Pocono Revisited

The first race weekend of 2013 for me was at the newly refurbished road course at Pocono Raceway, deep in the heart of the Poconos. The main track is a NASCAR "tri-oval", 3 banked corners linked by straightaways. For road racers, there's several infield sections that come off the main track and back on. In racer parlance, this is known as a "Roval" course, or Road Racing + Oval.

I've been to Pocono a total of twice in the past 15 or so years. The first time was my first year doing Driver's Education back in 1997 in my 86 944 turbo. An uninspiring track and facilities, mixed with a fine disdain for out-of-region noobies from the hosting PCA region, seasoned with a disintegrating clutch on the 2nd day was a recipe for mutual disinterest. I avoided the track until about 2 or 3 years ago when there was 944 Cup race on the North Circuit. I won both races but even that wasn't enough for me to want to return again. I was of the opinion that a visit once a decade was probably the right frequency.

A partial section of the (long) main straight

Until last weekend. After having a fine time with SCCA for our Nationals last year, we were invited to come play on the newly reinvigorated Pocono track with them for a 944 Cup race. The track is under new management and unlike years before, actively want road racers to come visit. What a concept!

Our course was the Yellow outlined pavement, going clockwise.

In theory, the track is less than 2 1/2 hours away from me. But on a Friday afternoon, the Philadelphia metro area proved Einstein's theorem about the relativity of time. Despite leaving by 3pm, I didn't roll into the paddock until around 7:30 that night. Robbie from Provost Motosports, our new 944 North region director, was already in place, having done the test & tune day earlier. Jim Rothenberg and Bob Page were camped by the old Derecola Porsche trailer (bought by Robbie). Marty Okun and James Beirne had snagged garage spots. It seemed that I was the only paddock camper in the 944 group. By 9pm everybody had split and I settled back in the trailer as the rain rolled in and continued all night.

Saturday morning it was still raining. 1st session on the new to me track was Qualifying. This was scheduled for some time in the morning. One of my pet peeves (his name is Harvey by the way) is SCCA's scheduling method. Unlike PCA where there is a  time assigned for your slot so you have general idea of when your run group goes out, SCCA is a bit more free form. The schedule reads something like this:  9am-Noon Groups 1-6. It's up to you to figure it out when you are supposed to be somewhere. They do announce staging over the PA, but that's only audible in the garages, not out in the paddock where we were. Before the weekend was over, I did find a solution: RaceMonitor, a cool little phone app. They were streaming the Timing & Scoring data over the net. By taking a look at the app, I could tell what group was currently on track and suss out when we should be ready.

Soggy Saturday conditions at the 944 Paddock

We get gridded up for Qualifying and head out entering into the huge pit lane. The hot pits stretched the whole length of the straightaway and was very wide. You could hold an autocross just in the pits. Once we get onto the hot part of the track my first impression was "Wow, this is big. The track is crazy wide." My second impression was "Where the hell do I turn in?" Turn one was a dive off the straight into a entrance that looked as wide as the Mississippi. Gray skies, low light and rain and spray coming off the cars ahead didn't help matters much. I have my rear rain light blinking for all it's worth. We're doing about 2 minute laps, and after 9 or 10, the session is over. James Rothenberg grabs pole, with Bob 2nd, me 3rd. The cool thing is all the 944 racers are covered by only a 1.5 second spread. Should be a good race this afternoon.

Bob Page in the squishy paddock

Garages are refurbed and pretty nice

Not just 944's and tin tops, lot's of open wheel cars too

After a steady rain all morning, by 2pm there were patches of clearing. Our race was scheduled for around 4 pm. Looking at the radar, it seem that most of the storm system had cleared us and was headed for New Jersey. Time for dry tires!

Race 1 was pretty interesting. I started 3rd and by the end of the lap I was up to 1st. Lots of cars off on the first lap and we had a full course yellow. I blew the yellow flag coming on to the front straight, just flat out missed it. In my defense, this was probably only my 10th lap on a new track, and the 1st lap where it wasn't dark and raining. But I still didn't see it, it was my mistake. But the race gods, aka the officials took pity on me and didn't call it.

Marty Okun and his 924

After a few laps I see Bob Page on my tail. We go side by side for a while and eventually he gets past me. So I'm tucked behind Bob's bumper and as we go past start/finish I see the 1 lap to go sign. This is it! Turn 5 is a sharp right hander from the North infield onto the back straight. I've been consistently fast off the corner before this. Bob liked to swing wide left to maximize his run onto the long back straight leaving the whole inside unprotected. This time I got a great run off the corner and went down the inside. While it might compromise my speed down the straight I figured if I get in front of Bob, I should be able to keep him behind me to the checker. Unfortunately Bob came down on me and we touched. Bob started a tank slapper on the back straight, while I whoa'd up to see which way he would go. Meanwhile Marty Okun who had been a bit behind me comes flying up. Not being involved in our battle, he's able to take a clean line onto the straightaway, leaving Bob and me in his wake. Both of us scrambled after him, but Marty beat us all to the checker, with Bob taking 2nd and myself 3rd.

Robbie Provosts wide 924

While Robbie was strong at the beginning of the race, he soon faded and was gone. Something broke in his car. He soon loaded up and was gone back to his shop, hoping to fix and return. It didn't happen and that was the last we saw of him. Jim Rothenberg went off on the first lap and beached in the mud. Pulled out and washed up, he was ready to go on Sunday. Jim Beirne closed out the field in his 924.

Sunday dawned bright and breezy. Race 2 went off about 10:30. SCCA was nice to give us a "split-start" with the rest of the field, allowing all of us to race together. 944 Cup brought up the back of the field. Ahead of us was the rest of the cars, ITA, ITR, ITS and Spec Miata. We hung back about 100 yards from the field, and when they got the green, so did we. The straight is so long that by the time we were turning into Turn 1, we were already moving through the back of the group ahead. With a 45 foot wide racing surface, we were 3 wide through all the infield. By turn 2 I was up to 2nd, passing Marty. Bob had gotten a great start and was up ahead. I was chasing after, focused on the blue 21 car. I had passed a spec miata on my right and was in the middle of the track. I turned in to turn 4, a right hander, putting the power down at the apex, when WHAM! and I was spinning off the track. That little Spec Miata punted me off and kept going. I had to wait for the rest of the field to pass by and made it back on track. I worked my way up to 3rd before the race finished, but wasn't close enough to get to the 2nd place car of Marty. Bob took the win.

At the time, I had no idea who punted me. After the race we were all impounded for 20 minutes but no driver came forward. This is another one of my pet peeves (this one is called Sam). If you hit somebody or even don't hit them , but do something stupid to another driver, go find them and talk to them. To not do so is just wrong. I filed a protest with SCCA for the incident, forking over my $25.

The Punter

The Puntee - me! Poor quarter-panel, it gets no respect.

Luckily I run video, and it actually was working. Considering it was the 1st race weekend of the year, that's pretty amazing. My afternoon was spent filling out paperwork, talking in the hearing and showing my video. As I was being called to the grid for the last race the ruling came down, my protest was upheld unanimously  the other driver was totally at fault and received some sanctions, and I got my $25 back. My prize was I got to repair my car. While I was fiddling with the paperwork and such, Jim and the rest of the 944 gang help pull my fender back out and off my tire with a sissors jack, so I could race later. Thanks guys!

Race 3 was good. While I still had no idea on where to turn in for turn 1, I would occasionally get it just right. Just not with any consistency. Bob started on pole and got a great jump on the field. I got into 2nd quickly, but kept getting tangled in  slower traffic with some IT cars. They were slow through the infield, but faster than me once we got onto the straights. Meanwhile Bob got into clear air and drove away. Toward the end of the race my oil pressure was started to drop, so I backed off since I wasn't going to catch Bob. I backed off enough to tease Marty behind me, but not enough to let him catch me ... We ended the day with Bob getting another win, me in 2nd, and Marty in 3rd.

So, will I wait another 10 years before coming back? I don't think so. While the track doesn't compare to Watkins Glen or VIR, they have made light years of changes since the last time I've been there. And all for the better. The course was wide, affording 3 wide racing. The asphalt was grippy and the course was fun to run. The run-off grounds no longer looks like a car destroying moonscape. Is it perfect? Far from it, it's still a work in progress, but I've changed my opinion from once every 10 years, to Yeah, I'd be happy to come back.

But before that happens, the Glen is in a couple of weeks. With 70+ 944's taking the green, that should be an awesome weekend. So you know where I'll be until then, coated with bondo dust in the Alpine Garage.

Ahh, the smell of bondo in the morning ... cough, cough, respirator please ...