Those that made the trip were rewarded with a great fun filled weekend of racing. Saturday the whether was perfect, and Sunday was overcast with off and on rain. 8 E30’s showed up.
Sunday! it is hard to say anything but WOW… incredible spec e30 racing! The day started off with a bit of rain and most of us put our rains on for practice, times were uneventful, best lap by David Harrington at 2:16 this compares to 1:57:80 as the best dry lap on Saturday (me) . Qualifying saw the track get a bit more traction and was damp but not too wet, most of us were lazy and kept our rain tires on, while Chris used slicks. Chris and I ran together, but he could not get the same grip coming out of the important turns and was just off my pace. Mike Davidson was quick all weekend and David Harrington whose car was literally blowing flames out the back on Saturday during the race was happy his car was working properly and also ran well. I was first on the grid, followed by Mike Davidson (-.5), followed by Chris and David…
By race time is was pouring rain and during the warm up lap I could see the track would be very different than practice and qualifying. I think others must have noticed as well, as the pace car pulled off we had a very clean start. I was able to get a jump on Mike or at least he elected not to push things into turn one (smart move) as this race was not going to be won in turn 1, smooth mistake free driving would be a better strategy. Chris managed to stay behind me into turn 1, so coming out of the first turn it was myself, Chris, Mike, David… Chris stayed on my tail as we pulled a few car lengths ahead of the others. As we hit the kink in turn 10, I squeezed the breaks not to push it to hard and Chris took a bit more risk, carrying more speed into the straight he got by me going into the left hander at the end of the straight. Around we went another 2 laps or so with Chris in front, I was behind by 7 car lengths followed by Mike about a two or three seconds behind me. Chris was driving the best and he was gaining on me just a bit each lap. Than the fun began. Chris took the kink to fast, as you know it is a very fast turn when it is dry, but always a bit dicey as there is a pretty big bump in the turn combined with the bump at the apex always gets your heart going on a dry day, add some standing water and you can imagine what it was like during our race. Chris got sideways and my back end started to wiggle as well, I see Chris sliding sideways towards the grass and was able to keep my car under control, but than somehow Chris’s car now perpendicular started to slide back on the track. This was definitely an Oh Shit moment. I added a bit more steering input and hoped like hell I would not t-bone him. I am sure Chris was staring at my headlights thinking similar Oh Shit thoughts, and my guess was Mike was a bit nervous as well. I managed get enough traction to avoid a collision and Mike Davidson and I were 1-2 going into the turn. By the front straightaway I had about 4 second lead with Mike and now Chris in a dual for second. Around we went, I managed to put a few 944’s between me and Chris/Mike and was feeling reasonably confident if I stayed mistake free I would take the checker. I could not really see Chris and Mike in the review mirror. I backed off a bit and was just trying to run clean laps. Chris had other ideas on his mind and from what I was told after the race by Sean Thompson, Mr. Cobetto was driving the nuts off his car and sure enough next thing I know he was 7 or 8 car lengths behind me. Dam where did he come from was the first thing into my mind, and now I too had to hook it up. I made a mistake or two and Chris was running cleanly, as the white flag came out he was on my tail maybe 3 car lengths back. I ran well and fast through the final lap, going through the kink we were nose to tail into the braking zone. I did not give Chris the apex as I did on lap 1. Going down the short shoot we were nose to tail and I was feeling the pressure, this time I pushed the breaking zone into 14 a bit to far and could not make the apex leaving room for Chris to sneak in side by side coming out of 14 onto the front straight. We were both at the limit, as we tracked out at the exit I had no room and Chris was tracking out as well. I was completely out off track and thought for sure Chris and I would rub door paint. Our mirrors actually were over lapping, maybe 2 inches between the cars, we were dead even, pedals to the floor going for the finish line, just as I caught 4th I heard Chris hit the rev limiter giving me about a 6 inch edge. We hit the start finish line, I was not sure who won, although I thought I may have won by a blink of an eye. Final differential was 4/100ths of a second, I won by a foot literally! Chris and I pulled off track to a big ovation of 30 or more onlookers, this is what spec e30 racing is all about!!! My guess is a few bystanders may be looking for e30’s on ebay next week.
Carlton
