Work, for some odd reason, has the illusion they can actually expect me to support their objectives and business needs. Since they make my "lack of luxury" lifestyle possible I have been forced to cut short track events or, the horror, actually miss quite a few this past 12 months. The fact I sold my last running race car in April and my last Corvette track car expired in March is a minor inconvenience also. Luckily for me I have been incorporated into Team Werner Law as the crew chief, principal tow driver, driver coach, team conscience and co-driver.
Supporting the team has been a tradition with Team England and this one is no different. The principal team mission is to have fun and be as safe as reasonable. The primary performance objective is to get Mike up to speed in wheel to wheel (W2W) competition in ST2 with maybe some T1 races thrown in as schedule allows. The team focus is to keep the car intact and get Mike through comp school and his rookie races. That objective has progressed nicely. A side benefit has been keeping my employees (nepotism is great, mate) paid performing safety upgrades, maintenance and repairs on a 10 year old race car. When they are nice I even let them drive the car (into and out of the trailer).
Schedules being what they were, and Mike being the generous guy that he is, I was able to race the car at Road Atlanta and Charlotte Motor Speedway (CMS). W2W racing someone else's car is definitely a new experience for me. I have driven lots of OPCs (other peoples car) on tracks, TT'd and even did One Lap of America,but until June every race I had been in was my car or a rental. Even when Mike said "treat it like your own" and it does not matter what happens I am hesitant. Currently, all of my track cars are currently broken, the result of my Team members is my story by the way, so treating it like my own is not really a good idea based on my personal experience. But the chance to race a well set up very fast car at world class tracks is something I cannot deny.
So there I was at Road Atlanta one my one available day in June running the TT practice, Thunder qualifying and the Thunder race. Life was good. Since the car was more than capable of winning the race all I had to do was my part to make it to the winners circle. I paired up with TimZO6 for qualifying and we ran well enough to be gridded close to the class leader. The race start was a little hectic with a lot of cars trying to occupy the same space at T1 and T2. With the mantra of "not my car" running through my head I gave up positions rather then risk rubbing since I knew I could make the positions all back coming out of T7 and I did. I was picking up a little vibration in the rear but otherwise the car was running great. After a couple of laps Tim and I were consistently closing the gap on the lead ST2 car and I put Tim ahead of me at T10a since he knows Road Atlanta very well and I would run close for ten minutes or so. My 7 heat cycle R6s were light years better then his 5 year old Hoosiers so as long as we were closing on the lead car I was happy where I was. That was the plan and no plan survives contact with reality. When Tim passed me at T10a I lost a lot of momentum to keep from bumping him and as we went up the hill I saw wisps of smoke coming from his right rear. Having hit the wall coming out of T12 due to antifreeze I staggered offline a bit and kept a little distance. Coming into T1 it looked like it was no longer smoking so I started closing the gap. A few laps later Tim did a very nice pass on a rookie CMC car just before the brake zone for T1. Being right behind him I passed the same car in the brake zone for T1 and I am not sure he saw me since he turned in early and I moved right even more to avoid any contact. Once again I lost momentum and had to chase down Tim. This time when I caught up to Tim he was smoking quite a bit so I hung back about 15-18 car lengths so I would not be the first car to the scene of the accident due to impending oil down. On Tim's last lap he was smoking like a chimney at T1 and was invisible at T5 before exiting the track at T7 (his video is impressive). That put me about halfway through the race with the leader about a half lap ahead of me as we started working through lapped traffic. I knew I was in second (90 points and a tire) so I concentrated on keeping the car intact and not wearing it out any more then required to maintain position. It was educational since I was passing cars in places I normally never attempt it (T3, esses, and T12) with the lapped cars doing a great job of running their line and being predictable. We finished 9th overall, second in class with the car still running great. That little vibration was 6 broken bolts in the driver rear Kodiak rim. I keep spares in the trailer now since this is the second Kodiak rim with broken bolts.
The intent in July for the one day CMS event was to have Mike in the car with me crewing. Mike had a work appointment that kept him from making the event so it fell to me to run the car in TTS and the two scheduled Thunder races. Sometimes you have to take one for the Team, so I did. I went with two previous days experience at CMS and the knowledge I could glean from the overall winner of the first IMSA race ever held there. Toby's advice was invaluable, did not prevent me from almost spinning out at the turn into the infield on the first hot TT lap, but vital nonetheless. TT practice was my first session and I was running behind a smoking Charger (deja vu) with visions of another oil down and being the first to the scene of the accident. Irregardless as we came hauling the mail into the infield turn in I got lost, I missed a shift, aliens abducted me or I was flashed from the stands and I found myself sideways heading towards the foam barriers protecting the paint on the concrete. I found I did not like that view so I came off the brakes and used some grass and concrete to get the car under control and back on track. Turned a 1:29.x - not a good start.
Thunder Qualifying (1:23.8x) and TT Session 1 (1:23.6x) were not great and I was having difficulty shifting the car when it got warmed up. The first Thunder race I tried to work with the shifter and finally just left in fourth gear after coasting through most of the infield in neutral on one lap. I must admit I was a little frustrated and with a self imposed 6200 rpm limit I was limited to what I could make up on the oval. Jim Pantas even passed me. But I finished first in class and gained some oval passing experience.
After having the crew chief (Josh since I was promoted to driver) check the shifter (it had issues at Road Atlanta also) and drive it a little in the paddock it was pronounced fixed. I decided to concentrate on driving the car I had and even if it did not shift to focus on what I could do with the car. Good thing cause the only time it was in third gear was the first infield lap. After that it was 4th all the time. After repassing a very fast CMC2 Camaro I maintained third position overall and first in class with a best lap time of 1:22.1x with very consistent laps through the whole race. T5,6,7 were a real challenge of keeping it from bogging in 4th or slipping through the turn to keep momentum up. The answer was maintain momentum and control the slip. Coming out of NASCAR 4 with the car at redline (6200 in my case) is an awe inspiring experience and should be experienced by everyone.
By the way, one day events in someone else's race car beats working anytime.
