TJR MotorSports

Fourth of July weekend at Watkins Glen international in upstate New York, I don’t believe I could have scripted a better way to have fun and escape the summer heat of AZ. This race circuit is the place of famous champions winning races: Clark, Hill, Lauda, Hunt, Fittipaldi, Stewart, Villeneuve, Donohue, Unser, Mears, Andretti, Dixon, Gordon, Montoya, the list of legends goes on. So to say that I was incredibility excited to test my race craft at Watkins Glen, is a total understatement. We just hoped the weather would cooperate, last weekend it rained during the entire 6 hour Tudor Sportscars Race.
I arrive at the “Glen” Thursday morning mentality and physically prepared. I’d been watching hours of races at the Glen, and tons of YouTube on board video to learn the nuances of the track. Additionally, I’d been working on my cardiovascular conditioning for months, and recently added a race-load simulator to my training schedule. This particular piece of exercise equipment allows you to focus training on all the parts of the body that experience the G-Force loads produced during high speed cornering. Mental fatigue to a large extent is uncontrollable, physical fatigue can be negated through proper training. During a race physical fatigue can lead to mental errors and on track mistakes. Learning to race a new circuit at speed is a significant challenge, I wanted that to be my one and only focus.

Thursday July 2nd – Test Sessions

Today was an open track test day, with the cars assigned to groups that each have four sessions. These test sessions are great for learning the circuit. The car counts tend to be low, and you get to figure out where you’re comfortable overtaking the slower race cars.
Session One: first impression: LOL all I can say is wow! This place is fast everywhere, there are no slow corners; I only get the car down into 3rd gear on three small bleeps in turns 7, 8 and 9. For some reason I thought the bus stop was a spot where the cars slowed way down, not so much! Guess I’ve watched too much NASCAR at the Glen LOL. Best time is a 2:14, which is way off the mark.
Session Two: I am still trying figure out where to start braking, turn in points, and a couple of late apexes, is a big handful……it’s just starting to come together. Best lap time is a 2:07.
Session Three: Several laps in I lose rear drive, I coast up the hill towards turn 8 and gravity robs me of momentum, and I’m at a complete stand still half on the track, half off. It wouldn’t be racing without drama, Race Control red flags the session and I get towed in. Not my idea of fun, although I have to admit I’ve had a great run of reliability over the years and even more so since I started to race the Stohr WF1. Back in our pits they quickly diagnose the problem as a broken sprocket carrier, and we don’t have a spair (WTF!) Of course my first thought is the weekend over, did I come all this way for 2.5 sessions? Jeff Shafer quickly calls the vendor and facilitates a spar to be overnighted. The team subsequently locates a used and somewhat repaired spare. Running in session four looks attainable, these guys a ONE MOTORSPORTS are awesome!!!
Session Four: Got my head back in the game, and it’s time to find my mojo. Earlier, Jeff and I did a debrief session looking at data overlay on the laptop, it’s an interesting program that uses a graph to show my speed on every section of the track overlaid on top of the graphics of a faster driver (IMSA Lites), thus, I can see where I’m at speed and more importantly where I need to gain speed. Or more simplistically, here are five areas you need to go faster LOL. With that information you head out on to track knowing specifically what you need to work on. Session fours feels better and its coming together, however, the carrousel after the bus stop, and turns 10 and 11 are supposed to be flat out, maybe you lift the throttle slightly, but NO BRAKING. Thinking or saying this, and doing it are not one in the same thing. These three turns will separate the men from the boys, and will factor in significantly in qualifying and overall results this weekend. My best time is a 1:52, this seems like very reasonable improvement from my earlier times, however, the track record for Prototype 1 is a 1:47, is this before they restricted the class, I don’t know. But I am not in that neighborhood, and then Jeff comes in and informs me he did a 1:50 in the Radical SR3. I am in disbelief; this is the same car I dispatched with ease at Chuckwalla Raceway? We sit down and over-lay the data from both cars; I am losing all my time in the big flat out high speed turns. This comes as no big surprise as I process the information. Tomorrow is qualifying; I know what I need to do.

July 3rd- Start of the SCCA Event
Naia has joined me, so the trip just got way better! The weather has been great to this point, but it has been threatening to rain.

Qualify Session One: I am focused on the task at hand. Three laps in I bust out a 1:50, and I feel there is more. However, getting a clean lap with the slower traffic is a big challenge. Several laps later I knock out a 1:49, the car is flying. Unfortunately, I carry a little too much speed through turn one and momentarily high side the car on the top of the big curbing. I’ve never felt that before, it’s very unsettling and would prefer to avoid that experience again. The session winds down and the “49” has me on pole for Prototype 1. The game plan is to go out in the second qualifying session on new rubber and put it all together. As I drive into the impound area the car behaves oddly, after I power it down the car tries to move forward as if the starter is engaging. A quick inspection by the team detects a small crack in the under-tray from the high siding incident. This pushed up on the battery, shearing off the positive terminal and shorting out the starter. Ouch! Several hours later all seems repaired.
Qualifying – Session Two:
I have brand new tires on the Stohr, its go time! I drive the car over to the grid-out area, all seems fine. After sitting for several minutes I power down the car to prevent overheating. As race control gets ready to release the grid the Stohr won’t start, the team tries everything, it’s a no go. The car still has unresolved gremlins from the earlier session. The team needs to figure this out.

July 4th- Race Day 1
We wake up to see that it been raining all night, and there is a light rain at 7:00 am. There is a 15 minute qualifying session 9:40am, which clearly will be in the wet. The race is at 3:15 pm, we’re all hoping that the track will be dry by then.
Morning Session – in the wet: Many of the racers in our group are skipping this session because the weather forecast strongly suggests we’ll be racing on a dry track. I don’t have that luxury. First I need to determine if the issues with the car are resolved, and secondly, in the event we need to race in the wet on this curcuit, I need some experience prior. Thankfully, the car is back running flawlessly. The Glen in the wet is a handful, I needed the experience and I am the better for it.

Race 1 (15 Laps): I qualified 7^th, however, I have Jeff Shafer and three Formula Atlantic cars (behind me) to deal with. So I suspect the first few laps of the race are going to be interesting. I’m gridded up next to Jeff Shafer who starts to get the jump at the green flag. I reel him by the end of the front straight, and beat him into turn one. The first couple laps of the race are crazy, on lap three one of the P1 cars goes off track into the tire barrier at turn six and brings out the full course yellow. What’s interesting is none of the Formula Atlantic or FC cars in front of me proceed to slow down much. I have never seen this occur in a race, my instinct and racing experience is telling me to slow down…. after all it’s a full course yellow. Yet in this confusion, I’m then passed by the #34 Formula Atlantic (WTF) going up through the esses. As I come up to the Hill through the esses at over 120 mph, this is a blind spot, I see the pace car has picked up the field and they’re parked in the middle of the track and there’s nowhere to go. The #34 Formula Atlantic splits the field, and I lock up the brakes and start going through the glass grass sideways towards the Armco steel barrier. You have to watch the video to see how this race plays out:

Stay tuned for race results from Sunday!!