Willow Springs International Raceway- SCCA Hoosier Super Tour March 2017
Hello All:
I am behind in writing my blog, no big surprise…it’s been a busy year! The second race weekend of the year took the Team to Willow Springs International Raceway for the first important race weekend of the west coast season. The SCCA is changing things up this year, only select national races will count towards an overall national points championship in 2017. These races are sponsored by Hoosier Racing Tires, and are designated as SCCA Hoosier Super Tour Races. Long story short, Willow Springs is the Bulldog Motorsport’s first Super Tour Race of 2017, in terms of points, it is a big deal.
This is my second race weekend in my newly acquired 2006 Stohr WF1, we’re running a number of upgrades since our last outing, so it’s time to go to work and fine tune this race car into a worthy national championship contender.
Test / Practice Sessions: this was a short race weekend condensed into three days, one day of testing at Willow Springs Raceway on Friday. Followed by two race days, each having a qualifying session in the morning followed by a race in the afternoon. Testing goes reasonable well, however, I’ve never driven this car in high speed corners, the exception being on the banking at Auto Club Speedway where aero/downforce plays no role. I have to admit it’s a little unsettling to attempt to drive close to the speed of a Prototype 1 car but with considerably less downforce. The SCCA mandates no tunnels and a very modest rear diffuser in P2. The speed is there, however, the available downforce is rather limited, and that makes it hard to get into a comfort zone.
Qualifying: The Team’s goal is always the same; shoot for putting Car #8 on pole in the Prototype 2 Class, and for good measure, attempt to out qualify some of the competitors in the faster P1 Class. After the race at Auto club Speedway we replaced and upgraded the entire brake system with AP Brakes, which many in the sport racer community feel is a system second only to the Brembo system, which cost considerably more money. Mission accomplished, we put the Mere Mortal Stohr WF1 on Pole!! The track record for P2 is a 1:17.1 that was actually set my a well driven Radical. My best qualifying lap is 1:18.5, so there is a lot of room for improvement!
Race 1 (18 Laps): I’m starting 4th on the grid; in front of me on pole is current National P1 Champion Jim Devenport in his Norma M20FC and Chip Romer in his IMSA Elan DP02 both are in Prototype 1 cars, followed by and Gary Hickman in his Phoenix F1000, and then assorted P1 and P2 cars behind me. Unfortunately there are numerous cautions (waving yellow flags) due to beached or broken cars, and the race evolves into a bit of a procession. So I am not going to bore you with the video.
Race 2 (18 Laps): Again, I’m starting 4th on the grid; in front of me is the same cast of characters. However, this is a much more interesting race so sit back and enjoy! I had some fun with some time lapse photography at the end of the video.
Winner’s Interview:
Willow Springs International Raceway- SCCA Hoosier Super Tour March 2017