NJMP - Lightning Course with EMRA

After baking in a heat and humidity sauna for the last week on the East Coast. opening the door of my trailer on Saturday morning was a treat. Low humidity, a gentle breeze, actually nice for a July morning. And while it was hot in the car, out of the sun it wasn't too bad. A great change from the weekend before when NJMP held the PCA/Grand Am race with temps in the 100's and 99% humidity.

The car was working fine. I put the car on pole with a 1:18.7, breaking the Cup class record of 1:19.5, previously set by Vito Valentino. The race was good, I led from pole for 21 1/2 laps. Unfortunately, it was a 22 lap race. After having a good gap most of the race back to Alan Cohen in 2nd, a pack of EV tow vehicles were sent out, catching me in a narrow space around turns 2-3. This bunched up the field and allowed Steve Randolph who was further back in 4th to get a good run to the front. Steve got past me on the last corner and held on for the win. As they say, it's only the last lap you need to lead.

Here's the video from Alan's camera who was just behind me most of the race.

BTW, your eyes aren't deceiving you. That's a vintage Volvo station wagon, complete with baby seat, top speed of 25 mph, as the pace car. Possibly the least sexiest pace car to ever lead a pack of racers around.

EMRA Sat race from ross Cohen on Vimeo.

After the race we had a Wings, Pizza and Martini party to celebrate the life of one of our own 944 Cup racers that we recently lost. Joe Hrymack, aka Jersey Joe, passed away the week before. Joe was a tough competitor, a National Champion, a good companion off the track. Jersey was the big dog when I started racing Cup and I had plenty of epic battles racing with him. He will be missed.

Here's Joe with his original Rothman's car at Mid Ohio after winning the Cup Championship.

Sunday started off with a Qualifying race. How you finished determined where you started for the official Race later that morning. To spice it up, we inverted the field and Steven and I started in the back. Within a couple of laps we both had made it to the front where I parked myself just off of Steve's bumper. I was faster in the turn 2-5 section, but he could pull me out of the Lightbulb. Steve took 1st with me closely behind him.

Here's the Qual Race from Alan's car. Alan made it to the front first, but Steve and I got by him.

EMRA Sun Q from ross Cohen on Vimeo.

The Sun points race followed quickly. I started 2nd with Alan next to me on the outside. Steve was on pole and directly ahead of me was Frank Celenza running SuperCup (not our class). On the start, Alan got by me into one and followed Steve through, while Frank disappeared. At the end of lap one, I took Alan on the inside going into turn one and hooked myself to Steve's bumper once again. Same scenario, faster in the turns 2-6 section, get pulled in the Lightbulb. I had several opportunities to stick a pass, but often it's better to be behind someone than running up front. As Steve remarked after the race, it was very stressful knowing I was always just there, ready to pounce, likely to be next to him at any moment.  While my battle was going on with Steve, Vito Valentino and Alan were duking it out behind me. 

It was hot in the car, I didn't have a cool suit for the weekend, and I could've used one that race. I made a few small errors and the gap between me and Steve increased a few car lengths. Finally I went a bit wide coming through the left hander after the bridge (turn 6) and drifted just off the gators and hit a huge hole with the rear right tire. Bang! As I came back on track I had a good vibration. I slowed down a bit and let Steve get away. Eventually the vibration stopped, but scanning my gauges I notice my temps were starting to climb. WTF? The temperature stopped just short of the red zone. There's nothing in the rear of the car that should have been affected by that pothole. I kept going, but at a reduced pace and kept an eye on the gauge. There were about 4 laps to go and I decided to just cruise and finish.

Coming up and over the hill at turn 5, the car just had no grip and drifted right off the left side of the track. I corralled it back and re-entered the track. Vito and Alan came up on me and I let them through, losing 2 spots, but it was survival time. Cruising out of the Lightbulb turn my temps spiked into the red zone and the big ! light on the dash lit up. No hesitation, I reached out and killed the motor and cruised on down the hill and into the hot pits. I could smell steam. As I came to the stop the fire trucks came running up and they popped the hood. No fire, but definitely some steam coming there. I was flat towed back to my paddock ending the weekend a few laps early.

Adding water just flowed out somewhere, so the diagnosis was put off and we just pushed it in the trailer. My guess is the off-track excursion broke the plastic radiator drain plug, but won't know until I put the car up on the lift.

Here's the race from Alan perspective again - mostly an upclose view of Vito's car.

EMRA Sun Race from ross Cohen on Vimeo.

The end result was a 10th place finish. But the good news is I crushed the lap record again. This time with a 1:18.003 in the race.  Almost into the 17's. Yessir, that was over 1.5 seconds faster than the track record set earlier this year. Not too bad for a totally stock street motor that came out of a junker car with 120K miles. That was awesome and a good way to end the weekend.

Next month I'll be back at NJMP, but this time at the Thunderbolt circuit for the 1st time this year.