MARRS 3

After finishing 4th in class at MARRS 2, I was excited about possibly repeating at MARRS 3. Most of the talk in the paddock all weekend centered around the track surface breaking up in several turns and the possibility of thunderstorms both days. Since I was in Group 10 this weekend, the chances my rain tires would be used on a really wet track, finally, were pretty good. With several laps on them already this year, in drying conditions, they are quickly becoming "intermediate" rains. With the dry tires already on the car, prior to my first session, I moved my right front tire to the rear, due to a bad flat spot. I did not want a vibration in the steering wheel to distract me or slow me down. Surprisingly, I couldn't feel the flat spot once the tire was on the right rear corner. Having new rotors and pads on the front, and having just flipped the tires on the rims made the car feel sloppy and harder to drive well. A 1:33.746 would be all I had, it turns out, for the entire weekend. How is it possible that the Saturday morning session would be when I turned my best lap time of the weekend? Maybe it's the autocrosser in me that drives well out of the box.

In the afternoon session, the car felt better, I felt much faster, and my driving was cleaner, but my times were slower. I was a little disappointed with my 7th position in class after the morning session, since a few others had improved and moved ahead of me. On the cool down lap, a strange noise and feeling from the right rear corner suddenly became very noticeable, and I thought the car was broken. It turns out that it was just the flat-spotted tire which had found the right speed to make itself apparent. It made the car shake and creak at cool down-lap speeds. The rain had held off until everyone was off the track, and gave me time to try to diagnose the problem with the car, but we all agreed that it was the tire and not something broken in the rear. So I could have 4 good tires for the race, Billy, of Performance Auto Works, took my flat-spotted tire and a tire that was on a bent wheel to the tire guys and put the good tire with the good wheel before I left for home. Thank you so much, Billy!

I was 14th on the grid, 7th in class, for Sunday's race... I was SEVENTH! With rain in the forecast, SCCA managed to get in 6 race groups in before the lunch break. It was steamy, and clouds kept rolling by, but no rain... until Group 8. Once it had passed the paddock was collecting water, and the track looked like it would be wet the rest of the day. I kept debating whether or not to change tires immediately, or wait until closer to the race. I finally decided, let's go with the rains, and had done three of them, when the sun came out and I changed my mind. The track dries out very quickly, once the sun comes out and cars are circulating. Got the dry tires back on the car, and was ready for Group 10.

On the outside of the 7th row, I was back in a familiar starting position, at least from last season. Everyone kept going and checking up and going and braking before the green flag, but I tried to give myself a little room in front and stay at a more constant throttle position than others. Once I stayed in it, I took off past a few cars right up the middle, falling into line in the inside lane approaching the brake zone. That lane looked too slow for my taste, so I passed a couple others, up the middle again, and charged for Turn 3 on the outside exiting Turn 2, putting me on the inside for Turn 3. Once we had cleared the Chute, I was in 8th overall! #15 got into a puddle at the apex of T6 which covered my windshield with mud water, and he almost lost it in front of me on the wet track after the puddle. I managed to not hit him and hold my position, and I eventually passed him by pit-out by the end of lap 1. From there I watched the top three Spec 7's slowly walking away from me throughout the race. I played with an SSC Chevy Cobalt for a lap or two, trying to get a tow in the big hole he punched in the air, but that just made the water temp go up so I stopped driving in his draft. Later, the debris flag was displayed at Turn 1, and he almost stopped, so I drove on by and left him in my mirror. The rest of the race, I was all alone just lapping. I was trying to be consistent and still turn my best lap times. I tried pushing harder in the turns, but I couldn't improve upon my qualifying lap. I ended up 4th again, and was very happy with my drive, but was curious about my relatively slow best race lap of 1:33.925, more than two seconds off the pace of the leaders. Maybe that's all the car has in it... then again, maybe not.