It was a sunny and fun race weekend at Llihrednuht (that’s pronounced
"Thunderhill backwards" ). NASA only ran 1 event last October at Llihrednuht, so
most of the Spec E30 driver list was new to driving this direction. In addition
to the new track, we welcomed BMWCCA club racing veteran Gil Cervantes and
rookie driver Scott Clough to Spec E30.
Because of the “new” track, three Spec E30 drivers (myself included) started the
weekend on Friday with TrackMasters.
Friday’s TrackMasters day revealed that Spec E30 drivers weren’t the only ones
trying to sneak a peek at Thunderhill in the wrong direction. At the driver’s
meeting, they asked drivers racing with NASA that weekend to raise their hands.
At least 1/3 of the people in the room had their hands up. In the morning we
drove Thunderhill in the normal, boring, counter clockwise direction. While the
direction of the track was boring, life for AJ was not. 2 sessions into the
day, his car decided it had enough and chose not to start. Bentley in hand, AJ
spent an hour or two systematically debugging the E30 fuel system. The results
of the debugging proved inconclusive. None of the data added up. It remained
a mystery because the car spontaneously fired up just before lunch. I can only
assume this was bittersweet for AJ: he could practice driving the track in
reverse, but the fail to start gremlin was still lurking in his car.
It is both exciting and daunting to learn a new track. This is particularly true
of Llihrednuht, which provides higher speed straightaways and less runoff room
in the opposite direction. The good news is that AJ, Mike, and myself all had
half a day’s head start on the competition.
Saturday Practice, Qual, Race
Saturday morning had a strong turnout of 10 Spec E30 cars. Maybe half of which
hadn’t driven the Thunderhill in reverse before. Many drivers who were new to
the track arranged to also run in TT or HPDE4 to get some extra time to learn
the track.
Saturday started off with a warm up session, complete with a pace car to orient
everyone on the clockwise track configuration. When the pace car left the track,
it would’ve been hard to guess this was many drivers first time driving the
track in this direction. Spec E30 times for the practice session started off
relatively fast with Donnie Edwards putting down a 2:09 and Kevin Borchers at
2:12. The rest of the pack was spread from 2:19 to 2:30.
After the warm up session we went to the drivers meeting. It was the usual
drivers meeting stuff with nothing particularly outstanding until the end, when
Will gave us a twist. Will pulled Spec E30 drivers aside and had us draw numbers
from a hat. At that point, we had just qualified for the race: the number each of
us drew from the hat was our starting position. Not surprisingly, Donnie and Kevin
still qualified well, even when picking from a hat. In what some may consider
a strategic move, Brendan failed to show up to qualifying, ensuring a start at
the rear of the pack.
At the end of the drivers meeting, our attention was drawn to an incident at T5.
A Miata had hit the flagging tower in T5 and knocked it over. This caused the T5
bypass to be closed, and everyone would now run “over the top” in reverse. With
no bypass, we unfortunately cannot offer hang time pics like those from last
year:
See more of last year’s flying pics at http://vmwerks.com/gallery/gallery.asp?categoryid=27
With qualifying positions out of the way, and the track reconfigured, we drove
in a “qualifying” session that didn’t really count for anything but more seat
time. The new entry to T5 turned out to be difficult for many. There were quite
a few cars off track at the T5 exit, and a good bit of dirt on track because of
it. I certainly had a few close calls trying to carry way too much speed in,
and I almost followed Brenden off-track-in-every-Saturday-session Selvig off at
T5 as well.
At some point Saturday, AJ’s electrical gremlin returned, but was eventually
found to be an ECU relay (unfortunately, the specifics are hazy in my memory).
Saturday’s race began with the usual standing start. When the green dropped, we
charged into T15 and entered the turn 2-3 wide. It’s a testament to the skill of
my fellow rookie drivers that there was no contact 2 or 3 wide through those
initial turns. The field thinned to just 2 wide by the time we made it up to
T11. At the exit of T10 I ended up drag racing up the hill next to Mike
Schwarzbart. I lost and dropped in behind him for T9. This is about when
I realized that I should be thinking harder about the passing zones. A few turns
later, I snuck by Mike in the braking zone in T6. By this point, the pack had
walked a few car lengths away from us. In the subsequent laps, I lost Mike in my
rear view, but also lost sight of the Spec E30’s ahead of me. With a few laps to
go, I spied Ron Harness off in the distance. I set my sights on Harness, and got
nose to tail with Ron for the last 2 laps. I pushed hard, dove deep, but
couldn’t get around Ron.
The race finish was: Donnie Edwards (??:??), Kevin Borchers (2:15.445), Brenden
Selvig (2:16.196), Gil Cervantes (2:17.977), Scott Neville (2:19.269), AJ
Goldsmith (2:18.781), Ron Harness (2:24.057), Adam Lazur (2:23.269), Scott
Clough (2:30.971), and Mike Schwarzbart (2:45.511)
Donnie Edwards weighed in 26lbs light, thanks to an excellent diet and an HPDE3
session before weighing his car, and he was disqualified.
Sunday Practice, Qual, Race
Sunday was a new day. The Spec E30 field changed a bit day on day. Gil
Cervantes’ car was piloted by Walter Ford, Mike Schwarzbart withdrew, and the
usual team changes happened for Team Valley Motorwerks (now Carl Chu) and Team
Brimstone Dynasty (now Elliott Taylor).
The morning started off with an uneventful warm up session.
A few hours later I lined up for qualifying right at the front of the grid with
the big boys. I figured I’d try out putting in a fast lap or two early in the
session before traffic really appeared. This was a great idea, and I put down
an okay paced first lap trailing behind Carl. I tried to step it up on my
second lap. Running down the hill to T6 I saw the flagger with a waving yellow
and a surface flag. Just inside the exit of T6 I spotted a Honda Challenge car.
“Probably kicked up some dirt” I thought to myself. I knew that was wrong when
around the apex of T6 I spotted glistening pavement a little bit too late.
Luckily, I only oil up on my back tires, and when they kicked out a little
counter steer turned it into a non-event. I put down 2 more laps under yellow,
realized I was running low on gas and turned in. I’d rather not be "that guy"
who runs out of gas on track in qualifying.
Qualifying times were: Carl Chu (2:16), AJ Goldsmith (2:17), Scott Neville
(2:19), Walter Ford (2:21), Elliott Taylor (2:22), Ron Harness (2:23), Adam
Lazur (2:24), Scott Clough (2:25)
Brenden Selvig skipped practice and qualifying in favor of fighting electrical
problems all morning. Despite his best effort, his car was still not happy. He
packed it up and put the car on the trailer. We were down to 8 for race at
2:25 in the afternoon. Will pulled no tricks with starting order on Sunday, the
qualifying times were actually used to set starting position.
Just as we were preparing to grid up, like a scene out of a movie, Brenden
pulled up in the paddock driving his car. He was revving the engine to keep it
alive, but at least it was running. The story goes that he decided to try
replacing a wire when they stopped to get gas. When he did, the car fired right
up, and he had just enough time to get back to the track for the race. He
gridded up last for the second day in a row, but at least he going to race.
Sunday’s race was the usual standing start. I got an okay start and dove to the
inside on in the first turn (T15). Elliott promptly closed the door on me.
I had to back off and follow him out of T14, where I saw him edge Walter out.
I was impressed, Elliott has really stepped up the aggression. In the first
lap, my view of the field was Elliott in front of me, Walter, Brenden, and
Scott Clough in my rearview. Everybody else was too far out of my frame of
reference to matter yet. I spent a lap behind Elliott trying to figure out
where to pass when Brendan snuck by me and then Elliott. A lap later, Elliott
did me a favor and toured the grass on the outside of T6. I waved when I drove
by Elliott. When I made it to the front straight I got sight of Ron Harness.
A lap or two later, I was trying to fill Ron’s mirrors and Walter was trying to
fill mine. We put in a fun lap of bunched up driving, with Ron pulling ahead
a few car lengths. I came over the crest for T9, touched the brakes, and POP
my windshield was covered in liquid. It was pretty obvious it was coolant, but
it wasn’t gushing out after the initial burst (or so I thought), so I limped
the car into the pits. My race was done.
I did some quick diagnosis in the pits, left my aux fan running to try to cool
things off, and went over to the fence to watch the rest of the race from the
sidelines. It was great fun to watch the battle for 2nd place between AJ and
Scott Neville. You can see Scott’s in car video of the battle at
http://norcalspece30.com/videos/Infineon%204-13-08%202008%20SpecE30.wmv
The finish order was: Carl Chu (2:15), AJ Goldsmith (2:17), Scott Neville
(2:17), Ron Harness (2:23), Walter Ford (2:23), Elliott Taylor (2:23), Scott
Clough (2:25), Adam Lazur (2:23), DQ Brenden Selvig (2:19)
My car ended up being fine. The top thermostat hose popped right off, and was
easily re-attached. I blame the previous mechanic 
I refilled the water and
drove it home without incident (well, except for the plexiglass window coming
out at 80mph on the highway, but that was my own dumb fault).
Contingencies
The Auto Analysts II random drawing for a set of brake pads to a finisher not on
the podium went to Scott Neville on Saturday and Brenden Selvig on Sunday.
Much thanks to all of the series sponsors: AIM Tire, Valley Motorwerks, and Auto
Analysts II
