2004 Porsche Club Race at Lime Rock

See you in September

In 2004 the race was moved to September to avoid a conflict with the Rennsport Reunion2 in Daytona. We hoped it would help avoid the spring rain but no luck... Rain was forecast for both days, remnants from one of the countless hurricanes of 2004 which had wiped out the Southeast. So I ordered some new dry tires in case, but did not bother mounting them.

E and F were a VERY large group, instead of 5 we had 4 run groups. We had up to 34 cars on the track, so traffic was bad. I had my new engine running OK but still too rich at part throttle and too lean at full throttle. And running very badly when cold. Still not installed the WEVO shifter but handling was fine. Installed an innovate motorsports LM-1 and AUX box to datalog mixture, RPM, egt, manifold pressure, and Gs.

First Practice was cool but the track was dry and pretty fast, so I installed my 5 race old Hoosier S04s. It went OK but tough traffic so I just broke a 1:02, good for 2nd place behind Oliver Zitzmann's C2 who was 2/10ths faster.

For the second practice I had one of my fastest PCA laps ever, a 1:01.1 which was faster than Oliver by about 3/10ths. And I was sure there was more time to be had as I was not pushing as in qualifying. The 3rd practice is used for gridding qualifying so is fairly important. But traffic was terrible again so I could not break a 1:02 and Oliver got me back with a mid 1:01, with nobody else in the 1:02s due to traffic.

Last on Friday was the practice starts followed by a fun race of 15 laps - very long for a fun race. I did well the 1st start but the 2nd start I was in 4th gear instead of 2nd and about 10 cars got by. I repassed a few in the 1st few turns then the rest in the 3rd restart and got behind Oliver. I followed him for many laps, getting a bit alongside in the first few turns but not close enough to pass. Finally I got a good downhill run and was on his tail into big bend. I took an outside line into the turn as he was blocking on the inside, and held it. I was finding some grip on the marbles so I kept my foot in it and got alongside him by mid turn, then accelerated hard to stay beside him at track out onto the short shoot, putting me in a great position for the lefthander. I was able to hold him off there but he has much more power at the top of the hill so I has to take a very defensive line and move to the right at the top of the hill to avoid a repass. The checkered flag came out a few turns later so I was happy to have made the pass when I did. People seemed to appreciate the difficult pass as many people congratulated me, I felt great and hoped it would stay dry as I thought I could beat Oliver in the dry.

RACE DAY

Saturday I woke at 4:00 am to the sound of HEAVY rain... went back to sleep or tried... outlook was for heavy rain, up to 2-3 inches tapering off. Got to the track and not many people were around or interested in racing. First session was delayed an hour, then another half hour and practice shortened. A few cars went out, I did not even have my rain tires on yet when our group went out for the warmup so I skipped it. Finally I decided to put them on for qualifying, and with help from my guitar biz buddy Jol Dantzig we got them on and got soaked. Then it stopped raining, of course. I was sorry I could not help Jol as our next ywo track sessions had no time between them. Here is what the lefthander looked like when we went out:

Not many cars had stuck around for racing so the 4 groups were combined into two... we got all the slower stock classes combined into our group. That would be an interesting variation of speed between an 80HP 914 and the much more powerful E cars... I went out and the track was pretty slippery, rain was stopped but still plenty of water on the track. Started out slow but built up speed until I hit heavy traffic. I pitted several times to try to find a break in traffic. I stayed out the whole session and built up to what I thought was a good speed and guessed I would qualify near the top. Came in and put on some shoes then we were called to the race grid already, race shoes back on. Put some gas in fast, as it was to be a 30 minute race. FAST... haste makes waste.

Drove to pregrid and found many cars there already, I was given three fingers, so 2 people were faster. I guessed maybe a C4 as they are good in the wet. Turns out Justin Tietjen, one of 5 Tietgens running 944Turbos in this event, got the pole with Chris Reinsborough in 2nd in his C4. They were almost 2 seconds faster than me. I realized later that I was losing too much speed lugging the car around in 4th gear instead of 3rd where I could accelerate better at the lower rain speeds. It was going to be a LONG 30 minute race so there was going to be plenty of time to pass.

The start went pretty well, but I could not get around the two cars ahead of me. When I saw Chris braking a little early I went around him and got close to Justin and moved up to 2nd. Then followed Justin for the first few turns. We headed to the uphill turn which was the slipperiest turn on the track, and Justin went in too fast and plowed right for the guardrail on the outside, then slowed it down pretty well then wiggled and got sideways, maybe when he added gas after he thought he made it. I broke hard and went for an inside line, then accelerated when I thought there was room to get by. I got by on the uphill but he soon charged towards me so I took a defensive line into West Bend. There seemed to be a black flag and PIT 44 (my #) sign at the bridge... but must have been for another car 44 in another slower class as my car was fine and I was driving fine... I stayed ahead of Justin for a lap but this time the black flag was obviously for me $&^%$! So I drove at speed up to the pits and slowed just enough to keep within the 30MPH speed limit. I was waved to the scrutineer area and they quickly shut my hood and told me to continue and KEEP UNDER 30MPH IN THE PITS!

Note to self : close hood firmly after filling tank.

So I got back on the track as soon as possible but almost everyone passed me while I was in the pits. Race is shot... halfway through my next lap I thought I should give up as there was no use in racing and I could damage the car. But I kept going and pushed harder and harder hoping I could catch up somehow. Then I though about yellow flags allowing me to catch up... and hoped we would get some soon.

I was passing cars but the leaders were way out of site and my car number was far from being on the leader board. But we finally got a yellow and I hoped we would bunch up. We did, but there were still too many cars ahead of me and I could barely see the leaders. I got a decent restart and passed several cars but a group of cars ahead blocked me for a few turns allowing the leaders to get away. I got by them on noname straight and started to pull off some fast laps again. Another caution pediod bunched us up again, but there were many lapped cars between me and the leaders... so I hung back a bit and decided to accelerate when I thought the green would come out. the others ahead of me were still going slow... just as I was going to pass them the green came out and I rocketed by about 10 cars before the braking zone, getting pretty close to the leaders. I continued passing more cars through the first few turns and after a few laps found my car number on the leaders board at #5. But I was not sure who was ahead of me, so much lapped traffic mixed in... so I tried to pass everyone any time possible. Gary Hansen spun right in front of me in his E class C2, I guessed he was ahead of me and the leader board soon showed me up a spot. I moved up one by one though I did not really know which passes were for position and which were lapped cars. I finally caught up to Justin, so I thought I would be able to get in the lead. But he was VERY fast, killing me on the no-name straight and the front straight, and through the fast turns. His 944T was leaning and digging in, with nice wide rain tires giving him much more grip than I had on my skinny rain tires in the drying conditions. Most turns were pretty dry but I could not carry enough speed through them, my rain tires were not only skinny but almost as old as Justin who I believe was a rookie this race (!). I hoped he would make another mistake in front of me, but he drove perfectly and I could not get close enough to do anything by the time the checkered flag came out.

I ended up 2nd in class and overall, about 4.5 seconds behind Justin. I had passed more cars for position in this race than in all the races in my first three years of PCA racing combined but it was not enough. I'll never know if I could have stayed ahead if my hood was latched. I was really looking forward to my 1st PCA win at LRP, very odd as I have numerous 2nds there and wins everywhere from Ohio to Carolina but no PCA wins at my home track. And this year I was fastest in the dry, while I have often been fastest in the wet but still not been able to win. Maybe 2005?

In the awards ceremony my car was awarded BEST PREPARED, very cool! Then I was really surprised by an additional award for Worker's Choice, which I had previously won at LRP in '99, 00, 03, super cool! Between the patented pass in the fun race and all the action in the feature race I guess we put on a great show and I am glad people appreciated all the work we put into this race. I felt bad though as the workers were really cheering for us but I could not quite pull off the win...

Here are the results

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