Mid-Atlantic Region's "Be Like Michael" Contest [Archive] - Texas American Iron & Camaro Mustang Challenge

Todd Covini

07-08-2009, 12:49 AM

Kidding...of course there's racing at Hyperfest.
Here's a write-up from fellow CMC bretheren, Jim Pastorius.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ok, so I was slack on getting my membership dues in and got 'purged'. Well, I am back Smile And what follows is the promised race report from Hyperfest 2009. It is hard to describe Hyperfest. But it is the biggest race of the year for the NASA Mid-Atlantic region. Everyone brings out their best, including women, bands and drivers. The only downside to being a driver, we don't get to see any activities until late in the day. But the upside, is getting to race with stands full and people lining the course. Plus the grid girls help calm the nerves before the race Smile

Hyperfest is run at Summit Point. I wish I could say it is a love/hate relationship, but in all truthfulness, it is a hate relationship. It is the home track to all of my competitors and my lack of experience and training on it shows. And the track reminds me of that fact more times than not. This weekend was off to no better of a start.

After Greenville, Jeb at Discount Tires got my truck tire issue straightened out and then I could focus on the strange noise coming from under the truck. The weekend before race weekend, I discovered the noise from under the truck was coming from the transfer case. Ok, this is not good. On the positive side, the Camaro was loaded and ready to go. First thing you learn in Competition school, have your car ready at least a week in advance. Long story short, finally can get the truck into a Chevrolet dealer on Thursday. At 3:45 Thursday afternoon they finally get back to me to let me know I have a hole in the transfer case. I tell them I have a date that night and am leaving for WV the next morning, slap some RTV sealant on it. I pick up the truck and the mechanic does one better with some jb weld.

As an aside, Mike Morris and his wife Melissa let me know if I have any issues they are there to help me out. Mike is the CMC Champion and current points leader. He owns a service/repair/towing shop in Richmond, VA. They let me know their one truck can hual my Silverado and tow my race car trailer. Another reason why I love CMC and the NASA "family".

Friday morning comes, with a full transfer case and jb weld, I load the Corgis and off to beautiful WV I go. The day was awesome weather wise. With the windows down and the stereo up, I could not hear the whine of the transfer case. If you can not hear it, it is not there. We arrive at the track around noon but are not allowed into the paddock until 5:30. I inform the "gate keeper" that I do need to visit the office to check on an overnight delivery. That was the truth. Raybestos was overnighting me new front pads cause they screwed up the order from 2 weeks before. The "gate keeper" loved the Corgis, so he let me in. He asked that I stay down out of the paddock by the main stage. Yes, there is a huge stage for the bands, award ceremony and daisy duke contest.

The pads had not arrived yet and I really did not think they would (turns out they did come in late Friday and Colin brought them to me Saturday morning) and I would have to rely upon the old BHP pads (are they even in business any more?) from over a year ago. Rudy, Bella and I hung out for 15 minutes and decided to head to the paddock. No harm, no foul if I got caught. The CMC paddock area is up in the woods and away from the paved paddock area, so the chances of anyone noticing would be slim. I joined 5 other CMC drivers already up there. Unloaded the car, set up the canopy, plugged in AC and enjoyed a bourbon and coke. Friday night was uneventful with a number of guys working on their cars. Not me, I just hung out relaxed and attempted to moderator any alcohol consumption. I can drink any time, I can't race any time <lol>.

Saturday arrives, the biggest race day of the year for NASA Mid-Atlantic.....

Saturday morning broke with heavy cloud cover and a threat of rain. And around 8 in the morning, the skies opened up. It was pouring rain. Our practice session was set to go off around 10:15 in the morning. Around 9:45 the rain started to lighten up. At first most of us were going to bag the practice session because all of the radar was showing the rain ending early afternoon before qualifying and definitely out of the area by race time. Why go out and risk the car?

Right before practice we got a break between the downpours, so I opted to go out for a few laps to shake the car down. I had decided to leave the BHP pads on the car and wanted to test those and test the repaired front hub. There really is nothing exciting about a wet practice session. I was tentative for good reason, no race is won in practice. The car seemed to be working well and I brought it in early. A dry line had started to appear when I came in and those guys that stayed out for the entire session had far better practice times than me. I was not too worried about qualifying.

Qualifying was scheduled for early afternoon and the race was late afternoon. About 20 minutes before qualifying, the rain had stopped and the track was getting dry pretty quickly. A few light showers as we waited to grid was keeping us on our toes.

With 15 CMC cars, we have our own start group and our own green flag. So the most important aspect of qualifying to make sure you are in front of slower cars. Sounds pretty simple but it is vital. Because the cars are so evenly matched, if you qualify poorly and get stuck towards the back half of the field, you can get around the slower cars, but the lead pack has checked out.

With the lack of experience at Summit, I am at a real disadvantage. But we rolled out with most of the CMC cars towards the front of the qualifying grid. I had Kevin Loundon right in front of me. I figured it would do me good to follow him for a while, he is pretty quick and has gotten the pole a couple of times. I learned a lot. I discovered how much deeper into turn 1 he took his braking and my brakes could handle it. I also discovered he was braking to late and too much for 10 leading onto the front straight. I kept getting runs on him out of 10 and was feeling pretty good about it. About half way through qualifying, I decided to see if could out brake him into 1. I held back slightly at 10 and powered out down the straight. We were side by side across the start finish line and I started to pull slightly ahead. I had about a 1/2 car length lead and knew I had to brake earlier for 1.

That is an old Jedi mind trick...if you are on the outside, drive as deep and as hard as you can into 1. The inside car often times will red mist and try braking at the same time. It never works out for the inside car. At worse they go off track left and at best push so far out, that you drive to the inside and can open a two car length lead coming out of turn 2.

That was not going to happen to me. I broke as planned, got the car tucked inside of turn 1 and pulled out away from Kevin slightly. Then I discovered that my Achilles heel....turn 4...the chute. Every inch I gained out of 1 through 3, I was giving up in 4. Actually I was driving better over 90% of the course than Kevin, but all that went out the window in 4. I need more practice and bigger balls there. But that tire wall track left is very close to the track Smile

During qualifying, I was also trying a couple of new things. First as mentioned about, trying to compress turn 1 braking. After going off in there the race before, I had to get my nerve back up. That was working well. I also decided to try short shifting from 3rd to 4th coming out of 7 and into 8. Summit is a fun track, with some nice elevation changes and it is pretty technical, always keeping you busy. The carousal (turn 6A, 6B and 7) is the most important part. You pretty much throw away 6A (right hander) to get yourself set for 7. You give as much power out of 6B (slight right leading to 7) as the car will take. For turn 7, probably the most important turn on the track, you turn as late as possible. That sets you up for 8 (left hand) track left and then perfect for 9 leading you up the hill and under the bridge on the second longest straight. You screw up 7 and you pay for it all the way until turn 1.

Before, I would grab 4th between 8 and 9. It is a fast section of the track with a quick left and then a very fast right. You turn too early for 9 and you are washing out, fighting to keep the car on track at exit and worse either up the tire wall track left or into the dirt embankment track right on the bridge straight. Neither is good. But shifting between 8 and 9 was always upsetting the car. So I was working on a short shift between 7 and 8 to settle the car for the turn into 9 and it was giving me that extra second to concentrate on getting 9 right. It seemed to be working and the car felt good.

Pulled in from qualifying and the car was running fine. My new cool shirt was working like a champ. I had purchased the shirt and then found an EBIce cooler on eBay for $35. I mounted the cooler in the rear passenger seat foot well. Since the pump is 12 volt, cut the adapter off and wire it into a new mounted switch. That way, while in grid or waiting, hit the switch for a quick cool down Smile I was the man.

I qualified pretty much where I had expected...fourth CMC car and 8th overall. The top two qualifiers were Mike and Wade in CMC Mustangs. They out qualified the top 4 CMC-2 cars (CMC-2 has 30 more HP and 13" brakes as the main differences). I was on the outside with Colin to my inside. Now the thinking part of racing comes into play.

You actually spend the next three hours running the possible start scenarios through your head. Quite frankly, I suck at the starts. The adrenaline is pumping too much, trying to figure out which gear, what the others are trying to do and trying to see the flag .... I knew I needed a decent start if I had a shot at a good finish. The plus side, the car needed nothing. As a matter of fact, the whole weekend, I never pulled one tool out of the trailer!

Looking at the qualifying times, Mike had run his fastest lap on lap 1! I ran mine on lap 7. So he goes balls out on lap 1 when the motor is cool and putting down its most power and the tires are not greasy. My fastest lap is late in qualifying when the motor is hot, less power and the tires are hot. Something I need to work on. This is his method and it works.

Wade is the wild card. He usually only runs with us at Summit and his other car is a Spec Miata...so you know his mind set. What would he do to try to get the lead at the start...no telling. If you give him 3/4 car width between yourself and the car beside you, he will make it three wide at the start and into turn 1. Mike, he was in a prime position. He loves to get a good start, open a lead and dial it back to maintain that lead. He is like Iceman in Top Gun, cool, calm collected and lets you make the mistake trying to run him down. The other 4 CMC-2 cars in front of me, Kent, Jimmy, Billy and Travis...I trust Travis. Kent, Jimmy and Billy have known each other since kids and have a little grudge match going. Jimmy and I went through competition school together. Honestly, he has more car and money than talent sometimes...he does not think. Billy is calmer and out for the the fun of it. Kent wants to beat Jimmy down.

As I said earlier, Colin is beside me on the inside. My saving grace, Colin is often times a worse starter than me (I think it is more car than driver though). It is literally his home track. He is on that track 3-4 times a week. Plus he has started a karting business at Summit...he practically lives there. Behind Colin was Kevin. I was not worried about the CMC-2 cars behind me making any ballsy moves.

So as I lay on my cot in the trailer, all of these thoughts are going through my head. All I wanted to do was be in the lead pack out of turn one and in front of Colin and Kevin. Getting behind them, it was over with and the fight would just be for third. My only hope would to get a jump on Colin and try to get in front of him on the inside going into turn 1. But that really was contingent upon me getting a decent start and Travis in front of me not messing up.

Race time was fast approaching....

It is race time. CMC has their own pace car and green flag. We were the third of the three groups. That means that it would not be long before the GT cars would start to catch us. I would guess probably 3-5 laps in of the 12-13 we would run.

With Mike on the pole, I knew he would be bringing us around turn 10 in second gear. I had learned that lesson the hard way. My main goal was to get to the inside in front of Colin who was to my right. I tucked up right behind Travis. With little or no hope of seeing the actual flag, I was going to go on Travis' movement. Boy it would be great to have a spotter.

I got the start I wanted. Travis got a great jump and I was able to dive in front of Colin by the start/finish line. That gave me plenty of time to adjust and get set for the braking. A lesson learned was how far you can carry your braking into turn one on the start. You are going 50mph less on the start, so you can move the braking to the two marker. The top eight of us went into turn 1 two by two., with Kevin on the outside of me.

We started to shake things out by turn two, but we were still a tight pack all the way into the carousal (turn 6). Turn 3 and 4 were interesting because of the speed we carry into those and we were still pretty much 2x2. There was not paint traded and the race was off to a good start. I had settled into 7th and 3rd in CMC. I was pretty content to sit there for a bit.

But I had to mind Kevin on my tail and Colin looking to get around both of us. I did not want to lose touch with the leaders either. At the end of lap 1, the top 9 cars were not more than 1-2 seconds apart. We do put on a good show.

I will not go through lap by lap (hope to have the video by Sunday). But on lap three or four I caught my first break. Coming out of turn 9, the overall leader Mike Morris in his CMC car lost it and end up off track right. With the heavy rains of the morning, it took him a lap to get the car out and back on the track. So the CMC lead was turned over to Wade in his Mustang and I was in second. Meanwhile the Joyce bothers were trying to keep pace with Kent (the overall leader) for CMC-2.

That would bite them both later in the race.

Now, I was pretty stoked to have second place in my lap. Right up until I felt something else in lap. The EBIce cooler had broken loose of its mooring! Suddenly, I had a cooler flying around the cockpit, tethered by the tubes running into my suit. And it that was not quite enough, two blocks of ice decided to find their resting place in the driver's footwell. Oh, yes I still had Kevin behind me and Colin in lurking distance. Plus Travis in front by a few car lengths and the Joyce brothers maybe 6-8 car lengths in front. I took me a lap of kicking the ice out of my way before it melted. But the cooler was still banging around.

Kevin thought I was waving him around at a local yellow as he told me later. But it was me trying to get that cooler settled down. If Kevin had known what was going on he would have made his move earlier. He was faster than me through turn 4, but not fast enough to get to the inside of me in turn 5. I would tease him by leaving the door open into 5 and stay a slight bit to the outside. He kept trying to stick the nose of his Firebird in there, but I had the preferred line into 6 and could get the run out 7,8,9.

After two laps of this and about half way into the race, the GT cars started to catch us. This allowed me to open the lead over Kevin and see Wade up front. Only Travis separated me from Wade. That was until Jimmy Joyce decided he could over drive his car in attempt to catch up with Kent. A huge mistake. I caught Jimmy. Travis in his CMC-2 Mustang went around Jimmy and Wade in his CMC Mustang got around him.

But I was having no luck with Jimmy. He continued to push the issue and just make things worse for himself. He went off in 9, I had to lift to see where he was coming back on. When he went off, I was so close the mud spray coated my windshield and nose of the car. I reached for the wipers, but decided against smearing the mud. The he goes off in 10 and comes back on right in front of me. Having to drive like that, let Kevin catch right back up to me. So I figured there was no reason to drag race Jimmy into turn one, so I helped him get up to speed with a little bump draft. Worked out well. But Kevin was now on me. Into turn 1, he made his move. He dove to the inside of me and tried to out brake me into one. I was on the outside and wanted the inside line. I knew he was there and I knew he did not have position on me. So I turned in fully expecting impact in my rear corner. I adjusted and set my self to stay on the gas and drive through the impact. It did not happen. Kevin knew he did not have position and checked up. This allowed me to get a great run out of 3 and all the way to 5 pulling away.

I knew we were getting close to the end. I could see first place in CMC, but still had Jimmy Joyce in front of me. Cming out of turn 10, Joyce goes all the way off track left. I had to lift just in case he opted to come on in front of me. All the work I had done to put distance between second and third went right out the window. Kevin had a great run on me. Joyce was driving up the sand and grass track left. I was screwed.

Kevin decided not to push the issue and bump drafted me and himself right past Joyce. He had him cleared and could go racing. Kevin was tucked in behind me coming out of turn two but the leaders had checked out on us. Then the caution flag was waving at turn 3. That flag quickly turned into a full course caution next time around. Kevin and I pushed hard to close the gap on Wade. But Wade and Travis were pushing hard to close the gap on the leader Kent and Billy Joyce. The pace car grabbed us out of turn 9.

If you know Hyperfest, you know the Thunder race is not going to end under a full course caution. At least I did not think of it. We had one pace lap. In the meantime I am trying to rip the damn cooler out and toss it out the window...to no avail.

Coming out of nine, I saw the pace car dart off to the right. I was probably 12-14 cars back of the pace car. With quite a mix of pwer up front, I was guessing on what would happen. The leaders did not wait or hold back like a regular start. With the yellow down at 10, it was a free for all down the straight. I made a mistake....I was caught between gears. A little too fast for third and not fast enough for fourth. In hindsight, 3rd would have been the right choice.

I guess Kevin was sleeping, because I left him. But Wade got a great jump on me and with the cars between us and GT cars coming up behind us, I was going to have to settle for second place.

Then it happened. They claim their brakes went out. I think they red misted and did not calculate the speed of the restart. But Billy Joyce lost brakes going into turn one. Slid across the gravel trap and impacted the tire wall at the back.

Wade lost his brakes and drove down the access road and into the trees (literally). What is left of Billy's car and Wade coming out of the woods to check on Billy.

video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTv_o_w9BVE

I saw Billy starting to go off and checked way up. So did the cars around me. It looked liked he was going to come right back on and in front of us during our braking. How we all manged to get slowed up without piling up, I will never know. We got in line for the yellow at turn one. Then it hit me, I was leading the CMC race.

For one brief moment, I thought about it. But the yellow was down in turn 3 and we were back to racing with Kevin and Colin on my bumper and Travis up ahead. I talked myself through each and every turn. Honestly, I was driving 90% to make sure I kept it on track and made no mistakes. With the cars so equal, it was going to take a mistake like Wade and Mike did for me to lose this race.

We came powering out of turn 10 as we approached the pit exit, the ambulance and tow trucks pulled out. The started was waiving three flags; the caution, the red cross and buried in there the checkered. I did not see the checkered. As soon as I saw the red cross and yellow, I was looking for a safe place to go because track right had suddenly become occupied and there was quite a gaggle of cars.

I was thinking WTF...coming out of turn two I saw the yellow was done in three. Damn will this race ever end. I jumped an AI car and Travis, hoping to put them between Kevin/Colin and myself. I noticed turn three worker clapping and then saw turn 4 worker out of his basket giving the thumbs up. I had won my first race!

It was not pretty, it was not the fastest...but it stayed on track, did not break and won.

Yes, I was pretty damn excited to get to go up on stage and shower the fans with the champagne.

http://www.turn10imaging.com/gallery/8698305_xCRZX#574890358_idEzr-L-LB