TJR MotorSports

This week I am traveling to California to race in the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) U.S. Majors presented by Porterfield Brakes. To say that I’m excited would be an understatement. This is my first race weekend in almost 4 years and I am stepping way up in class, attempting to pilot a Stohr WF1 with a 1615cc Suzuki Hayabusa, no small challenge.

FIRST PRACTICE: January 17, I quickly realize the 2011 Stohr WF1 was a handful to muscle around Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, CA. Having raced at the speedway on several occasions in the Radical SR3, I am very familiar with the layout, braking zones, turn in points, and approximate corner speeds. The Stohr WF1 packs a much bigger punch! With a much higher top speed, and later brake points with the Brembo brakes, there was definitely a bit of an initial pucker effect. Additionally, my body was experience G-force loads on the banking and in the braking zones that it had not felt before. It took a couple of laps to calm my nerves, over several laps the car slowly starts to instill confidence. My Stohr WF1 ran very strong, the California weather was flawless, and I settled into the task at hand….making the necessary adjustments to put car #8 on pole in the next session.

QUALIFYING FOR PROTOTYPE 1 CLASS: January 17, the qualifying session was a straight forward affair. My mission; put the car on pole by getting one clean lap driving the car on the edge. What complicates this endeavor is the various slower cars on track unwilling to give way, as they are in the process of attempting to qualify. Luck does play a role in the greater scheme of things, as it took 7 laps before I got the unobstructed clean lap I sought. The result; my first pole position since 2011!! Enjoy the ride and watch me put down the fastest lap of the session at 1:36:81.

SATURDAY: RACE 1: Starting from pole and leading the field of thirty cars to the green flag had me both a little nervous and way pumped! I was confident that if any first lap carnage ensued, being out front was the place to avoid any car-to-car contact. I chose the inside lane, that put Chris Farrell on the outside lane in his Stohr WF1 #58. Coming into the weekend we suspected that Farrell would be our stiffest competition. Farrell is the current SCCA National Champion in Prototype 1 (P1), having won the Runoffs in Laguna Seca. Being the current champion in P1 automatically qualifies you for the Runoffs in 2015. Evidently, Farrell’s strategy for 2015 is to run in Prototype 2 this year to qualify for the runoff, and run both the P1/P2 races this fall in the hopes of capturing 2 championships. The Prototypes 2 cars are lighter and typically have smaller motors than Prototypes 1 cars.

I got off to a clean start and pulled a 5 car gap as I came off the banking and charged through the infield. I could clearly see Farrell’s red #58 in my mirrors. I knew he was gunning for the overall win, and he would pounce on any mistake I made. The cars had different strengths, the lighter P2 car was faster through the infield, the larger motor in my P1 car gave me the advantage on the straight-aways and banking. Lap after lap it was a heated battle as I attempted to put down one hot lap after another to build a gap, and Farrell in hot pursuit trying to bridge that gap. On lap 7 he got his opportunity, as we encounter a much slower car entering turn 5 (a left hander), Farrell made his move. I thought I was far enough on the left to have closed the door on turn 5, Farrell made his car real skinny (can you say 2 wheels on the grass) and shot by carry a little too much speed to block me or rotate his Stohr. I executed the classic under-over move, I rotated the car #8 under his Stohr and got the power down and had my nose ahead of his as we blasted towards the exit of turn 6. Farrell was forced to lift or mow the lawn, LOL he chose to lift. Several laps later he closed the gap, and snuck by when I had a big bobble, two turns later we were on the banking and I powered by with a little help from the draft. The balance of the 15 lap race was uneventful. Being the first race of the season; this was a great result for TJR Motorsports capturing the overall win, and setting the fastest lap of the race with a 1:36:32. Which was a full ½ second faster than my qualifying.

SUNDAY: RACE 2: During the early morning pre-race strategy meeting I was informed by race strategist Jeff Shafer of One MotoSports that we had a significant problem. At the conclusion of Saturday’s 15 lap race the Stohr WF1 had only .5 gallon remaining in the fuel cell. At first I didn’t understand the gravity of the situation. Jeff explained that Sunday’s race was 18 laps and car #8 wasn’t going to complete the additional 3 laps on .5 gallons. At first we considered running an all-out fuel conservation strategy, after all we’re running for points, we didn’t come this far to run out of fuel before the end of the second race. What was obvious, the long full throttle runs on the banking of Auto Club Speedway was the fuel consumption culprit. Why not use this to our advantage? We decided that after a clean race start to slip back behind the closest car and use the draft to conserve fuel. With any luck we would be hanging in there at the end of the race and challenge for the P1 or overall win. We had plan, but would it work? 

After a thorough warm up of car #8 we refuel it, and pushed it to grid. LOL we weren’t taking any chances, I intended to conserve every drop of fuel. Not an ideal situation, but I chose not to dwell on it, and get on with business at hand.

RACE 2: Starting from pole and leading the field of thirty cars to the green flag was a bit of a replay of Race 1. I had the inside lane, and once again Farrell was in the outside lane in his Stohr WF1 #58. I got off to a clean start and pulled a 4 car gap as I came off the banking, as I came through turns 6, Jeff jumped on the radio and informed  me that Farrell had an issue transitioning off the banking into the infield, and spun and was now dead last. This was a lucky brake, as it changed the whole complexion of the race, which would now run at a more modest pace. This played into part one of our team fuel conservation strategy. Towards the end of the first lap I let Miles Jackson over-take me in his Wolf GB08M #52 (P1), and settle into a fuel saving pace. I am not sure what Jackson thought, but he now had a new drafting partner and a mirror full of me! This put on one hella of show for the folks watching, lap after lap we came around the banking on the speedway and I was usually 6-15ft off the tail of his Wolf drafting at 150 MPH+. Note to Self: this is very intense, but a lot of fun!!

This is what my helmet and second tear-away looked like after 15 laps of drafting on the speedway:

Jackson #52 drove a solid race trying to shake me, so I have to thank him for racing me clean. I believe it was their first weekend in the new Wolf and probably their first time at Auto Club Speedway. The TJR Motorsports #8 was not going to be denied. With 3 laps to go Jeff got on the radio with the words I wanted to hear; “we are good go, overtake #52 if you can”. On the following lap I got a run on him coming out of turn 9 and out broke him going into turn 12, classic road racing move.

Capturing my second overall win of the weekend was an awesome feeling of accomplishment. There was a little fanfare on the way down pit lane as several attendees, crew members, and officials acknowledged the win. It concluded with me taking my victory lap while holding the checkered flag, and many of the track workers giving you thumbs up and cheering the whole way. Very Cool!

Added bonus….we didn’t run out gas on the victory lap, and look like a bunch of amateurs.

The only major bummer of the weekend was our inability to get the Smartycam to function during the two races. It worked great during qualifying so we’ll get it figured out for next month’s race weekend.

RACE WEEKEND RECAP: In racing you have to be fast, you also need to be a little lucky, TJR Motorsports was both this weekend and left with the Western Conference’s Championship points lead after a dominating performance. We captured pole, 2 overall wins, set the fastest lap of each race. So a big shout out to Jeff Shafer with One MotorSports for brilliant race strategy, great car preparation and trackside support. Additionally, I’d like to thanks James Barwell of Barwell Race Engines for building a reliable motor that powered me to the race wins.

SCCA Official Results (Group 3):   http://www.scca.com/events/news.cfm?eid=8438&cid=52269

Just got sent this video of  the start of Sunday’s race and Chris Emanuel in his Formula Atlantic getting run over by a Formula Continental, Chris tows his new passenger for a few hundred feet before flicking him off like a booger. Very entertaining!! Pays to start up front and avoid other peoples drama.

I’ll leave you with Steve’s video as he and Dyno Don duke it out. Cya at the races…TJR