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 ...

Watkins Glen PCA Race Weekend

Looking over part of the paddock

Despite the gloomy weather - the sun only came out a couple of times - it was pretty much dry running for the weekend, enduro excluded.

Thursday
After an uneventful 5 hour tow, I settled in the lower paddock behind the grandstands on the front straight, paddocking with E class racers Mark Weining and Denny Wasser.

Mark's 911 Euro SC reflected in his new trailer

Even though I haven't received my formal letter about my 13/13 "violation" at LimeRock, I was required to attend the Orientation Meeting aka Bad Racer School on Thursday night. The classroom was full and after an hour we were released, while the Rookie Candidates stayed for more info about racing with PCA.

Just a little cosmetic surgery after LimeRock. Nothing to see here, move on ...

My paddock mates had headed on out to the Seneca Lodge for dinner earlier, so I retired to my trailer for the evening where a nice Wolaver's Oatmeat stout was calling my name.

This was a big weekend for 944Cup. We had 48 racers in SP1, SP2 and SP3 signed up, with 37 in my class alone. At the driver's meeting it was announced that PCA Club Racing was putting on a greater emphasis on technical compliance at the racers and they have brought a big team of techs and their focus this weekend will be the 944 cars.

Hear! Hear! I say. I'm all for that. There were a lot of 944 Cup cars which we had never seen before. I'm racing for year long points where we have sealed DME's and it would suck to have somebody come in with a non-stock car as a one-off race and take the wins away from the legal cars. And since we're racing with PCA mostly this year, we'll never see a dyno at the track.

Action down in turn 1

Friday
Practice session 1 was damp, but the track had decent grip. The car developed a miss in the session, which came and went. Full power, and then it would start bogging, and then back to full power. A bit disconcerting indeed.

Back in the paddock I fiddled with spark plug wires, pulled the distributor cap and checked for loose connections but didn't find anything. I found a real mechanic - I only play one on the internet - and Jerald laid hands on my motor, sprinkled holy water from an empty Wolver's stout bottle and beseeched the gods to deliver this racercar from the pit of despair. "Go forth and see if it happens again." advised Jerald, and he wandered off.

Practice 2 and the car ran fine. Thanks Jerald! That blessing really worked. At the end of the session as I was passing the black flag station I was told to go to impound. Not just me, it turns out but the rest of the 944's. Looks like this is the start of the compliance checking, I'm good with that. I ended in the last row and waited to be called for 45 minutes.

Finally I'm pulled into the garage. The PCA tech guy said "Open your hood and remove your j-boot", handed me a screwdriver and started to walk away. I said "How about a hand here, I don't have any hood shocks." He said "Use your head to hold it up" and walked away to go bullshit with some other folks. Gee thanks PCA. I know you're a volunteer, but come'on. If you don't want to be here, why are you here?

A bystander was nice enough to give me a hand with the hood and I pulled off the hose. I found a tech guy and he measured my throttle body diameter with a caliper, said I was good, and sent me on the way.

Practice session 3 was next. Since we were having 2 races on Saturday, the times from this session were going to be used as our qualifying times for the 1st race. I put on some decent tires but didn't really improve my times, being a good number of seconds off the pace. The car occasionally stumbled, but for the most part ran okay.

At the end of the session, another call to tech. This time, they were doing safety inspections and the experience was much more pleasant. The tech gal was helpful, pleasant and chatty. 5 minutes later I was heading back to my paddock spot.

The next and final session for the day was the Practice Start and Fun Racers. No Way was I doing those. I may not be too bright but I am trainable. With a 13/13 from my last Fun Race appearance at LimeRock, I see no reason to participate. No points, no upside. I was done for the day.

Saturday
The night was cold sleeping in the trailer but when I opened the trailer door Sat morning, the sun was up and shining in the east. An hour later the clouds had moved back in to stay for the rest of the day.

Race one started in the morning. I got a good start in the race picking up several spots. There was a good group of racers where we were all grouped together and the battling was great. Plenty of good racing was to be had all over the track. I had an occasional misfire but generally the car ran strong. I ran my best lap of the weekend, getting into the 2:22's (BTW which is still way slow for some reason). Van (Svenson) of the orange Jagermeister 944, started in the back and managed to pip me toward the end, moving up to 9th with a great run through the pack. I started 43rd overall and made it up to 28th overall, 10th in class.

Cloudy, cool, windy but dry was Saturday

Afternoon brought the 2nd sprint race. Unlike the morning's race, the result wasn't as good. Though the racing was close, intense and fun. Which is why I'm here.
On the start I did well, picking up 3 positions on the first lap, and another 3 on the next lap. Lost some and then got it back on the next. And then my race took a turn.

Going up the esses, I grab 5th gear just after the apex to turn 2 as I straighten the car and head up the hill. This time though, I couldn't find 5th, it just wasn't there. I fiddled and fussed but couldn't get it into gear. This meant instead of powering up through the essess, I was basically just coasting up the hill off the power. In a class like 944Cup where we are all close racers, this was very similar in result to throwing out a boat anchor behind my car. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh as all those cars cars I had passed went flying past me.

I finally found 5th going down the back straight but with the limited speed I lost some more spots going into the bus stop. The rest of the lap I clawed some of those positions back again, but once again in the esses, same issue, same result. I started dropping down the leader board with a thud. I changed my strategy to going for 5th after the esses, running the car at redline which was making me cringe in the car. This compromised my speed onto the back straight leading to more lost spots at the bus stop. But at least it stopped the hemorrhaging, converting it to merely a slow painful death. I'd lose just one or two spots, instead of the three or four. I could then get one or more of those spots back elsewhere in the track. There were a pack of us, about 10 or more cars, where we were going head to head, door to door all around the track. It was pretty intense and fun racing. Toward the end, a double yellow came out and we got a Nascar style Green/White/Checker shootout to finish the race. The battling became even more intense in our local pack with cars going 3 wide though the corners trying anything to get ahead. On the last lap and last corner (11) there was an opening at the apex, I dived down under braking and then saw the other car come down and start to shut the door on me. Don't hit me! I lifted momentarily as he came about 3 inches from my door and then was back on the power.

But it was just enough to kill my momentum through the corner. I passed him, but a gaggle of cars behind me weren't balked and I watched helplessly as they slowly motored by at about 2 mph and beat me to the checker. Argh!!!

So I tumbled off the 1st sheet of the results. I ended up 40th overall, 17th in class. Not the result I was hoping for, but the racing was awesome even with the mechanical difficulties. Now it was off to the Seneca Lodge bar where Guinness is on tap and a nice filet was calling my name.

Sunday

In the warm-up I tried a new approach for 5th gear, shifting before the turn in at turn 2. This gave up just a little bit of speed going up the hill, but not much, and also meant I didn't have to run at redline though the esses. I was hopeful for the upcoming race.

Swiss Army wrist watch duct-taped to roll cage for in-car timing- when
to come in for my mandatory 5 minute enduro pit stop

Our enduro race was scheduled at about 10:30, finishing up around noon. About 10 it started to spit rain, but not too much. By 10:30 the track was damp, but it still wasn't raining heavily. I had hope that it would dry up so I left my dry (slicks) tires on.

On the pace lap it was lightly raining but not too bad. If it stays like this I have a chance. Everybody else has rain tires, and if it clears I'll clean up as they cook their tires. I get to use my rain light for the first time and notice a couple of cars with them. As we head onto the front straight the rain intensifies and now rooster tails start appearing behind the cars. I do a lap, conditions are getting sketchy, the next lap and the rain is coming down pretty good and it obvious that the best decision is to bag it. So I came in and loaded up. And it turned to be the right decision. Within the first 15 minutes I watched as several crunched up cars were brought in on a tow hook. As I was packing up and leaving, I kept on hearing about double yellows on the PA, so it must have been a mess out there. Congrats to Tyler and Bill Comat who took 1st in Cup but the overall win also.

But my car was still in the same shape it arrived in. I need to find out my electrical and tranny problems but that could wait. I headed back home in the rain. I had some great racing with friends and good weekend at the track. It's all good.

Bill Comat's brand new Michael Mount built motor - must be ok, as Tyler
brought it home 1st overall in the enduro.

Rainy Day, Go Away

I like racing in the rain, actually make that, I love racing in the rain. It's a minority opinion I know, but I'm okay with that. Even better than racing in the rain is racing in intermediate, iffy conditions. Where one minute the track's dry, then wet, then damp. At a long track like the Glen, it could be pouring and slippy at one end of the circuit and bone dry and sunny at the other. Grip in one corner one lap, none the next. What's not to like?

While the winter has been non-existent in the Northeast here, the last half of the 944 Cup season was wet. Blindingly, hurricane wet racing. And I mean it literally. Hurricane Irene barreled over New Jersey while the Cuppers were at the track. I luckily missed that weekend as I had to work instead. Summit Point Saturday was  torrential rain and fog. Even our Nationals was under a pouring black cloud.

One of the things that sucks at a rain race is visibility. Pack 20+ cars on a rainy track with poor drainage and it quickly becomes almost impossible to see anything. Heading into turn one at the start of the race is pretty hairy. All you can do is follow the car in front of you and hope that you don't become "that guy".

rain light in action

While watching Formula 1 after the end of our season I noticed those FIA rain lights the cars were running. A little bit of research and I found a supplier. I made the proposal to Dave (Cup Daddy) and he agreed it was a good idea and added it to our rules for 2012.

I got my car back from Behe's this weekend, and the first order of business was to install my new FIA rain light.

Installed in the center panel between the brakelights

And since when it will be used, it will probably be gray and dark, I made the switch lighted on the console.

While this may not keep me from being "that guy", hopefully it will prevent somebody behind me from running into me and becoming "that guy".