PMS993

You know how to say the nicest things...not like any Dr. I know!

RSRRacer

Mac I was 2 cars behind you when the incident occured in the bus stop. I think you were still spinning when I drove by and I managed to squeeze between you and the guardrail missing both by about a foot at most. I regret that others did not avoid contact with you.

During the enduro I was able to calm down and focus. This was only my 3rd time to the Glen and the first in this car so I still had some learning to do. I have not checked mylaps.com but I think my fastest laps were probably an hour into the enduro.

With sticker tires, next year I hope for a very low 1:57 maybe 1:56 but I think 1:56 in my car may be unobtainable.

Hope to see you and the others back soon.

78SC

Great lap time Chris! I was looking forward to lowering my times in the enduro with nice conditions and fresh tires but I ended up getting collected from behind in turn one lap one.

richard glickel.

Hi Don,

I first saw the double yellow at turn 10, by which time you and several others had already pitted. But, before that I did see a yellow flag (not double) at turn 8, so they got the yellows out real fast. That made for an interesting scenario out on the track. I had intended to pit-in at the halfway point but found myself going round and round 4 cars behind the pace car for what seemed like 15 minutes at least.

When the track went green, I turned another lap and then came in for the mandatory pit stop. Thanks, in part, to the long caution I had more than 1/2 a tank of fuel and was rested enough without having to stop. I left the pits with less than 25 minutes to go in the enduro and felt great. About 4 or 5 laps later, as I downshifted at the end of the back straight my (new) clutch blew up and that was it for me.

So, this is racing? I had a blast even with a DNF and can't wait to do it again. Hope to see you at the track again sometime soon.

Racerrob

When I came through 10 the yellow lights were on. My crew asked a steward if those who pitted (there were also several "I" cars) were DQ'd and he said yes. Several were also supposed to be DQ'd for pitting when the track went green. When I left, there were 2 different sets of results and no one was DQ'd. PCA really screwed this one. Anyone know the final results?



there anyone else from F or G that pitted when the 944 hit the wall between T10 and T11 in the enduro? There were about 5-6 of us that were DQ'ed. I fully understand that it is a no no to pit under full yellow but I went through T10 at full tilt with no yellow showing. Everyone checked up hard, I went through T11 and tried to sneak into the pits. I don't remember if T11 corner workers were showing double yellow or not. There was another black 968 that left the pits 10 seconds before be and he did not get DQ'ed, but I did notice that he DNF'ed. Just curious...

Cris Brady

Hi Richard,

Did you by chance duck into the NASCAR short course from the outer loop after your clutch blew?

If that was you I would suggest a little more caution next time in crossing a hot track. I almost collected you at over 100 mph. I was coming thru the outer loop at full speed and noticed you moving slower all the way on the outside. I adjusted my line and was in the middle of the track when all of a sudden you made a sudden right turn and gunned it across the track right across my path. I had to nail my brakes to avoid hitting you square in the door.

It's hard to see out of a racecar, so next time wait for the corner workers to signal you across. That could've been a bad day for both of us.

ngoldrich

This weekend seemed to be a bit bi-polar for me -

A little long, but interesting...

It was great seeing so many rennlisters and meeting many for the first time!

An overview of my experience:

(1) It was rainy thurs & fri - so I had virtually no track time-which was depressing since I just had all of my front and rear suspension replaced and needed setup time. And remember I dont drive this car in the rain....

(2) So my first real warm laps were qualifying. To say the least the car was diabolical handling. It took everything just to keep it on the track. I had to do weird things to keep it from flying off. Giving it everything only yielded a 2:01 which is horrible for my car - since I ran 1:56.0 in race laps last year. Plus now I have a diff so I mentally was figuring to be much faster.

So after whining a little bit, a few rennlisters made me feel better. Then I enlisted the help of Rick Deman who is incredibly nice, knowledgable and helpful...

He had me try a few shock changes. I did them and had not time to test. My next session was the sprint race.

(3) The group 4 sprint race - the changes helped a good bit with the entry understeer; but caused some verrry nasty mid turn high speed understeer. Again, it took everything to keep it on the track. The fastest I could run was 1:58. Again, not good for my car - so even though it was 3 second better I was still irritated.

** As a sidenote Bill Chadwick had handling issues as well, although he did not complain about them like me :-) We just worked to get them sorted. he was moving well in the sprint which was his first hot laps as well (1:57). He would have come in second OA to Leh and 1st in class if he did not have engine problems. Bill would have definitely gotten down to even faster times if he did not have problems. So nice driving Bill! Plus it was fun sharing a garage.

It was absolutely amazing watching Leh get down to a 1:52. In the sprints he was 6 seconds faster than me and boy did it show. I was nearing the brake zone for the bus stop and could not see Leh yet, but I could hear his screaming engine. By the exit of the bus stop he was passing me on the inside. Man was he quick. I actully got to see him for 2 whole turns :-)

(4) I was signed up for the enduro, but was considering not running it since the car was just no fun to drive - and quite dangerous. But Rick Deman convinced me to make some more changes and run the enduro. After reviewing everything very closely we decided to lower the front ride height and stiffen the front sway bar.

I went out in morning warmups with old tires and the boost turned down. I easily turned 1:57 without pushing the car and it was finally predicable and controllable again; so I decided to run the enduro.

(5) The group 7 enduro - I finally had smiles again. Since I was not sure how it would turn out I just left old tires on the car. The result was that I led every lap from the green flag (for the first hour and ten minutes) by quite a margin; and in case you are wondering - Leh was not in his normal car - or most surely that would not have been the case.

I really started pushing on the car and it was responding. As Leh mentioned (and thanks for the kudos) I did get down to a high 1:54 - I ran 55's,56's,57's in traffic. I drove for over an hour before I came in for my pitstop. With about 18 minutes to go my 4th gear broke on the front straight. I tried for a lap to go 3rd to 5th, but I could tell the trans was getting hot since it was getting harder and harder to shift. So I just pulled in the pits.

** I will post video of the 1:54 with front cam, rear cam and data acq when I get a chance...

This actually was not irritating, just a slight bit disappointing. I was actually very happy with the race since I now trust the car again and was able to get down to my goal for this year. If I started the weekend where I ended in terms of laptimes, I think with a little more setup work a high 1:52 or 1:53 is definitely possible.

Well that's enough for now.

By the way, the last few weeks I was in Europe (business) and even ran the Nurburgring for 3 days in a rental BMW race car - it was blast...

Hopefully I will see you guys again in the near future.

BTW- my heart goes out to the other rennlisters that had problems - hope you get them fixed quickly...

Great driving by Larry Herman in his race as well...

Mike, I hope you have better luck with your future races - you deserve it...

Norm

993944S2

Hi Richard;

That was kind of my point to the stewarts. I went through T10 hot, which I would not have if the yellow had been up. That means the "pit closed" sign was also not up. The course must have gone full course yellow in the time it took me to get from T10 to the pits... 15 seconds max.. Hmmmmm

Think of all the potential money I lost not being up front. Next race I will have a camera in the car.. Anyways. I had a great time and I love my new car.

Don

Steward B.

A quick comment about the issue of oil and other debris in the bus stop during the group 4 race on Saturday that was referenced by Mac McGee.

During the pace lap the yellow and orange slippery track flag was displayed, to inform the drivers that indeed, there was oil dry down in the bus stop as the result of an incident in the previous race.

The slippery track flag was taken down with the start of the race, in order to be able to inform the drivers if the track became more slippery. As a standard practice slippery track flags are only left up long enough to make sure that drivers see the informational flag, and then they are taken down. In other words, if you see a slippery track flag up, and then it comes up again later in the race, there are new debris/oil/radiator fluid/whatever, on the track.

Since there was not any new debris on the track after the pace lap (some Brit drivers refer to it as a the reconnaisance lap), there was no reason to put up the debris flag again.

Glad to hear Bill W. wasn't hurt. It was certainly a hard hit on the video.

richard glickel.

Don,

You drove great and in fast company with the Marshalls, McCarthy, et al. I'll look forward to seeing you again.

Cris,

My clutch (brand new BTW) had exploded just before bus stop. At the point that you first spied me I was actually coasting. I managed to jam the shifter into a gear (2nd or 3rd, not sure, but it felt like 2nd) and thought I'd be safest off the track out of everybody's line of sight and out of the way - so up the Nascar straight I went and did not see you behind or after you went bye.

Right at that point I was disappointed and probably a little confused too and not paying very close attention to the car's location on the track. I'm sure - momentarily - I thought that if I could get the car into the pits perhaps I might coax the gearbox into 4th and go back out and finish the race (another bad idea).

I apologize for the close call (and never realized there was a "close call" until your post) I guess it was just lucky for me that there was a skillful driver (you) approaching as I turned up the Nascar straight. I recall thinking what a really nice job you were doing as the SP2 class entry (you were the entire class, no?) both times I passed you (in the sprint and enduro). Maybe I'll see you at a NASA event later this year?

Cris Brady

Richard,

No harm, no foul. I like 968's. You owe me a beer for not creasing that door big time One of the top concepts I try to give rookies that I mentor is "to be predictable". As long as we think we have a good idea about where you are going, we'll all get around you. One of the most dangerous things is when rookies overcompensate and try to "be helpful", to get out of the way. Slow and predictable is okay, slow and erratic is scary.

And yeah, I was the lone SP2 entry. I was doing great when it was wet, hanging out with all the F cars, and taking the fun race overall. That doesn't happen very often with an I car! Of course by doing well in the wet sprint qual session I started up near the front which meant in the sprint I spent most of my time getting passed by the F and G cars finally getting up to speed in the dry conditions. I lost 21 spots in the sprint

That was balanced in the enduro when I finally put my Hoosiers on and picked up 18 spots from my starting position. All in all, a fun weekend. Lets hope we start to see more SP2 entries in the future. Hope to have a beer with you at some of the 944 cup/NASA events this year.

leonc944

Norm, what was your top speed in the enduro, on the back stretch? Our guess was that it was in the 170 mph range...

richard glickel.

A beer it is. I would like to get to the NASA races at Mosport and Lime Rock this summer.

ngoldrich

Leon,

I just checked my data acq and it was 184 MPH...

Norm

993944S2

Holy #$%&! My top speed was 125.11 in my F car. That is a huge difference....