The track was a mix of polished ice and a line along the snow banks with more grip. Greg Kierstead and others spent hundreds of hours during the winter to prepare the track, which is used for both the MCO Ice Race and Snow Cross series and the popular Winter Driving School. There was warm weather during the week, but no rain. This helped preserve the track better than the 2010 Ice Race. There were two soft spots where the ice was too thin to support the race vehicles, so cones were placed around them.

I spent 3 hours at the track yesterday to help prep the track. Others, including Greg, worked until nearly 10PM.

This morning I arrived at 8AM. I helped the race staff with the race setup. After the drivers meeting, we opened the track for a 2-hour practice period. I took an early session to get an idea of the performance of the Civic on ice, and to assess the overall track conditions. I went out again just before noon to check how the conditions had changed. A nice line was forming around the outside of some corners.

The race started just after 1PM. Jay let me take the start. The grid was set by the order teams registered. That meant I started in third place of twelve cars. Unfortunately that meant my grid position was slightly uphill on glare ice. When the green flag dropped, I could do nothing and I lost places to the four-wheel-drive cars and to the front-wheel-drive cars that started on the outside where they could get some grip.

I slotted in when I finally got up to speed and tried to avoid sliding into anyone on the opening lap. I had lost 4 places on the start, but made up 2 just before the chicane on the second lap.

Then as we came through the cutout chicane on the second lap, the car in front of me spun. I managed to stop without hitting him, but the cars behind me piled up, hitting me side-to-side and hitting each other. I could feel four good bumps. Luckily I was not stuck, so I reversed out and continued.

My session was good. I had great speed for a FWD vehicle. I made awesome overtaking moves, something that I had thought would be impossible on the slick ice. Instead, the race was about capitalizing on the mistakes of others, minimizing my own mistakes, and having the confidence that came from trusting the car and knowing its limits.

I had a few spins but I was quick to select reverse and floor the gas, which spun the car back around to face forward. Then, just as quickly, I selected first-gear and pulled through the 360-degree spin without losing a spot.

After an hour, I pulled in to the pits. We had lots of time for a drivers change. The Supplemental Regulations stipulated a minimum of 2-minute pit stops (to prevent panicked accidents during refueling) and a total of 20-minutes accumulated stops. Our pit stop was 4m20s.

Jay driving the Civic

Jay drove for about 50 minutes. He also had no issues. Our fuel usage was low, so we did not need to refuel. I am not sure if any team had to refuel.

At the second driver change, we changed the battery in our GoPro Camera HD camera. We discovered that the battery had already died. This happened at the last race at Mosport too, so perhaps the three-year-old battery is due to be replaced.

Our second (and last) stop was exactly 15m40s in order to exactly meet the requirement for 20-minutes accumulated stop time.

I went out for the last hour of the race. I was going great against the 4WD cars. I continued to overtake on mistakes.

I did have one incident – I was black flagged. Just before I turned in for the chicane, I saw a car spin perpendicular to the track in the middle of the chicane. It looked like the track would be blocked, so I made the decision to take the escape road to avoid becoming part of a pile-up. After committing to taking the escape road I checked and saw that the spun car had actually rotated out of the way and did not block the track. So I waited for the car that was in front of me at the entrance to the chicane to come around; I slotted in behind him. The marshal called Race Control and said that I had gained a position by taking the escape route and I was black flagged. I pitted and explained the situation to the official and strongly disagreed with the reason for the black flag. Looking back, I wonder if the call was actually about passing the car that had spun. If so, I don’t agree that it was gaining a position, as the spun car had lost positions to the other competitors that drove around it in the chicane. My decision to take the escape route was for safety. The chicane was glare ice, and I felt there would be an accident when no one could stop for the spun car.

At the end of the event, I helped the scoring officials calculate the stop times of each team.

I had to leave before the unofficial results were available, as Rosa was expecting me at the Ottawa Fashion Show. Jay called me later to tell me the great news – we had finished first in class and third overall!

Photo Gallery: http://gallery.myredbmw.net/v/Racing/IceRace/2012/

I met Roger Saturday morning on mock grid. The other assistants and the group leads (chief course marshal (CCM), mock grid, operations, etc) made sure everyone was in place, and then Roger, Jeff (Operations) and I took a hot lap around the track. Roger said he was checking that everyone was in the correct place and that the tire walls were ok. He specifically noted that the tires had to be in a particular geometry for the formula cars.

Once in the control tower, he assigned me to handle the Request for Actions. This was a great deal of responsibility, although it was not as active as being one of the radio dispatchers like I did at the DAC weekend. A Request for Action (RFA) is where an incident is reported to the clerk that may involve a breach of the racing regulations (such as a pass under yellow) or driving misbehaviour. When a report comes in, I was then to gather enough data to assess of the report should be forwarded to the Stewards of the event. This could involve requesting a written report from the person observing the incident (a flag marshal for a yellow flag report, or perhaps the starter for a jumped start), then request that the drivers report to the Clerk. When the drivers arrived, I would try to first interview the person who impacted by the incident (i.e. the person who was passed), then interview the accused. In each case, I tried to word my questions in an open way to get the drivers to volunteer information rather than being lead by my questions.

Then I would fill out the RFA report and would hand the report and other written documentation to the Stewards and tell them that both drivers were available.

There were two pass under yellows and one jump-start that I had to deal with. One of the incidents was dropped, but the other two concluded with penalties assessed against the drivers.

The final checkered flag of the year

I also helped with a very unusual issue brought by one of the crew. The car had never run at Mosport before, so they did not know what class the car should be in. After reading the rules, the team thought they would have until after qualifying to set their class – with the presumption that they could change their class up until the end of qualifying without penalty. However, once they changed their class (to align with their qualifying time), the grid sheet put them at the back of the grid because of the class change. I worked with Roger, the stewards, timing and the regional Race Director to review all of the rules and try to find the best solution. I also interfaced with the team crew chief, keeping him informed of the progress and also trying to impartially convey his concerns to the other officials. In the end, because the rule was a bit vague, everyone agreed that he would be gridded by his qualifying time and not be penalized for the class change.

The Celebration weekend is the last regional race of the year. There are no more race events until May 2012 – a long layover. It’s one of the downsides to living in Canada.

Jay and Frank left for the track Thursday with Car #40.

On Friday we encountered our first problem – the clutch on Car #00 broke while loading it on the trailer. A quick run to Plus 1 Performance fixed that issue and Steve, Nick and I left for the track with #00 around 6pm.

Arriving around 10pm, I immediately put up my tent. Jay and I shared the tent, as there was not enough room in the RV. I brought many blankets and a tuque; it was only 3 degrees overnight.

Saturday morning I took to the track in #00 for the 15-minute practice session. The track surface was so cold and the tires so old that I had a good scare at the bottom of turn 2. There was little available grip especially on the numerous concrete patches. I only managed a lap time of 1:53, well below the expected range.

Steve also went out for the practice in #40, but only managed 1 lap before he retired with a potential electrical issue. We managed to have a new distributor brought up from Acura East, the dealer in Ajax, and replaced it before the qualifying session.

After a long 2-hour delay to repair guardrail damage in the morning, Steve and Jay went out for a qualifying run. Steve again retired after less than a single lap; we could not find the root cause of the car’s electrical problems. This time, the fuel pump did not seem to be working. Steve was not able to continue and would not start the enduro. Jay took #00 out on old tires and qualified 10th of 13 in class, 30th overall out of 35, with a 1:46.

Jay and I both struggled with second gear during the day. I would normally use it only in Turn 5B. The shifter kept popping out of gear. The workaround was to stay in third gear for that corner.

The afternoon was long, so we had lots of time to prepare the one car for the race. We fuelled it up as much as we could, chose a good set of slightly used tires (i.e. already scrubbed-in) and put together the pit kit.

I made sure I ate a proper dinner this time and was much more relaxed for the start of the race.

Photo by Liz (http://lizslens.smugmug.com/)

During the pace lap, the back of the pack was a mess – the rows were not formed up at all. After a previous experience, I decided to ignore the other drivers to my left and stay right on the bumper of the car directly in front of me. As I was wired up for radio, I heard the call for the start at the exit of Turn 9. I got on the throttle immediately. With the cars all strung out, I found lots of room to move around. I made three positions before the first turn! The other drivers might have been caught out without a radio.

I lost one position when a GT-2 Porsche GT3 went by in Turn 5 and another position when Nicholas Krikorian (GT-1 Subaru) blew by on the back straight. They are both in a faster class and had started behind me.

By the time I came around to complete the first lap, I was in 26th place, as some of the other cars must not have made it to mock grid.

During the first few laps, I had to work hard to hold off Jamie Steenbakkers in a Honda Civic. I believe it was her first time at Mosport, and put up a good fight. I was able to slowly pull away, mostly by capitalizing on my speed in the corners – Mosport is damn intimidating for a first-timer.

I stayed in 26th or 25th place until lap 11 when I started to climb up the charts. By lap 19, I was in 21st place. I had a good race against a Mazda Miata driven by Mike or Peter Adamovits. Sometimes he would get by, but I had higher speed on the long back straight and could take the position back.

By lap 47, I was as high as 19th place, but that was also due to the other teams taking their pit stops.

Photos by Liz (http://lizslens.smugmug.com/)

Steve queried me on fuel state during my 90-minute stint. The first 60 minutes were ok, and I wasn’t lacking for speed. But after that, it became obvious that I would not make it to the 90-minute mark for our only pit stop. We think the bottom half of the tank is smaller than the top half, as we had similar fuel-usage results at the Victoria Day Speedfest.

I had to start short-shifting. At first, I just shifted earlier and earlier, but the fuel level kept dropping. I then started keeping it in fifth gear from the top of the back straight to Turn 9. Eventually, I also upshifted before Turn-2 as well and kept it in fifth-gear until Turn 10. This was not the best solution, as it meant that if I got into trouble I would not have enough torque to pull myself out of a spin. I did everything I could to conserve gas and keep my momentum in the fast corners. My lap times grew from 1:41.529 to 1:46.660 and finally to 1:51.409. That sucked. I kept telling Steve I was loosing places, but we had to keep moving to the 90-minute mark. The motor started starving for fuel in the corners, and yet I kept going. When the motor started starving on the straight, I called in that I had to pit “Now!”

It was close enough to the half-way point that the time for the pit stop would be enough to get us to the end of the race – if Jay could conserve just as much fuel.

During the pit stop, we switched the GoPro HD in the car for another one with new batteries. We found out later that the first GoPro battery died after 15 minutes, so I have little of my half of the race on video.

Jay went out and could start pushing right away. The tires were in reasonable shape and the temperatures were good.

Jay left the pits in 27th place but had to come in for a stop-and-go penalty as we spilled too much fuel during the pit stop.

Jay came back up to 25th place over the next four laps. He stayed in 25th place for the next 12.5 laps.

On lap 75, as he was heading down the hill at Turn 4, the motor made a “pop” sound and died. He used the momentum to pull off after Turn 5B, and parked the car near the woods, out of the way. There were still 35 minutes remaining in the race. It was depressing. We had such high hopes.

I only raced two weekends this year – the two 3-hour enduros. In both cases, the car died before the end. It is the first year of racing where I did not finish a single race.

I did find some positives about the weekend. I had another fantastic start, moving up a number of places. I was able to keep off a challenge from Jamie and had a good scrap with Peter or Mark in the Miata. And I learned about fuel conservation, short-shifting and keeping up my momentum. It was good experience and practice.

Steve and Nick left that night around 10pm. Jay, Frank and I retired to the RV for beers (or Pepsi in my case) and to watch some of our videos. We had a good talk, but I had to fight not to fall asleep – I don’t remember being so exhausted at the end of a race day. We had a quiet trip home Sunday morning.

Crowded Mosport control tower

It was my first time in the Mosport control tower. Unlike a regional weekend, a bank of TV monitors linked to the television cameras around the track were set up along one wall of the control room. There was also an instant reply system in the back of the room. Altogether it was a great way to view the racing.

I attended the drivers meetings for the GT3 series. The key messages were about jump starts and blocking. It was a relatively quiet weekend (clean racing) in the tower. I also watched some of the other series (such as the American Porsche GT3 Cup series).

We had a good turn out for the season finale races. There were 18 entries for the weekend, which meant the racing was great!

Saturday evening I talked with the Race Director about the year in review, and to gather feedback, which was positive. We also discussed the 2012 season. I want to be part of the series again next year.

The racing for me was over around noon on Sunday. The afternoon was reserved for the main 2h45m ALMS race. I did not go into the tower during the ALMS race – it would have been far too crowded. Instead I left for home a little early – it’s nearly a 4-hour drive back to Ottawa.

ALMS paddock at Mosport

This was my first regional race weekend in the control tower after two weekends with the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada series.

On the vehicle dispatch radio network, we had all the emergency vehicles, the safety car, two tow vehicles, pit lane marshals, and scrutineering. Shannonville is a good place to learn in the control tower because 90% of the track is visible from the tower. We could see nearly everything happening. At other tracks, you can typically only see the front straight and the clerk must rely entirely on the radio calls from the corners for details.

We had some issues with the radios during the weekend. The safety car in particular did not have headsets and they had difficulty hearing our calls. This means that sometimes they missed picking up the leaders when we had a full-course yellow condition. For example, we would call for the safety car to ‘stand-up’, which indicates to them that they should start the car, buckle up and be ready to roll out on the next radio call. That allows them to prepare. Where possible, we should also give them the current leader car number and car colour. Then if we do next the safety car, we can then dispatch them immediately. However, if the first call was missed because they could not hear over the noise of the race vehicles on track, they would not be able to roll out as quickly as possible.

Another issue was having two people doing the same vehicle dispatch role. We kept stepping on each other. I understand that it was because George already had a vehicle dispatcher when I asked if I could clerk as well.

Overall, I enjoyed the weekend as an assistant clerk of the course. I could see how other clerks operate, how important clear communications are for running an event, and about the interactions between the different groups (clerk, timing, vehicles, pit lane, registration, and so forth).

Shannonville Control Tower

As a customer day, the instructors were asked to dress with black pants and shoes. We were all given black Cadillac hats and white golf shirts. We looked great! And we were all given magnetic nametags, which looked classy.

There were 16 drivers attending the event. The Ontario Regional Director of Marketing represented Cadillac. There was a full team of photographers and filmmakers were recording the event for a video that should be available later.

The catered lunch was really delicious, and it provided a good time to relax and talk with the participants. They all were enjoying the day so far; I knew that the afternoon was going to be even more fun than the morning exercises.

The afternoon was dedicated to tracking their high performance vehicles. We used the stadium track at CMP, which was a blast. Some of the customers were driving CTS-V coupes with supercharged V8 engines producing 556hp! Wow!

At the end of the day, the drivers had a wonderful gift bag, including a large framed print of them and their cars, a group photo, and the Cadillac logo. It looked great. And it was done so fast – the pictures were taken at lunchtime.

It was a pleasure to work with the team and to provide a special day for the Cadillac customers. I would like to participate next week at Mosport, but I am not going to have enough time due to our upcoming trip to Europe.

[Updated: some photos were posted here: http://www.ontariocts.com/?p=516]

The weekend headliner was NASCAR Canadian Tire Series. Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship and some regional sedan classes were also on the schedule.

One bonus for myself is that I could practice my French. I tried to use only French any time I could, although I sometimes had to fall back to English if I could not understand.

Temporary iCar control tower

The weekend was interesting in the control tower. The three-story tower itself was built the day before. It was an enclosed wooden upper story, and the base was steel. The base had big steel wheels; the tower had been pushed into place the night before. It was a bit scary, as it would sway in the wind and provided little protection from the noise.

I had a chance to meet Wayne Pollock, one of the Quebec clerks. To gain more experience, perhaps I can try working with him next year if there is an opportunity.

The Porsche series races ran smoothly, although one competitor wrote off his chassis Saturday morning and the series leader broke his suspension at the start of the Sunday race, leaving only four cars to complete the 45 minute race.

Terry Dale, Steve Sewell, Wayne Pollock and the tower operators

I snuck up to the control tower to watch some of the NASCAR folks, and it was chaos. They all had hoarse voices as if they were long time chain smokers. I think it from yelling over the noise for season after season. The noise from the cars was overwhelming. There were times I was standing next to someone and could see their lips moving, but could not hear them at all.

During the weekend, I crossed paths with former Formula-1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve. Someone told me that he was a good friend with one of the announcers covering the race.

[Updated Sept 19, 2011: Sadly, Wayne Pollock passed away in his sleep overnight]

We arrived at the track Friday evening around 8PM. After a quick BBQ steak supper, we started to prep the car, as we were the first group on track Saturday morning at 8AM.

Steve working on the wheel studs

Trouble started immediately. Two aluminum lug nuts on the left rear wheel sheared off. The torque face against the rim was still there, but the hex head broke off. The only solution we had was to drill out the remnants, at the cost of breaking multiple drill bits. Once the nuts were finally removed we had to replace the wheel studs, as the drilling had destroyed the old ones. We had spare studs, but they were longer than the original studs. To gain enough space to thread the longer bolts through the axle hub, we had to remove the ABS sensor and rotate the dust shield out of the way. The next challenge was to seat the new studs. We borrowed some steel washers and a steel wheel nut from the Krikorian’s and torqued them down, which slowly pulled the studs through. It chewed up all six battery packs we had for the air wrench.

We finished around midnight and retired to Jay’s RV for the night.

We were up at 7AM. Steve was the first on track. He and I split the morning 30-minute practice session. I set the best time – 1:43.393.

After lunch, Jay took the 30-minute qualifying session. We finished in 15th place on the grid of 17 with a time of 1:46.376. We had classified the car as GT-4 with hopes that with fewer cars in the class we might stand a better chance, even though our lap times were well off the GT-4 pace.

In the mid-afternoon, a rain-squall passed over Mosport. As I watched the puddles form, I knew our car had been set up for dry conditions. I grew more and more anxious as race time approached. A dinner consisting of only strawberry Twizzlers didn’t help either my anxiety.

The race started at 5PM; we arrived at mock grid around 4:40. Mentally I prepared for the start by focusing on just staying on the track and didn’t worry about positions. The rain had stopped, but the track was still wet. We had three hours to make up any lost positions.

As we came around to start the race, I was on the inside of the 8th row (14th place as one of the competitors did not start). When the green came out, I saw a big gap down the middle of the track. There was some risk, as I would have nowhere to go if the was an accident in turn-1. But it paid off handsomely – I made two positions. Everyone was cautious and it was a clean start. At the top of turn-2, Mark Gawronski was slow on the inside – he might have started on slicks – so I passed on the outside of 2.

In turn-5, I went to the outside again and went around two faster BMW’s, but lost the positions on the race up the back straight.

Up into turn-8, I was behind a red BMW when he started to lose it in the wet. Would this be a repeat of my big crash at Calabogie in 2008? He started to spin right, then corrected left before completely losing it around to the right again. I had lifted and stayed basically center track behind him until I could figure out which way he would end up. When he finally lost the tail, I saw the opening to the left and went for it. I quickly glanced in my mirror and saw that his spin had basically bottled up everyone behind him – I was the only one who had gotten by cleanly.

By the time I came around to the start line, I was already up to 10th place overall.

Working turn-9

This gave me a breather to chase down the next car ahead of me, a Porsche GT3 driven by Roberto Sabato. What a thrill it was to hound down a GT3! It was obvious that Roberto couldn’t get the power down on the wet track. I tried at the bottom of turn-2 and again in turn-5, but each time he made his Porsche as wide as possible. At the same time, one of the Sentras was also trying to get by me and we traded positions a few times but I was able to get by pull out a gap on the Andretti straight.

At the end of the second lap Howard Chin took back the position he lost on the opening lap and was able to close up on the Porsche too. I was able to stay with him and eventually took the position back again on the pit straight; he retired a few laps later with a mechanical issue.

In the wet, I was able to go on the power a little earlier than the cars around me, which gave a good run out of the corners.

Eventually, as the track dried out, my wet-track advantage was lost and I started to fall back as the faster cars could start using their power and grip to get by. After a little over an hour, I was called in for our first drivers change. I had been up as high as 9th place overall, but when I pitted, I had fallen back to 11th.

Over the radio Steve asked about the fuel state and I replied that the tank was just under half. So we made the decision to just do a drivers change without refueling. Coming into pit lane I loosened the belts and prepared to hop out.

Jay got in and when out. I told him the car was great and to start pushing right away.

However, we found that the fuel gauge is not very accurate. Jay drove until the car started having fuel pickup problems after about 30 minutes. We prepared for our second stop, this time for both fuel and driver. I was still in my race suit so I was assigned to fire extinguisher while Frank did the fueling. We put in one 27-litre can and meant to add at least half of a second. I watched the fuel level, but I misjudged it and we got about 1/3 of the second can.

Steve got in the car and tore out of the pits. But he was nailed for exceeding the pit lane speed limit. He came in for his stop-and-go penalty and went out again.

After about 30 minutes he radioed in that the oil light had come on, so he came into the pits. We added liter of oil and he went out again.

A short time later, he radioed in that he was out of fuel. Since Jay’s stint was short, we decided to do a fuel stop and driver change to put Jay back in.

Frank had already changed out of his fire suit, so I did the fueling. We had to ask one of the Krikorian’s crew-members to hold the fire extinguisher. We put in a full can of fuel and then strapped in Jay.

However, he also broke the pit lane speed limit and had to come in for a stop and go penalty. He had started a scrap with Vincent from Quebec but the penalty brought that to an end.

In the rush to get in the car, Jay didn’t have time to get the radio system plugged in, so we didn’t have any communications from him. When he was slow to get around, we grew concerned. He finally arrived on pit lane, driving slowly. Once stopped, he asked us to check the tires – the car was not handling well. We checked all tires (pressures were good), brakes (one pad was well worn) and wheel nuts (all looked secure). Nothing looked too bad, so we sent him out again. Again he was late to come back around. Time ticked on and he did not complete the lap, so we checked with the officials. They radioed the control tower and they found out he had stopped at the top of turn-4.

It was 15 minutes from the end of the 3 hours.

Once the race was over and the car was towed back to our paddock we found the left front wheel bearing had failed. The only thing holding the wheel hub on the car was the brake caliper. This caused problems when we tried to load the car into the trailer. We had everyone push as hard as we could then had to use the tie-down straps to pull the car into the trailer.

After that, we had a burger BBQ for supper.

Reviewing the weekend, I felt great about my start. I really made a great run in the wet. Even the track announcer was remarking on my progress. I was only 0.3 seconds off Steve’s best laps although we are still slower than expected. Our two strategies really failed. Classifying in GT-4 was a mistake – the other car finished, so no matter what we would have done, we could not win. We weren’t even fast enough to be competitive in GT-5. The breakout time is 1:41.000, and Steve’s best lap was 1:42.706. And our pit stops were terrible. We made 7 stops, including three driver changes and two stop-and-go penalties.

We will return in September for the BEMC War Bonnet 3-hour race. Hopefully we can have more success then.

Calabogie Control Tower

This weekend I worked in the control tower at Calabogie Motorsports Park for the inaugural Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada event. I was an assistant to the series Race Director Terry Dale and I also helped the clerk of the course Peter Manganelli with the running of the other races during the weekend.

Just last weekend I went to Mosport to take the training course for the Clerk of the Course. I also wrote the exam and submitted it to CASC-OR for review. I found out then that the exam review is face-to-face. The earliest I can have the review is next weekend at the Victoria Day Speedfest.

So this weekend at Calabogie was not a signature event (an event where I can get a signature on my new logbook). But I did get to work in the tower for the entire weekend, and it was a real pleasure.

Aside from my racing (Solo-II from 1997 to 2003, road racing from 2003 to the present), I have always been an active volunteer for regional motorsport. I have held licenses as a flag marshal and pit marshal, I have worked in the pace car for a number of events, and I was a former Secretary of the Meet for MCO‘s Ted Powell Memorial Race Weekend and their regional Race Schools. I also instruct at the Race Schools and high performance driving schools, such as for the BMW Car Club of Ottawa.

I want to expand my experience into the role of clerk of the course. It will take years to really get the experience I need, but I am determined to do what is necessary. It’s part of my desire to be more ambitious about what I want in life. Becoming a clerk is one of the things I’ve put off for years, so it’s time to seize the moment. Only by inaction do we give up before trying something.

Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada

I was excited to be working with a professional series like the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge. I downloaded and read all of the IMSA race regulations, series regulations and all of the supplementary regulations too. I also put PDF copies on my laptop and on my iPhone. I was able to easily quote some of the rules when required during one of the sessions – I was proud of that!

During the invitation races, I worked with the Clerk as one of the emergency dispatchers and Peter let me run the course during short periods of time (typically when nothing much was happening)!

There were practice sessions, qualifying and two Porsche GT3 Cup races on the weekend. As well, there were GT Invitational and Formula Libre Invitational races during the weekend. The entry list was a little sparse as the event was non-championship for all the series except Porsche GT3 Cup. Next year, the fields should be much larger.

I came up for the test day on Friday. I wanted to have a session in the #04 Integra (which has a K20 motor), as it is by far our fastest car. However, there was drizzle during my session, so I didn’t work up much speed. I was very gentle on the throttle to prevent spinning off the track. I also had a lot of problems finding fourth gear. Listening to videos from other drivers in the same car, we all have the same problem. It’s just an awkward reach back and to the right.

After lunch, I took out #40, the ex-World Challenge car. This was the car I would be racing for the weekend in GT Sprints, so I wanted to have a session to prepare myself and get a feeling for the car again. I haven’t driven it since last season.

I prepared to take #40 out again for the final session of the day. As I was about to roll off mock grid, I reached up to connect the window net and the fitting snapped off. Without a window net, I could not go out on the track. I got out of the car, changed out of my race suit and then ran around the paddock trying to find someone that had a welder. No one I spoke with had one, but someone suggested that there was a garage in the village of Calabogie. I left the track to find the garage. I eventually did find it, but the lights were off and a sign was posted on the door reading “Back on Monday”.

I drove back to the track thinking my weekend was over before it even began because of a seemingly non-critical weld. Luckily, in the evening we found a team with a welder who fixed us up. When I tried the fitting to make sure everything still worked, I broke off the fitting at other end of the same rod. Unbelievable! We could not weld this new problem (not enough room to gain access), so we safety-wired the end of the rod to the roll cage, and duct taped everything. For the rest of the weekend, we would be getting in and out of the car using the passenger door – that window net was not to be touched again!

Saturday started with a short practice session. The schedule was very tight, so the track time was cut down for all sessions. I started the weekend with a 1:28.431 in this session, which was near the back of the GT-4 class.

Blown right rear tire

The qualifying was just before lunch. It was a short 10-minute session, as the GT Sprints field was split into two groups (partly for safety reasons). My time was 1:27.076, which was only a slight improvement. But it was way off the pace. On the last lap, one of the rear tires burst and went flat. I’m glad I was able to instantly react and brought the car back to the pits. Jay thought that the poor tire condition might have contributed to the slow times. I was so disappointed. Jay was in the same car for the GT Challenge series earlier in the day and his qualifying time was 1:21.916 – over five seconds faster on the short track. I just couldn’t believe I had done so poorly. It really bothered me for most of the afternoon.

Integra #40 Photo by Liz

The race was in the middle of the afternoon. I had fun, but still finished second last in class. I was happy I made some good passes. Sadly, the video camera wasn’t on because I couldn’t properly reach the on-button while I was on mock grid (and belted in). I was also happy that I brought the lap time down to 1:24.586. Still not great, but a good improvement. A friend had told me the best place to pass was on the outside of Turn-15 (aka Spoon), so I tried that over and over again – it worked great the few times I could close up on a competitor before the turn!

Meanwhile, Steve was working on the #04 Integra. He was also racing in the GT Challenge series and decided to put on a set of racing slicks. However, once we had the tires mounted, the rims wouldn’t fit because of suspension clearance. We fixed that problem with a bunch of spacers. Next, the tires were rubbing on the bodywork. So we spent 30-45 minutes rolling the fenders to allow for the larger tires. During the 1-hr race, Steve went like hell for about 30 minutes before the slicks were done and his lap times plummeted to over 1:40 per lap.

Sunday morning, as we were preparing the cars, we worked on the hood pins on my #40 car. One of the rivets had come out, so we spent time re-attaching the fittings. There was a short 10-minute practice session in the morning, so I got ready and took the car out. I had only driven about 150 meters before the hood snapped up, caught by the wind, and smashed the window and wrecked the hood. I was able to see under the bottom of the hood and slowly followed the outside white line around the track to the pits and back to the paddock. The windshield was destroyed. We could run without a hood, but the broken front window was irreparable. I thought my weekend was over (again). I was heartbroken. Calabogie has not been very successful for me (one totaled Honda Civic (2008), one DNS and last place because of brakes (on #40, 2009) and now another broken car (#40 again)).

2010 Ted Powell Sun warmup from Richard Muise on Vimeo.

Steve and talked about it and came up with another solution. We changed cars. Instead of the Integra, I would take out the #03 Saturn and Steve moved from the Saturn back to #04 (with regular R-compound tires instead of the destroyed slicks). We arranged everything with the registrar and timing and everyone gave us the thumbs-up.

Due to the number of cars registered in the GT Sprints, they had to split the field into GT1-3 and GT4-6 for Sunday. Instead of two 20-minute races, each group would only get a single 30-minute race.

We set up all the cars for video, as four of the five drivers would be out for the final race. Steve and I started at the back of the field because of the car changes. The Saturn was in GT-6. There were three cars in GT-6 on Saturday, so I expected to be racing with two other cars.

2010 Ted Powell GT Sprints (Sunday race) from Richard Muise on Vimeo.

On the start, a car spun at the apex of Turn 1 and was blocking part of the track. I saw an opening on the grass to the right, so I went for it while part of the pack was bottled up on the left side. I made a few places to faster cars that took the positions back over the next few laps.

Saturn #03 Pic by 303 Imaging

On the first lap, I passed Nick, driving the Fiesta in GT-6. On the front straight at the end of the first lap, I missed a shift and lost the position to Nick, but I took it back before Turn 2. I passed Bruce (in Team00 Integra #00) in the Ducks Head section of Calabogie on Lap 2 – he was competing in GT-5.

Once past Bruce, I had clear track for a while and I pushed hard looking for the third car in GT-6 (a Honda Civic).

Both Steve and my cars had working radios, with Jay and Joshua providing updates and encouragement from the pit straight and the berm in the quarry section.

It took a few laps to get confident to go through Turn 1 flat out without lifting, as the rear of the Saturn never feels truly planted. The Saturn is easy to drive. It is only lacking acceleration due to the low horsepower and all the extra weight; it still has all the original glass and door mechanisms for example. What it does have is momentum, just like the Civic we used to have in Team00.

I had to find a comfortable shifting pattern too. I had not driven the Saturn in about 2-3 years. It’s not a high-revving engine like the Honda and Acuras, so finding the right places to shift is important.

Over the next 5 laps, I slowly reeled in other cars in GT-5, still hunting for the other GT-6 car. I’m really proud of how I was able to pick off a few of the GT-5 cars, making good passed for overall position.

Near the end of the race, I lapped Bruce and Nick again, while I was still trying to catch the other GT-6 Civic.

At the checkered flag I whopped and hollered because I should be in second place as I never saw the Civic, a good showing for the problems of the previous sessions and considering I had not been in the Saturn in a few years and had no practice.

At the podium, they did the GT-5 and GT-4 trophies and then thanked everyone for coming. “Hey!” I said, “What about GT-6?” The timing sheets were consulted and reviewed and the presenter realized that he had missed us.

GT-6 Podium Pic by Albert Cohoe

He started with Nick in second place. I instantly realized that that meant that the other GT-6 car did not start the race. That meant that I won my first race!!! Hurrah!! He called my name to take the top step of the podium and I hollered in joy. I was given the gold medallion and a bottle of Forty Creek Whiskey. I was so happy. My first win! All these years of racing, all those second places, and finally some pay off.

I also felt that it was not a full victory, as there were only two cars in GT-6. I pumped myself up a little by remembering that I not only passed a number of the GT-5 cars but that I lapped my only competitor and one of the GT-5 cars as well. It wasn’t a cruise to the finish line. And when I was racing, I thought I was still racing to catch the other GT-6 car, which didn’t actually exist (it didn’t take the start because of a mechanical issue).