Chapter 278 - January 2020

SLJHMR SCCA MAJORS AT CRESSON

Happy New Year! 

January in Texas is awesome...those poor saps who live up north have race cars tucked away while they are halfway through bowling leagues or dart tournaments. In Texas it is racing season! 

Downloading after a session and Louis quickly fabbing up a windshield brace

Louis (SLJHMR/GSpeed owner) and I have been chatting a lot since our second NASA NATS and several of the GSpeed suppliers and customers run SCCA as well and we figured we'd dip the old plastic fantastic into the SCCA pool and see if we could be competitive there. The motor, built in the middle of last year, was actually mapped to work out perfect for Trans-Am TA3, which is now SGT. It happens to cross over to GT2 just perfectly. LS2, 6 liter, and while at NASA we limit the throttle opening to keep horsepower down, for SCCA we get to run wide open throttle but with a 70mm restrictor in the air intake tract. Compared to our ST2 setup (based on power and weight), a GT2 car will have another 100+ horsepower and I don't know a driver who is against horsepower. 

For the rest of the car, it meant adding a lot of weight. And raising the car up a good bit. Both of these we loathe. We can no longer run the 12" wide new Finspeed front wheels and have to put our old 11" front Finspeeds back on. According to the GT rules our fenders must cover the tires and the side view (GT is a "silhouette" class) has to look like the factory car. So our rear bumper trim at the bottom to fit a diffuser will need to be put back to stock. Yeah, those pieces got thrown in the trash at COTA in 2018, hahahahahha. #CraigslistSeach

For me, it meant an email to SCCA (I've been a member since 92 I think) and a license waiver which was easy. When I did my NASA medical last year I had the doc fill out SCCA forms as well and so everything was handled. I was granted a "full" license and was pronounced "good to go". Wahoo! 

Friday rolls around and with the event being at GSpeed's home track (the shop is AT the track), the guys took SLJHMR down to tech to get the logbook updated and an annual inspection done. I wasn't due to arrive for a few hours but apparently a junior tech person said that while it passed safety, it technically would not pass a visual inspection as the tires were not covered. Further, he didn't predict any big deal for this weekend, but if we were going to run the SUPER TOUR at COTA in two weeks, we'd better be spot-on perfectly legal. We got the tech sticker and I arrived a few hours later and the group got busy doing the last minute things that always need to be done prior to a race. 

Tye and Anthony both pitching in to get SLJHMR ready!! THX THX!!!

Tires. We have two sets of stickers (brand new) and two sets of "pretty good" used tires. THE PLAN is to use the used tires and save stickers for COTA. GT2 was pretty light, but still had 5 cars and GT1 (faster class) had another 4. Along with 4 other slower classes, our group (group 5 out of 6) had about 20 cars which should not be too bad on the 1.7 mile track.

Saturday dawns clear but cold. The schedule each day is a warmup for each group, then a short qualy for each group, and then after lunch a race for each group. Being group 5, we are further in the afternoon which can be nice, but you aren't getting home early. For COTA we will be in group 1 (if we go), which means we start early but we're done early as well. #Tradeoffs

For warmup we've got our 'better' set of used tires and it takes LAPS for them to get some heat and after a handful of laps I come in early, unaware that we were the fastest car on track by a full second. I did have a terrifying moment as I exited big bend and headed down the front straight. Approaching terminal velocity, I glanced in the driver mirror and in the instant that my eyes twitched left and began to focus on the real estate in the mirror behind me I could see a rapidly growing distortion near the middle of the windscreen. My brain was sending alarms but the synapses to the eye muscles were much slower and so my mental function was caught in this feedback loop of "check back forward, QUICK", and "cannot comply...standby". The abject fear of the distortion was quite real, but my right foot remained fully planted on the throttle and the only physical change other than the eyeball patience was that my hands increased their grip on the wheel. Slightly. Just in case. 

By the fractional amount of time it took for my eyes to get back forward the entire middle and right side of the windscreen had distorted as the air pressure pushed the lexan in towards the cabin. While awaiting my eyes to respond I had already verified my visor was down on my Stilo so there was little I could do. Back focused ahead, ignoring the circus mirror view on the right, I picked up my braking point and continued on with my lap. Settle down the heart rate. Yeah, we'd need to get that fixed. 

We had a few hours and we got the car turned around with more fuel, went over the official scales to verify (for us they read a bit light so we added weight just-in-case) and fixed a few small things. The groups cycled quickly and soon I headed back to grid for qualy. Louis was on the radio and once we launched I worked hard to get heat in the tires. It was still cold but we had a bit of sun and in a few laps SLJHMR was hooked up. Louis navigated me to a big gap and I threw down a 1:15.3 really struggling to put heat in the tires. Again, we were fastest in the group by over a full second. Another GT2 car, the #28, would be starting alongside us, with a mix of GT1 and GT2 cars behind us. Louis called me in early with a strong feeling nobody would top our time and he was right. He's smart like that. We had lunch and a few hours to get race ready.

Warmup on the left, Qualy on the right. I was shocked. Louis was not. 

Grant was in town dropping off a car he charity-hauled for a needy family and with his machinist background he quickly got to work building a windscreen support brace that he and Louis put the finishing touches on. It turned out gorgeous and worked like a charm. Due to it being a long race (more fuel burn), we added some extra weight and put it back on the scales and setup pad. Ian and Corey (GSpeed) both were there along with Anthony (HPR) helping and things were getting done. My buddy Tye showed up to grab some tires I brought up and seeing that work needed to be done, rolled up his sleeves and got after it as well. Erik L from a nearby shop always pitches in as does Rudy. With this much skilled labor, we were ready early and waited. I got to spend some time with the family and make sure I was mentally ready for the race. (my checklist for "ready to race" is pretty simple...if I'm breathing, I'm ready) 

Sunrise at the track.....ahhhhhhh

Group 4 goes out and starts their race and about 10 minutes later I take SLJHMR down to the grid. It is always incredibly motivational for the team to be at the top of the time charts. While we have sandbagged at certain events in the past, the only sandbagging we were doing today was continuing with the old tires. Maybe we'd run stickers tomorrow and see what we could REALLY do. Interestingly, the 28 starts the race on stickers. 

We finally launch for the race and the pace car keeps us together. The green will fly on the BACK straight, so we have time to get sorted prior to the autocross section. With it being so cold (the sun is gone away, it is now overcast so the tires won't get heat from the pavement...booo!!!) apparently a lot of drivers begged for a full lap added to the half lap prior to the green. I surely was not one of them, I'm good with pushing on cold tires (autocross and time-trial experience) but this is what is happening. We form up and go around, and then around again. As the pace car pulls off the track the 28 instantly jumps. What? And before he can slow down and get back level with me, he jumps again and much harder. Foolish. 

So yeah, that start is waived off and I pick up the pace to take us around again, knowing the clock is running on this timed event. The 28 stays in front of me for part of the lap ("hey there sport, the polesitter sets pace...not the first loser..."). Finally he slows and we form up and I'm doing the exact same speed the pace car was (which is what the GCR says to do) and as we get to Buzzard Neck (the last right hand before the 3 left hands to take the green) the 28 again takes off. I'm perplexed. I've got the entire field bunched up and this guy is trying to play mental games against ME!!! Has he MET me???  #wrestlermentalgames #MyWillAgainstYourWillAndYouWillLose #mentaltoughnessFTW

So yeah, he's zipping out there way out of view and I've got the field perfectly stacked and we come around the three left hand corners and the 28 has now had to virtually park it waiting. Instantly my brain thinks "if this yahoo continues to play this way, the starter will throw the green as I catch him and I'll have speed in hand and it'll be a legal start!"...

And do you know that is EXACTLY what happened? The 28 slowed up and right as SLJHMR pulled up to the 28, the starter threw green. I had the driveline tight and just instantly matted the throttle and the MoTeC screamed to the HPR mill "FULL POWAH!!!" And so it was. I quickly passed the 28 and for good measure slid over in front (announce my presence with authority - bonus points if you know the movie) of him to take a nice wide and fast line through big bend. Putting nice distance on him right away. LOLLER. 

SATURDAY RACE: https://vimeo.com/388422099   (jump to the 20:00 mark for the pass for the win)

And that...other than traffic, was the excitement of the race. Louis never called me to give me a target lap time nor did he tell me to back off. He kept calling gaps and they kept getting bigger. I ran quick but left a bit of time just-in-case and I tried to be smooth and work traffic efficiently. Honestly I was waiting for the SRSBZNS GT1 cars to get heat in the tires and come up to play...but it didn't happen. By the time the checked flag flew, I had lapped up to 5th place and had a 32 second lead on the 28 car. I took that boy to GappleBees and served up a full tray of gappetizers. #TreatHimLikeFamily

MMMmmmmm.... GT1 hardware....

Post race we rolled over the scales legal and settled into impound. Driver of the 28 was in full pout mode. The GSpeed crew was happy. Chief of tech broke the bad news that we clearly fail visual inspection. We offered up that we knew that and we'd fix it by COTA, but tech gently said if we'd accept last place we can keep the finish and points which help to qualify us for the SCCA Runoffs (the SCCA National Championships). We smiled genuine smiles and said sure, we'd take 5th and be just fine with it. The tech guys and stewards were polite and great to deal with. I knew a few of them back from the 90s and they were awesome. Nobody raised a voice, nobody got crappy....it was totally fine. Louis and I knowingly brought a technically (visually) illegal car and we're fine taking the hit. 

MSRC = 1, GoPro = 0

So the 28 was gifted the win and the grapevine told us that the 28 was unhappy that I didn't go over and congratulate him on a great race. I guess having attended some pro races means the 28 might have an elevated sense of entitlement but honestly I think doing that would have been incredibly pretentious. I mean, if Paul goes and races Anna and Anna takes Paul to Gapplebees and serves up two full trays of Gappetizers to the tune of 32 seconds and then after the race Anna comes over and says "Really good race!"...that would seem to me to be condescending as all get out. Horrible etiquette. But maybe that's just me? 

Regardless, Louis sends out an alert that we need front fenders and his phone blows up. We've got offers from all over, but Jake offers us his one-of-a-kind flared C5 fenders that work PERFECT, shading the massive 335 fronts and making the front of the car legal! These fenders are due to be duplicated, so I'll do my best to keep them intact. In the rear, we add foam and put racer tape over it to shade the 345s and we're good to go.

Sunday my TX2K buddy Austin shows up and quickly helps bleed brakes and get the car ready. Things are checked and we skip the warmup to save tires. We decide to do a short qualy and try and run the other scrubs for the race. Qualy is deja-vu, Louis finds me a gap and I channel my inner time-trialer and throw down a 1:15.8 to P2 (a GT1 car) 1:17.5 and P3 the 28 at a 1:17.8, fully two seconds back. The sun is out and the pavement is soaking it up. My worry now is not that we can't get heat in the tires, it is that our old tires (the race will be heat cycle #7) may burn up if I need to push. Still, we commit to leaving the stickers in the garage and again the 28 puts on another set of stickers for the race. 

Sunday Qualy. Pole again!!!

So, as goofy as the start was on Saturday, the first half of the race is goofier (is that a word?). There is a gt1 car on my right, so the 28 can't play "chase me" games, but the start speed seemed better suited to the 28s tighter gear stack and after the green he slides alongside the inside of big bend and the GT1 car (big power) is in the lead and I've slipped to 3rd. Doh! You'll want to watch the video (trust me...watch the video) but it boils down to us both getting past the GT1 car on lap 1, then the 28 blocking me for 14 or so laps doing some really questionable (I'm talking 24hrs of LeMONs crap here....) driving and then when he's burned his tires down and is so tired of driving his mirrors I fake him out and take him on the inside of wagon wheel. My nose (really worried about the fenders!) gets past him but he clobbers my passenger door (it is a left hand turn and I'm on the insider curbing) with his driver front tire. It's completely avoidable contact and that is just crappy. I quickly build a gap and keep pushing and end the race with a 21 second gap over the 28. Louis was pretty silent on the radio except to remind me on lap 2 "it's a long race, settle in and save tires", then calling the gaps I was building at the end. And I was building them!!

This is how we started the race...note the clean door. 

SUNDAY RACE: https://vimeo.com/387633056 (watch the end for the loser chop/flyby)

Interesting moves...you be the judge! : https://vimeo.com/387565192   https://vimeo.com/387565179

Post-hit snaps. The 28s LF tire hit my right door....not sure on what planet this could be my fault. Watch the vid! 

As I'm wrapping up the cool down lap and just about to turn into the pit-in road, the 28 comes flying by and chops me. Weak. And exposes the mental state of the 28 completely. Had Louis not called on the radio at the last second and said 'watch your back' (and so I pulled more to the right and hit the brakes), there is a good chance he'd have hit me. AGAIN. <sigh....freaking pathetic>

Across the scales we are legal, the fenders hide the tires, and we all hang out a bit. The 28 is in his car, pouting again. I go over and tell him I had a great time and he's hard to pass. He chimes in about me hitting him and I correct him and say I'd like to see the video. He stammers, I loudly restate that "I had a great time" and I walk off. Officials are super cool again, all goes smooth. We are released from impound and the results become official, I get a cool gold medal with a red/white/blue ribbon and we all head home. Our first SCCA event with SLJHMR saw us cross the finish line first both races and we're absolutely fine with the bump-back for the first race.

As bad as it was at the track, apparently the 28 is quite the keyboard warrior as well. Hilarity. 

While the 28 makes a big deal about "pro racing", and he indeed participated at that level, he was not a "paid" driver. The company he owned paid for the racing, so in effect he paid his way. Now, first off, I have ZERO problems with that. If you have the means, or can get your parents or company or neighbor to foot the bill, I'm all for it. But to me and lots of racers, the pool of 'pro racers' has the 'paid drivers' and the 'paying driver'. The 28 was the latter.

Again, fun event and SCCA Texas runs a great race. Next up, we go to COTA!! But before that can happen, the online comments were a'flyin! (see below)

Love dis little car....

In the Texas HPDE, Track, TT, Road Racing, etc page, I posted the link to the vid and hilarity ensued. Enjoy!