by Mike Piera
Picture by Analog Mike
After several test days at PCA driver’s education events the car was ready for it’s first race with the new engine. Chris Musante did a great job on the engine last fall, using many of my old parts due to my cheapness. The engine was leaking a bit of oil, probably from the oil cooler which we failed to replace. It was not leaking at it’s last race at Watkins Glen after I had gotten the cooler welded up, so I thought it would be OK. Should have replaced it…
The suspension was dialed in thanks to a set of corner balancing scales that Oliver Zitzmann and I bought together over the winter. The shifter was replaced with a newer one out of my friend Jack’s wrecked 911SC, with all new bushings. I also added a home-made ROBOSHIFT-like spring to keep it in the 3-4 gate and try to avoid anymore mis-shifts like the one that did my engine in at Watkins Glen when leading the DEFG fun race.
The night before I had about the worst experince ever trying to pack up for the race. First, the trailer tongue was not clamped down well and it popped up and rammed the rear bumper of the Jeep when I put the car on the trailer. That was not too bad. Then it started drizzling so I backed up the trailer, put the Jeep in DRIVE, and headed to my garage to keep the car and trailer overnight. After a second I heard a CRASH and thought my toolbox had fallen out of the back of the Jeep. But it was much worse. The 911 had slid backwards off the trailer, and was resting with the rear wheels on the ground and the chassis hung up on the back edge of the trailer. The rear sway bar had taken quite a hit too.
I could not think of a solution so I called my brother to help and bring his big floor jack, as all I have is a small floor jack. In the meantime I jacked up the trailer tongue to improve the angle of the trailer and take some load off the chassis of the car. I then jacked up each rear wheel under the banana arm and stuck wooden planks under each tire to try to get the chassis unstuck from the trailer. It was almost dark and starting to rain… hard!! My wife and daughter were lending a hand but not much they could do. Then my brother showed up with his big jack. I finally discovered the solution would be to jack up the whole rear of the car enough to get the ramps out, and just lower the car onto the ramps. We could now get the big jack under the engine due to the wood under the tires. By this time there was a thunderstorm and a deluge of rain causing rivers in the parking lot on which we labored. But he got the car up high enough that I could pull the trailer ramps out and slide them under each wheel. We then drove the car back onto the trailer and PUT ON A TIEDOWN STRAP so it would not fall off again on the way to the garage. I will never move the trailer with a car on it again without using the tiedowns… stupid.
Without as much sleep or rest as I had hoped to get, I made it up to Lime Rock Friday morning for the 1st day of the event. It was no longer raining but still wet, especially in the pits. I found a spot nobody wanted in a good location but pretty flooded… I hoped the water would drain soon but it was still there for most of the weekend so I worked around it.
The first session I had a new set of Hoosiers to heat cycle. After a few warm-up laps I started pushing and the car felt great! The tires allowed the car to dance into the fast turns with just a touch of the brakes. First timed lap was a 1:02 flat, next lap was a 1:01:9 which is only half a second from my fastest lap ever! Car was feeling great, I had loosened by rear shocks and rear sway bar at the last driver’s ed event which allowed it to work better on this bumpy track, though it was a bit twitchy in the esses just before and after the left hander. I soon hit traffic so discontinued timing my laps, then came in early as my tires had enough heat cycling and should be good enough for the race the following day.
Below is a shot of me and Henk Westerduin. Henk had recently aquired a C2 Cup car from Europe, a very sharp car! He had been running an ’88 911 Carrera with the F Troop for a long time, but they have been tiring of the F class. Bob Scotto has also purchased one of these cars (a real beauty with a nice racing paint scheme). Jeff Burger must be itching for one now as he has sold his very fast and recently restored Carrera. Unfortunately (for both Henk and his future competition in D!) his engine blew during qualifying, after pulling a very fast lap under 1:01 which would have tied him for 2nd place in D class. His engine did not seem that strong but I bet the new one will be!
Nick Soldner
I thought my 1:01:9 in the 1st session would put me at the top of the field for the next session, but when I saw the results I was at the bottom! Darn, forgot my transponder… my time would have put me in the #1 position though so I felt pretty good. Ron Savenor had also forgotten his transponder so we would both start at the back of the pack next session. Ron had a new car this year after winning so many races in his 3.2 Carrera Prepared class car. This is a C2, also prepared to run up a class. The C2 has a 3.6 liter engine as opposed to my 2.7, with TONS more torque but a lot more weight to carry around. However the suspension and brakes are better so the C2 is considered the best F car and maybe the best E car in Prepared form. I was not sure how ready he would be for his 1st race but he was always a tough competitor so I knew I had a tough race on my hands.
Ron and I planned on going out slowly so the head of the group could catch up to us and we could run with them, so we would not have to pass all the other cars in bad traffic. The lead cars came out soon and we joined right up with them. I had some pretty good tires for a change, usually I have practiced on totally worn out tires but due to blowing my engine last year I had a set of tires with only about 6 heat cycles, so they performed great. In this practice I had some clean laps towards the end, running with a pack of fast cars like Ron, and turned my all time fastest lap, a 1:01.3, with my 2nd fastest lap just a few tenths slower. I was hoping to break 1:01 sometime this weekend as my main goal (other than winning!) so it was well in sight. Ron was way ahead though, with a 1:00.4, and a C class 930 was between Ron and me in this session. My 1:01.9 from the last session which was the fastest in the group would have only been good for 9th pace this session! There were a bunch of D cars just behind me, in a very tight group – the extremely fast 944 Turbo Cup (Rothmans paint) car of John Paton, Henk Westerduin in his brand new (to him) C2 cup car, Allen Noveck (white C2 cup car), Kenny Lubell in his “new” 993, and Mayo Smith in his Brumos colored 911RS lightweight (same car as mine but much lighter and a lot more go-fa$t mods). The next fastest E car was Bruce Duff who is always tough in his widebody slope-nose 911SC, and the young Derek Tietjen was right behind him in his fast 944TurboS.
Below you can see four of us abreast trying to make
it to the 1st turn in the fun race- Mayo, Me, John Paton, and Henk’s
car just visible. Behind is the fast D class 930 turbo of Bert Cossaboon. I had
missed the shift on this start from the pole position :-(
Cris Brady/Brian Fugok
Practice three was next, and this was an important session as it would be used for the starts of the fun race AND for qualifying. I had some good laps running with the fast D cars, and turned another personal best, a 1:01.2. This time it would only be good enough for 3rd place overall, and not including Ron Savenor who chose not to run this session as he found his car was over 100 pounds too light!!! He needed time to bolt in some weights and try to salvage the weekend. The two cars ahead of me, John Paton and Allen Noveck (both D cars) were at 1:00.8, and Henk was just behind me as were the bunch of D cars and a C class 930. Derek and Bruce were several cars back but their times were very close to mine.
I was gridded 3rd, on the inside 2nd row. But my light car is very quick at low speed starts so I made my way up to 2nd position after the 1st start, then to pole position for the third start (if I remember correctly). Below you can see my great start with Mayo and Paton in pursuit, and Henk close behind.
Cris Brady/Brian Fugok
But the 3rd start would find me missing the 2-3 shift, causing the 4-car wide scene which I showed above. I thought I had fixed the balky shifting problem by putting in some new motor mounts and new shifter bushings… this would prove my downfall this weekend. Also Ron Savenor had cheated his way to the 1st position after three starts by jumping the green flag each start. He came by me about 15 MPH faster than I was going and a few other cars also got by due to my missed shift. After a few fast laps following Ron, John, and Mayo, I was called in on a black flag. They did not like the look of my remote mounted video head on my passenger’s door. But it was safe so they told me I could go back out. No need, that was enough for me so I went to the scales to get weighed and found I was about 30 pounds heavy, just where I wanted to be after a VERY short session. Unfortunately they only weighed the cars at the top of the field so Ron was not weighed, it would have been interesting to see if he had enough lead in the car now.
Friday night after dinner I hitched a ride home from
Oliver Zitzmann in his 3.6 911 C2 Turbo! Much better than my Jeep.
Oliver was having a
great weekend, way out in front in F class, actually even faster than me in E.
Saturday morning was a short practice session, so I went out and got the feel for the car. It still felt good, so I came in to change my tires to the new ones for qualifying and the race. John Manifold (Jack) showed up just in time and we bled the brakes and installed the new rubber. He brought his new Kawasaki Ninja 250 (!) and we finally discovered what color my 911 is. It’s Kawasaki green!!! Perfect match. For qualifying I went out pretty hard and tried to get in good laps as soon as possible just in case there was a problem with the session. I was getting some 1:01s which was not great then I started to hit traffic. My car does not have enough power to pass anyone in this group on the straights so traffic kills me. I could not get any clean laps in-every time I had one going I would catch up to a slow car and blow it. FINALLY a gap opened up on my 14th lap (tires were already going away) and I pulled off a clean lap of 1:00.8, just as I had hoped!!!! It was nothing amazing in driving, just no mistakes and I kept my speed up pretty well. I then hit traffic again and tried a few more times but gave up and came in early, hoping my lap time would be good enough. John Paton pulled off an amazing 59.996!!!! Holy Cow, under a minute in a stock (not really, it’s a factory racer) Porsche! 2nd fastest in the group was none other than yours truly, with the 1:00.8. Where was Ronny in his ballasted C2? 6/1000ths of a second behind me! Spanked him pretty good I must say… Just behind Ron were Mayo, Allen, another C2 cup car, a C class 996, then my competition Derek and Bruce at about a second slower than my time but too close for comfort. Kenny Lubell would have been alongside Derek and Bruce except he was a few pounds underweight, bad luck (never trust anyone who tells you the car they sold you is legal! It’s not!!!).
Here is a link to the Qualifying Results.
For the race I would be gridded on the outside pole, not a bad spot for me as I like an outside line after the start in Big Bend, that was how I was able to work up to pole position in the practice starts. Here is a shot in staging of John Paton’s car with mine to the left, just as we headed out to the track.
Photo by Nick Soldner
Here is a shot of more of the field in staging. You can see Ron, Mayo, and Allen behind me.
Photo by Nick Soldner
I was hoping to get a good start and rocket by Paton’s 944 which has quite a bit of turbo lag and starts slowly. But it would be tough keeping Ronny and Mayo behind as their cars are also rockets at the start and they are both aggressive drivers. I planned for a long time what all the options were but none would help as I missed the 2-3 shift again and several cars shot past me at the start. I repassed 3 or so in the 1st few turns, coming out in 4th place by the back section of the track. Ron was in the lead, with Paton, Mayo, and me right on his tail. They were not going very fast, quite easy to keep up with, turning 1:01s and driving a bit defensively. Finally after a few laps Paton got by Ronnie so I was getting closer to Ronnie. Mayo could not get by Ronnie so we follwed him for a few laps until we started lapping the slower cars which was too soon. Each time I would lose a bit of distance to Ron but I kept him in site for many of the 27 laps (a very long race!!!!). I hoped he would screw up or his tires would go away having to cart all that weight around.
Soon I was having a great race with Allen Noveck who would pull alongside me at the end of the straight (very good power and braking on his cup car!) and I would leave him room on the inside but race beside him through big bend and into the left hander, where I would pull away and lead for another lap. This happened about 3 times until I finally could not hold him off under braking and put a few wheels off the outside of big bend. In previous races I had let the fast D cars by, but they always ended up slowing me down as they were only faster on the straights so this time I was not going to be passed easily. I thank Allen for clean racing and I think my moves did not hurt his finish (he finished 2nd in D). Towards the end of the race I could no longer see Ron (he finished 14 seconds ahead of me) and my brakes and tires were getting mushy, possibly because the tires were not heat-cycled long enough before the race. A pair of 930 turbos passed me (one came from nowhere after nearly spinning at the top of the hill and passed me like nothing. Maybe someone should check their boost!). Also Joe Fabiani in his C class 993 was biting at my heels for a few laps so I let him by as I could barely stay on the track under braking. That was about it for the race, Derek finished up about 20 seconds behind me for 3rd in E with Bruce another 10 seconds back. If I hadn’t missed the shift at the start it would have been interesting to see how long I could have stayed ahead of Ron and how long I could have run with him and Allen.
Mayo ended up with an incident braking into big bend, with an E car not giving him room. Mayo pulled into the grass on the inside but could not stay there long and went back onto the track, contacting the E car which spun around on the track. I was right behind him by the time the car was spun and I picked a spot and went around him as fast as I could so as not to get held up like at Pocono last year which cost me the race. Mayo’s left front sustained a bit of damage and he was given a 13 month probation which he is trying to appeal. It was quite similar to the incident at Mont Tremblant which you can see on my web site – 2 cars not giving each other racing room. I was not close enough at contact to have seen what happened but I think it was probably (as usual) both driver’s fault.
Here is a link to the Race Results.
My new engine performed well, the suspension even better, and my driving was not too shabby. Only the transmission gave me problems. Qualifying 1st and finishing 2nd would have to do, not bad! See you all at the Glen – last year I was so fast there they chose my engine for scrutineering, I hope to be even faster this year and hope I can make the race this time.
Here is another report from this race from fellow E class 2.7 Carrera driver Cris Brady who contributed many of the pictures above. Cris Brady's Lime Rock Report
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