By Mike Piera, AnalogMike@aol.com
The 1999 Porsche Parade was held in the resort town of Mont Tremblant, north of Montreal, Canada. The Tremblant resort is a gorgeous little fabricated town, right out of the alps.
It was about a 9 hour drive from Danbury, CT including stops, so we arrived Sunday night too late to register. Monday was the concours, tennis tournament, and registration all running concurrently, with registration losing the battle.
Concours
Monday morning I washed my bright green and yellow 1973 911 "RS" clone and it was cleaner that it had been since I bought it. A year and a half of racing grime was removed a few days previous, and the interior cleaned for my first time ever. It was put in line in the club racing display along with a few cars which I have never seen at a club race. ;-) I took pictures, as this was the first and last time a car I own may be seen on a concours field. Did I even spell concours right?
I then crossed the road to the tennis tournament with my wife who was also playing, and my seven year-old daughter. I intended to take a break from playing to register for the parade but the action was hot and there was no time to pause until all the matches were done. I was tied with Dan Petchel from CARSINC for a 1st place trophy so we flipped for it. I chose wrong so he won (I hope I get a break on some parts!) Then I went to late-registration to find it had just closed... luckily someone was kind and helped me through most of it. I later found out that there was a LATE LATE registration which would have worked out better but we were in.
Next important activity was the Rennlist Internet broadcast. We did not have a lot of people attending but there were several regulars that I recognized, like Dan, George B. from 944 ecology, and some newcomer with the handle BrucePor. The meeting was very informative and many people were logging into the audio/visual presentation from around the country. Next was the autocross course inspection on Wednesday afternoon. I met Henry Hoeh at the tech sessions and he was planning on driving out so I went with him and another friend.
There were two large mirror-image autocross courses laid out in pro-solo fashion with the starts alongside each other. The courses were fast with a drag race start into a tight single offset, then a short shoot into a VERY tight several- cone slalom. There was then a 90 degree turn onto a long straight with an offset in it that could be taken flat out if set up properly. It was just where I thought I would hit 3rd gear... After the kink was a bit more straight into a tight 180 degree turnaround which would require first gear. After the 180 was a kinked straight into a few medium-speed S-turns, the last being a very tight late-apex turn leading to a turn in the opposite direction. Following that turn was another straight leading to the finish. There was some turning and lifting to get to the finish area. This was much faster than I had anticipated, requiring no braking at all and VERY fast. I don't think the course designers thought people would be crossing the finish line at 60 MPH heading towards the crowd and other vehicles. Most people thought the right course was faster than the left, parts were more open.
I ran in M3 class, with similar 911RS clones and other cars bumped up. We were scheduled to run late in the day so I slept late and got there in time to tech and take a run at the Michelin Slalom course which was set up at the end of the Paddock. This course was tight and technical, with 3 slaloms similar to the one on the main course, and a skidpad which was driven around twice. There was also a fast offset on the way back. My first run was off course due to failing to slow down enough for the second slalom. I also did only one loop on the skidpad. My second run also included some cones but I had found a rhythm. I went to 2nd gear just off the line into the slalom, then used first around the skidpad; just driving around tightly with no sliding or heroics. My 3rd run was finally clean, in the 36 second range. Nobody else had gotten in the 37s, with only a few in the 38s so I was very happy to have a good clean run, as the overall winner would claim a set of Michelin tires worth up to $1,000. The car felt good with the 8" rims I was using. These rims allowed me to run in M3 instead of M4 against Tom Provasi, who is the perennial parade winner in his 350HP 914/6 race car. I waited for his turn in line, and was relieved when Tom could not get his wide-bodied monster through the cones faster than the others. Andy York, who had also won parades before (and SCCA national championships like yours truly) , was next fastest at the time in a well prepared RS America. Later, Henry Hoeh would get 2nd fastest time, in his nearly stock 944 Turbo-S! Now the 944T people can stop complaining about slow courses...
After a short driver's meeting, my group was called to the left main course (A). FTD at the time was Andy York on the right course, with a run just under 50 seconds. Henry was 2nd to him in their Improved class. My first run was bad, hitting cones entering the slalom too fast and plowing in some turns. Also I was much too slow at the finish. Tom Provasi and M4 were running the right course (B) while we in M3 ran on the left. Tom's first run was not real fast either. My second run was clean but not much faster. I plowed a lot after the slalom, bungled the 2-3 shift, and plowed badly in the tight decreasing radius turn using 2nd gear, which screwed up the following straight. The finish was still faster than I was taking it. Tom had a great 2nd run, a mid 49 I think which was good for FTD. He did some awesome driving to get the wide 914 through the 1st offset gate after the start, I thought he was going to hit cones as he was going too fast but he somehow wiggled it through after scrubbing off a lot of speed at the last possible moment.
My 3rd run was decent, but I still plowed after the slalom. I went to 1st gear for the decreasing radius turn which helped a lot. I had a mid 50 second run but a pylon was called, maybe at the 180 as I took it tight and am still not used to the fender flares in back after running my narrow body '72 911S for 13 years. Ed Mayo in a narrow body 914 had a nice 50 flat so he would have beaten me in M3 regardless of the cone. Ed got revenge for previous parades where I had won P13 in my 911S. Looking back, I realize I should have tightened the rear sway bar, as I was not having any wheelspin or twitchiness which had made me loosen it in the past. I had decreased the twitchiness of running wide offset 15 x 8 wheels with 225/45/15s in the front with shock adjustments (rear softer, front stiffer). At least I realized that my little 2.7RS on street legal tires could possibly keep up with the big boys.
Here is a picture from Bill Chadwick, last turn (namerow), where all the action occurred :
St-Gelais/Chadwick/Rudtner
Friday was the day to get ready for the race track, the historic Le Circuit Mont Tremblant which had hosted many famous drivers in the 60s and 70s. Around noon I headed to the track and found my F-Troop friends Bob Scotto, Henk Westerduin, and Jeff Burger at the end of the paddock with a little space which they kindly made available for my car and trailer. I made it to tech after a few trips back to get things that I forgot (first log book, then racing shoes). Now I was able to get on the track for 2 sessions of "track reconnaissance". Unfortunately it started raining and there was no time to change tires so I went out on my Hoosier autox compound DOT tires, which ended up working fine except for the puddles. This gave me some time to study the track which was not easy to learn quickly due to similar looking corners and hidden apexes. For my second session I put on my new Toyo RA-1 rain tires, which were much better and allowed me to use throttle on the straights. I attended the driving banquet Friday night to pick up my certificate for the Michelin tires for winning the Michelin Slalom Challange. I was not planning on attending any banquets as they were too expensive for a family - we could (and did!) eat gourmet food elsewhere for less. So I bought a ticket from someone on the bulletin board, and had a few appetizers (we had reservations that night for a seafood and sushi buffet at the Chateau Mont Tremblant that night, which was most excellent!!!!) I left for my 8:00 reservation just after bowing to the Michelin man.
Saturday morning it was pretty dry so we all went out for a practice on dry tires, I had a set of new Hoosier Road race radials. They felt good but I was still taking it easy, was several seconds slower than Barry Lenoble, my main competition in E class in a white 944TurboS :
In the second session I cranked it up using full throttle and taking it to 7000RPMs before shifting, and got within a few hundredths of a second to Barry so I was satisfied that I could drive the course. We had several fun laps with me in hot pursuit of Barry. He scared me a few times, especially in turn 7, which is a fast 100+mph right hander with a change in pavement which causes you to lose grip when tracking out. Barry got VERY sideways right in front of me, but somehow caught it. Finally he let me by so we could change roles and he could steal my lines ;-). We were running low 2:01s I think. The last session on Saturday was 3 practice starts, followed by a 5 lap fun race. I did my best driving in this session, passing lots of cars and hunting down some mid pack GT4S cars on the final laps. I finished as The first non-GT car, with a best lap time just under 2 minutes, quite close to Bob Scotto's best lap time in F class. He is a much more experienced driver with a better set-up car and is very consistent so he is always a good target to shoot for. Unfortunately we almost never run in the same race group. Here is my car, probably entering the Namerow turn :
My car was holding up well, with a new fuel cell and camber on the left front cranked as far as it would go but still not enough at about 1.8 degrees; so I was wearing my outer tire edge again. The new fuel cell would not allow running with a spare wheel/tire in front so I added another 25 pound weight inside the car, but it might not be enough even with a full cell for a long 30 minute race. So I bolted in my spare brake rotor which gave me a 10 pound cushion, and decided to drive for fuel conservation in the race if possible. One problem I had was losing an exhaust pipe that I had welded on to my muffler to make a cheap sport muffler out of a stock muffler. Now there was a big hole in the muffler, causing strange sounds and heating up my rear valence panel, and maybe losing power. Jim Newton told me to just cover it with some sheet metal so I found a coffee can and some hose clamps thanks to Jeff Burger, and made a quick repair utilizing one stock muffler clamp. It held up OK for a few sessions until a backfire during cool-down lap blew a hole through it. I then re-did it and it held up OK for the rest of the event. The car was running great with the stock outlet and one sport outlet. John Ktistes' car did not hold up quite as well. He drove the nice multi-colored C2 that was right behind me for most of the Pocono race. He lost it in practice in the Gulch turn, a tight left after a fast right hander, and his passenger's door slid into the end of a guardrail with some tires cushioning the hit a bit. His door bars held up VERY well and the car should be OK after some metalwork.
Sunday morning I went out for a short practice session, just taking it easy to re-familiarize myself with the track. Even going slowly, I was able to learn a few things like taking turn 3 very close to the apex to avoid bumps and to help keep to the center of the track before the esses. Next was qualifying, and I hoped to repeat my sub-2 minute lap so I would keep my excellent grid position just behind the fast GT cars. I had some decent laps in the mid 2:00 range, and had a real good one going before coming up to lapped traffic at the last turn... but it was still good enough for pole in my class although a few C cars started going very fast and got by me. Barry was a few cars behind me and I knew he would try his hardest to get up front quickly. Hans Warner in another RS clone needed a clutch job during qualifying so he started from the back of the pack. In addition to the GT4 and 5 cars, and C, D, and E "stock" cars, we also had the G cars (911SC mostly) in our group, with several behind me, lead by fast Jim Lewis.
For the race, I swapped front tires left to right, and filled the tank to the brim. I was gridded on the outside unfortunately, which would make it tough at the start. Here we are coming around towards the green flag :
I did not realize until after the race, but another problem was that I was that I was gridded behind a GT5 914, which would sure enough hold me up at the start. His lack of acceleration let cars pass us on the right until he got up to speed. Note the Rothmans 944T cup car passing on the right :
A vintage 911S GT5 car and a D class RS America also got by me at the start. Here we are in the esses :
After this slow, careful start, staying on the bad side of the track, I was able to re-pass the 911S on the back straight coming out of the carousel :
The RS America then slowed me down in the tight left hander after the gulch, which allowed the 911S to get inside of me and pass by downshifting to 2nd gear. He was soon in 4th gear and heading towards the namerow turn- the final, very slow turn in front of the crowd. He slowed quite a bit, with me right behind, when I saw Barry's white 944T coming up on my right. Barry got past me, then slowed down, then the 911S turned into the apex and proved the physics theorem that two solid objects can not occupy the same physical space. Barry tried to avoid him, hitting the inside curbing, but there was nowhere to go. The 911S's right rear fender hit Barry's Left front, spinning the 911S, and the 944TS proceeded to push him through the turn by his passenger's door. Meanwhile I was slowing down just behind this mess, hoping I would not pile into them or be hit from behind. I came to a stop, then Barry continued slowly and I slowly passed him, but several cars got by me as I crawled past, mostly G cars. I was glad that I was not involved in the incident but now I had cars in front of me, maybe even some E cars, and I was feeling sick inside for Barry and the 911S, not much in the mood to race anymore. Here is an animated GIF of the crash :
I followed the 911SCs for a while, not really trying too hard to pass, wondering if we would get yellow or even red flags. There were no flags when we arrived back at Namerow, but Jeff Chervenak, in a 911SC passed me right where Barry had... shoot! I had to get back to driving as I was being held up about 3 seconds a lap by the SCs. I tried passing Jeff inside in a few corners but he chopped me off, nearly running me off the road a few times and causing me to lose a lot of momentum.
Finally after getting chopped off in the esses and losing about 10 car lengths to him, I decided to get a good head of steam going and soon caught him, getting right behind him in the fast turn 7. I did not have enough to pass on the following straight, but got well beside him under braking for the long right-hand carousel turn. Accelerating out, I finally left him and proceeded to immediately pass Jim Lewis and a GT4 944 on the long straight. The rest of the race was pretty uneventful, chasing down the remaining cars that had passed me in the accident, and passing the RS America that passed me at the start.
I was shortshifting at 6000 RPMS to conserve gas as I did not think there were any E cars ahead of me and I could only lose by being underweight in impound. The tires and brakes were not feeling real fresh so I was a bit easy on them too. I think I passed all but one D car, and was passed only by Chris Musante, who was cruising for yet another win in GT4S when he lapped me :
I was rapidly approaching a lapped 944Turbo when the checkered flag came out, so I pulled up alongside for an exiting-looking finish (what a ham).
I then coasted as much as possible to save fuel, and had a nice cool-down lap, waving to all the friendly flaggers, fans, and friends who were watching from the side.
Coming in the pits I was not asked to go to impound, excellent! I probably would have been OK but certainly not 30 pounds heavy as I was at Pocono. I had received with my first road racing win, rounding out my PCA club race year with 3 podium finishes (3rd, 2nd, and 1st) in my first year of real competition. And best of all to me, my car was unscathed. Here is the scene going back to my pit area, note a familiar looking 911 on the right :
At the awards assembly, everyone received a cool event memento - a clear globe on a pedestal, containing a small square of the original turn 7 and a picture of their car on the track. Really neat and unique! I also received a huge bottle of sparkling wine from sponsor Mazza vineyards. It was handed out to me by head race honcho Craig Seko as the last first-day registrant, and first e-mail registrant. Being a net junkie finally paid off.
Next was the long process of packing up. Without a tire rack, I had to stuff 4 tires in the 911- one behind the roll cage requiring removal of the seat! Reverse gear was not accessible with 3 tires on the passenger's seat so careful planning was needed. I also tied two tires to the top of the jeep, and two to the trailer. I needed a lot of room in the Jeep for all my family's gear for a week. I folded up my tent and stuck it into the 911 drivers seat. The 911 front trunk was also full of all my spares and tools. Sunday night we had a nice dinner at the Forge, and a good nights sleep before the long trip home. Everyone (with the possible exceptions of Barry, John, and the 911S) seemed to have a great time in Canada and at the parade. Thanks to Craig Seko and the RSR region for putting on such wonderful Events!!
Here is another view of the race, from Barry Lenoble.
Some GREAT pictures of the race from the PCA Upper Canada Region. Takes a long time to load but worth it!!
For more information on the club race, see Craig Seko's RSR pages.
Next races : Dodge Vintage festival at Lime Rock on Labor day, and SVRA Zippo vintage festival at Watkins Glen the following weekend.
Link to index of my other Porsche racing pages
Mike piera AnalogMike@aol.com
'72 911S Targa, '73 911RS Replica
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