Hi,

"Racing into Spring" was hosted at Lime Rock by my own Connecticut 
Valley region of the PCA for the 7th year, on 5/21-22/99.
This was my 2nd PCA club race in my '73 911"RS".
It is the CVR's 40th anniversary this year, and posters and
shirts were designed (as usual) by our own Paul Kudra.
Framed posters were given to all entrants, on which plaques to
podium finishers could be placed. There are no longer trophies
awarded to class winners, in order to keep club racing less about 
winning and more about having fun. The plaques were a good way to
get around this rule (anyone could pick up a plaque from the table).

At last year's Lime Rock race there was rain almost all weekend
and most of my track time was cancelled due to incidents.
This year the weather was PERFECT, with sunny skies,
comfortable temperatures, and dry pits (even the grass was
not too soggy for once).

I had spent the last few months trying to get the car ready
with some new suspension parts, safety mods, and general maintenance.
The rear suspension was not aligned well (2.7 left rear and 3.4 right rear 
camber, which is not good especially for Lime Rock!) but it was handling OK 
at autocrosses so I decided to leave it for now and concentrate on driving.
The engine had not been tuned up in a year but seemed to be running fine
so an oil change was all it needed for '99. A few days after changing the oil, 
much of it leaked out through the small round oil pan so I had to drain out
and discard most of the brand new oil and reseal the pan. I have no idea
why it leaked but I permatexed the gasket this time.

I had the roll cage extended over the winter
and purchased a bolt-in fuel cell that has not been installed yet
due to time constraints and not wanting to test a new component at a race.
I am also trying some strange tire/wheel sizes on the front which
seemed to work well enough in testing. While most people have gone
from 16s to 17s all around on their Hoosiers, I went back to 15s on the front.

Friday Morning I used my 3 year old 15" BFG set to feel out the car.
The 911 had gained over 150  pounds since I had last driven it,
due to extended roll cage, full tank, spare tire, and some ballast. The weight
was added  so that I could run at the "911 RS touring" weight in class E.
I had been running as an RS lightweight in D, but half way between the weights
(it is impossible to legally reach the RS lightweight weight on my car
which has heavy standard steel, window glass, and extra-thick rust-proofing).
The car felt OK on the BFGs, though it felt quite heavy initially.
Even on the street I could really feel the extra weight and was apprehensive.
I quickly got used to the weight and was running times about as good as
my previous best on Hoosiers without the weight (low 1:03s).

I decided to pop the Hoosiers on for the rest of the event. I did not
even bring my brand new Toyo rain tires as there was no chance of rain.
The Hoosiers felt pretty good, was able to carry good speed through
the turns although the car was plowing coming out of many turns, especially
the uphill. However the car was EXTREMELY stable and much better balanced 
than before. It always was a bit twitchy and nervous at the lighter weight -
turn-in and braking seemed more under control now. And at the limit the
front was hooking up better.

I had a great few laps catching up to Rock Rookey who has a lot
of experience and success in his D class 2.7RS. I was able to reel
him in but then the checkered flag came out just in time. :-(
I was excited to be running with someone who was much faster than
I was, and when I saw my best time of the session I was surprised
to see that I had gone over 1 second faster than ever before,
a 1:02 flat. Only 1 other car in E, Bruce Duff in a widebody carbed 911SC,
and two in D were faster. Cool! I did not think I was driving right at the
limit, never got sideways or even locked up a brake. And the car was pushing
a bit...

Next session was practice starts and a short race. My car, even at
E weight, is quicker than most cars in the group in 2nd gear
due to gearing and relatively low weight,
so I thought I would do OK. There was a 944T cup car ahead
of me and I nearly rammed him as his big turbo took time to spool up.
I was able to pass him by driving around the inside of Big Bend
and stayed ahead in the lefthander. We had some good laps in the fun race.

Saturday I decided to tighten the rear sway bar about 1/2" to get rid
of some plowing. But the 1st session I could not go faster than a 1:03,
even though the car felt better. I decided to leave it that way for our
"long" 2nd session for qualifying. It felt fine, and though our qualifying
session was cut short due to cars off course I thought I had a few
really good laps where I carried tons of speed through big bend
and left the cars behind me in the distance. Also I was able to
take the downhill very fast without braking too much and was able to get
on the throttle early, which allowed me to gain on much more
powerful cars like a 911 RS America or 944TurboS.

The qualifying times were posted and I confirmed my feelings with
a 1:01:8, which was only a few tenths behind the class leader (Bruce
again) and just ahead of two D cars which would make a nice buffer behind me
(or so I thought). I had no idea that my car or I were capable of these times,
I always thought the fast guys in the 1:01s were either "over-prepared" or 
superhuman.
Only one of the amazingly fast F-troop, Bob Scotto, was able to get into
the :01s this session and only 1/10th faster, same as after the 1st day.
This is really strange, as my last time at Lime Rock I had a ride in Mark
Forrester's F class 911 and couldn't believe how fast he was going, no way
could I ever go that fast... Maybe all of my years and championships
in autocrossing have paid off in smoothness on the track? I didn't feel that
fast but I guess times don't lie. I think I stumbled onto a
good setup by luck, all the pieces of the car seemed to be working in
harmony for once - very balanced and controllable. The Koni sport shocks 
seemed happier carrying the extra weight, maybe they were too stiff before?
Even the brakes worked better with the extra weight! There was no fade at all
and no lock-ups. I was using the same PF 90 pads and rotors that I had run all
last year, they still had plenty of meat on them. They were a bit too powerful
before but now they were balanced better.
My RF Hoosier already had several small flat spots from the PCA
autocross the previous weekend so that was as big plus.

(part 2)

For the race I planned to drive hard at the start but cautiously, as my car 
worked
great even with cold tires (as in autocrossing). Then I would hope for a 
mistake 
by the 1st place E car as I did not think I could catch Bruce otherwise as he
was running  1:01:65 in every session and has much more experience racing.
At the start I did OK, but Rocky who was in the row behind me soon got by
as I thought he would. He drove very aggressively all weekend and I hoped
he would pull away and let me run my own race. But I feared he would hold me
up once past, as he did previously. The next lap or so, I smiled as I 
drove by him as he slowly pulled off the course before the left hander. One
less car to
worry about ;-). The other D car behind me, Kenneth Lubell, soon caught me 
in a red RS America. He was much faster in the straight after the uphill as 
my car bogs in 4th gear and his car flies in 3rd there. The second time he
pulled alongside me I let him by, hoping he would pull away and I could 
follow him. But I was faster almost everywhere else now that he was ahead 
of me, but not enough to get by. I have to stop letting people by, I tend to
go a lot slower when I am keeping my eyes on my mirrors a lot. We were 
soon black flagged to get Rocky off the course.

On the restart, an E class 944Turbo S passed like I was standing still, got a 
huge jump
before the green I guess. Nice. Soon we had a tight lead pack running, and 
through the lefthander cars ahead of me started spinning. 
Then without warning my car spun and I cranked the wheel
and stabbed the pedals as best I could to avoid them, deciding to go left of 
a spinning
car (the red RSA?) and into the grass where I thought I would be safer.
I did not panic, just reacted as best I could to the situation. There was no 
time for anything but instinctive reaction, which was learned in hundreds of 
autocross spins. A nice spin last week sent me though the finish timer 
backwards with no cones! 

Somehow I got the car pointed straight, and slowed down enough to continue to 
the edge of the track to try to get back on. At the next corner I observed
waving debris flags and workers waving to the outside of the track. Also 
black flags to the group.
In the pits I learned that we had spun in oil that a courteous driver had 
sprayed over the entire line from the end of the lefthander to the pits - 
the majority of the track -
with smoke pouring from his engine compartment. Nice.
I wish I had seen a debris flag, which may have been up before no-name 
straight but I guess others did not see it if it was in fact there.

I was now near the back of the pack in the pits, with a debris-covered car, 
the front suspension making noise, and no
desire to finish the race. The race was cancelled due to the time it would 
take to
clean the course. I guessed I would receive 3rd place behind the 944TS, with 
order
being determined from the last lap before the black flag. But the results
seemed to be listed by lap time only, in which case I was still in 3rd.
The race is sort of a blur even a few days later, I can never seem to remember
what happened like some other people who can tell you exactly which lap what
happened and which car passed/was passed. I think I am concentrating on 
driving 100% and no bandwidth left for other events. Hopefully experience will 
improve this! It would have been nice to have a full 20-lap race without 
incidents, but it was still
better than last year's mud race in which I spun just a few dozen yards later
than this year and pitted to check for damage.

I was hoping to have a good race, as a rookie (2nd club race) I could win a 
generous
national prize. But due to our shortened race and my spin, that seemed out.
This award went to Keith Krolak who drove his purple (sorry, aubergine!) 2.4T 
in a superb race in I class. This class was a ball to watch, as the 944, 
924S, and older 911s put on a great show. Another race I was able to 
observe was the GT1/GT3 race, where
Mike Bavaro's GT3 tiger car, supposedly with only 270 HP and on Street tires, 
fought with all it's might against a more powerful car. Mike passed on the 
inside
of the lefthander as the other car drifted wide, but the car re-passed later 
in the lap.
Not once, but twice more the same pass occurred! Finally Mike was able to pull
out a lead and held on to the win in this group. Nick Ventura's batmobile 
914-6/962
went out early in the race. I also watched some of the GT2/GT4
race, with factory Porsche driver and PCA club racing novice (!) David Murry 
entered
in GT2 in a street-looking 911 RS America. Of course he was very fast even 
running
against pure race cars, it was interesting watching Chris Musante in his GT4 
993-bodied
race car catching David towards the end of the race. I wish I could have 
watched more races.

There were many other awards given out, all in good spirit and many with quite
humorous intentions. For example, drivers were supposed to suggest the
"most courteous driver"  to the race chairman. Jeff Burger nominated the 
driver who had
hit him, as that driver was very apologetic to Jeff for possibly causing a 13 
month probation.
However the award was given to Jeff instead for making the nomination. I 
believe
that Jeff gave the champagne to the other driver anyway.

Each race group had a "workers choice" award presented by PCNA, a nice plaque
with a 911GT1 on it. Logically, the workers choose the winner of this award for
whatever reasons they may have. I was surprised when my name was called!
This capped off an excellent 2 days of racing.

Thanks to all the CVR and national volunteers for running an excellent event,
See you in 2 weeks at Pocono!

Regards, mike piera  AnalogMike@aol.com  '73 911RS Replica #44

~^v^~ aNaLoG.MaN ~^v^~  vintage guitars   www.analogman.com