| Results from the race at VIR....
Just got back from the club race at VIR...what an absolute blast...like a different world from DE or driver's school altogether...we should have pics up on DTM shortly and we also have the entire Enduro on video which we will be editing and posting shortly...dado, could you please sticky this so we can link it to the video and pic gallery...
For my first race it was an awesome weekend and I am pretty happy with it. I am looking forward to Mid-Ohio next month. This marks a big day for DTMPower Racing team because this is our first podium finish in a real race (not a DE) for one of the 3 east coast cars and was done in my FIRST competition start ever! We placed 3rd out of 78 racecars in a field that reduced to like 45 at the checkered flag and we went up 8 positons from 11th in qualifying to take 3rd overall in a car that is not even in a Modified class...the LTW is a Prepared class car which is the next level after stock. I want to thank John (WiseGuy) and Carlos (Caracase30) for busting their asses all weekend and teching on the LTW as well as Matt Sedacca and his dad for all of their help...and Simon Hunter, a racer friend of mine from Indiana whose car was down so we decided to co-drive Saturday's enduro together and he did a great job!
Despite the shattered windshield incident on Friday (went out on track for my 3rd practice of the day and the hoodpins were not fastened and the hood slammed into the windshield shattering it) and the diff problems on Sunday (some whining from possibly the pinion bearing or axle bearing and a broken wheel speed sensor caused the engine to stop pulling at 6K RPMs) causing DNS's in both Friday and Sunday's sprint races...I feel really good about the weekend because of Saturday's hour long Enduro race....I think it was a fantastic experience and really fun...and I drove really well for a rookie in his first club race. As for the Saturday enduro...it was my 1st start ever since I didn't start on Friday. I qualified the car with like a 2.13 lap time which put us in 11th at the grid (I was a bit disapointed because I know I can do better if I had a clean lap without slower traffic and infact was pulling better times in the 2:11 range earlier in practice, but I spoke with some veteran racers (i.e. Andy Watts, Steve Bassen, Scott Montana and Simon Hunter etc...) and they assured me that it was a long race and 11th was pretty good and if I focused on clean and consistant driving that would be the key. At the start IP front runners Damion and Mike Gilbert got a jump on me coming outta T1 as I hesitated on a hole after Rushin put 2 off in T1...but I would get by them in the first few laps that followed. I managed to go from 11th to 5th in the standing between my start and my pit. Simon took over and did a great job with the car going through the field and putting us into 3rd overall at the drop of the checkered flag!...Steve Bassen and Scott Montana finished ahead of us in overall 1st and 2nd and we got a 3rd overall and 2nd in class....this was an excellent result because like 70+ cars started the race (I think like 50 or so finished...) and we scored a top 3 overall finish from a prepared class car with a rookie driver and a co-driver who was not in his own car!!!
I was really happy with the way things went and feel as though for my first race it was pretty satisfying ....Simon pulled a fast 2.09 in the car and we both consistantly drove in the 2:10 - 2:12 laptime range over the course of the race. We reviewed the film afterwards and I found a couple of places I could make up a few tenths in time and a few passes I could have made earlier...I was getting much more comfortable with 2 to 3 wide in corners as the race went on and the start was crazy...like nothing else I've ever felt on a track !!
My observations through the weekend were that the BMW CCA CR series is a pretty good bunch of folks. Everyone is very friendly and willing to help you out with advice (for a rookie like me) or if someone needs a part or tool or something. I also felt intimidated by some Modified class cars but came to find that most of them were not too scary or fast as I initially thought....you just need to know who is who out there it seems. Ironically at a DE it seems like although pople are not competing they can be pricks or more cocky than I saw at the race which was a competition environment. I don't think I'll really get anything really outta a DE anymore (with the exception of enjoying instructing and getting some seat time at a unfamiliar track or something) since racing is so much more fun and exciting in like every way...no driver's school point by's, no waiting around behind slow cars...just pure balls out driving and battling for position!! I believe the results will be in the Roundel magazine in a couple of months with an article covering the race and hopefully some good pics...the race weather was like near perfect with some hotter than expected track surface temps ...and it got really hot in the car really quickly!
I'm looking forward to Mid Ohio and doing probably 5 or so races this year with continued instructing at some scattered DE's from time to time....
__________________ Sunir
'95 M3 Lightweight   | 
04-19-2004, 03:52 PM
RON
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