More Speed

More Speed

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I had an inauspicious start to the first race weekend of 2004 at Pacific Raceways. I spun several times, and had exciting “moments” when I over-stiffened my front shocks. As I sat in pre-grid, I had hopes that a last minute swap of front and rears tires would make it easier to maintain a forward direction, but starting a race with a new setup is rarely a good plan.

Just ahead of me in pre-grid were the blue MINI of Dave Rinker and Scott Morton's yellow Datsun 510; well ahead of them was Dave Karraker’s very quick not-quite-yellow 2002 and Mark Wilson's red 510. I wasn't going to catch Mark’s 510 or Dave’s 2002. They were a good 2 seconds faster than me. On the other hand, both the MINI and Scott’s 510 were quite close – just in front of me and very catchable. My plan was to wait behind them for a few laps and watch where they were driving and how, then make a break for it. It had worked for me several times before.

We circled once behind the pace car and when the green flag swept out, we stepped on it. Forty cars swarmed through the first few turns. Dust and tire smoke was everywhere. The pack slowly stretched out over the first two laps. There was a white RX7 on my tail. Ahead of me was Scott's 510, and ahead of him was the blue MINI. I managed to get a clear run out of turn 2 and down the steep hill into 3-A. I went to the outside for 3-A, and while I didn't manage to pass the 510, it put me in a good position for an inside pass on 3-B, and I got a nice run out of the tight turn. As we raced down the back straight, I slowly pulled ahead and entered the high-speed 5-A kink with the yellow 510 a few feet off my bumper. He got a better exit out of turn 6 than I did, and as we flew up the hill and through turn 7 he pulled up to my door – and made a clean inside pass as we dove into the turn 8. I wasn't worried. There was plenty of time to watch, wait and make a better pass.

Or so I thought.

Just behind me was the white RX7. He had the orange sticker of a new driver. His car was well sorted. He was very fast on the straight and he was several car lengths in front of me as we entered turn 2. Unfortunately, he lacked consistency in the corners, and held me up. Just ahead of him I could see Dave and Scott's GP cars dicing it up. I wanted desperately to get past the RX7 and race with them.

My car was now understeering at all points through the corner, due to the old tires mounted on the front wheels, but this was better than the very sudden oversteer I'd been experiencing earlier in the weekend. A few times, however, I wondered whether I was going to be able to get the car rotated in the corner at all. As they say, the only difference between understeer and oversteer is which end of the car hits the wall first. Given a choice, however, I'd take the relatively minor understeer vs. chronic and sudden oversteer any day.

Over the next few laps, the RX7 and I changed places several times. Despite exiting Turn 8 slower than me, he would take advantage of his car's better horsepower and more aerodynamic shape to pass me and put several car lengths on me on the long front straight. I'd pass him half-way through turn two, and be passed again on the back straight. Having to dice with him slowed me down significantly. Dave and Scott, my G-P competitor’s, were frustratingly close.

On the seventh or eighth lap, we came into 5a with a waving yellow. A red hatchback was in the kitty-litter on the inside of 5b. There were corner workers helping the driver, so I slowed up by about 10 miles per hour. The RX7 took advantage of my slower exit speed by flying through the set of corners, and passing me just past the turn 6 station. It was technically legal, in that there was no yellow at Turn 6, but not respectful of the corner workers. Not that it mattered anyway – I immediately passed him again by getting a better entrance on turn 8. But all of this back-and-forth wasn't getting me any closer to Dave Rinker and Scott Morton, who were only 50 yards in front of us.

The next time we went up the hill from 6, the white RX7 used the extra speed of his car to attempt an inside pass into 8. He made half a pass, and as we tracked out to the exit of the corner, he drove into the side of my car, apparently unaware that I was still out there. It was incidental contact that didn't do more than cause a wiggle. As we approached Turn 9, door to door, there was a madly waving yellow flag. I slowed way down – and as I had seen many times before, a Miata had crashed just past the exit of 9. The car was parked perpendicular to the track. The story was clear: skid marks into the inside wall, smeared paint on the barrier, and then skid marks tracing the ricocheted car to its current parking spot on the outside of the turn, having clearly lost the altercation with the concrete.

The full-course double-yellow went out. The pace car pulled in front of the bunched-up pack. I planned my strategy. The white RX7 was just in front of me, but if I could get by him and either Dave or Scott on the restart, the RX7 would be slowing Dave or Scott down -and I would get in a good position to threaten the next GP car in front of me. It could work. Restarts could be chaotic, and all I had to do was manage traffic well and get lucky. Several laps behind the pace car ensued; Scott's Morton's 510 pulled off on the inside of Turn 2 with a mechanical problem. I set my sights on Dave Rinker’s blue MINI. Finally, the pace car's lights went out and it pulled off.

I prepared myself for the restart as we approached the Start / Finish tower. I saw a flash of motion in the tower and stomped the go pedal and just about peed myself as I realized that, firstly, it was the checkered flag ending the race and, secondly, I was about park my car in the RX7's back seat. Clouds of tire smoke billowed into the afternoon air as I shoved the brake pedal through the firewall and got the car hauled in just before my front bumper and the trunk of the RX-7 were united. Bird-brained driving on my part, but no blood, no fowl.

I wasn't thrilled with the results of the race. I had put in some good laps, including a fast time of 1:49.1, .8 seconds faster than my previous lap record, but I had finished 4th of 5 GP cars. Scott's mechanical DNF was the only thing between me and dead last. True, if the race had restarted after the Miata's incident, I would have had a chance to improve on that result, but the essential problem was that I wasn’t fast enough. On the other hand, after the season's third race, I was the G-P class leader. But if I was going to keep that position, I had to find more straight-line speed. Some how, I had to pick up an extra mile or two an hour at the end of the straight.

I decided to work on two new long-delayed go-fast improvements: finding a way to increase my engine's rpm-limit and a better front valence to improve the car's brick-like aerodynamics. First up was going to be the RPM-project. As Girlchief, Racerdog and I towed the orange car home, my mind was already pondering the technical limitations of the Teutonic nightmare known as L-Jetronic.