Sebring June Race Reports

#1

Thanks for a great weekend of racing guys!
Here are some photos from Saturday - too tired for anything else tonight B)

#2

Man was it hot. I am still sweating.

#3

great stuff all. hope we can do it again soon.

#4

What is it with white E30s in FL? We had 5 starters on Saturday and 4 of the 5 cars were white. Plus Sir Gary Nilsen’s orange and blue Gator colored car used to be white. No, it has nothing to do with white shoes or white belts. I guess we all have good taste.

Despite some painfully hot temperatures in Sebring this past weekend, we all had a good time with only a few minor issues and a couple of love tap incidents. For this event we had an unusually low turn out of only 26 race cars. Either it was a sign of the economy or the rest of the guys are smart enough not to race in June in FL. As such we only have one race group that covers all classes rather than have two short sprints for “Lightning” and “Thunder”. We are all grouped together and the format called for one 55 minute sprint race ea. day. Mercifully they shortened the Sunday race to 40 mins allegedly because some of the cars (I assume the American Iron cars with small fuel cells) had fuel mileage issues and could only run for 45 mins or so on a full tank. As far as this old fart is concerned, 40 mins in 97 degree heat is plenty.

The spec E30 contingent of 5 cars on Saturday and 6 cars on Sunday was the second largest group behind American Iron. There was only one spec Miata, no Bandaleros (or whatever those motorcycle engined roadsters are called) and only one ea of the various GTS, Factory Ford, and 944 spec classes. The good news about this was that on a 3.7 mile course there was not much traffic at all. Both days were dry all day which is another abnormality in Sebring in June.

Saturday Race:

The Saturday race started with all 26 cars in one pack. The Spec E30 group was all at the back but there were a handful of fast cars that either did not qualify or were sent to the back (behind us) because of a penalty. The point is we were all pretty busy the first few laps. I think I managed to lead for about 100 yards coming out of turn 7 and then Nilsen and Peterman took off. J. Black, Strasser, and myself battled for a few laps all the while keeping Peterman and Nilsen in sight. But soon we settled into a car saving and heat saving rhythm. On about lap 5 I came through turn 14 to see Nilsen pulling back on the track after a spin. We found out later that there was a little contact between Peterman and Nilsen. Shortly after that my fuel light came on. The big dummy (me) didn’t even think to add fuel for 50 min race. Duh!. Anyway I had some experience driving this car with the fuel light on for several laps in the past so with Gary now in sight I figured I’d drive right through it. After about three laps I started to get worried and I started short shifting to 5th on the straights. This combined with some poor traffic management allowed J. Black to catch and pass me. We started to have one of our classic back and forth battles but I simply had to back out of it. For at least three more laps I kept looking for that checkered flag. But coming out of turn 16 on lap 13 the car sputtered and I took it in to “finish” 3 laps behind the rest of the guys. On track we finished Peterman, Nilsen, J. Black, and Strasser and I was already in street clothes by the time the cars reached impound. The cars were weighed after impound and unfortunately Peterman’s car was a few pounds under weight leaving the final order:

  1. G. Nilsen
  2. J. Black
  3. M. Strasser
  4. D. Stevens
    DQ A. Peterman

I took my car across the scale just for curiosity and with a nearly empty tank I was 9 pounds under weight. So if I had finished, I would have been DQ’d too.

After the on track activities were complete the NASA FL staff had a nice Pizza and Beer social where Gary, John, and Mike were awarded their trophies (see Natalie’s photos above)

Sunday Race:

Sunday dawned hot and muggy again. It was a whole new race day though and we had a new entrant. Scott McKay, former Factory Five national champion, had rented Jim Pantas’ “Pink Panther” car for the day. In morning warm up, the first time he ever driven any BMW, he quickly smoked all of us by a full five seconds. We figured that we were in for a humbling day.

By the time qualifying rolled around Scott had added some weight to the Panther to allegedly bring it up to legal weight and it supposedly legal trim he turned a 2:43:xxx to claim the pole. Well apparently he did not add enough weight and his time was disallowed and he was forced to the back. As such we started Peterman, Nilsen, Stevens, Strasser, N. Black, and McKay.

The other thing different on Suday is that we did split pack starts. This gave us our own clean track to do what we had to do. At the start I got a little jump and I crossed the line essentially neck, neck, and neck with Peterman and Nilsen with Natalie right behind me. Going into turn one I had the inside line against the wall and I braked as late as I thought I could get away with. In doing this I see Peterman going at least another 20-30 feet down the track on what appeared for a split second to be the preferred line. The good news for me was that his car simply did not stick and from what I could tell he took Nilsen wide with him. This let Strasser in behind me (I think) and honestly I don’t know what was going on back there. All I knew was by the end of the first lap I was in the lead and even McKay had not caught me yet. Scott eventually did catch me I tried in vain to stay with him for a while but he was just too fast. More good news for me though was that I learned a few things by watching him. This, combined with the rest of the pack duking it out amongst themselves behind me allowed me to get a pretty good lead. At this point, with 30 mins and 10 laps left to go I started talking to myself. I’d check my mirror in the usual places and to my surprise they were not catching me. “OK” I said to myself “you have done this before” …“this is your home track”… “get into a rhythm”…“don’t drive any faster than you have to keep them back there”… “that’s not sweat dripping into your eyes” …“they are still not catching up”…“it’s not that hot”…“c’mon flag man drop that checker” … “the car is OK”…“the leaders are coming through”…“uh-oh, Andy got by Mike”… “c’mon flag man drop that checker”…“here comes that Viper again. Damn it’s fast”… “brake, downshift, power to the apex” …“man I wish I had a Cool Shirt”…“where is that fricken checker?”…“concentrate”…“more traffic”…“Is that the checker in his hand? It Is…Yeah Baby”…!

Finishing order;

  1. S. McKay
  2. D. Stevens
  3. A. Peterman
  4. G. Nilsen
  5. N. Black
  6. M Strasser

Despite finishing second, I finished second to a hot shoe and I beat my local competitors. It felt like a win to me.

Hopefully the other guys (and gal) can add their own perspective. I am going to sit in the pool with a cold drink.

Don

#5

Okay kids, full-length vids from Sebring on are our website:

http://web.mac.com/natblack/Black_Site/Sunburn_Racing/Sunburn_Racing.html

Damn that was a hot weekend… hot… hot… I think I’m still sweating B)

Enjoy the vids!