MidOhio and Watkins Glen back to back, what more can a racer ask for!
The schedule worked out great. I needed to test for NASA Nationals. NASA Great Lakes region decided to have an event the weekend before the Watkins Glen test… When making the schedule I thought to myself ‘Watkins Glen is on the way back home from MidOhio only 6hrs! hmm that might just work, why not tow 12hrs to MidO, race, then stop to test at the Glen, 5 full days of driving, sweet.’
Dad and I left NH Thursday, got to Ohio without issue and even did some sight seeing stopping at Summit Racing’s massive warehouse in Ohio. Many parts on the racecar came from there. Well, it’s awesome! Paradise for a racer and of course I had to buy something…
At MidOhio were fellow FFR Challenge racers Brian, Mike D., Julie, Lyle, and Paul Arnold (who bought a GTS4 Porsche and was racing that). The event was full as people were getting their last race starts in for Nationals, Mike Tuck signed up late and didn’t make it in the event! That is with Peter LaRose cancelling last minute too! Bob Deeks even decided to grace us with his presence in his stupid fast ST1 Corvette.
Friday uneventful running practice all day, I scuffed new set of Hoosier tires, and messed around on super old Toyo RA1 from 2010 to burn them up finally. I miss MidOhio, it’s a blast to drive and brought back great memories. I even got to dice on track once again with Paul Arnold in his Porsche, but the session got cut short when a lot of oil came out of Bob Deeks’s car. 🙁
Saturday qualifying had me get down to a 1:32.7, not bad on old Hoosiers. ST2 is not strong at all in the Great Lakes region, and the other competitor that was signed up did not come, it was just me in ST2, so the race went on without any drama finishing 11th overall. Lyle won the FFR class, Brian 2nd, Mike 3rd, Julie 4th. Paul won the GTS4 class, I won (and was last) ST2, not bad at all.
Sunday was a change of track from the Pro course to the Club course. An added chicane slowed the laptimes by about 2 seconds. I ran a great lap in quali, 1:34.576, very close to the st2 track record. The goal in the race being to set a new record. That did not happen. On the start Elliott Fisher in his mustang hit me in the back going into Madness, not knowing who even hit me, or the extent of the damage and needing the car in one piece for Watkins Glen test, I pitted right away, packed up and left. Later after watching the video I found out who hit me. The damage luckily turned out to be only cosmetic.
Sunday Lyle won again in FFR class, and unfortunately Paul from the lead of GTS4 had to pit due to engine issues.
MidOhio pictures: http://www.johngeorgeracing.com/gallery/index.php?/category/379
Sunday night Dad and I made our way to Watkins Glen getting there around 11pm. Chris, and Nick met us there as they would be sleeping in the palatial palace on wheels, the RV.
Monday morning Mark Dougherty (THE ever famous traveling builder) drove up from Hershey PA to give me a hand tuning on FFR#48. The first sessions were great getting familiarized with the track, taking tire temperatures and pressures, giving us data on which direction to change the setup of the car for this specific track. We started with a best lap of 2:03.4 in the morning sessions, making camber adjustments, finding optimal tire pressures ended the day with a 2:01.2 lap. We even got fuel burn rates for 35min race, 10.5 gallons used. Rear camber change was done at night as it’s quite involved, and the car was ready for more testing on Tuesday.
Analyzing data and the added track time helped me on Tuesday to get even faster. The first session saw a best of 2:00.8! Trying less wing angle the second session of the day clocked me at a best of 2:00.204! I saw that time on the display dash in the car and said yup, we got the setup down! Enough thrashing on the car, we have done enough. To date that is the fastest I have gone around Watkins Glen, even faster then Ed’s enduro challenge car FFR#85 with 400hp, and the FFR818R test mule. The mods done to my car, IRS, ABS, huge brakes, aero, coyote engine, dry sump all worked splendidly and the lap times prove FFR#48 is a rocket ship!
Adrian in the Corvette (my main competition) was also testing and his fastest Tuesday was a 2:00.021, close enough to his time, I’m sure at Nationals we will be sub 2min. I still have some tricks up my sleeve!
I want to thank Mark Dougherty for coming and helping tune the car, without his help I would have needed another 2+ days of testing to get this fast. He is a blast to have around and brings a wealth of knowledge of car setup with him. We shaved over 3 seconds! Not bad for a day and a half of tuning.
Watkins Glen Pictures: http://www.johngeorgeracing.com/gallery/index.php?/category/380
Car is ready for NASA Nationals September 22-25, 2016! 3 weeks away! I cannot wait!!!