had the P2 pole. I don’t think I am the only one that noticed that the track seemed a bit different during the race compared to practice…but in my rush to get the setup finalized I forgot to adjust for the required Pit Stop so as I was watching my low fuel warning light and drive a decent lap I was trying to communicate with the pits to tell them a needed to add lots of fuel. I was doing math calculations at 140 MPH and all I could do was hope I won’t make a minor mistake, either on track or in my head. With my “Best Guess” adjustment set I was ready to pit. This came after Bob and I traded P2 leader back on forth resulting from driver mistakes, his bobble allowed me to sneak by as he made room for a rocketing P1 going by then he regained the top spot when I suffered from curbage chicainia bounceia a lotum (latin for: to many bounces over the chicane curb) sent me spinning in a counter clockwise rotation into the barrier wall…ouch! With only minor damage but a huge loss of time because I had to re-fire the engine I would be faced with a large time deficit. Luckily in race preparation I consumed some “Go Faster Juice” aka Bourbon and Coke, I climbed up on the wheel and I was going to run Bob down. Lap after lap I shaved a considerable chunk of time off the gap, to the point where he was only a few seconds in front of me, and my low fuel warning light shining in my eyes I was going to have to stop within a lap. Adjustments made to the Service call and I dove for the pit entrance, Fuel and new shoes and I was ready to go, confident the damage was not effecting my times I told the crew to keep the Weasel tape behind the wall, I need to save seconds. Would my plan work, only time would tell?

I rejoined the track and the gap between Bob and I was so big I almost lost hope but I knew he too had to pit and if I could just make up some time. Again I focused on the task of clean smooth laps and drove my little heart out, but the fact that Miss Susan had blown her engine left me in a quandary would my engine give up like hers or was her failure due to her over revving it in a hasten attempt to free her car from being high centered on some curbs, could I take the chance? I was consumed by the competition bug and I was going to push it. I saw Bob’s Pit In announcement and I was hanging it out for everything I was worth…and it was going to be close I crossed the line as he flashed Pit Out and he pulled out just in front of me, the only thing separating us was the idea of being in front of him. Bob was on his game but I was just a little faster in the twisty bits and I had to lay back to ensure my Weasel Porsche wasn’t going to run my nose up his tail, two laps nose to tail closely matched then into T1 after a great run down the front straight, two wide are we nuts? We both make it through and it looks like I have the line for the chicane, I slid in front of Bob and with a waving hand I thanked him for some fantastic laps and a great battle for the spot, (I really did raise my hand and wave) it was about this time I realized there were other cars out there racing as well…Greg “GP (Grand Prix) Haley had the P2 point and he has always been a fierce competitor, did he start the race with a setup that would allow him to go the distance with only a Pit Lane drive through, giving him a huge time advantage on the rest of the P2 class? Has he used up his tires, was he running low on fuel? Aurgh! All I could do is focus on the lap I was on and do my best to avoid the freaky Zero-G phenomena (that is what I call the weird event when the car just jumps up and spins on you for what appears no reason at all) Lap by lap I am closing in on GP, I saw a flash when the 24 second deficit was now only 10 seconds, I was thinking he had pitted..but wait no that wasn’t it, what happened? Focus on driving, the 10 seconds updated and now he was back to 14 seconds in front, then to my relief he signals he is pitting, I am washed with relief, I have a chance…

GP was in and out, but I got past him with only 10 minutes to go…I checked my fuel, oh! It’s going to be close. Focus hit your marks, clean, smooth laps..then just after the 5 minute warning it happened the Zero-G phenomena reached out and shook me, bottom of the hill coming out of the esses, I spun around for the first time ever in that spot. I re-fired the engine and checked the track, it was clear and I was out and away before the gap had dwindled too much. With only a few laps to go, and a pair of LMP1s hot on my six I put the hammer down and tried to keep them at bay, but on the flats they are so much more then the power of the Porsche, I cleared the path and gave them clean track and they were gone but not forgotten, as I rounded the last turn the smoke was just clearing one was left against the wall one was right in the gravel pit, I split the difference and shot through the gap and away from danger. 1 minute flashed I would have enough fuel, it going to be two laps, and I shot away from T1 and headed for the chicane like a man on a mission, 0:00 flashed I had just run my personal best time and I’m starting my last lap…easy…easy…easy…across the line I look at my fuel gauge and I have 0.4 of a gallon left and with that Class win. I noticed I was soaking wet.

Wow! I don’t about the rest of you but I had a great race.


See you next time

James
Head Weasel

[blackcat77]

Seems like the races between Terry and I just keep getting better and better. This time, it came down to just fractions of a second per lap most of the time with him ahead and then me. Unfortunately it came to tears at the end but what happened at the end of the penultimate lap doesn't change everything that came before that. My only comment on the incident is that, while I think the passing move was sort of aggressive, I know that Terry would not deliberately cause an accident so I'll write it off to adrenaline.

Congrats to Sandy for the P1 win -- he was in a league of his own as usual and to James for the P2 win and the great writeup. See you right back here next week in the tintops.

[forddude]

James, you are a man of many talents....sim racer, robot chaser, Weasel Juice maker and story teller. Your post race scripts are a lot of fun. Keep it up....and oh, by the way, can I get an appointment with Anita?

Tom

[Greg 'GP' Haley]

i'm in agreement with forddude--nice recap jb!

not the comeback race i was hoping for but it was my fault. joined late, then having the car downloads messed up. by the time i was good to go, there were only 5 mins left in qually.
practiced on and offline saturday and with a very soft setup could knock off 17s pretty easily.. a day later and the same setup is only capable of some nervous 18s and 19s, ruh roh--if i'd joined earlier probably would've made some race saving adjustments.
adding insult to injury, started on softs with a monster fuel load then not changing tires or adding enough fuel on my late stop. rolled the dice and ran out on the last lap, giving up 7th to nick. had some fun back and forths with nick early on but he checked out with bob and the head weasel. 20/20 hindsight, tighten the car up big time and start on mediums..
wish i had something for you jb, but my staying out was a loser in the end. with my inconsistent laps, you would've reeled me in anyway. congrats to you and sandy--very difficult track, especially while trying to make lcd changes on the fly. like laguna, you're always busy at mid-o

cyas in the gts,
greg #78 miska