Can you believe this crew won a championship that wasn't part of the special Olympics? I can't.One of my many personality faults is being super competitive. I dislike losing at anything like a fat kid dislikes eating vegetables. That is partially to blame for the tardiness of this race recap. Only after a few days and prospect of another race this weekend allow me to put aside some of the anger and disappointment from not accomplishing, literally, any goal I had for our last NASA race weekend. Ideally I stood the chance of winning the 8 hour enduro race (at least in class), perhaps the enduro class championship, and remotely maybe taking 3rd in our season points for Spec E30. In fact none of those things happened for a variety of reasons.
Endurance racing is a strange discipline. After doing our 3 hour races all season I wouldn’t have described myself as a big fan, so much so that I didn’t really plan on continuing my enduro participation after the finale 8 hour. I’ve had to revisit that perspective after the 8 hour race. I can see why Porsche puts such a high emphasis on endurance racing. Unfortunately it is even less exciting for spectators than the normal boring sprint road race. At least with our short races you have the excitement of everyone bolting into Turn 1 trying to make a move on the start. In endurance racing it is difficult to know who is winning, most of the time we only had a vague idea of where we were and if you’re driving you have to alter your driving style from “fast, but don’t hurt the car” to “even faster, and don’t hurt the car – at least too bad”. Some times the instructions are even more specific like – ‘don’t use the brakes’ or ‘go easy on the left front tire’. Yeah right, you’re assuming a lot of trick shots I don’t have in my bag. I got “sorta fast” and “balls slow” at my disposal.
Some of the demands are more on the crew, not necessarily always on the driver, and it is much more of a team sport. Planning and being prepared are essential. The race being at Road Atlanta meant I could bring even more ‘stuff’ than I usually do. This meant nearly two full truckloads of cr@p for any potential situation. Towards the end it became a bit maniacal as Thursday night I lay awake at 2am trying to think of anything I could do to improve our chances. This could be called “taking things too seriously”. At one point I considered buying a junk car and towing it to Road Atlanta just to ensure that no weird switch, relay or wire would defeat our victory march.
Brendan and I spent two solid days over Thanksgiving crawling over the car and fixing little things that had come apart over the season, double checking anything we could think of. Then on Thursday as I pulled the car on the trailer it would barely idle and kept stalling out. I attributed this to having almost no fuel, but without a working fuel gauge it was more of a ‘best guess’. Unpacking a truckload of sh!t is about as much fun as it sounds. If you want to play along at home dig your spare tire out of your trunk, now move it from one part of your garage to another for like an hour. Want it to be more realistic? Pick a cold day when it is raining, and then do it at night since the gates opened at 5pm and it gets dark at 5:20.
Car comes off the trailer sounding just like when I put it on – rough. I fill it up with gas and stand back waiting to see my fine mechanical diagnostic ability at work. It stalls out again. I desperately try to convince myself it is the cold weather and that the idle will even out when the car is warmed up since the prospect of trying to diagnose ‘rough idle’ in the dark wet parking lot isn’t too appealing I focus on snagging our pit space and getting things setup as best I can in the dark. (Who says winner’s never quit!). I go to park the trailer and in my rush to not stand in the rain drive off and forget to disconnect the trailer brake light, electric trailer brake doo hickey connector. No problem it ‘detaches’ itself for me. I drive home and load up another truck’s worth of goodies to bring (and unload) in the morning.
Part of my master plan to win involved recruiting a ‘team’ that was much better at this than myself. Gleefully chuckling at how little I’d have to do to win, I begged two pro drivers Seth Thomas and James Clay of BimmerWorld, and Dave White (who is no slouch with a few BMW Club Racing championships under his belt), and then asked Brendan to be our crew chief and handle the mechanical aspects. Unfortunately I had forgotten a few things about the driving side of the ‘team’. 1. They are all notoriously late. 2. Unnamed members are notoriously lazy, and 3. They all complain. As usual life is a series of compromises. I had made a deal with the devil for awesome drivers. Friday morning I setup a little table, placed our portable heater, and unpacked the cookies and snacks I had thoughtfully provided for the ‘team’. Only to hear “I really prefer a hot breakfast”. Well, people in h3ll want ice water.
** Side note, some of you will remember the argument on the forums about the quick dump gas cans. I had been lobbying behind the scenes and gotten them ‘secretly’ approved. During the drivers meeting I asked a clarifying question where the approval was given to use. I then proceeded (in typical fashion) to taunt and gloat over my ill prepped competitors and the dude I was bickering with online. BAM! Being right never gets old!!** Craig would argue that everything you read from this point on is determined by Karma, he is probably right.
I mention that the car is running rough and get some dirty looks for my sloth, another half a$$ diagnosis of spraying brake cleaner in the engine bay to identify any vacuum leaks proves inconclusive. Magically as the car heats up the idle evens out and it starts to sound somewhat normal. We give Clay the first stint and since it is cold out, there are some spots of ice on the track. We wish him good luck and I go back to eating snacks. I’m slightly nervous wondering if the car will run or if we’ll have problems. Clay finishes his first stint while we encourage him with obscene messages on our snazzy pit board (kids at home, if you want a cheap whiteboard go to Lowe’s it is like shower board or something? I got a 4x9 section for like $10).
Dave White is up next, he comments that the car fits ‘tight’ (not the seat the car). Dave White is banned from further snack eating. We get a 1 minute penalty for pitting outside our spot, even though from where the car is leaking oil (normal oil leak not bad oil leak) you can clearly see where we stopped. I start to get heated with the officials and how stupid they are. But hey they’re volunteers and really how much can they actually care so in hindsight I’ll forgive them. Clay sees this and with his pro racing diplomacy takes over the discussions while I contemplate kicking a gas can.
Seth and I discuss who should go next. I can’t remember the logic but we determined he should go 3rd and I’d bat cleanup. At this point our nearest competitor is a few laps behind. The Malt Liquor Tech #800 car (who I maintain they ‘meant’ to call the penalty on we were #008) is having issues probably related to all the dirty cheating they routinely do. So Seth takes off and the guys complain that there isn’t any lunch. It is about 1pm now and I’m up to bat. Our pit stops are going pretty smoothly and we’re able to stay out about an hour or 1 ½ every stint. Unfortunately the Beertech Car #467 spins coming out of turn 12 and slams into the front straight wall pretty hard. It comes in on the hook and Craig and rest of the gang start working to put it back together. One of the front frame rails is bent which makes getting a new (junkyard) radiator in place difficult. Seth comes in and I’m off for my first stint.
It is fairly uneventful. We have our first extended double yellow of the day as 3-4 cars are in various states of disrepair. I try to conserve gas, brakes, and tires as much as I can while I’m lapped every 1.25 seconds by a Ford GT-R American LeMans car. Apparently this is a cheap way to test the car for their team and since it is a new build they took advantage of the opportunity. Driving a $500k plus race car around a high speed track with a bunch of amateur yahoos doesn’t seem like a smart move to me, but whatever, it sure was cool. It was so loud I couldn’t hear my car over theirs and it hurt my ears when it blew by on the back straight probably doing close to 200mph (I do 120-ish). Towards the end of my shift I see the #800 car smoking and heading for the pits. I figure again this is due to their cheating and general shifty nature. Apparently MikeSkeen.com (who they recruited in an attempt to counteract my stacked driver lineup) literally escaped from the car and with their plan to have him drive at least 7 hours foiled, Travis had to take over. He launched the car democross style somewhere on the course and cracked the oil pan among other things.
Back to the pits and we alter the rotation, Clay can’t do another stint since he has to leave for the airport and another endurance race in California – the 25 hours of Thunderhill. That’s right; he drove in our 8 hour then flew to California to drive in another race. Needless to say James is single. Dave White squeezes back in the car. We get on the radio and tell him to go extra extra easy on the brakes and tires, since another competitor has told us they’ve already gone through brake pads and corded their left front tire. We’re still in the lead for our class and just want to make sure the car stays in decent shape.
Getting increasingly concerned about the brakes we make tentative preparations to change pads on the next stop. This is the deal breaker since if it takes too long it will allow the competition to catch up. In real endurance racing there is specialized equipment for this not only the change, but modifications to the car itself. We’re allowed none of this. Next time you take your stock car in for a brake pad change. See if they can do the fronts in 10 min. That is how quick Brendan did it, and includes taking the tires off and jacking up the car. And since I bought the wrong types of gloves he is doing it holding a 600 degree brake caliper with less protection than your oven mitts. He gets blisters on his hands and the team MVP award.
I get in the car and take off, thinking the stop has gone pretty well. We put new front tires on and brakes but there is over an hour left and whether we’ll have enough fuel to finish is in my head. Seth comes on the radio – “DON”T LET THE WHITE CAR PASS YOU”. Around the same time I see a white Mazda Miata in my mirrors. I think – this ain’t my first rodeo, good luck hair dresser I eat Spec Pinatas for lunch. This dude catches up to me like I’m dragging an anchor as we go through the twisty stuff. We get to my specialty the back straight and I mash the gas and pull a quarter of a mile away. Whew that was close. Seth comes on again “DON”T LET THE WHITE CAR PASS YOU”. I go into turn 1 and like magic this dude is back again. #@#$!!@$ This goes on for what seems like 45 minutes. The little white miata manages to get past me 3 or 4 times but each time I re-pass him on the back straight. I’ve had this happen and it is the most frustrating experience in the world since it requires absolutely no talent to mash the gas pedal in a straight line. He finally hit me going through the esses at about 80+ mph, startling but no real damage and I don’t blame him. I would have hit me too. Oh well no replacement for displacement. I see him pull into the pits and start to breathe again thinking that was for the race and that we maintained the lead. The car starves out around 4:40 and we have to come in for a splash and dash. 2 laps later and its over. I’m pumped thinking we won.
Whoops. Brake change took too long and the pesky white miata team won in E2. We came in second or first loser. Ironically we still managed to be 5th or so overall out of 30 cars, two of which were legitimate pro teams – one ALMs and another Koni Grand-Am car? And had we been in E1 or E0 (the two faster classes ahead of us) we would have won. Instead we were in E2 which had 14 cars. That is the problem with racing, if you want to win it is easy to find classes and races where you can collect all the trophies you want to pay for, but in the end you haven’t really beaten anyone. In Spec E30 and E2 since they are some of the most popular you have to earn every yard of ground by being good. Unfortunately this means you lose more than you win. Also in racing you play against the field every time. There are no easy matchups, you’re playing in the playoffs and championships every time and it takes some getting used to. Especially since the guys that race tend to be egotistical over achiever types that don’t take losing too well. Since the MLT #800 guys managed to somehow finish the race this meant they won the E2 enduro championship and we were relegated to 2nd place there as well.
The sprint race(s) weren’t as exciting. I made a mistake during qualifying and while I was in the cherry spot of first on grid, I went too fast on the out lap and caught the tail of the field (think dog chasing its tail). As a result I had to deal with all the slow cars in the back as traffic and ended up 12th on grid. I had a great start and jumped up 4 or so spots by turn 1. Then with Craig in front of me, he got jammed up by a slow spec miata and I passed him coming out of turn 12 like he was coasting. For 20 some minutes I put my head down and cranked out as many fast laps as I could and started catching the front 5 or so guys. They were in my sights when a Super Cup 944 turbo #72 decided he absolutely HAD to pass me coming into turn 3 at the top of the hill. I looked for this dude in the paddock and didn’t see him, so if he somehow reads this THANKS JACK A$$. If you had waited a tenth of a second you could have gone around the outside into the esses with your extra 50 hp. Instead you jammed me up and I had to run off the track to avoid hitting you. Next time when you track out into me, you’re getting hit - COUNT ON IT! That bonehead move allowed Craig to catch back up to me and we had a good race onto the back straight, he popped out of the draft into 10A braking zone and I moved him over as close to the inside wall as I could. Giving him the inside line, but lining myself up for a faster run around 10A and hopefully the inside line into 10B and turn 12. Instead as I went to downshift into 3rd gear it wouldn’t catch and when I used ‘more force’ it got stuck but still wouldn’t engage. I coasted to the side and watched the final two laps waiting for the tow truck. You can watch the start and final action (at the 21min mark) on Craig’s video.
NASA SpecE30 - December 2008 - Road Atlanta - Craig Geiger #82 from Craig Geiger on Vimeo.
Sunday I spent watching from the sidelines waiting for Craig since getting a car with no forward gears up the two story hill my house sits on to its garage spot wasn’t a problem I cared to solve. Even getting it into Craig’s somewhat flat garage proved interesting, ultimately Craig got in his car and since the bumpers line up perfectly he bump drafted me into the garage spot. Our guess is that all of the tranny fluid leaked out as it got hot during the enduro through the breather vent and the gears may have just melted together. The starter won’t even engage the flywheel, so whatever ultimately ends up being the problem it is going to be pretty interesting. I’m expecting metal and nuts and bolts to come pouring out like an overstuffed closet.
The good news is that there was a pro photographer on site and he got some AMAZING pictures of the car. When he sends I’ll post up the highlights. In the meantime I’m off tomorrow to Savannah (ie Pooler, GA) and Roebling Road Raceway to co-drive Brendan’s fire breathing vintage 5 series in a BMW Club Race. Going to try my hand at something with more than 150 hp and see how it goes. After this we’re off until Feb. so I’ll probably just put up random posts about how trashed the car is and how we’re injuring ourselves fixing it. Stay tuned and Happy Holidays! If you want to buy your loved ones cool gifts go to BimmerWorld.com and donate some money to my buddy James Clay.
Here is what 2nd place looks like.
Labels: BimmerWorld, Race Recap, Road Atlanta
