Mosport 2011
So maybe old dogs *can* learn new tricks. After being absent from Mosport for 7 years, my best time of the weekend was a 1:42.4 - still slow compared to the local 44 guys turning 1:38's (yikes!) - but only 9 tenths a second off my best time before. The previous time was done in a 73 911 RS (above), running 450 lbs lighter and with 75 more horsepower. So a slower, porkier, less aerodynamic car was within a second compared to a much more nimble and powerful car. I can only mark it up to my, ahem, modest skills increase. Or in easy to understand terms, I now suck less than I did before.
So that must mean I made it to Mosport, even after smashing the clutch slave cylinder while putting the street motor in. Luckily for me, Fairwinds had one on the shelf and I nabbed it. Installation and bleeding took about an hour. Unfortunately, there was a good 8 hours of work to go before the car was ready. Thursday night around 9 pm the motor fired up for the first time. A spin around the neighborhood and nothing fell off. Of course we don't have any streetlights and no headlights on the car, so even if it did, I doubt if I would noticed. And to make a long day even longer, as I pulled out the trailer to start loading, the skies started pouring.
By 11:30, the car and trailer was loaded and ready to go. Totally soaked and with an alarm set for 4:30am I went to bed.
The track day with Schattenbaum PCA was blessedly uneventful. The car ran fine other than a little oil consumption. The pre-race inspection revealed no issues, and the car was buttoned up back in the trailer ready for the 11 hour tow to Canada.
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| 944 Paddock with Cup HQ in the big tent |
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| Inside of the tent |
Friday was a test & tune day. I spent the 4 sessions on my Toyo RA1s, sussing out the line and becoming reacquainted with the special place that Mosport is. I gotta tell ya, my testicles remembered turn 2 right off, retracting to somewhere in the vicinity of my heart.
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| Turn 5a/b I believe, though there's tons of ups & downs everywhere, so who knows? |
Qualifying was an interesting session. It had rained the night before, and it kept on lightly drizzling and then clearing up. About 20 mins before the session we got a good soaking and the ground stayed wet. Decision made, on with the Hoosier wets, off with the Hoosier slicks.
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| Another flat black 44 with orange wheels! Yannick Tremblay - another racer with excellent taste. |
Line up on grid and we get the go signal. Heading out onto the track I start hearing some out of the normal noises coming from the left rear corner. Left turns and bumps I hear a nasty vibration. I weave a bit on the out lap but its not going away. I pull into the pits and jump out of the car. Nothing to see, the wheel is tight. I'm baffled. A pit guy comes by and says one of the onlookers says my wheel isn't centered when I put it on and that's my issue. I head back to my paddock spot, cursing a blue streak. Great this is going to kill my qualifying session. I'll start at the back for race 1. That sucks.
Still in my nomex and helmet, I jack the car and redo the wheel. Looks fine to me. Bernie, Steve's mechanic wanders over and takes a look. He doesn't see anything either. He tells me I got lucky, there's a red flag. Somebody spun off the track in the wet and everybody is waiting in the hotpits with the time stopped. I rush back and get in line again. A minute later we go back out and immediately somebody spins at the bottom of turn 2 just in front of me as I come down the hill. Which way are they going? Get on the brakes buddy! Luckily I avoid collecting them and the folks behind me spare me also. Red flag again and back to the pits.
This time as we head to the pits I weave about again. The noise is still there, but not as much. I decide to stay out. A few minutes later we get the go sign and back at it. I figure we'll get 2 or 3 laps and then they will call the session. While the track is wet, it stopped raining and starts to dry a bit. The times start coming down. I figure it's now or never and push on my last lap. The wet tires will burn up on a dry track. I get a 1:58 and and call it quits, searching for wet spots on the cool down lap. Surprisingly that's good enough for 4th in class, 5th overall. I love wet and damp tracks!
On the cool down lap I'm still puzzling over the noise in the rear, when enlightenment occurs. This year with the big wheels on the rear (15 x 9) I run big spacers to clear. When I go back to the Toyo's I put the smaller spacers on. It occurs to me that I have never run my Hoosier wet tires before with the spacers. Could it be tire rub?
And the answer is you bet. Just on the left side, which has been pranged before I'll admit, the tire is rubbing at the top. Not a lot and it didn't damage the tire. But now I know.
By racetime late afternoon, the track had dried and it was time for dry tires. On the formation lap my main American competition Steve Randolph was waaaaay back there, next to Tyler Comat. Steve didn't get a great time in the wet, going for preservation not lap times and bringing the car home instead. I got a good start and hung with the lead group for several laps. Eventually their lap times start dropping and they start gapping me. That's ok, I just need to keep up the pace and shit! here's Steve in my mirrors. How did you get here so fast? Steve is faster than me and gets past me. I try to follow but he gaps me. Mostly I learned where to pass people in the race by being the sitting duck passee for the home town Canadian racers. But it was fun and I brought the car home in 12th out of 20, dropping my best lap time by a couple of seconds.
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| Steve Randolph in front (b/w) followed by Tyler Comat (blue), me in the back |
Sunday we had two races with the first off at 9:40, followed by the 2nd at 11:15. Track was cool but dry and the expectation was a beautiful sunny day with temps in the 70's. Our finish in the 1st race set the grid for race 2. Again I had a good start and kept up the pace. Getting in the groove, I noticed up ahead the black and white #3 of Steve Randolph and I was gaining on him. Pretty soon I was parked just off his bumper. He could pull me on the long back straight, but I was much faster through the 8,9,10 turns and would be back on his tail again. It was just a matter of time before I got him. We went nose to tail like this for several laps when going into turn 5, a blind uphill/downhill, triple apex corner, a car spun just in front of us. Steve managed to dodge but I got balked, as I had to come to an almost stop waiting to see how if would shake out, as the spinning car was still moving. Steve's momentum wasn't too badly checked and he wailed down the back straight, gapping me by a good distance. Once he gapped me, he was able to slow down and cool off his tires and maintain the gap without any pressure from me. Yanick Tremblay in the other flat black car got past me and I ended up 10th.
Race 3 came quickly after. I had a great start and was running about 6th or 7th. Eventually John Bruce #126 and Yanick Tremblay #67 caught up, being a little bit faster and got past me. I was able to hang with them. All three of us would be nose to tail going into the turn 5 complex, and they would pull out a few car lengths at the end of the straight on me. I'd be back on them by turn 9 and would stick my nose in, forcing them to defend. At the same time they were battling fiercely among each other, pushing each other to the max, including what looked like a little contact in turn 9. After a couple pass/re-pass scenarios involving all 3 of us, I sat back, figuring sooner or later one of them would make a mistake and give me an opportunity to take both of them. But no, they played it hard all the way to the finish with less than 7/10ths of a second separating all of us at the finish. Once again I improved, finishing 9th and had my best time of the weekend, doing a 1:42.4.
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| John Bruce's 944 |
I pulled the car directly into the trailer and tied it down. A quick goodbye to friends and fellow racers and I made it out the track before the gate closed and headed home. What a great track! I can't wait to come back again. There's a couple more seconds for me to find there and I'm looking forward to searching for them.
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