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Sorry that I wasnt there to see Robert win his first race,
Congrats Robert!!!.. your patience and practicing continue to pay off, as does the support of your dad…
(although I dont know what was up with Jonny A…what’s so distracting about a little fire retardant in the face with only a few laps to go?)
I havent heard yet about sunday…my laps hasnt reported it yet.
Again,nice goin Robert
Thanks Joe and everyone else for your congratulations here and at the track. I really appreciate it. Here’s the full story. I call it “vini vidi vici”. Just kidding I’m not that cocky…yet :P.
Friday
My weekend started with the Ultimate Track Car Challenge on Friday. I was happy to represent SpecE30 and support the GRM guys, but I was really just using it as practice for the weekend. It was, however, a weekend highlight to sit in the same drivers meeting with Marc "that eurotrash guy" Goossens and Leh Keen (current Rolex GT points leader), both of Grand Am fame, not to mention our own mike skeen. Goossens was there with the whole Riley Technologies squad to promote their new "customer car" prototype starting at $200K. They looked like a very professional team, and it was very cool of them to mix with us mere amateurs. Goossens did a 1:44 in the car, which should be illegal :ohmy:. Skeen wasn't too far behind but he couldn't break 1:50.
I wasn’t the only SE30 putting in some laps before Saturday. MikeD and Carter were helping out with comp school. Brandon Hey and Mark Skeen were taking comp school. Grace, Skip, and the mediocres (yes, we use the caste system ;)) were doing Friday practice. That meant that a large portion of the field was going to shake the rust off before the race weekend began on Saturday.
Saturday
I thought Saturday practice went ok. I was doing some decent laps but the track was so much slower than when we last raced there in March that everyone was having trouble adjusting. It's difficult because VIR is so technical but it has a very bland surface, so there are not many reference points. You end up driving certain sections of the track by muscle memory and rhythm more than anything else. The problem was that the grip level was so much lower than earlier in the year, that it completely changed that rhythm. It's like you have to re-learn the track every time you go there. Everyone was complaining of some kind of balance issue, but I think the real problem was that guys (me included) were overdriving to get down to the February lap times instead of taking what the track would give them.
Jon Allen was driving the #87 rental car this weekend instead of the usual 00. He ended up half a second faster than anyone else in practice. He drove very well all weekend so I don’t want to take anything away from that, but it is interesting to point out that he was on old RA1’s. I think he was the first frontrunner to run RA1s during a race weekend this year. Of course it was totally legal of him to run them and I’m not trying to downplay the lap. He switched back to R888s after practice, but I just think it’s an interesting can of worms that almost got opened.
We had a nice SpecE30 grill out for lunch which was well attended.
Qualifying was also interesting for me. We had just 3 laps, and I had a bit too much understeer for my taste. I had a clean second lap but on the third I caught Carlton and drafted him all the way down the back straight. I had to brake a lot earlier to keep from hitting him, so I figured my lap was ruined and I backed off going into hogpen to gap him for the next lap. Unfortunately they threw the checker that time by. I was really surprised to see that the lap I followed carlton where I backed off was my fastest lap, not the clean lap I had earlier. I probably lost a second in the final segment trying to gap him, but I apparently gained more than that by being in the draft. It just goes to show how much the draft helps at VIR, a lesson I would learn again on Sunday. I ended up qualifying second, less than 2 one-hundredths off of jonny’s pole time :pinch:. Skip was a tenth behind me and Cobetto was a tenth behind him. It was going to be a close race, but I felt that I was the fastest car going in.
At the start, Jonny beat me to turn 1 with skip in tow. They completely cleared me, but I was on the outside and I made a very late braking move to pass skip on the outside and keep my qualifying position. I followed Jonny for a lap, and I could see that he was really struggling on cold tires. I knew I had to make my move early before he got up to speed. I followed him for a full lap to see his brake points and pick my spot. On lap 3 I out-braked him into T1. I went just a touch deep so that I couldn’t quite get on the power early enough so Jonny “up and undered” me. We were side by side in T2, but I had the inside for T3 where I outbraked him again. But he got another good run off the corner and stuck his nose in at T4. I tried to squeeze him and braked late to defend, but as soon as I turned the wheel at the entry, the front tires gave absolutely no response and I dropped two wheels at the exit 
. I stayed WOT which caused me to have a huge loose moment in the grass. I held the correction to give me a tank slapper so that I was pointing in the right direction. I basically created a rally stage parallel to the track, which the 18 cars barreling up behind me were not thrilled to see. I think it was another mistake of driving what the track gave us earlier in the season and not what it was giving us now. I lost the lead to jonny when I re-entered but kept second. That allowed Jonny to pull out a few carlengths and skip was all over my rear. MikeD got around skip and gave me a lot of trouble. I was trying to get him to work with me to catch jonny, but he had other plans and stuck his nose in at just about every brake zone during the next lap :S. I can’t really blame him since I probably would have done the same thing :). Mike was driving really well this weekend after a few low finishes at summit. Eventually I pulled out a gap on him. Then skip started hounding him which caused him to fall further back, but the damage was done to my race and Jonny was now several carlengths ahead. It looked like Jonny and I were equally screwed by the Spec3’s, so I wasn’t getting any help from traffic either.
I knew I just had to push hard to force him to keep up a fast pace and hopefully make a mistake, but Jonny is a seasoned veteran who is used to checking out in the lead, and it was going to be a longshot. With two laps to go, I got my miracle when the fire suppression system was accidently set off in JonA’s car :woohoo:. I definitely didn’t see that one in the crystal ball. I inherited the lead without anyone in sight in my mirror. I had led races before here. I led half of the first race of the season before hitting traffic, and I have a few poles. I already knew that the feeling of leading a race is unlike anything else you experience in this sport. For those who haven’t led a field of this size and strength, your whole mentality changes. You go from being the hunter to the hunted, and these are some of the best hunters out there. It’s funny how your confidence can shrink when you finally make it to the front where you deserve to be the most confident. I realized after February that you will never be able to hold a lead in a race until you can mentally find the confidence to be comfortable setting the pace for some of the best drivers in the paddock.
So I knew that leading a race is a personal challenge mentally to stay focused, but nothing can prepare you for the feeling you get leading a field of this caliber under the white flag for the first time :blink:. I and all my supporters had worked hard for it and I felt like I deserved to win, but when it actually came down to it, I was so nervous that I had to remind myself to breathe. But I was ready for this moment, and I told myself to just drive my own car and hit my marks like it’s practice, and not to start calculating prize money or something stupid like that. Going into T4 on the last lap, I was so excited/nervous/happy/scared/etc. that my arms actually froze up for a second and I almost went off at the exit. Somehow I finished that lap at a 9 tenths pace, but it felt like about a 5:30 lap time :lol:. It was a long time coming, but I finally got my first W. It’s not quite the way I would have wanted it with Jonny’s mechanical. But don’t get me wrong, it’s not bittersweet. I’m not counting it as a gift because I’ve been on the other side of that coin too. I also drove far from flawlessly, but you don’t have to race for long to know that there are a lot of things out of your control, and sometimes that can be a good thing. More on that after the recap.
results: http://www.mylaps.com/results/showrun.jsp?id=1236749&perclass=1
video: http://www.vimeo.com/5787952
INTERMISSION
Sunday
So I was the defending race winner going into Sunday which meant that I was "in the crosshairs", according to skip who kept reminding me of that with a creepy little finger symbol :lol:. We rotated the tires for Sunday, which I have found can have a huge effect on the balance of the car, and we've started keeping a log and using tire rotation as a way of adjusting the balance in the same way as I would adjust the sway bar. The balance was good, and I did a real baby-makin' lap which I was really confident would be pole. The times came out and skip, who I was reeling in during the session, was somehow 2 tenths faster than me. I couldn't let a little transponder malfunction keep me down ;), so I licked my wounds and started planning for another front row start. I knew skip would motor by me no matter what I did, so I just concentrated on trying to get the best start I could to keep MikeD (starting 3rd behind skip) from getting by too. With a little help from JonA's bumper, I was barely able to keep the 2nd position from Mike. I settled into second, but skip was not driving well on cold tires. He was really holding me up which was allowing jonA, MikeD, and company to close up on me :angry:. Skip went way wide and off the track at the exit of oak tree. I easily motored by him and I thought "great, I'm leading again," I would soon find out that this pass for the lead was actually my fatal move. When I checked my mirrors, I saw he was motoring back up alongside me "@#$%&*!". My problem got a whole lot worse when mikeD followed skip :angry:. It got even worse when Cobetto followed Mike :angry:. It got the worstest when Jonny followed cobetto :angry:. So I was kind of in shock crossing start/finish in 5th after leading the race less than a half lap earlier. I guess that's what it's like to be "in the crosshairs" :blink:. Thinking about it afterwards, I really don't think I could have done anything different than passing skip when he went off. It was just a case of being out-gunned and then getting left off the train. It was another lesson about the advantage of the draft, and skip's straightaway talent... :dry:
I managed to get by jon and mikey, then I really put the hammer down to catch skip and cobetto (running 1-2), setting second-fastest lap of the race to catch them. When I caught them at about the 20 min. mark, I backed off just a bit to save the car since it was a 40 min race. I figured I’d stick with them close enough to keep cobetto distracted, and hopefully I’d be able to make a move at the end when they had used up their tires. But Skip was creating a really nice tow for cobetto, who was taking full advantage of it, which made it more difficult to keep up. Unfortunately, MikeD was also giving me problems again. I had to defend a lot from him, which forced me to dial the pace back up just to hold the position and stay with cobetto. With not much time left to go, MikeD fell way off the pace from overcooking his tires, and cobetto was dropping like a stone. With one lap to go, his mid-corner speed was so slow that I thought he was brake checking me. I popped out into T1 from about 5 carlengths back just to distract him, but I ended up almost ramming him because he was braking so early to keep his tires under him. He was really holding me up but he was taking a very defensive line and he had enough power to keep me from working the draft. If we’d had another lap, I would have got him into T1. So I finished 3rd which was disappointing because I thought I ran a good smart race but just got unlucky on lap 1, and barely ran out of time to make my strategy work to pass C at the end :S :dry: .
JonA had another off or two, one of which happened when his shift knob came off. The poor guy was really quick all weekend, but luck was against him :(. Congrats to skip on holding off the king for a well-deserved win. Skip has been very strong all season, but his consistency has improved hugely in the past few races :). I haven’t finished off the podium since the motor went under the hood B). Carter was the points leader going into the event (without drops) but he didn’t have a great weekend from the results point of view, and chris finished pretty low on Saturday. I haven’t calculated the points, but I’ll betcha there was a real shake-up.
The video makes a lot more sense if you can look for guys poking their noses in from the mirror, since most of my race was happening behind and beside me. MikeD should have some great vids. Sorry about the video angle. It wasn’t pointed in quite the right direction but you can still follow the race. And yes, the date is wrong. Sunday was the 26th not the 27th.
results: http://www.mylaps.com/results/showrun.jsp?id=1242499&perclass=1
video: http://www.vimeo.com/5788324
So even though I left the track frustrated, nothing that happened on Sunday could have made the weekend overall anything worse than the best I've ever had :).
This first win means so much to me, and I’m not just saying that in a mushy-gushy way. VIR is where I first found out about road racing. It was my first time visiting a track, and riding in a race car at speed before I knew what an apex or a brake pad was. I decided in the same paddock when I was 14 years old that I wanted to dedicate as much as possible of my teen years to road racing. So there I was almost 5 years later celebrating in the same paddock.
This race was also the exact two year anniversary of my first race, which some will remember did not go nearly as well, and I had to keep myself from thinking about that first race as I went through T3 on the final lap. It was an amazing reversal of emotion.
It was also great to win on a Saturday because I got the winner sticker and trophy at the awards party. Thanks to Cobetto for the very kind words at the party. I was glad to be able to dedicate the win to my dad and present him the trophy. Thanks to everyone who came up and congratulated me after the race and the party. I really appreciate it. It was great to see some of those same faces that I saw when I was that kid who just turned 16, going out in HPDE1, staring at me like “did you get lost on the way to the kiddie kart track?” :lol:. But seriously, all the staff at NASA MA always supported me even when my stock was low, especially cobetto. Speaking of cobetto, this was the first time I can remember beating him fair and square in a race. It’s particularly special for me not only because he’s the 2-time National champ, but for those who don’t know he’s also sort of my semi-driver coach and I consider him my racing mentor. The thing that amazes me about him is that he seems to have a magnet in his car that takes him to the lead of the race every time. No matter where he qualifies or how his car handles, he gives everything he’s got to win the race or go down swinging (just watch his “line” through T10 in my Sunday video). The guy is not just an extremely talented driver, he’s a natural born winner. I have as much respect for him as anyone else I know inside and outside of racing. To beat him, even if I never actually went W2W with him in the race, feels like a win in itself :).
This was also my last race weekend before I go off to school. I hope to finish out the season and hopefully make it to a few races next year, but it would be a stretch. Winning at the last track event where I drove with my dad from my house to the track and back, loading and unloading the way we’ve always done is an incredible ending to that chapter of my racing career and my life in general (not the same thing believe it or not) 
.
So it really was a storybook win and to be honest it has barely started to sink in. Right now I’m just feeling relieved that it finally happened. I found out that when you dedicate such a big portion of your life to achieving a goal and then you actually achieve it, you don’t feel happy right away. You actually feel kind of lost and confused like “so what do I do now?”
Thanks again to everyone who made it possible: supporters for the encouragement and critics for the extra motivation. I hope I'll see everyone again in 1 month at the Point, and then again in October for the finale :).Great job Robert, congrats on the win. Sounds like i missed another great weekend down at VIR. Keep up the good work.
Peter Thibault
Elephant4 wrote:
Ditto…good job and congratulations. Videos were great with the exception of Sat. While you may like the view of clear track ahead, I like what I am used to. That is, looking up the ass of another Spec e30. Sunday’s video had better entertainment value. especially Cobettos curb hopping and wheel lifting quick way through Hogpen. Cool stuff
Don
donstevens wrote:
[quote]Elephant4 wrote:
Ditto…good job and congratulations. Videos were great with the exception of Sat. While you may like the view of clear track ahead, I like what I am used to. That is, looking up the ass of another Spec e30. Sunday’s video had better entertainment value. especially Cobettos curb hopping and wheel lifting quick way through Hogpen. Cool stuff
Don[/quote]
Here’s a fun one to watch. Had a great time even though the new motor didn’t make it into the car before the race. Struggled on the straights but gave it my all. The DTC60’s were working overtime 
I made some changes to the setup after Saturdays qualifying session and they turned out to be for the better. Sundays race was great fun as well. Awesome driving from everyone. Congrats to Robert, Skip and the comp school graduates. The comp school went well and I liked what I saw.
cheers
Thanks everyone. And nice vid mike, although it gave me the opposite reaction about how we compared horsepower-wise. But I guess anyone in the paddock would say they’re down on power if you asked 'em :);).
That was good hard racing.
You gonna put up the sunday race?
allenr wrote:
[quote]Thanks everyone. And nice vid mike, although it gave me the opposite reaction about how we compared horsepower-wise. But I guess anyone in the paddock would say they’re down on power if you asked 'em :);).
That was good hard racing.
You gonna put up the sunday race?[/quote]
I’ll put it up when I get a chance later tonight. The car ran great and it’s the only stock bore car in the top 5 :ohmy: And don’t forget getting a good run out of Oak Tree or hogpen doesn’t mean I’m making more power than you. I would enjoy the additional torque from the .020 over bore but the car is fine on the top end it just struggles coming out of 1 and oak tree. If I can stay in someones draft I hardly notice.
cheers,
Ok the sunday results have been posted. Here’s a bit more thorough points update since we have just 3 more checker flags left in the season.
No Drop:
Davidson: 788
Cobetto: 777
Hunt: 769
R. Allen: 759
Bennett: 753
J. Allen: 735
1 Drop:
Cobetto: 777
R. Allen: 759
Bennett: 753
Davidson: 721
J.Allen: 704
Hunt: 704
2 Drops:
Cobetto: 746
R. Allen: 690
Bennett: 687
Davidson: 651
J. Allen: 645
Hunt: 635
Interestingly the second drop has very little effect on the standings. Cobetto is uncatchable unless it goes terribly wrong for him, but it’s a dead heat for 2nd. We’re at the point were every position counts.
(edit)
MikeD wrote:
[quote]
http://www.vimeo.com/5792704[/quote]
Enjoyed that, although your finish line yell was a bit weak ;), I prefer the Davidson scream
Elephant4 wrote:
[quote]MikeD wrote:
[quote]
http://www.vimeo.com/5792704[/quote]
Enjoyed that, although your finish line yell was a bit weak ;), I prefer the Davidson scream[/quote]
Hahaha you wern’t the first to say that. My mom thought it was weak as well
Robert,
Congrats and thanks for the kind words. The first one is always special. I still have a champagne bottle from that first one and the checkered flag.
Damn this class is competitive. I love it!!!
Just to clarify I don’t get points for Saturday at HyperFest. I didn’t declare a team at the beginning of the season. I hadn’t planned on having to pull out of the race on Sunday at Hfest but I am the Director first and driver second. Gotta get Don to adjust the points sheet. Sorry for any confusion.
I have to drop both races at Summit.
Ok thanks chris. I adjusted the points on the update.
But you’re still going to have to have major problems to allow us to catch you… I hope I just jinxed you 
.