TJR MotorSports

It was an exciting race weekend, and in the end it was a very successful weekend for the Bulldog Motorsports Team as a whole. To come away with the lead the SCCA national point’s Championship in both Prototype 1 and Prototype 2, was a great result. We got both prototypes on the podium, both Saturday and Sunday, a great measure of mid-season performance.

The game-plan going in was to have as clean of a race as possible, and work on improving the set-up of the car and my ability get the full potential. Additionally, we needed to make sure that we were in it for the whole race duration and score maximum points. We came away from the entire race weekend happy with the results and the performance of the car, and excited for the future races.

What was New?

This weekend I worked with Parker Nicklin as a driver coach reviewing video and data. Parker is a professional race car driver that had worked his way up to running full-time in the Pro Mazda series. Additionally, Parker was accepted by Schmidt Peterson Motorsport as an IndyCar development driver. Parker has spent a number of years working with high level driving coaches and race engineers, and demonstrated that he has a strong understanding of how impart his racing knowledge to aspiring enthusiast like myself.

Finally, we are getting close to maximum results with the new AP brake system, by the time Sunday race was underway I had dramatically improved my braking ability. The coaching from Parker was invaluable. I spent a lot of laps working on braking deeper and deeper into the brake zones. This allowed me to race some of the faster P1 cars, and made for a fun afternoon.

Our car was a lot better than I was expecting. It was really pleasing for me to go out on track during the Friday morning test session and see just how much the car has improved in its current configuration.

The race weekend had the typically progression of getting more familiar with the track configuration each day and gradually picking up more and more speed. We actually did our fastest lap of the weekend late in Race 2 on Sunday on old tires. Perhaps I maybe a slow learning, but I am willing to learn, and hopefully I’ll continue to learn.

The Race Weekend Goals:

• WIN Race 1 on Saturday and Race 2 on Sunday
• Set a new track record for P2
• Take the lead in the national P2 points standing

I feel blessed that we were able to accomplish all of our goals!!

Both races were a lot of fun, unfortunately it was spring time in the farm lands of Bakersfield and the bugs were not cooperating, and the visibility of the Gopro diminished over the course of the race, nonetheless, enjoy:

The race at Thunderhill Raceway Park was not a national SCCA Super Tour event, so we took the opportunity to work on developing the car and improving my ability to race in the Stohr WF1. Thunderhill as the name implies is situated in the picturesque hills north of Sacramento. This is a European style circuit, has great elevation changes, high-speed corners, and challenging brake zones. Racing at the track was a great opportunity for the team to work on our new brake package and delve in the AIM data acquisition system. As luck would have it, one of my new teammates Umberto is a computer engineer and very familiar with the AIM data system. It’s going to be a steep learning curve, however, I figure if I put in my work I’ll eventually become really familiar with operating the system and interpreting the data.

 We had some serious issues with the set up on the car at the previous race weekend at Willow Springs Raceway. Our two main objectives; dial in the set-up on the Stohr WF1 and regain the balance in the car, and start to learn the capabilities of the new AP Brake system. The AP system is adopted off the pre 2008 Formula 3 series cars in Europe, and is touted as superior to the stock system. All we needed to do was set up the brake pedal and work on finding the limits off the system (easier said than done!!).

The whole race – which unfortunately didn’t have a lot of excitement:

Short -Video- The white flag (last) lap, at this point in the weekend I feel its slowly coming all together. I  am starting to take my driving to the next level:

Note: we ran our P2 car in the P1 class. There were several reasons to run in P1, the primary reason was originally there were no P2 cars entered-thus no P2 competition. The team took some weight out of the Stohr, nonetheless, we were over weight and under powered to run in P1. We score two 4th place finishes, had a great time, and I improved my driving. I”ll take that!!

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

Hello All:

It’s a new year, and with the new year comes change. I’ve changed race teams and moved over to Bulldog Motorsports based out of Modesto, CA. And I have a new race car, or at least new to me. We acquired a 2006 Stohr WF1 and converted it form the Prototype 1 Class to Prototype 2 Class. The SCCA’s current rules package limits the competitiveness of the Stohr WF1 in the Prototype 1 Class (P1), and the class had become cost prohibitive. Prototype 2 (P2) is designed to run a few seconds slower per lap than P1, and provides the opportunity to race at a more reasonable cost. The Team believes that our 2006 Stohr WF1 car #8 will be a strong competitor in the P2 Class.

A lot of time and effort went into developing the plan for the Stohr WF1 P2 conversion project, and even more effort went into executing the plan. I really have to give a big shout to Jason and the guys over at Bulldog Motorsports in pulling this off. So, I was really looking forward to getting in the car and evaluating the performance baseline. For me, that’s the best parts of the weekend. Once you’re into the car, you tune everything out and just focus on the task at hand.

Test Sessions: this was a short race weekend condensed into three days at Auto club Speedway (ACS). On Friday we had only had three 20 minute test sessions followed by one practice sessions. We skipped the first test session as the track was still drying out from the heavy rains from the day before. The limited track time was a disadvantage, especially when you consider that we’re attempting to analyze how to set up the Stohr WF1 to P2 configuration. There’s a new smaller rear wing on the car and 60 lbs of added weight. Additionally, all the ground effects of the tunnel and rear diffuser have been all but eliminated. So we really needed track time to work our way through a number of adjustments. The only advantage I had going for me: I’ve raced at ACS at seven different race events, so I am able to get up to speed quickly and it’s just a matter of working on the timing as you set up the various corners. My familiarity with the track layout allowed me to attack the corners right from the start. The one obvious drawback is the braking system on the P2 car; they don’t perform at the level of my Brembo system on my P1 car.

Practice  Sessions: This first practice session was typical of any given race weekend, after a few warm up laps I got brave and start carry more speed through the corners and braking later at the end of the three long straights. I finish the session with a respectable 1:42, it’s starting to come together but the session is over. The bumps on the track are brutal at ACS, and with the added weight on the car it’s bottoming out in a couple of spots. More problematic; the fences/endplates on the front splitter were destroyed going over the bumps during the session. So much for carrying all that speed! The Team raises the car over ¼ an inch (which is a lot) this resolve the issue but it negatively affects the handling of the car.

A Promising start

Qualifying: The goal of the session was to put the Car #8 on pole position in the Prototype 2 Class, and for good measure, attempt to out qualify some of the competitors in the faster P1 Class. The braking ability of my car is clearly not it’s strong suit. There are three long straightaways at ACS, and sub-par brakes are a big adjustment. In the end we knock out a 1:39.79 which puts car #8 on pole for P2 Class and third position on the race grid. Unfortunately, once again the bumps at ACS demand their pound of flesh. One of the rod ends on the rear suspension failed towards the end of the session and we limp back into the pits, but not after scaring the bejesus out of myself and the track workers at Turn 18.

Race 1 (12 Laps): I’m starting 3^rd 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 (not my class). Additionally, behind me are several highly competitive Stohr WF1 that will be waiting for the opportunity to pounce if I make a single mistake; it appears I’ll have my hands full. The start of the race goes as scripted, we maintain the 3^rd position and built a gap, unfortunately several laps in the track goes to a full-course caution. So the entire race grid gets collected behind the pace car. In racing you have to expect the unexpected. It’s impossible to control everything and things happen, we encountered issues with high water temperature at this point in the race and the dashboard alarms went off. I was able bring the temperatures down by speeding up and then coasting behind the pace car. With the elevated temps that evolved over the first seven laps, I knew that I would be taking unnecessary risks if I raced flat out once the race restarted. We got a good jump at the start, and it was fine for three laps. The temperature started rise again and I started lifting early on the long straights and coasting into the corners in an attempt to manage the situation. This allowed Tony Abel in his 1L Stohr P2 #22 to reel me in, not sure what happen but Tony spun. Next up was Jeff Lederman in his Stohr WF1 P1 car, he’s got some badass carbon ceramic brakes on his ride and he put them to good use going into turn 9. I could see Dave Tweedlie fill up my mirrors in his red Radical SR3, however, my race position was manageable and we maintain a 1-2 second gap to secure our maiden P2 win in car #8.

Race 2 Sunday (12 Laps): Tony Abel and Jeff Lederman turned better times than I did in Race 1 so I’m starting 5^th  on the grid; additionally in front are the cast of characters from the P1 podium. Please watch/enjoy the HD Video and see how it all turns out.

Additionally, we have video from Steve Nicklin’s car giving a unique prospective:

Lastly a big shout out and Thanks to my Wife Naia Day and my friend Shams Rahman for coming out and supporting the Team’s Race Weekend.

My last blog column was after the Great Lakes Major at Mid-Ohio and a lot has happened since then. It’s been a crazily busy summer. The team got a good result during our June visit to Mid-Ohio (2 Wins), and although we’ve had some hurdles thrown in our path, we’ve still have strong hopes for the SCCA Prototype 1 Championship this Friday morning/tomorrow.

Throughout the 2016 season, we’ve never quite been the frontrunner through practice and qualifying and in the actual races (west coast) it was pretty much the same. Unfortunately, we have not figured out and resolved the handling issues of the car #8 and thus we didn’t have the straight-up pace to compete for the wins. We can constantly compete for second place, we just haven’t found a way to take the car to next level, were we have the pace to compete for a win.

All week there has been a solid team effort from the guys in the paddock, they’ve worked diligently on car #8; they want to win as much as I do! We think the culprit is the Williams differential. Why? Well it’s been a process of elimination, and theoretically the big adjustment to free up the differential makes sense. Bright and early this morning we went out and put down a blister lap of 1:19.5 an improvement of 1.8 seconds over our best lap. To put that in context, the current Mid-Ohio track record for P1 is 1:21.2. Unfortunately, two of my rivals went faster and our qualifying position for the national championship race is 3^rd.

For the interested parties that want to watch the 30 minute race, it starts early at 9:55 AM eastern standard time. You can set an alarm in your phone, or watch the recorded race at your leisure at: http://www.scca.com/…/1980938-2016-sc…/event_sessions/latest

or http://www.scca.com/runoffs

You may need to enlarge the picture that’s on the right side