Summit Point PCA race, 10/7-8/2000
Here is a picture by Eric Rupert, Turn 5 before the carousel:
The Potomac region of the PCA hosted the Summit Point race in West Virginia. It was my first time at this track. I convoyed down with the "F-troop" from New York state: Jeff Burger (blue 3.2 Carrera), Bob Scotto (blue silverish 3.2 Carrera), and Henk Westerduin (Bob's twin car). Henk also brought his son the famous "MatMan". We left late Thursday afternoon. I made it later than planned due to finding a broken rear swaybar mount the night before. Luckily the local race shop, Racing Restorations in Danbury, CT (the shop that prepares Newman's 280ZX turbo vintage car and bunches of Cobras and Mustangs) was able to weld it up for me and reinforce it Thursday morning.
We made very good time on the trip down, even in the fog and rain. Only once we almost had an incident due to Bob finding himself on the wrong side of some safety flares on the road which tested the ABS on our tow vehicles. We had some drinks in the bar at the Holiday Inn and planned to get to the track at the break of dawn Friday to get good pit location at the open practice day. I got only about 5 hours of sleep which is not nearly enough, now that I am self-employed I like to get eight! When we arrived nothing else was moving so we got a nice large area for our tents.
My car was setup about as it was for the last race though I had tightened the front sway bar a bit which did not seem to help at all. I ran Friday open practice day on my old vintage racing Kumhos to learn the track. The track seems awkward to me, some of the turns are not good for my car and neither is the long straight! I ran 1:28s on Friday, I think I could almost keep up with the F cars. After practice we were beat and headed back to the Hotel. I was so tired that I FELL ASLEEP at the traffic light before the highway on ramp while driving. Luckily the CB woke me up just before the green light and my foot was firm on the brake pedal.
Friday night we had some more wine at the hotel's bar, then barely made it across the street for some steaks. If we had listened to our leader at the crossing we would have been road kill... The Texas steak house was totally full, there were dozens waiting. Thanks to Dr. Bob for his fast thinking, they accepted our reservation for "Mr. Jackson". Mr. Lincoln was not going to do it and Mr. Franklin was a bit much, after thinking about it the hostesses found us a real nice table, THANKS BOB!!! After dinner and a few (?) more bottles of wine we somehow made it back across the street for some much needed sleep before the first official race day. Late Friday night my crew chief John Manifold arrived on his Ducati. He was in decent shape for such a long cold ride, but nothing like the ride home...
Here is a shot coming down the chute into tight Turn 5 by Mark Weining / Delaware region:
Saturday morning I left the Kumhos on for the first practice session and got about 1:27, traffic was a pain on this track. For the second practice I went to my fresh Hoosiers which were broken in at our shortened race at Watkins Glen. I tightened the rear shocks but it was a bit too twitchy in esses so I went back to a bit less than full tight. I was no faster but some E cars were about 3 seconds ahead, lead by John Sullivan's 944 TurboS with a low 1:24. He had raced me closely at Pocono, I was a bit faster but he won. Ron Savenor in his prepared 3.2 Carrera was also very fast with a 1:25 as was Bruce Duff in his wide body carbureted 911SC bumped up 2 classes. I had a pack of 944 Turbos all around me, I had to break away from them or they would continue to hold me up in the turns and pull me on the long straight. There were only a few F cars that were running with me, the three F-Troopers mostly. So I felt I was doing OK as they were only slightly slower on the straight and had raced here before.
On the third practice I got down to a low 1:26 but one of the 944Turbos, the Blue '86 of Brian Bailey, got ahead of me with a high 1:25. Bob Scotto was just ahead of me for the fastest F car. The last session Saturday was the practice starts and 5 lap fun race. In one of the practice starts, I was forced off the road by a Red 944 Turbo who I would have hit if I continued my line into turn three. Since I was ahead at turn-in I had the right to do so but instead backed off and ran into the gravel on the outside of the turn. That was real nice in a "fun race". I talked to him and he did not realize what happened, I learned that I have to block to keep people from pulling moves like that. Later I would take an inside line into that turn if someone had a jump on me, and it worked well. That turn just has no runoff room and a lift in the corner will send you into the gravel as it is off camber. During the fun race I did OK and moved up to 4th place but many of the faster cars did not run or started from the back. A ran a low 1:26 which was about the best anyone but Ron did in the short fun race.
Here is another picture by Eric Rupert, with Bob Scotto aside me:
Saturday night was the barbeque at the track, it got COLD and we warmed our hands in the candy-corn lanterns on the tables. The food was good but we were freezing so we headed back to the hotel to watch bad 80s rock band rockumentaries on VH-1 (good to put us to sleep).
Sunday morning was a warm-up followed by our qualifying session, gridded the same as the fun race. Bob and I discussed stategy and decided to start slow to let the cars ahead get some room so they would not slow us in the tight sections. But on the warm-up lap some of the cars tried to get by us, so I went alongside Bob to keep them back as they would surely slow us down substantially. Up to that point I had not had a single clear lap in any session so did not know how fast I could go. Our first clear lap was OK but I slowed down too much in the lefthander before the carousel and was not pushing hard enough. We soon ran into traffic. I caught up to the Boxster and blew a few laps, then slowed down to a near stop until cars came into view, started full speed again, and still caught traffic in the tight back section again where there is no room to pass. I was able to get a few decent laps, and was catching up to Bruce Duff and Jeff Burger, but just staying even, so I knew Jeff was flying to stay with Bruce. Jeff was having engine problems but kept his foot in it and it cleared out after a few laps.
My fastest lap ended up a high 1:25 on my 3rd lap, after that I did not get any clear laps. I really need to come into the pits when this happens and find a break in traffic. Brian Bailey was just ahead of me and Bob behind, but Jeff pulled off an amazing 1:24!! He was ready to go home on a high note as his engine was still running poorly when he exited the track and he could not locate the problem. But he decided to try to race and get out of the way if the engine would not pull at the start.
The start of the race was waved off as the cars were too spread out. After another warmup lap was the actual start of the race. I got an awful launch and was passed somewhere on that lap by Harry Kintzi's red 944T. Somehow I passed Harry and Bruce Duff on the next lap to move up to 7th overall, 2 spots behind Jeff and just behind Brian for a few laps. I wish I had my video on but I think it was due to traffic/spin. This picture is the 2nd lap, I was still looking good, by Alan Herod :
Three cars including Harry and Bob got by me due to a spin in front of me a few laps later. But soon Harry spun and I was following Bob for several laps, with Bob trying to get around a 924dp GT5 car. Bob finally passed him in the Carousel, just as he told me he could do! I was not so lucky and followed him for 4 or 5 laps. When we were catching up to lap the Boxster I followed the 924 closely, we passed at the end of the main straight and somehow he decided to slow down while exiting Turn 1 (he missed a shift?) with me right behind him and we made contact. I hit him square in the rear, destroying my RF headlight and denting my hood a bit. It tossed him up and a bit sideways but we both kept going. He eventually passed Bruce Duff who I followed quite closely for the last three laps, ending up just behind him at the finish.
I thought there was a slow or stopped car in Turn 1 that made the 924 slow in T1 just as I was getting on the gas to try to beat him to the next turn. There was a blue 944 on the inside, Brian's car which had a brake problem. Or maybe the 924 thought he had hit the Boxster (he told me that) I wish I had my video installed...
Tony Nuzzo, the red Boxster who we had just passed, wrote:
I was coming down the main straight and I saw you both approaching at near Berger like speed. I moved left to give you guys the inside. I believe the spinning car was off on the grass to the right and out of the way already. I was right along side of your drivers door and could see there was some room between you and him. But you both were exiting turn one and should have been back on power when it looked like he just lifted or hit the brakes. I couldn't believe it. It looked like you tried to stop but you had no where to go except into him. I couldn't see faces but I'll bet both of you were very surprised this happened. I know I was.
I'd like to know from the other driver why he nearly stopped in the middle of the turn. Two thoughts come to mind but I can only guess. First, he saw something that gave him reason to slow down, knowing you were right on him. Second, he was trying to back you off a little to get a jump on you at exit. I don't know did you talk with him?
I wrote : When I first went to see him, he did not know what happened, thought he had hit the red car (you?). Maybe that's why he nearly stopped?
RENNLISTer Chief Steward Jim Coshow gave me a 13/13 probation for the incident. He says it is black and white - if you hit someone it is your fault, if he could slow down enough then so should I. It will not change how I drive at all, I am already the most careful driver out there as I can't afford to do any repair work on my car and would never forgive myself if I damaged such a perfect chassis.
After packing up hastily between trips to find Jim to get my 13/13, we went to the awards ceremony as Jeff won F class and maybe he would get an award. I recieved a very nice consolation prize, totally unexpected - Best prepared car!!!!!. Maybe my hours spent near the scales setting up my suspension had something to do with it, in addition to the "incident". Here are the RACE RESULTS from the PCA website.
Last was the long ride home, this time in the cold but dry. John Manifold survived the 6 hour ride back on his Ducati (no fairing) in near freezing weather thanks to some mid-trip donations of clothing and helmet visor by the F-troop and myself. He discovered that the RSR type wings on Scotto's and Henk's cars are better for drafting than the wing I run, and was warmer running a few inches behind them in the draft. He was nearly frozen by the time he got home, where it was even worse as there was no heat in his house... luckily the shower was available!
I have mixed feelings about Summit Point, I felt my car was not working well however I was able to just about keep up with the F cars. If I can get my car dialed in there it could be competitive in E, but I doubt I will run there next year unless I am really excited about racing that late in the year. I hope I am incident free next year or I will have no choice!
Thanks to the F-troop for their waiting for me at the start of the trip and several times when I got caught in traffic towing. And Jack's mother thanks you as the Manifold family jewels were not totally frozen solid!
For more writeups of this event, see Barry Lenoble's racing pages and Cris Brady's writeup (all of us are in E - strange??).