A lot of testing gets done during the winter. Our off season was
no exception. I even managed to get in some modern, hi-tech testing
behind the wheel of a simulator. Well, OK, so it was the Ferrari F355
Challenge arcade game, but at least it was fun!
Once the decision was made to run the Speedvision World Challenge
Series, we started really thrashing on the car. There's a big difference
between amateur club racing and running in a professional series.
A lot of work had to be done to the car. The good news is that the
rules for this series allow a bit more leeway in prepping the car,
the bad news is, all the other teams get the same leeway.
We've gotten in quite a bit of track time this winter including a
last minute jaunt to Phoenix in January for an SCCA National race.
We had spent a Thursday out at Willow Springs shaking the car out
and didn't have plans to go out again for a couple of weeks. Plans
change. I got a phone call from dad at 10 o'clock Friday morning asking
if I wanted to run that weekend. I said sure and he said to pack a
bag and get to the airport!
We're going to be running on a half dozen new tracks this season.
Mosport, Sears Point and Las Vegas, to name a few. So we also decided
to take a trip up to Sears Pt. the last week of February to get in
a little seat time before we race there later this year. It was a
very intense weekend.
We had sweated it out for a couple of days, trying to decide if we
should test at Sears Pt. or at Willow Springs that weekend. The reason
being that it was raining all over California. Since I've never driven
at Sears Pt., we decided that even a rainy weekend would be better
spent learning that track than just tooling around Willow which I
already know quite well. So we planned on spending a few days using
a National Auto Sport Association (NASA) race weekend to get some
much needed seat time in.
My boyfriend, whose name rather coincidentally is Tiger, was in town
for a visit so he and I drove up in the Suburban and Chris and his
wife Suzanne rode up in the rig with Bruce. My coach, Chris Cook met
us at the track. The weather looked pretty sketchy when we got there.
I was nervous. Not only had I never driven at Sears Pt., I had only
driven in the rain once before. Cook kept telling me that it would
be fine. The weekend would be a blast. I was pretty sure that his
helmet had been too tight for too many years, but I'm not supposed
to argue with my coach.
Anyway, Friday morning dawned gloomy and wet. And cold. Man, was
it cold! We all headed out to the track early as usual. Raymond, his
fiancé Valerie and their friend Brian met up with us at the track
after their long drive in from a short Las Vegas vacation. The car
needed to be teched and we had to make sure everyone was registered.
All the usual race weekend details.
Cook decided that he would drive with me in the car first to give
me a good look-see at the course. That promised to be entertaining.
I almost have more fun riding with him than I do when I drive. Cook
gives new meaning to the term "car control." Well, it turned out that
since Friday was an open track day, that meant no passengers allowed
in the cars, coaches included. So Cook and I spent the day trading
off. Luckily, the weather stayed pretty nice that day. I got a good
look at the track before things got too hairy. All the work that had
been done on the car up to that point seemed to be well worth the
effort.
Saturday was a little more tricky. It rained on and off all day.
The track was dry, then wet, then patchy. It took a lot of concentration
just to avoid looking like I was totally lost. I was really glad that
Cook was there. Aside from generally learning the track, he also showed
me how to change my line as the track conditions change. The fastest
line in the wet can be a far cry from what it is in the dry and when
the track is mostly dry with slick spots and puddles here and there,
it gets really interesting.
Things with the car were looking pretty good up to that point. I
qualified fourth out of about 35 cars. Then it was time to race...
and that's when we got some serious rain. It's not like it was coming
down in buckets, but if you spill enough dixie cups full of water,
things still end up a soggy mess.
The difference between qualifying and race times was about a minute.
I think I could have run around the track faster than we were driving.
Amazingly, even driving that slow felt too fast in some spots. I can't
say I had as much fun as some people do driving in the rain, but all
in all, it wasn't as bad as I expected. Just a bit nerve wracking
at times.
Most of Sunday was brighter than Saturday had been. I got the chance
to add a bit more speed as I was going around the track. So did Cook.
One session that he took me out in, he decided to try for some serious
lap times. He literally took his gloves off and put some effort into
it. That was a blast! It's too bad we never got a completely clear
lap. Still, he showed me enough to give me something to work on during
the rest of the weekend.
We got a lot done on Sunday. I had a lot of seat time and Cook's
instruction was continually helpful. He and Chris and I talked about
the set up on the car quite a bit also. I'm learning more and more
about the many subtleties that affect a car's performance all the
time. For instance, just a little bit of water on the track can seriously
affect the direction of travel. Turn 8 was slick as, well, let's just
say something really slimy. Quite a few cars ended up facing the wrong
way thru there over the weekend.
The only disappointment of the weekend came at the end of the day.
We had thought about running in the three hour enduro with Cook as
co-driver. It would have been a blast, but at the last minute we decided
that it wasn't worth it to use up the car. Next time.
Speaking of which... Tiger Racing's official season opener is coming
up. We will be running at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Friday, 31 March.
Enough of this arcade style, amateur driving. Finally, we're about
to do some serious racing...
See you at the races, next season.
Carol Hollfelder
